Balkanized

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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0:16

Are you back?

0:17

Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me?

0:20

Yep.

0:21

Okay, that was weird.

0:23

Yeah.

0:24

Hmm.

0:26

We'll how does that open your end?

0:29

Okay, I guess that sounds good. Actually.

0:34

Fortunate,

0:35

I know, was a sound like to you.

0:37

You sound pretty good.

0:39

Okay.

0:40

Yeah. Yeah.

0:43

But definitely not user friendly title right now. Good Bry bunch of baloney. I don't even know.

0:52

Yeah, no, it's not. It's not there's so many steps to this.

0:56

Yeah. And I like I said, I don't know why even bother, download That application because it just takes me to the Microsoft Store.

1:06

Really? Thanks. Yeah. So I'm using the web one right now. Because the thing I downloaded literally that thing I sent you, yeah, make sure it's just like, Microsoft Store. Like, no, no, no, I

1:19

don't want that.

1:21

Go away. Okay, yeah, that doesn't make any sense why? It's just like not doing anything. So I don't really understand what it's doing. why it exists. It's pretty useless. Yes.

1:34

So, some the web thing, so I guess I'll just delete that other thing.

1:40

My land in my ways. That's gonna work you know, whatever. Yeah, my luck. I delete it. And then it's like, oh, no, okay, fine. Sure, right. Just wait for that. Yeah, that'll that'll happen. Because that's my luck, obviously. But yeah.

1:58

Oh, no.

2:00

Jeez.

2:03

Well, okay, well, like I said, I'm recording this. And so I'll see what I get back on the other side, because I'm not 100% sure what I get. That's fair. If it's just me, or if it's just you, or what, that would definitely be weird who's just one of us? Right?

2:25

So what that would mean is, I guess like, you would also have to record your end and then we'd have to swap files so I like to sinking nightmare though I don't think yeah, we don't we don't have to clap at the beginning. Oh, no. I should align everything. be awful. And then every 20 minutes we have to pause and snap our fingers to make sure well, no, that wouldn't work because you way Guess what, because you would have to go 321 go like Yeah, but that's terrible.

2:57

Yeah,

3:00

Okay, cool.

3:02

UL. Have you heard from Aaron? No, just the he didn't like my corn joke. I don't think well, he's I think he's a little stressed out and didn't appreciate my humor.

3:28

Well, I

3:31

found out that I don't know if I told you but the department is going through a massive reward as far as how we're structured.

3:41

You mentioned that at one point, yes. Well, we got the first of the rollouts

3:47

Tuesday.

3:53

Right like where this is going. So currently, the department has five ish divisions.

4:00

It's like fisheries. What is that fisheries, fisheries division, forestry division. There's a wildlife division. There's HR. There's resource science and private lands.

4:18

Right. So that's it. Sure. Yeah.

4:21

And then like, was it at the administration? So there's like seven, seven, but not five, though, you know, nothing. And right now, all of those are centralized in Jeff city. And they send out from their decrees on high out for the regions to implement.

4:38

Very futile, I think. Yeah. But what it does mean is that there are like, very clear boundaries, and there's a very clear like,

4:48

mucky, mucks that say, do this, don't do this. Yeah. But clear, like power structured for lack of

4:56

an organizational structure, but it also means that like

5:00

Like fisheries has their own program to get federal funding. That program looks very different than the program to get sometimes the same federal funding that forestry has in place, or that wildlife has in place. So each division has its own systems to do accomplish the same task many times.

5:19

So,

5:21

so they rolled out something and it looks totally, like totally different. Totally different. This structure. First off this structure of means, like they're still the central office and where the directors offices, but they have pushed almost all of the decision making out to the regions. So each region gets a little because our littles are over with Kansas City region.

5:53

And then under each region, they have divisions under them. But what

6:00

They have done is they have taken fisheries division, forestry division and wildlife division and combine those into one division

6:08

and called it resource management. Oh.

6:12

So

6:15

what this means well not as a funding but what this means is that fisheries had a division chief forestry head DIVISION CHIEF wildlife had a division chief, no more division chiefs. So where do those three people go? It also means that we all pull it out to different regions. There's one yet to go like, you are now the regional advisor of like Southeast Missouri. So that's the that's the question. Do they get the opportunity to get that regionals our position or can regional managers because we have regional Magnolia we already already have regional or you have regional managers, but their position is also going away to make room for this other structures.

6:55

bureaucratic and strange like I don't really know.

6:59

I would be

7:00

Worried about would you say fisheries, wildlife and what?

7:03

All together? Yeah, so my biggest concern would be if fisheries and wildlife and forestry all were receiving separate funding. Yeah, but now they're one department. Yes. Now they're just going to receive a fund? Probably

7:19

not, they're not going to account. I imagined for the fact that it's actually three separate entities and just say, Oh, no, no, look how much money we're going to save. Because now we can get all these departments this much money. Yeah. So. So their budget is just shrunk dramatically, I would imagine.

7:39

Yeah. And so and the other part about this as too is they since they've pushed out to the regions, if if Kansas City region wants to implement

7:50

a fishing Derby, or a program like they want it right now, the division chief goes, every body, everybody in history

8:00

has to have this fishing program Yeah. in that in that and they can hold people accountable but right now with it put put to regional regionals are can go you know what

8:13

we don't need that fishing think program that we do at all so

8:18

we don't need anybody to run it so we don't need that position anymore. So since you're no longer doing that, how about you go help out the forester or how would you do something?

8:29

And this so we watched this unroll on Tuesday down in Springfield. And it was a two hour long thing. And at the end of it, I was just sitting there and I was like, Oh, no,

8:45

he's not just not just for like,

8:48

because the big thing here is, I don't know how this is going to affect my job. I don't think anybody knows really that's good.

8:58

So some people is pretty

9:00

straightforward, like if you're listening Yeah, but if you're like the top person, then you go in person tomorrow? Well, no, I mean, if you are in hatcheries if you are a hatchery technician, your jobs are going to change because of this because you are still going

9:14

to restock. Yeah, my position is what's called a statewide. So I am I'm a technical support staff for statewide needs. So a fisheries management biologist in northwest needs stream technical advice. I can go right now states we have right now we just within our unit we say you can cover Northwest we've broken it up amongst ourselves, but technically I am state.

9:44

Yeah. And we've divvied up the the

9:48

demands with the I guess more efficient. So but but if you remember how the structure was that I just laid out, is it region based? Yes. So where do what

10:00

Do you get parsed to write what happens to a statewide? Yeah. So you either go to the top

10:08

right, or, or to like some random region, I guess I'm trying to read. Or they get rid of us because there's no longer they're no longer doing statewide programs. What? It's

10:24

here's the thing like I part of it makes sense. Right? Like, I understand that

10:33

you need to departmental eyes because the needs of just again, the needs of Southwest Missouri

10:43

are not the same as the needs of North East Missouri. Or Yeah, or like St. Louis region. Yeah, should not be managed in the same as the Ozark region. No, she said, Thank you, but

10:59

I know

11:00

I'm just a short term. I'm sorry, but Yeah, I agree. So like St. Louis and and like down here in the four state zone. Like it's not.

11:09

It doesn't need games, because population and all that all that stuff, the agriculture production, but

11:16

like,

11:17

so that makes sense. But the thing that it sounds like it already wasn't being managed the same. Right? Like, like, because the people in charge of that region were like, Yeah, I know. Come on 100 so

11:34

so now when they're like, Oh no, we're going to make it official now. Like, that's kind of like, unnecessary.

11:41

The only term that's coming to mind right now is balkanization, right? Of

11:47

the power structure, where it's like, No, no, I, I'm in St. Louis. I cannot be in a room with someone from Kansas City. Yeah, look at them. It's like it's just

12:00

Just I mean not just like, obviously, but it's very like Bosnian in Serbian, like, right? So, like, Oh no, you're from South East Missouri. Oh no, I cannot associate with you so I'm going to parse you off your own doctor and not have anything to do with you at all.

12:20

No

12:23

top oversight which is odd

12:27

there's a lot less oversight but not less tight. Like there's still going to be a grand Pooh bah. Well, yes. that oversees this stuff but but it's not like

12:40

yeah, there's a lot other nuance in the org chart that's not really come across but like, I but I'm focusing on this because that's like, what affects me because it affects you the most obviously, so yeah. So like, so like we afterwards I our entire unit was down in Springfield to have a unit meeting and when I say entire, like we were one of the smaller

13:00

units in the department is our entire unit seven, right? Like, yeah, it's bad. But so in streaming unit is weird because we have stream technical. That's what I'm in. We do the the the support service and technical advice to in house and interagency

13:21

people. And then it's all we are also under are also with stream team. So the people who do the water quality monitoring the volunteer stuff. Well, we look at our stream, we look at our unit chief Sherry, and we go, Sherry, what does this mean for us? And she basically was like, well, one, if you will notice, in the org chart, there's no such thing as a unit chief anymore. So her job got taken away immediately. So she's technically without job.

13:54

And so, I mean, basically what they did is they didn't change the number of they're not going to change

14:00

The number of total positions available within the department. Okay? But that doesn't mean like so there's still going to be 1500 some odd

14:10

chairs. But what they are going to do is they're going to go Okay, we took away the unit chief level position so now we can put those positions somewhere else in the department. Yeah. And probably somewhere lower paying you probably cuz that's that's why people restructure this way right that's like, just because you do that you go, Oh, no, we're doing we're doing with this. And we're doing away with all this like mid level management because pay people less money we can make our our budgets go down to go we don't have to lay out as much stuff. exactly what's happened here. And so what they've also so so she said that and all of a sudden I was like, Oh shit, and then

14:57

we started she said,

15:00

That stream unit has been the thorn in this entire process aside, because they don't know what to do with us. Oh, because it's the best obby Yeah. Yeah. For like, yeah, it wouldn't number one.

15:20

Well, that makes sense. Because if you are the streams unit, right, that means all of the streams in Missouri. So if they want to balkanized the state of Missouri, and set it up into regions, then you have to have you have to now have at least I mean, technically Missouri is what eight nine? Yeah, yeah, everything is geographic regions. But you can Well, it depends on how you split it right? geographically. There's but the region is MBC regions, it's a 24688 regions. It's got to be eight or nine just based on how it works northeast

16:00

Northwest Kansas City central St. Louis. Southeast Southwest poser.

16:06

Yeah. Cuz that's like the South Central ish, right? Yeah. So Central and all that. So yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And so we were like, Okay, well, what do you mean? And she goes, Well, here's the thing. The person who got placed in charge of Fisheries for some wildlife division, those divisions are now called resource management. His name is Brian, he was the former fisheries Division Chief. division chiefs no longer exist. And so they all come to the op ed and he got it. He wants a

16:36

stream unit to stay under him However, he wants. He is also a kind of slimy sleazy political politician guy. So he'll do whatever is going to win him the most political points down the road, obviously, like you, like you do. And so we're very concerned about being under him because of he's not gonna have our back secondarily.

17:00

secondarily,

17:02

here's the other weird part is that he is now.

17:07

This was only a partial rollout. They basically, they basically rolled out who was in the director's office today. They haven't they've given themselves down the chart, right. They've given themselves until December to go down the entire chart, then, and then they'll be finessing and going back and forth. And then next, and then July of 2020

17:28

is the official rollout where we will be implementing this organization structure. So we have now until July, however, Brian is already functioning as the resource management Chief, which means that there was a fisheries chief position open that they want to fill. Yeah. So our unit Chief, I know that this makes sense. Sherry was like, I'm going to see if I'm going to apply for that job. However, she's competing against this other guy.

18:00

Who has for years been campaigning to do away with entirely the stream unit to make it disappear?

18:12

And so but Sherry's not much of a politician because she doesn't suck up to people then yeah, doesn't travel the guy she's competing it's totally his and his sleep and those kinds of people when these positions Yeah, we we are very concerned what happens if he gets up so yeah,

18:34

yeah, yeah so he gets in power and he goes you know what stream unit still call yourself streaming it whatever you want. You're on CMT and feral hog detail. Congratulations. Yay

18:48

I just completely changed our direction, the other the other plate so we were like we do not want to stay. We do not want to be in that chain of command. We don't want no The other option

19:00

is for us to go over to resource science and be part of the research side.

19:05

They're a little more understanding of what we do, and kind of the nuances of how we work.

19:13

But if we go over there at naturally, they're going to go, hey, that's great that you work with landowners. That's great that you do education. That's great that you work on these interagency policy making panels. We don't do that very much over here in resource science. So could you not do as much outreach and education and go measure this water temperature by this damn and let us know what it is?

19:43

And we would turn into more of a streams research program. Yeah.

19:53

Yeah.

19:58

And so because they're moving

20:00

These deck chairs around, they keep saying, they're actually going to be creating a lot of positions that didn't exist before. We have it there. They're like, they're gonna be like trail manager position I like.

20:15

Also one of the things that you do when you restructure company like, we're just going to use the company or metaphor here. When you restructure them, kind of what you're hoping to do is you're hoping people quick, so you can get new people in there and make the end so you don't have to fight the battle. Right? Yes, you don't have to fight the battle against all the people that are worked have worked there before. And like, want things to be a certain way and you're trying to like fight it and make it some new entity. That's all weird. So when you drastically change it, you're kind of hoping people will just go away and you can get new people that you can get them to do whatever you want. Yes, I like that's, that's the other strategy at play here. A

20:59

little court

21:00

Britain's assassination basically like, Hey, we're gonna just make you quit. We're going to make you so mad that you just go somewhere else. Yeah.

21:09

Like, yeah, we can get, we can get people that we know. will just listen to us.

21:17

And that's it right. That's exactly what they're

21:22

what's what's happening? There are people that have been there like, one year, two years away from retirement. Yeah, the department is kind of nudging being like, hey,

21:34

yeah, you'll see that you'll see the,

21:37

the, like, increased like, bonus package like, hey, if you go ahead and retire early will give you these bonuses to get out, right? That's going to come out. You'll see the email coming around. You'll see some like incentive packages or like, Oh, hey, like,

21:55

it's, you know,

21:58

blah or if you want to keep working

22:00

But maybe you don't want to work so hard. You could work at this position this lower position for a year or two, and then retire with your full benefits that you would have had any way. Yes. And just so you can, you know, you can get out, it'll be worded like, Oh, you can take it easy because you're right. It'll be like that kind of thing. Just get out of the way. Yeah, yeah, there's, there's one His name is his name is Paul. And he's currently a unit chief. So one below Division Chief, and he oversees the entire he's like Mississippi sec, Missouri River DIVISION CHIEF or whatever. And he's been there for years and years, two years away. And basically what the department is going to do for him is he lives here in Sedalia drives every day to Jeff city. So what they're going to do is they're going to they are going to create kind of like a a keeper of Sedalia. Yeah, you see me I

22:56

and and in his paint, you know for him.

23:00

The pain is going to stay the same. Right for exactly because it's only one year for one year. He's not in any policy decision making. He's not any. he's not. He's not supervising anybody. He's just kind of our grandpa for a year. Yeah. And you're, you're like, wow, yeah, well, that that's the thing. Like, we're just gonna, I'm just gonna estimate numbers here. Okay, this is just I have no knowledge of how much anybody in Missouri Department conservation gets paid. So look it up online. That's good. Yeah. didn't do that with mine too, but you'll be disappointed.

23:33

So let's just say high level head guy is making like, I don't know $80,000 or whatever, doesn't matter. They can afford to pay that for one more year because the person they're going to hire to replace him. They're going to pay that person like 50.

23:52

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You can have all this and it'll be that big empowerment is dead. And so they're like, Oh, I can we can buy this

24:00

After one more year because it doesn't matter, because when you quit, we're going to be saving $30,000 like that.

24:07

Yeah. And, and you know, so they start somebody brand new at a lower pay and they'll it'll go up from there but you have high and won't go as high as that was. That's how it always works, right? You it'll go up, but it'll go to like

24:23

55

24:25

you know?

24:26

Oh, wow. Yeah, you, right? That's kind of like, that's like the teaching pay schedule. They're like, Oh, look how much your salary is gone up. It's gone up. 1000 more dollars. like Wow, thanks. As even what you've done is put me in a higher tax bracket and now my actual paycheck is less less.

24:47

Yeah.

24:50

Sorry, side rant. No, no, I

25:02

Yeah, no, I get it. And so, you know, I, I'm sitting there and I'm still like, okay, but how does this affect like, what genuinely what is like day to day differences? And, and I sat so I sat in my boss's office today and we were we talked and it was

25:23

oh my gosh, she was like, Well, you know,

25:29

we it we don't know

25:33

because

25:35

you have to

25:38

part of it is not just who we were what what quote unquote division we get moved into but also who who gets appointed to those or who gets hired for those manager gets in charge. Yeah, that's the and then you start playing the political game of like, well, this person, like if Bruce gets that position, we're done for ya.

26:00

Nobody will have her back. If and then if we are in that system, and if they lump us into the Kansas City region and just a for for accounting sake, you are Kansas City. Angie was like, there are seven people that I think would take that regional Kansas City regional bizarre position, that would not give us the time of day. And so that means, here's what that means, though. positive spin.

26:27

That means they also don't care what you're doing. Well,

26:34

nobody tells you to stop.

26:37

Just keep doing it. Right. Well, she

26:40

said, she said specifically, there are two of them, that would actively go after us.

26:48

And so, okay, you know, ignore you. That's like the best case scenario you can whatever you want.

26:55

Here. Nobody painted. Should you just keep a low profile. Do you think

27:00

And then

27:02

totally, totally understand.

27:07

And so she was like, Collin, I'm just gonna be perfectly honest. I updated my resume today. I was like, Yeah, I mean, like,

27:20

well, because she doesn't know. Again, if she needed her position needed, she has no idea. Just know it's all going to depend on where we end up. And also, she may decide that it's not worth it to try and maintain to try and stay in her role if she's not doing the work that she wants to do. Well.

27:42

here's here's the big kicker

27:45

is that they are actively working will not be here and we all this is big kicker, but

27:50

there cannot be a bigger kicker though.

27:54

But here's another thing is that so they are working towards filling out the

28:01

org chart with getting names and all those places by the end of the year.

28:07

As they do that they are going to be new positions created and needed. As that time comes. Yeah, like mystery positions to history, history position, they are going to be posting those positions as they create them for opening. Okay. So so if I know if the final is not posted until December, but a position is opened in a month and a half. Oh, yeah. How do you know do I like to take it? Yeah.

28:37

Then you get screwed because at the end, December the one that actually the one you want comes up, DY. But then, of course, if you're like me, and you have my luck, then you're just like, I'm gonna hold out and then the one you want, like, doesn't show up, but he's like, well, exactly. Or if I'm like, You know what? I heard from a birdie that we're going to go to resource science.

29:00

We're going to get the dream position and we're going to have a lot of doors open for us. And that's why I'm not gonna look at any of the jobs. And then that.

29:09

Yeah, because of reasons. And I'm like, Well, I would have applied for that job a month ago.

29:16

But now, so well, right like, Oh, man.

29:21

Mm hmm.

29:24

So that is the fun. Fun.

29:29

Yeah, that's just such a great signing.

29:33

day you had.

29:36

Oh,

29:37

yeah. My name is bad. I was just dealing with sixth grade girl drama. I never mind. No, no, I would. I would rather I would. Yeah, no, I would rather Oh.

29:48

Yeah. You don't want that. You don't want any part of that girl drama.

29:55

It's basically the same thing just with smaller people. Like

30:06

Oh, man

30:11

So

30:13

yeah,

30:15

that's yeah and then so we did that. And then

30:20

we

30:25

see here we stayed overnight in Springfield and then yesterday we got up

30:33

in toured a stream channel

30:38

restoration project in Springfield. It's right off a sunset right along the Greenway trail. Yeah. Okay. So they took that used to be just a three sided concrete ditch. trapezoidal shape, right Yep. Yep. trapezoidal

30:55

storm was

30:57

flying across the top it would be trapped. Yeah, no, yeah.

31:00

As dominate got range, I don't think right? Yeah, they ripped all of that out and put in natural stream channel design. It's, it was like, it's like a $1.1 million project. And they've got all sorts of crazy rock weirs and submerge logs and things to create ripples and to control gradient changes so it doesn't send a head cut back up. them. They even went up through the side channels were

31:34

more stormwater runoff coming in, they created wetlands on the upside of those to help little retention basin with the flooding to when it rains off the planet. natural vegetation and all sorts of stuff in here. We go ahead. Yeah, we got to talk with the the horticulturalist that is in charge of that project and the maintenance supervisor and how they deal with all that stuff. And it was really

32:00

Really cool. I I could have I could have stayed there for a long time talking. That's really sweet. Yeah. Yeah.

32:10

And

32:14

but

32:16

then we went and we floated to lower portion of the James River.

32:22

Yes

32:24

to town. I've never been there before. I've never gone below the lake Springfield. Yeah, so we were like way below lakes like Springfield, and we, I forget where you put in. But we took this place called Luton Town and not yet another town in Missouri, that I had no idea existed until today.

32:49

Very frequently to me.

32:52

Literally every time there's like a storm, they say a name of a town and I've lived here forever and I'm like wire one

33:01

So who Eatontown new one? Okay. Yep. And that was fine. Gas Station post office by town county much pretty much yeah.

33:13

And

33:18

it was it was it was fine there. I don't

33:24

know. I mean, it was it was fine i i just

33:29

i it's it's tough because obviously everybody has different experience levels and I am by no means an experienced experienced

33:39

I can newer, but you are. Go ahead.

33:45

No, I don't tell you is not sure there.

33:48

I know how much floating you done. Okay, very. It's way above average.

33:54

It might have been a while. It's definitely more than your average bear. as it were. Okay.

34:01

Thank you.

34:03

It's just

34:05

so whenever somebody's like, have you ever floated and then it's like, No I've never floated no i canoed, sucka.

34:15

They, they typically get stuck with somebody who is a little more confident in the boat because they don't want to

34:23

you know, the group leader will say okay, since you've never put them up right like they did with me and those little kids on that 150 miler where I got like, little children my boat can't paddle right? They say they say okay, you go with this person, so you are not going to be dead the entire time. Like

34:41

so you got to be the experience one was and she was she was very nice. She's very nice. But like, you know how whenever you use a canoe paddle you

34:54

familiar with, ok, ok. So visualize, you know, you like, you hold it up, right. And you go

35:00

Straight down into the water and straight back. This is so that your boat continues to move forward. Yeah, it needs to be Nicholas to us in any deviation from this or any angles added to the paddle will will push the canoe from side to side. Once again, Isaac Newton. I know

35:19

he's onto something there.

35:21

So why just using it like a boat or? Yes.

35:26

Okay, and she's at the front of the boat, because

35:30

you're following the design? Yes, yes. Because I know, in these cases, I don't trust them to steer because you still know right now. So I'm staring I don't care who I'm getting the boat. I'm in the back. You stay up at the front. And I will stay at the back and I will I might let you in the back. That's

35:49

part of that is like okay, because the other part is,

35:52

you know, continuing to do your best to try to try and always row on the same side so that you can be consistent and you

36:00

can steer and, you know, whatever. If you if you start switching back and forth that makes it very difficult on me because you're right, and I have to switch sides and it's hard to both switch sides and then steer at the same time or exalt a rudder which just increases your drag way down and I hate murdering but so she was taking these sheets because I'm lazy Well, it's needed sometimes and I don't mind if you're on a lazy if you're on a if you're on a river that's moving faster rather the crap out of that don't worry about it. But if you're in a slow moving

36:35

lower James River the lower James River turns out to be you don't can't do that. She was James River is also like that I don't know if you remember

36:46

it there are park there good bad parts, whatever. So they're not great. In these like, very shallow less it rains then oh, Lord, hold on. Oh, yeah. So she's taking these very

37:00

shallow wide, sweeping off to the side. Oh, no, continually pushing the front of the boat to the right. Oh no. So I'm in the back having to take huge sweeping corrective Jays turn or dfj strokes or these just these big side battles to get us back into place. So my structure less effective so because you know, it's not as efficient to do that. And so it just kept fighting her constantly have like a go over here and I'm like, Hey, could you just like stay on that side? that's working out really well right now. Not paddle at all. Sit there, but you know, but she's like, I go kayaking with my dad all the time. And so at first I was like, great, and then she was like, but I've never been in a canoe and I was like, Who knew? Well, that doesn't

37:47

wait.

37:49

That doesn't that's how kayaks work either.

37:53

So I I don't not

37:57

Lake kayaks like the big one.

38:00

But like the open top ones, it's not really a kayak. It's just like a log that floats. So it's a little, it's a little more forgiving to just do those really shallow dips and just kind of casually go along.

38:13

Like as opposed to needing to, like when you're in a river, you have to, you can't. The river, you have to make sure that you are working with the river and in control at all times. And not just just being a candy past you're not floating here, right? You've got to

38:30

I mean, there's those are the two schools of thought, right? floating, quote, unquote, floating. I don't know why I'm making air quotes. You can't see me for the gesticulation that I'm doing my hands every time you were doing it.

38:51

Like that, to me conjures up the image of I'm going to sit in my boat. There will be a cooler

38:59

yeah

39:00

Another canoe will possibly be last to the side of most disturbing we're in

39:06

the back. Yes. And you're just be like, spinning lazy down some river like probably the Elk River down here in Macedonia. Yeah.

39:16

canoeing, which is what normal people do, or the me pastime that I am familiar with involves, like actively trying not to crash into things in the river. That's Yes. So I understand Yeah, in playing and trying to find the foul wag and trying to make sure the river is pushing you, but also, you know, and writing down the rapids in a fun way and playing in at ease and just enjoying the whole active.

39:44

And so and, and, you know, in order to do that you have to be engaged. You have to have good strokes, you have to know which one to use. And, you know, I look up there we are just barely over halfway. We just did lunch and she's up there and

40:00

She's holding the paddle with both hands touching in the middle of the shaft. Not even one on the big handle at the top but just in the middle of the tea grip.

40:13

Is that for like cooking branches? Yes, you can hook things and break broke the other boat.

40:19

No know. The other part is is that they were looking for since we're taking a group of

40:27

1413 people 13 people the everybody in our stream unit 13 people out with us.

40:35

They we've got coolers and stuff. Well my boss is phenomenal canoes. And so she takes she does a solo canoe with two coolers and her in hers. And they need somebody they need another cooler to go somewhere. So I put it in ours but ours just happens to be the drink cooler. So we're also the ones that people going Hey, wait up or Hey, bring one over here or so we're

41:00

Like a drink, like, Hey,

41:03

get up here, paddle back and so weird, not just not only needing to be active

41:10

in the river, but I'm also having to be extremely conscious, conscientious of the fact that it's like if we tip all of this is going to go into the river, and that's bad. And I'm needing to making sure that I need to be making sure that we are able to help others and do all of that stuff. And

41:29

I hope you didn't have any sprite in your cooler because we did a science experiment and we found out that sprite will sink because it's way too dense. Oh, we had a last. How about Mountain View?

41:41

We didn't have Mountain Dew it did not does not have that in our school vending machine. But

41:48

Diet Coke will float.

41:50

Okay, but sprite sinks. It went into the water. We had a couple. It was like we measured it density was like one point

42:00

Oh, eight, something like that simply by MO.

42:08

I've been thrown in a bucket and it's

42:10

okay.

42:14

That's good. That's good. So, I mean the float. It was a beautiful day. It was kind of hot. yesterday. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. It was pretty nice. Get a good day. I would really wish we were out today.

42:31

Yeah 74 was more that. No, I want someone to January. Can you Wait, where's that?

42:38

Was? That was fun stuff. Yes, I was people. They were asking me if I had done much cold water stuff like cold cold weather early. And I was like, Well,

42:51

my brother got a boat stuck an ice one time. Yeah. It was kind of fun.

42:57

They're like, You can't be serious. I'm like, yeah, so we

43:00

Going My younger brother's birthday January 1

43:04

time, nobody there

43:09

is very, very relaxing. January the river is not just like going right it's usually pretty subdued. So yeah, not as much. Right not many rain events in no knowledge of rain in late December so

43:25

yeah, so

43:27

Portage had the men

43:30

yeah

We get lost

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

Provided by otter.ai

0:00

Spend listening. Just been listening in. Yeah, being a creeper. Well, I mean, like, trying to tell him things so I didn't want to be like her What up my. You're trying to walk them through how things work. It's kind of disruptive.

0:18

I want to be a jerk yet we just started on a nice fine

0:23

you know, Peter and I was playing with earlier. Yeah, it sounded really quiet, but

0:31

also very weird setup. I don't know if that's better sounding better sounding good. I think you sound fine. I don't know. How does he hear? How does he sound on your end, Brandon? It's hard to tell because your microphone is so loud that like I can't.

0:48

Mine is. Yeah. Oh, no, I don't know if that's just because he's quiet. But like, okay, the disparity in voices is immense.

1:00

RY I didn't know this How was how was this? It's a little better. Okay, I turned it down about half the output volume now.

1:09

Huh?

1:11

So there's there's

1:14

quite a

1:18

whole set of aim with and it has by

1:24

four straight into

1:27

Yeah. And the connector has

1:32

has the mic

1:34

Okay, so that's acting is your your interface

1:39

yeah probably

1:44

hello

1:47

hello

1:59

no

2:07

Yeah

2:11

Thank you. Okay. Same

2:15

Oh,

2:17

yeah now

2:20

panel

2:23

right.

2:26

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I

2:30

mean, yeah, I mean a foot is not the Lord. Yeah. It's like a like a floor tile. Right. Yeah. But kind of space them out on my wall where they're kind of close the print out a little bit. Well, yeah, they look so

2:49

minuscule you have the vastness of the ball.

2:53

See that's because you don't have a pirate flag and the Canadian flag also on your wall. So

3:00

You're missing out, right? You have to have you have to have really weird things on your wall to go with.

3:06

It turns out random TV in front of me that I have like a map diagram. That's important.

3:18

Real? Oh, yes. I mean, well, but those are paper thin. I don't know. It's better than nothing.

3:28

You gotta remember how to get rich in it is important. So do I also have the Witcher three map? Oh, yeah. forgot that is like getting

3:39

it right. I

3:45

can be like, Where

3:47

am I? Nice just wander around. Killed Griffin's fine.

3:53

Yeah, it is. It's okay.

3:56

And then you accidentally wander into to high level area and get killed by somebody.

4:00

Weird water demon thing and like what I think

4:04

you got like five feet and it's like oh that's a level 37 water hag YY

4:11

yeah

4:14

I have

4:16

many run it like the Red Dead but like oh I handled this all I know you can't mountain lions are the most powerful creature known to mankind

4:31

I did actually get the Pyro

4:35

really remastered nice or ps4 I have not uploaded because they were kind of put it in downloading all the stuff just like a horrible flashback

4:47

like wait I was really bad at

4:50

nice

4:54

we'll see how this

4:56

dude it on there you go.

5:02

What exactly were you doing? And where are you? That's a great question.

5:10

So I will start with the second Lee. I am in Van Buren, Missouri

5:19

at the landing, and it's right off the current river and wonderfully vague name. I know. It's all landing the land like like the caregiver has just one. It does.

5:33

Turns out, it turns out turns out and brings out this this was originally scheduled for in the spring, late, late spring, early summer, but the

5:47

current River at that time

5:49

was like, at night it was at like six or seven feet

5:55

and they feed they close the river at 5am

6:00

So they rescheduled it for this weekend. And yesterday

6:05

we were rained out right at the very end. I sent you guys those pictures. Oh, yeah. And

6:11

we woke up this morning. And we were like, well, the river that four feet and it looks like it's plateauing so we should be fine.

6:21

Cut to 530 where I get a notification from the USGS stream gage here in Van Buren river is that now at 4.93 that's fine. Five you to rise and they're expecting more storms just north of us tonight. So we are canceling tomorrow.

6:44

And what's crazy is

6:48

right now I'm looking out my

6:52

my window at the current River. And then if I look a little closer to my balcony, there's a second river that

7:00

Running through the giant gravel bar that used to extend 100 yards or so to the riverbank. And now there's a second channel that's opened up and running their

7:13

Aereo Yeah, so there are two cars and they have more river to look at. That's better. Yeah, I know. I don't know more about that. But I am down here because I

7:26

signed up for this training class. And what it is, is the department is trying to as a whole, educate its outdoor specialists to be better at teaching.

7:40

canoeing and kayaking. And so I'm kind of one of the first Guinea I'm the first guinea pig class to go through part of that class, learning the material to make us better teachers at teaching this stuff.

7:54

I don't teach this stuff but my

8:00

That is a watershed biologist is that? He's like, yes, I'm going to teach you to be in boat, right like what?

8:07

So

8:09

the only thing is is that my boss is party is the my supervisor is helping develop the curriculum. haha so so I kind of got tasked with doing that to be guinea pig. Yes. And then when we hold we hold a watersheds, streams one on one class and as part of that we do take people out in kayaks and canoes for a very, very short canoe trip down the river. So she wants to incorporate a lot of this stuff into prepping those people better because you'd be surprised the number of USGS Fish and Wildlife Service soil water conservation biologists and you know everybody between who have never been in the canoe never floated before and the

9:00

number of times, we they they dump in this in this and we're on the river for like literally an hour and a half and sometimes there can be four to five people dumping, you know, dash.

9:15

Oh my goodness. So So as part of this now as an as an expert, former expert canoeist I find this offensive.

9:24

I know and and yeah, so it's just experience and we're trying to come up with ways to allow

9:34

you know, a quick orientation before we jump on the river because right now we don't do anything. We're just like, hey, if you can't canoe stick close to me. Okay, guys, here we go.

9:45

There. Yeah. So that's what I'm doing here.

9:50

How many statues of Martin Van Buren Have you seen?

9:56

None.

9:58

I know this is a shame. I know.

10:00

Terrible. I know and I even went actually nothing to do with misery but you have a town named Ben beer and I would assume that you would have some Martin Van Buren enthusiast somewhere. I think it is actually named after him or in some something I mean, that makes sense that lots of towns in Missouri just like arbitrary or not just Missouri, but in in the US just sort of

10:20

arbitrarily named themselves after presidents, right, like I'm going to meet I mean, I don't know

10:26

how many, most of them are not like, really random ones from the 1800s. But

10:34

lots of Lincoln's and Jefferson's not a lot of them here in right. Taft's hanging out, but still,

10:42

you know, the annexation of Texas was a big thing. And so I know it's important. I

10:48

Went, went downtown this morning to a little cafe breakfast place. They've got down there and I saw no, no statues.

10:57

thing. Shame indeed.

11:01

in deed,

11:04

Yeah, we did. It's crazy. You know, they, they set this up and at first they were like, you know, this is really important and it's, you know, rivers can be really dangerous and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, man, this may be way out of my league. You know, I, I haven't done a lot of canoeing or kayaking for a long time. And, you know, everyone else was really nervous stuff. And then they started going through this. And

11:33

I mean, you guys know,

11:36

being yelled at by dad to get your Jay stroke just right. Yeah, it's important that Jay stroke is bad. You don't want to waste time paddling on the other side of the boat. No, I got time for that. No. And that's the thing you know, learning no paddling only on one side of the boat. And, you know, we worked on how to you know things like how to self rescue and get back in a kayak or get back into a country.

12:00

New York. You guys remember that cool maneuver where you flip? Where, if you're two canoes, you can in one's cap size. You can haul the cap size one on top of your canoe and get it flipped over. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, like vaguely recall that all that stuff is basically the canoeing merit badges what I am doing currently, oh, there we go. Sweetie, I've done this. I have this. I have this merit badge. You had it? Right check. I felt the same way. Last year, we were talking about

12:34

like school preparedness, right for like emergency situations. Right. And I was sitting in this current in the like, commentary thing, right, listening to the presenter. And he was talking about all the stuff that you got to be make sure you do, and, and all this things to be aware of and basic things and I just sat there thinking I was like, wait,

12:55

I have this main event. I remember. I have I have the emergency preparedness.

13:00

FI When can I go home now?

13:04

Because he was talking about like very rudimentary stuff. He's supposed to be like a school shooting expert guy, right? The thing about all this stuff, but the things he was talking about were just like very generic

13:15

safety things. And I was like, hey, yeah, I got this no problem.

13:20

Like last year, whenever we had that, we're in the basement of our two hours. It was

13:27

a tornado in Oklahoma, right? Yeah, I

13:31

was. I was like, Well, you know, you could take your jacket, and like, make it air pocket out of it. And then like,

13:38

and then like, use that as a personal flotation device. No, that's, that's that's awful. That's not I remember that. I was terrible. I went so here's my story about something that bad. I went to. That was the first summer camp where everyone to camper in London martialed or whatever, and

13:57

I signed up for somebody's merit badge because

14:00

Was there so well organized there? They didn't really bother telling me what sort of things to bring. What when to participate in swimming merit badge? Oh no, I thought, haha. swimming trunks. Excellent. Wrong. That is 100% wrong. In order to participate in the swimming airbags you do, in fact need a long sleeve shirt and jeans, which I did not think to bring to summer camp in Missouri, in July, July.

14:29

I didn't have that, because it was 1000 degrees outside. And we got to that that part where we're doing this self rescue thing. And they're like, yeah, you gotta bring your jeans and I was like my What?

14:41

I don't have that.

14:43

So they found us. I don't know where they came from. And we probably don't random clothing items can jump in the pool with right. So I had some random person's jeans on but didn't really fit. They're too big for me, which made the taking them off and tying them up.

15:00

have been much easier.

15:02

However,

15:03

the only long sleeve shirt to be found was a friggin sweater. Oh no, I like, like a jersey. Like so much your sweater thing. You gotta jump in the pool and then self rescue with that. Alright, cool. I jumped on the

15:23

bottom. Like there was the bottom.

15:28

Permission my life at the bottom of the Yeah, yeah.

15:35

Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's that stuff where that phrase self rescue like that that means something very different to people who have gone through that to the extent of like when you jump into swift moving water in a sweater, it's like, yes, it's like what do you do? It's like okay, point your toes downstream and use you know scuttle with your hands to maneuver. Unless it's really bad and then just hang on.

16:00

Your life jacket for dear life and you know notes down drill. And you know we they were teaching your butt up so you don't smack a rock real right and having to teach people that today so

16:13

you know

16:15

one of my friends is a fire

16:18

fire

16:20

part of

16:23

the

16:25

extreme weather as well. Yeah they just did that training and I saw that on the news or whatever there's a there's a hurricane flooding and let's say eight

16:38

it is

16:40

I get

16:41

videos all the time there's a man made river down

16:48

and it's like, it's like all these

16:51

like

16:52

can increase water flow

16:56

most Street

16:58

and

17:00

He sent me one like what do you do in this situation?

17:05

I never practiced with stuff like that I was on the river or

17:12

whatever one in Arkansas whiteboard

17:17

or like a wind Gable like I never really

17:22

good actor like I never had I never knew I was

17:30

new I mean you could have just ended that's that phrase it you had to canoe with Alex bench and we would have understood

17:37

yeah i get i get videos all the time

17:41

how they sometimes jump in like in their firefighter year oh oh no I I dove in wearing these but I'm sure to downtown YMCA like they jumped in in their firefighter gear I once wore a firefighter gear that junk is like a million pounds.

18:00

That seems like a terrible idea the job water and that they had to wear the

18:04

they didn't have to wear the air like Well yeah, but just like the jacket in the pants are gonna jump in there and they're like, all right. Don't around.

18:13

Good advice. Yes.

18:18

Yeah.

18:20

Some of that stuff brought back.

18:24

But I think like when I had to say, like America, but

18:32

I

18:34

like way younger than everybody like I say did you go there?

18:38

I went one

18:41

and they're like, hey you need me like Oh, you don't understand I am small in people. Older good

18:52

water 30 minutes I'm like I'm dying was not 30 minutes. Yeah

18:58

I mean it does feel like an hour but it's

19:00

Definitely not. So I that was my path. But then they're like, Oh wait, you're not a

19:07

you're not like No, I'm just a mom.

19:12

Family.

19:15

Idiot brother decided to hike the Appalachian Trail so I just came to

19:21

II. That was a trip. His dad was like a failing, they're bad. And I hung out with Doug.

19:32

The lawyer guy was Yeah, but is that was that in Tennessee? Or was that Texas? I went, Oh, okay, but did dad teach sailing in Tennessee or Texas? I didn't think it was either one of those. I thought it was at West no avail. I don't know.

19:53

Cuz I never went to the Texas one. But that's why I thought it was that one. No, I thought the Texas one was just the

20:00

was just hiking. I don't know I didn't go to Texas. I didn't I didn't go either. was a that was the last one I went on. It was a giant lake. And they gave you a pontoon boat.

20:13

And they said, Okay, you go to this station on this day out there, do this and then fail or the boat like like those This is massive, privately owned

20:27

owned by this oil guy. I

20:33

mean that does sound like a place where one would teach sailing rag main so I

20:38

yeah, I mean I could have sworn he was teaching ceiling at the one I went to.

20:44

I didn't think that was out in Tennessee. I'm when I was in Tennessee. I was hiking in the middle of the woods for a week so I don't know. I still think I think your world

20:59

also blacksmith

21:00

Tennessee I forget. Yeah, it's got about that. I blacksmith in a hut. It was like a, a sort of pioneer. Kevin. I do believe I do remember blacksmith thing. But mostly I just remember hiking forever. And then whitewater rafting in a river

21:19

didn't have any water in it because it was 100% full of rocks. And that was great.

21:27

That was great. Because we just, you know, our river guides like to lie to you. Right? They always joke like, Oh, yeah, it's my first week cuz they're, you know, they're bored. Yeah. And they just joke all the time, but they need to do.

21:42

So, we we had this river. I don't know where the name was, but this lady and she was like, yeah, you know, it's just my second week going. And we're like, Yeah, whatever. And her brother was also there. And some other people they're like, No, for real.

21:58

Oh, no, no.

22:01

No. So we found all of the rocks in the north Jackie river, all of them. Amazing, every single one. And it

22:15

was so slow. We're just like bouncing off things. That's amazing. And

22:21

I mean, there was still enough water to have some pretty gnarly rapids there because the vertical drops were not small. But like

22:30

in them there was a big stretches in the middle where you're like, oh,

22:34

boulders.

22:36

Okay.

22:39

slow moving river, and boulders in our raft. Yay. Most Excellent, most excellent.

22:48

What was the river up in Colorado? We went on, like all the time.

22:54

Like the Buddha. Yes, that is correct. hooter river

23:01

I remember that was it was very cold.

23:03

That's one thing I remember. was like, yeah, cooter, it's it's French for powder. And like, really? We're like 14 we understand that. Well, I can hear here. Sorry.

23:15

Yeah, Aaron, you got a lot louder. Oh, I didn't touch anything.

23:21

yourself louder. You get closer. Did you lean closer to the microphone? No. Now I'm late now. I'm like touching the mic. Hello. That sounds amazing. I can hear you. Yes. So this will be the NPR of you so much for joining me. Yeah. Yeah, the the Texas trip was interesting because each station was like, there was like the Cherokee camp. There was the Texas Ranger camp. And then the one that we did not participate because it was 1000 degrees in summer in Texas, was like the Civil War for were they

24:00

Gave you like a union uniform that wasn't close. Yeah, the cotton uniform and there I care where this is. The shirts were linen. It's very, and

24:14

it was like dad and they're like, yeah, we're not doing that. And so we turned our boat in and we left. But yeah, we get we get to cook

24:25

traditional Cherokee food we there's like a water based one. And then there was the Texas Ranger camp which that was pretty cool. But as you did you kick back guys in the face like Walker Texas Ranger. Um we did have a shootout with some of the

24:41

parents, but

24:46

it's the most Texas thing that could possibly happen

24:50

with the parents period or era of firearms. Black Powder production cap no actual like, yeah, yeah

25:00

like that So, but we had a quote the, the parents that was it

25:08

rob the stage coach, they they were there was a robbery of some sort. And we add to our horses, which they had horses we had to ride the trail until we found them and then we had a shootout quote unquote, with the parents what?

25:26

Geez It was like

25:30

shooting it was like we had to point up into the air though like we couldn't

25:38

because I remember Matt was

25:41

very large individual is like the sweetest man in the world. But like I remember like him having like the bag of gold. I came

25:52

running and him having to fall down because he got shot. And then the ladies like yeah, we we

26:00

The Texas Rangers we won and we're like, we just shoot our parents like what what just happened? watching us? We went to some very different scout camps I yeah, no totally like holy cow though. I don't know how they found it. But I remember going to Packard Packard high venture base and Colorado.

26:22

That was been dilatory Scout Ranch. Now we went to both because I actually have my package package nine in Colorado.

26:32

High adventure base. No, that's not in Colorado. No, Colorado has been Delatour.

26:37

There's two of them.

26:40

I went to one is I because I am holding my Nalgene bottle that says OB Council scout camps. And there's been Delatour

26:50

there's some high adventure base where they took us on top of a mountain and we mountain bike down.

26:58

Chris Carpenter almost died. That's how

27:00

What's better than shooting people? Yeah, like I liked those ones. Those ones are pretty cool. And then dad's like, Hey, we're going to Texas. You kind of mix it up. Right? We went to the summer. The Black Hills. Random. Yeah, the random South Dakota when we went to was awesome. Like it was cool. It was so bad getting there because the longest drive ever is trying to go to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

27:26

But like, that was fun.

27:30

Is that the one where we stayed in the church in Kansas? We did that a lot. Yeah, so anytime we happen to be going through Kansas in same church in in Oh, man, I suddenly have blanked on the name of that town. Yeah, we stayed in that big Methodist Church thing. Yeah, I do not have no idea what name of that town would be. Oh my gosh, Google help. talk amongst yourselves real fast. Anyway, but yeah, we anytime we're going that way. We stay

28:00

there. Yeah. And

28:04

so I don't know if we did it that time or not. I know when we went to Colorado to the military we did.

28:10

But I'm not sure about the South Dakota one. But it sounds good. It was fun. We did lots of different stuff there. Because that's when we did the I did the caving and all that stuff. That was cool.

28:21

Yeah, I don't remember the drive detect this. I don't know. Do I remember the drive to South Dakota? And I don't even remember the like, the town or the lake that we stayed at? I just remember. Like we showed up at a lake guy. There's a pontoon

28:39

there. Okay. Pause. Hays Kansas. Hey, yeah, there it is. And so

28:49

yes, we end this we always went to

28:53

either going or coming back. We always stopped that much in Kansas. And we went to the cosmos fear

29:01

I don't have always I went to that one time but yes I do remember that we did they go there and once at least I went there once but we it was Hayes is where we stop and say the night that church because usually on the way back there was just like no we're going home

29:17

too bad so because of that we want to get home now

29:24

terribly stinky children in the car we got to get out of here but

29:29

yeah

29:32

yeah I can't haze and we always ate at sort of Oh, it was I believe St. Augustine was pizza company. Hey, okay. Oh hey, I was gonna say it was like pizza hut or something like that. There was it was like a I don't know I don't know how local that is. But it was like

29:48

place there that's what I remember. I remember Hays Kansas, there was a pool there. We went to the pool some.

29:54

There's like a city pool that we went to couple times and then definitely pizza.

30:00

a buffet. Yeah, that's where you take 14 children.

30:07

What else did we do out there? Great, I don't know, in Kansas or at the camp just in general. Because when we I don't think anybody you I went to a one in Wyoming, too. I didn't I did not go to any of the ones up north. The first one. The first one I went to was David Crockett where I did the stupid polar bear swim.

30:30

Again at a pullover swim in South Dakota.

30:34

We're not we're not we You did? Yes, I did not. Yeah.

30:40

Yeah, that was was that that? Was that the polar bear swim, or was that the swim test where they were like, okay, in order to take this class, you have to do this swim test. And I said, Okay, and so I jumped in and immediately jumped right back out. I don't know. I thought it was a polarized time as part of the thing is you jumped in a lake, didn't you? Yeah, that was the lake

31:00

Yeah, my older son was just like,

31:02

no. Yeah, it was a lake I remember because Yeah, because they were like go. It's like Yeah, sure. Yeah, that's that's the one where they there's stupid counselors are like, no, there's a bear for real. Yeah, that one and then

31:15

we have to be really annoyed and for an hour why they like it one o'clock in the morning where they're like, no, it's better and it was some idiot run around with a bucket like making bear noises. Blue Blue Bell bunny bucket and a wet string and a sponge. It was terrible.

31:32

I was like, it's gonna eat you. I don't care. I'm tired.

31:37

alone. Like I can still vividly see

31:43

can camp lay out at the no tour. Because I also remember playing magic with you, Brandon. And like someone else outside of the trading post.

32:00

We have like magic cards for some reason.

32:04

Are you sure that was me? Because I don't feel like we ever went to summer camp together. I don't Yeah, because if your first one was camp Davy Crockett in Tennessee that was like my last one. But again, yeah, cuz I wasn't like a scout scout. And I yeah, but I don't

32:23

know. I only went to summer camp with Collin like twice. Yep. And it was South Dakota

32:32

and Tennessee.

32:34

All the other ones. I didn't go because I went to Arrowhead one time I went to Linda tour the second time. Then we went to Wyoming and then we went back to ben de tour and then we went to South Dakota and then we went to Tennessee and that was my last one. Okay, because I was I was already Eagle Scout by then so I was like well

32:54

but I would like to because we fun but and I just remembered the layout of the campus.

33:00

I played magic bars with somebody not named me, Matt Brandon. Not me. But I do remember the training posts there but I did not like I can I can remember how the mess hall look

33:14

I can remember the walk to the gun range. I can remember the walked in the camp by the only merit badge I remember taking is like

33:26

radio frequency frequency that that exists. I know that exists. Yeah. Because we have like the chart the the frequency graph.

33:37

And then I took the weather merit badge. Oh, yeah, the forecast merit members, whatever. But that's like the only ones I remember taking. Yeah, I remember I took a bunch there but I don't remember. And I remember there's two different campsites the first year I went, we park we not Park came to the one that was like, there. Yeah, like past the mess hall. And then the other time I went, we were

34:00

Very far away in like another place I think. Maybe not. Maybe I just had to go over there for a merit badge. That sounds more right.

34:07

It was my mare about location was super far away. That's what it was. Yeah, it came back over there too because we didn't we stayed in the army to install all the time. Yeah, but my marriage location was extraordinarily far away because I remember the gun range and I did the ropes course. Second time the second year I went I did the ropes course because I was I wasn't old enough I don't think the first time

34:32

because they had their two different levels is if you're if you're young, you do like the

34:38

Yeah, I didn't do the intro and I did the big the big loss. Yeah, I only did the intro. Yeah.

34:44

Because I don't remember doing the second one. But that may be but but I remember doing like the rope thing. I remember the mine force they had us do like they had like the big grid and there was like a dude holding a piece of paper. Yeah, yeah.

35:01

Well at least Oh, so that's all you did was because when I did it that was like the first day or two was like the ground based stuff like the and then it like built up to like the big tall

35:11

stuff.

35:13

So there was like a it was all week thing like for a couple hours a day you can go over there and do that. I think I have like a merit badge during the same time because there's something there's one that I really wanted to do. But I just

35:26

But yeah, I don't I don't know. I do that's why it's like emergency preparedness because we did our like test was like a rescue. Oh, that's Rocky Mountain Rescue like we kind of thing Yeah, we had to go out and like find a guy

35:39

and I got I was on stretcher detail. So I got the stretcher i'd carry this dude back.

35:48

Like police line thing through the forest. Fire assesses injuries, field dress injuries and

35:56

get them on a stretcher and get them out of there. That was like our test. There was a

36:00

Sweet test actually, like

36:03

a thinking about now I distinctly remember carrying a person that's why we we did something like something you remember very similar to where we had a person at a base and he had a radio and he had coordinates Natalie little computer and we had to go and find a quote unquote bomb which was literally just like a pontoon. Well, yeah, I'm attached to it. And even he had to like search for like a house where someone was injured and I don't remember if that was the same thing. But I remember our radio guy getting us lost. Oh, well,

36:41

because all the other groups got finished. And our person who was like our guide, or the person that makes sure like, we didn't kill ourselves, was walking behind us. He's like, are you sure you guys are going the right way? Like we don't know. Our Radio berzin still you have to go this way but we're going this way. Maybe this is

37:00

Because you couldn't really concentrate. He could read the code. We didn't have a compass. Oh, that we just had to be the problem is

37:08

I think we did have like a little GPS, but it only told us like the number of points. Oh, okay. And he was telling us like

37:18

the number points on that, like we didn't have like a compass of North and South we just said you should degrees and come okay. Yeah, we had the fat and then like a map made. That's Yeah, getting getting yelling on the radio and trying to find everybody is anytime that we ever tried to go hiking in Los Valley, or not less Valley, a Hercules glades. Hercules glad every I swear, every time we went there. We got lost every time. I don't know how this happened. Because, yeah, I mean, we were the last boys. Technically, I guess. So we ended up to that name. But every time we went, we got last time we went that one

38:00

time we went in like there because there's two loops, right? Yes. There's the high road, the height, the mountain loop or whatever. Yeah. And then there's like a more direct route down to the river, whatever. We always want to camp down by the river in the waterfall thing. Yeah, I'm the first time I went. I was we will. Right. And when we dad and it was awful, about some time, it's terrible, but

38:24

because they're like, yeah, you don't need a backpack is just a short little hike.

38:30

So the some of the older kids want to go and some one of the leaders they went on the big loop.

38:39

And we went on the short one, I mean, quote, unquote, short one to the river. Well, they got mega lost. Right, and I distinctly remember one of the scout masters

38:54

with a walkie talkie like climbing up a pine tree and like sitting in the top

39:00

pine tree trying to walkie talkie people.

39:03

Oh my gosh, we had to go. We went out.

39:09

We just picked some trails, right. And we just started walking down them towards where they should been coming from and setting markers, railing rock markers, branch markers. Yeah.

39:21

So they could figure out where the heck we were because

39:25

we deduce somehow that the trail they ended up on did not meet the trail that we were on

39:33

where we were.

39:35

We climbed up this like big hill. Yeah. And the trail that they were on was up there somewhere. And so we kind of found it and we said blazes on that trail and big stone arrows to be like yo over here, and they eventually found it in like brush crash down the hill

39:58

to where we were at

40:00

terrible it was like it's really funny now but it was so much like I just wanted to come down and I'm like

40:08

end up dying

40:10

like it was not. It was really

40:15

right

40:18

it was very stressful

40:20

for just a few weeks even that long for like your first one there's a first overnight because you know we will you go on like one overnight to like see what it's like yeah, yeah, that was mine. That was mine.

40:32

Because I missed, for some reason I couldn't go to the camp or anything. It was like a weird time or we were doing something or whatever. So they're like, Oh, yeah, come on this one. You'll be fine. Easy. Yeah. No, it was.

40:50

We started my boys got career doing all kinds of barely bizarre thing. Yeah.

40:58

I

40:59

like the

41:00

The only time I ever camp at Camp Arrowhead, I went twice one was like a day event where we had to like, boil an egg, using like a styrofoam cup, paper, paper cup. Now ours was styrofoam.

41:17

Okay. And so we maybe they read the drum actually killed it, right?

41:23

The the time that we stayed like my only camping experience at camper head was I was 10 partners with Dustin Smith.

41:33

And we had we for some reason put our tents like on the crest of a hill.

41:39

But it rained that night. And it just was enough to

41:44

flood our tent just slightly over and so we woke up like 10 feet from where we

41:51

originally set up camp, the flood or the water is just carried us and so we spent the night in his dad's car. I remember that and because our

42:00

And everything got out of here about flooded since all right the second the first camper re that we went to like the big thing where like all the they'll come in yeah the different route coming Sam Okay, so

42:14

the first one I went to ever

42:17

again, like 12 years old. Okay, keep that in mind keep that in your brain. We were hosting it at

42:27

circle bar k ranch. Right? We were the ones that are supposed to be like in charge. And so we had to go down the weekend for like, practice things and like set up stations winner. So down there.

42:43

person that were down there really cool because

42:46

a bunch of like random ROTC dudes, were there also. Whoa, and doing some like wilderness training stuff. And so we definitely played flashlight tag with a bunch of ROTC guys.

43:00

A huge field. Yeah, bottom line, right by the river. Yep, there's the river, the swan Creek, whatever. And then there's the woods. And then there's a huge field. We played flashlight, tagging that field with

43:13

ROTC.

43:15

So awesome.

43:18

Oh, this was a survival themed one. So we had to like build shelters and stuff. That's important to the story. Where so?

43:28

Was that the time? Was it?

43:31

Yes.

43:33

My story.

43:34

So, we're there.

43:37

We have this really awesome TP shelter thing. It's really great. And I like Oh, the second night, Saturday, probably.

43:46

Oh, it turns out, SEVERE WEATHER ADVISORY tornado warning for whatever county that is on organic. So we're sitting there and there was a rain hail

44:00

Like awfulness they made us get out of our shelters that we built and get into those tents, little green Eureka things, because they're like, super safer in there.

44:09

No, stop it. So I'm sitting in there and we didn't have all of them we just brought some for backup. So it's like five of us in those tents

44:20

not made for five people now they're definitely three mountains. Right? Five some, some of them had more because there was just like getting the tent like

44:30

so again in there and it's just boring, raining hailing. I'm laying down in that tent is definitely draped across my nose. And

44:43

it was so awful like the tent was bloated, right?

44:48

Water for days there. And when we get up in the morning, they're like, yeah, that was definitely a tornado

44:59

and

45:00

The worst part about is inside of our TV we built dry yeah of course. Terrible

45:10

my tarpaulin ability

45:14

Do not underestimate me. Yeah, that was the first time because we did like a million of the survival things and we didn't there but that was again It wasn't my first one like why what an auspicious start we've had

45:26

a

45:29

drought like what the heck like

45:33

my my first survival camp was at monster mountain at that vendela tour. Oh yeah, and I'm that thing. Yeah cuz I remember climbing it like twice before and then they're like, hey, you're going to do a survival things like Okay cool. And they put us together and they gave us like that survival blanket or the survival tarp like metallic one and

45:59

over

46:00

Yeah, right like and yeah. And I just remember I woke up and there's the group and then there was little me like five feet away like with my own little like, blanket that dad got me, which I still have and everyone else was under that little thermo blanket. And like I don't know if I just rolled if I was just slightly pushed out, but yeah, I slept I survived monster mountain by myself by feet away from people

46:32

in the cold. Good job I

46:37

like it was freezing. Yeah, then I was like one of the first or second times I went on the Klondike Derby

46:46

was like one of the only times or it snowed.

46:49

Wasn't the mud Derby. The mud every was my second one. Like the first one I went, it had snowed. And again,

47:00

bench had miraculously left the front flap of the tent open.

47:07

And I woke up and then there was a small avalanche of snow.

47:13

Halfway in our tent amateurs using tense What the heck, man? That's all they gave us

47:22

from ever on. I slept in a hammock or build my own little shelter. Yeah, see you learn because

47:31

those tents are heavy. Oh my gosh, I'm not about that life carrying eight pound 10 I don't know why on earth they thought those tents were good ideas

47:42

for being in that trailer. Go into like bark as well. Yeah, but not not hiking in. No. And they so like another thing got to think about like,

47:56

both for like the group of leaders that were there. By

48:01

From what I kind of understand before by

48:06

my group kind of got in there, they weren't really doing a whole lot of that they need some of it. But unlike a lot so like

48:14

the older like way older kids they didn't do that kind of stuff. Oh, really? Yeah. Like it wasn't like not the same right? And they will go like floating. It's fine. Floating Mr. In the boat, whatever. Doesn't matter. But like, they weren't going on like gigantic trips, stuff like that like the reason that we went to like Ben Delatour Scout Ranch was because of dad like that. Yeah, we went to camp Arrowhead one time he took one look at that was like, No, no,

48:46

no,

48:47

no.

48:50

We went somewhere else. Because, I mean, it's no matter what it is. Now, I can't speak on that because I haven't been there and good for 20 years. But back then

49:00

Hello.

49:05

It's so I know, it was terrible. He was like, No, this is garbage when I go in there until somebody else because it was boring like we were just like, oh, cuz that's summer camp was just like, oh, you just go over to this little cut? Yeah, in a circle and you learn about

49:24

their bad things, whatever, whatever it was. Right? And he was like, no.

49:30

We're out.

49:33

Also, he was probably like, yo, he's hot. Where's the mountain move get out. Yeah, like Well, of course he'd be like, Where can we go that is are there Boy Scout camps in the mountains? Oh, look. Look surprise. Here's a bunch of robots go.

49:48

That

49:50

he was why we when did that stuff so? Yeah, initially like anytime they went camping they took that stupid trailer.

49:57

The old one you remember the old

50:00

million pound trailer. Yep, that somehow I got stuck being Quartermaster like 1000 years in a row. Every time we elected officials like no you can be Quartermaster Like what? You

50:13

can count all the tent stakes. Yeah. And then we have the world's heaviest camping supplies because they didn't. Yeah, do that stuff.

50:24

And then we kind of got some of that were like No, but I want to go like, really far right? That

50:31

I can like

50:33

yeah, that's what like some of like the older like the older kids whenever I was there, they were like yeah, we just go here and we just camp and they did like stuff they printed like skills things right, like a place like a stationary place.

50:48

And they go hike and then like it wasn't long hikes.

50:51

And so like a lot of my group, my friends and like I were like, no, we're going hiking far right?

51:00

Anything

51:02

its head, right? I did like one year of like what everyone else was doing it was like, no, yes. No. Turns out this is terrible. Like I'm not taking like you gotta bring all this stuff is like, no I don't

51:17

bring a tart and like a sleeping bag in a bedroom.

51:22

Yes.

51:24

That is it. And some like my little like those little like you can't cook in this mess can't watch me. I'm not carrying that pot grease.

51:34

You gotta carry this pot like you care that pie.

51:38

This is why I don't eat oatmeal anymore. Ever. Oh, yeah. That's all we ate. Like, oh, man, all my friends were like our troop or a little

51:47

group or whatever. I'm always called. The Lost Boys. Yeah. Then we were like,

51:53

what are we going to eat? What's light.

51:58

Some of the other groups are like, we're gonna bring all

52:00

This stuff like oatmeal

52:04

oatmeal, peanut butter yeah live on and so like to this day people like you want to eat some oatmeal no

52:12

much

52:15

all I'm carrying not carrying all that stuff Get out of here.

52:19

We're gonna bring this Pam no stop watching foot What do you hey hey I'm really yeah, no like are you carrying like ice bag lunch box cuz I'm not Oh I know. Yeah, the heaviest thing I want to my bag is water. That's right and i want lots of it is

52:39

like 50 water bottles not like 50 but like a bunch of water bottles and cool

52:45

yeah I survived off of ramen noodles

52:49

and then I got my first Camelback was like oh, this is amazing, but I think a lot of Roman to anything. I think it was like the second time they made

53:00

Me

53:01

What was it yet the make your tent in complete darkness?

53:08

Yeah, yeah this is stupid. I'm just gonna hook up my hammock

53:13

call again. Yeah, there was definitely some where we're like

53:18

lay in the top on the ground, though yeah done.

53:23

Especially speaking of the current river, we distinctly remember going there a few times and like

53:30

we get there unlike that trusting for the because we want that's why we did the 50 milers right right yeah and so we go there to that way up are put in place I don't know where it was

53:42

like you gotta put up your tent and stuff. Now, like one time we definitely I remember we just laid in the canoe and just put a tarp over top.

53:56

Not laying on these rocks. I'm not getting on my

54:00

My boat now so much just get wet and smell bad, so I'm not gonna deal with that right now.

54:12

Just gonna lay.

54:15

Literally one time. I remember I sat in the backseat, my legs up on the side and somebody else sat in the front seat with their legs up on the side. We're like Yep, that's and I think somebody laid down in the bottom.

54:28

There it is. Got it on, just like propped our panels up and kind of drape the tent over that and again, look at that. We got it. Look what we did. Sleeping in that. Absolutely.

54:41

Is it gonna rain? No, fine. We're good. We'll be fine. We'll be fine.

54:48

It was during the boy scout 10 sale. I always try to make them make a thing of make like a fort or some sort of sleeping quarters music

55:00

Whatever was available, realizing realizing now, like how grow some of that stuff right?

55:10

Younger I'm going to use this as a like there was one of those basketball things were you she didn't have like little Skype the arcade thing we're like we're doing the back. Yeah, but it was like it was like a felt material, whatever. Oh, it's like, oh, I'm gonna use that as a like my little like cover, but like, thinking like, Man, that was probably in some persons basement. Yeah, totally.

55:38

growly disgusting, but I just member I'm just like, I'm going to use this I hated sleeping much

55:46

worse and it rained every yes here. Yeah, he just couldn't get away from that. I will go bad and it was awful and it was smelly in there.

56:00

But at the time at the time, it was so much fun. I don't know I really never I never know I did.

56:09

being there and working it Yes. sleeping there now, right? Yeah.

56:16

Like Okay, you're gonna sleep just like right in the middle of town

56:20

right next to the highway, highway,

56:24

soothing sounds of highway.

56:29

Like, we smartened up later we slept in the suburban one time.

56:36

Button chorus Volkswagen camper bus one time

56:43

about that also kind of shows how trusting dad was because I'd be like dad would be here tonight and get okay just leave

56:53

you with I mean Joe Gorski so yes, but also

57:02

Where exactly you're gonna go?

57:06

Right? Go to the gas station. Oh boy.

57:12

Yeah, you're there without any transportation.

57:15

You're gonna wander the streets or not get taken by some random person.

57:21

reads Oh gosh.

57:24

Are the hardened back streets of

57:27

Mill Street? Horrible

57:30

business 60

57:33

do you you guys remember

57:36

cleaning up trash on business 60 all the time there's that gas station. Problem. Oh that that would happen. There's my were we getting like free drinks at a convenience store or gas station that was there a gas station in downtown that burned down.

57:53

That might have been a business 60 right across from the

57:59

cast.

58:00

Yeah, thought was the gas station? MFA? No, it was further further east of MFA east. Yeah. Though, carwash? No, because that's on the south. That's on the south side of the road. This is on the north side. Know what? Now, next to the railroad tracks. Yeah. Next to the railroad tracks gas station. There was it was an old defunct there was a super old grocery store. That might have been it, but I think later I remember had pumps on the back.

58:34

a laundromat

58:37

but it became, I don't know, I don't

58:42

I don't, I don't know.

58:44

Me and Roger Seville. In two hours. I

58:49

cannot do that.

58:52

He's in Martin Van Buren, don't you? I am not. No, no, nobody is in Martin Van Buren right now.

58:59

That is alive.

59:06

Top Gear episode.

59:08

Like, we're, we're entering Jessica. Oh, yes. I said that. Yes. Yeah, we're gonna have to go on tour of downtown rockville because I don't recall. I remember

59:20

so right at business 37 in mill, there's a church, right? Yeah. And then there was the other church that was a grocery store long time ago.

59:30

And then like right across from the senior center, and then that's where the MFA was. Was on the on the east side of that right. Check your don't like a Caboose. Caboose, check your text messages.

59:43

just sent a map. Did you my empty your phone? Oh, no. That was not sending

59:51

a slow

59:53

okay, but it's not been delivered. Oh, just getting

1:00:02

Look to the east of the MFA building that long white building and that empty lot. That's there used to be something there that burned down there didn't

1:00:16

know.

1:00:19

Anything.

1:00:21

I remember. I don't remember. That might be true, but I don't recall. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I mean,

1:00:29

that's all I know. Well, it's literally something that I never went to. It's one of those things where they like, because across the railroad tracks there was there used to be a grocery store over there to it totally long time ago. But no, yes. there because it collapsed from ice.

1:00:49

Yeah, no, you you would recognize this. If you saw it. I'm sending you guys a street view. Maybe I don't know if this is a street view of that of that lot. When it comes

1:01:00

through here in 19 years

1:01:04

cuz I'm in Van Buren Missouri. I mean, yes.

1:01:14

Oh,

1:01:16

but what part of the Ozarks you've ever been to where you were you say to yourself, man, this is marvelous cell phone service. Nowhere

1:01:24

right across from City Hall right now. Yes, it is. Yeah, it was hard for

1:01:32

me it's like in that area. City Hall is that garish tin shed that they build, right. Yeah. This is across from that old.

1:01:43

Yeah.

1:01:45

Yeah.

1:01:47

Yeah.

1:01:48

There was a gas station or something. There

1:01:52

you go. So your mystery is solved for the evening.

1:01:55

I still don't remember ever going into that. I think it was long.

1:02:00

derelict even when we were little, I know Aaron's a liar. Now we went into something. I guess I got something to something. Yes, yes, I'm sure you did. I believe you, but I don't think it was bad.

1:02:14

There's a lot of other gas stations. There was.

1:02:20

It was business 37 personally not or not 37 trash on here where I am a 60 and yes, I recall picking up trash in business 60 a lot, but there's like, between there and like East there's nothing, not many things, especially back then. Yeah, not anything, but just been like a convenience store. or some sort of establishment. Man. It was like Hey, kid want a soda?

1:02:50

It comes predict.

1:02:53

Oh, no, man.

1:02:55

So we passed out

1:03:00

One point we felt like a service thing went down in downtown Springfield but like

1:03:09

grand street in Springfield right over there, like sort of north of sunshiny VMware right we were supposed to be passing out flyers door to door for like a pharmacy ah oh

1:03:28

was that Mr. good sense? I don't know that gave us that they gave us that no you're right you're right. They were like yeah they were like yo you want the sandwich has been sitting the window all day. Yeah, no, no, no. I told you put on a sandwich and then leave it in the sun all day and then try

1:03:46

trying to literally try to me I don't remember. If someone was that would have been Collin, but I don't know if you remember that because I was pretty young still. So I don't know if you went on this expedition of roaming the streets in a really weird part of Springfield but

1:04:00

Like, I don't think people and they were like what? Stop? I don't think I was doing the door to door stuff but I do have that's the only time I've ever have any sort of involvement with Mr. good sense. And I have these very vague memory of that. Yeah, it was that's because the pharmacy had at their grand opening Mr. Good since sandwiches. Oh man, like, that's what it was for. It was like a grand opening of some sort of pharmacy in that area. I don't remember where. But I remember walking down lines, like really weird streets and like what is happening some of these houses back then over there, we're not getting and so like

1:04:40

once kids walking down the street handing out flyers to people, like, yes, they the pharmacy had good since sons. And like, at the end of the day, when we came back, they're like, hey, do you want these leftover sandwiches?

1:04:53

No, I don't gross.

1:05:00

Oh, thank you sandwich Like what?

1:05:03

Yeah, but that's what that

1:05:06

I never did anything like that.

1:05:09

for good reason.

1:05:11

Yeah, I think it's because we did it at one time and all the leaders like Yeah, no.

1:05:17

We did other weird service projects like mostly just picking up trash or like

1:05:25

what's the trash picking up?

1:05:27

everywhere? We did a lot of things with secretive Park.

1:05:32

Like I remember going there a lot. I think well, we were I remember going there a lot when I was young, but just because like, we wanted to go to the park, it was unaffiliated with Boy Scouts in any way whatsoever. Well, I think it was a little bit of both, because I remember going there when I was little, and it really, really cool.

1:05:50

And then I think correlation without cool was like we should do stuff with Boy Scouts and they're like picking up trash. Now this is not as fun but it's really cool to be here.

1:06:00

I don't know. I don't remember doing that. I just been thinking about trash. I don't know what oh, we did this for the senior center. Remember that? Yeah.

1:06:09

Yeah, yeah, I remember doing like, when they would have meals they're serving and clean up and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I didn't. Didn't somebody built the gazebo out front for them? Yes. That was somebody Eagle Scout project. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Somebody also built their library shelves. Yeah.

1:06:30

Yeah. And then we painted that.

1:06:33

Paint. Well, yeah, we cleaned up the caboose thing.

1:06:38

Gotta have a nice clean Caboose

1:06:42

was one of my guys and my truth that I think repainted it. I was gonna say yeah, cuz it's

1:06:50

like

1:06:53

yeah.

1:06:55

That's fate. That's probably accurate. My question is, How did Collin

1:07:00

Come up with

1:07:02

renovating or fixing up the concession stand apart

1:07:07

you get you get three guesses two of them don't count one of them is named Dad

1:07:14

I was gonna say is like went to the park it was like hey, this concession stand is garbage

1:07:20

sated Collin

1:07:24

project and then Collin was like, Okay. Okay. Also I seem to remember putting down a lot of wood chips at the park when they built a new domain. Yeah, yep. When they when they did this because he bows or whatever their why they built new playground equipment and we have and some I was with somebody digging the perimeter thing where you think like the pipe and then you fill it with like wood chips or whatever. Okay.

1:07:53

Yeah.

1:07:55

I remember God I forgot that you did? Because

1:07:58

Yeah, we did paint

1:08:00

incite now and got

1:08:05

stuff donated to for like an update that you could believe this or not the air conditioning system was updated

1:08:15

gasps so

1:08:19

only I could think I am shocked to the actually had an exorcism to begin with I have not recalled Well, if I mean I mean window units do do consist of those are classified as an air conditioning account again, I don't

1:08:36

I don't have many memories of things at the park. Like I have memories of the park in general like I know I was there. Yeah, but I don't remember a lot of other things like yeah, like I vaguely recall somebody watching one of you play baseball there. And perhaps soccer and tractor pulls. tractor

1:09:00

Mostly tragic there

1:09:03

are the purple dinosaur and firework squared

1:09:08

times.

1:09:09

Yeah, yeah, I do remember that when I was like in when I was in middle school I guess we're going to that. Yeah, I don't I don't remember I don't remember the concession saying I don't even remember where it's at.

1:09:22

It is it's back towards those fields and ball field things back towards the baseball field soccer thing, whatever. Okay. And it's the two there's like a big like the loop road. Yeah.

1:09:38

Yeah, it's kind of on the on the west side, kinda.

1:09:43

Yeah, on the west. I'm teaching directions right now in school so my directions are on point.

1:09:51

Blank geography geography time boys.

1:09:56

ever eat soggy waffles. What

1:10:02

I just remember my Eagle Scout project taking for ever because I can never get any volunteers. We did the evidence locker room the fire fire vault, whatever. Oh yeah, the police Legion and we added sorry I was busy that damn. We had a

1:10:20

fireproof door. We had it shells. We added a bridge Raiders.

1:10:27

The big problem was that we hate like we couldn't get into there because the police were like, yeah, we have seen the evidence first. I mean that and like put it all in the closet, but I can never get anyone to show up. It was always dad myself. Roger, Vicki was there busy and then like maybe like one other person.

1:10:46

I was busy not being boys anymore.

1:10:51

Whoops.

1:10:56

That was an interesting one. But that's Yeah, that's weird because there was a

1:11:00

There was there was kind of like an unspoken thing, right? Like, you have to have people to work on an Eagle Scout project. So like, usually kind of everybody in a similar age group would just like go, at least when I was there, like you just go to that one because you know that you need people to come to your door. So yeah, like you you have to go to their right. It's just, it was like an unspoken thing. So like, if my friend is doing deals got project I'm going to use if it sounds awful, I'm going because I'm going to help build some nasty fences. And I need help with that. And I know

1:11:39

because I was always dragged to both of your guys Eagle Scout against what I even do. You don't even know. You fixed up the cemetery. Crap. Yeah, I remember that.

1:11:52

Yes. Do you remember how many years afterwards you were nagged by Me? Me to get lyst on the National Registry of history. Oh my gosh.

1:12:00

My Eagle Scout project in the paperwork said, clean and fence.

1:12:09

Got it?

1:12:11

We did exactly what it said. I fixed some I set some headstones. I built a fence.

1:12:21

There was a gate at one point. Yeah, somebody got it now because I see it now it's I think it's a new one. Oh, yeah. Because the gate.

1:12:32

The gate was originally constructed of that. Do you recall that her in this black railing that used to be on Mimi's back porch? Yes. Yep. Yes. That was what the gate was constructed out of the frame was constructed out of that and then it had like a swinging pedal gate like the small swinging cattle gate. Yeah, you don't like the big cattle gates. It was like the forefoot, one of those right? Yeah.

1:13:00

Maybe the with the small one one of those hung on a frame constructed out of that railing because she was like get this really out of here and we had it in dead barn and dad was like hey, we could probably well that into a thing and so we did

1:13:16

we welded the gate frame

1:13:19

out I mean, we say I say we I helped her there. Well did a little bit. welding is still awful, but

1:13:29

we bother to get out of that. And then that was at the on the west side there. And then we set barbed wire fence around the whole thing. Even cats out of there. We turn those wishes way back. Yeah, mode, everything, got the grass all down, found the headstones First of all, and then

1:13:45

reset some barbed wire fence. Yeah, we reset like we just kind of put them you lay them resetting.

1:13:53

Yes, because that's what that we did call people and that's what they told us to do. So that's where like we gotta do something with them now.

1:14:00

We'll do that. Like do you know where where they came from? Well, yes, because I can see the other half right here. Right? Well put it put it there so it stays together. So we did we called the some historical society and talk to him about that. And that's what they said to do. So

1:14:16

we did set those a couple there was just a couple of vertical ones had broken off and falling over and we set up for that.

1:14:22

But they told me to do that. So if that's wrong,

1:14:26

I was told to do

1:14:29

wasn't that like their only object was to

1:14:34

set up a flagpole

1:14:39

gravy you remember that? Yeah. Because I had I helped with that. Okay, well, that was somebody that was like older than me. Yeah, I think there was I think that's interesting. There were two there were I think there was another flagpole one. I was gonna say because the one I went to the there was older than me that was not justified.

1:15:00

Well that was an enormous collectible that took or ever. We also like because it was at a cemetery church thing so we also did a lot of ground cleaning is an older one it was like really bad put stuff around it I remember that we have but we also spend a lot of time cleaning up the whole place will at least hit the one I went to get the one I remember

1:15:23

we did that we went and cleaned up like a whole bunch of stuff. And like clean up a lot of grounds but I do remember the flagpole raising was a bear and it was not

1:15:35

just like I'm gonna put a flagpole up good. No, no. Like

1:15:41

I helped with a lot of projects. Mostly kids, because they were like, Hey, you can build fence now. Right? drive these t bars in the ground.

1:15:51

Yeah, with the Yeah, exactly. That's one of the things. somebody sees you drive a fence post one time. That's your job for life.

1:16:00

No

1:16:03

clang, clang

1:16:08

Karen that driver

1:16:10

smacking down on there right? Yeah, yeah.

1:16:14

Luckily, I was kind of rubbish at running the wire.

1:16:18

So I drive the post and this time we are running the wire here I was bad at writer one right?

1:16:27

No, it's fine.

1:16:31

Oh no I was bad at the running wire part so I just sort of had to come

1:16:36

up Joe the posts, I set posts and then I would help like at the end when you just like

1:16:45

wrap that little piece of metal around the house to hold the wire there. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I like the wire stringing part.

1:16:56

I would like unroll the wire sometime.

1:17:00

But I never like was in charge of tightening said wire.

1:17:05

It was mostly just like yes, I will walk while holding these reel of wire. I can do that

1:17:16

with other projects. Well, I'm uh

1:17:21

i'm gonna go

1:17:23

grab some dinner

1:17:26

Oh, you guys don't mind. Oh good. Yeah, where does one get dinner in Van Buren? Well apparently there is a McDonald's

1:17:40

know, I knew you're gonna say that so sad. I also need to remember the stat but you're never more than like X number of miles away from McDonalds. There's a subway. There's also a local place called spring house cafe. I think I talked about that earlier and then closed already. Yeah, most definitely. Most

1:18:00

really close. And then there's some restaurant that

1:18:05

I think there's basically only three other places to eat. So I'm

1:18:10

So the real question is which ones closest Natalie? Yeah, well, the one that's closest is the blue heron. It's a restaurant here in the hotel, but they are terrible last night. No. I meant what freestanding restaurant.

1:18:27

Yeah, I'm going to go for a little east. But a mile. There's a restaurant there called the smokehouse in

1:18:37

whatever so really go well, you better go then because places like that like to close early. So yeah. Yeah. Already. Thanks, guys. Heck, yeah, man. Thanks. We'll, we'll do this again soon and start getting them out. Absolutely.

1:18:54

Love you guys. Bye, did you Bye bye.