The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Icy Roads, Gelled Diesel, and Campfire Chronicles: A Winter Trucking Tale!
What happens when trucking meets winter's icy grip? Join us on this episode of the Outer Belt podcast as we recount the unexpected challenges and hilarious misadventures that come with life on the road. From behind-the-scenes technical hiccups and nickname banter to malfunctioning train signals and windshield wiper fiascos, we share real-life stories that showcase the unpredictable nature of trucking. Get ready to laugh along as we tackle the everyday adventures that keep us on our toes.
Winter is coming, and with it, a unique set of trucking challenges. In this episode, we dive deep into the perils of frozen washer fluid and gelling diesel fuel, offering practical tips and relatable anecdotes to help you navigate the cold months ahead. Discover our humorous analogy involving peanut butter that perfectly illustrates the gelling issue, and learn the importance of switching to winter blends to keep your truck running smoothly. We also reflect on a recent motorhome trip to Circleville, Ohio, sharing the small hiccups and joys of life on the road.
But the fun doesn't stop there! We take you on a camping and fishing adventure filled with campfire cooking, kayak mishaps, and the excitement of opening a new TA Express. From the camaraderie of sharing hearty meals in the great outdoors to the evolving landscape of truck stops, this episode is packed with stories that highlight the joys and challenges of life on the road. Plus, we discuss a significant partnership in the commercial truck industry and celebrate the completion of Patrick's weight loss challenge. Tune in for a blend of humor, practical advice, and heartfelt moments that make this episode a must-listen.
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
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All right, we're rolling.
Speaker 2:Rolling, rolling, rolling ride.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. I am Patrick.
Speaker 3:I am Chili, I'm Buttermilk.
Speaker 1:I'm Eric and I'm Jerry and we are the Outer Belt. Have we given up on our nickname for Eric. I thought he was going to do Slim Jim, our, our pretzel, slim Shady.
Speaker 4:We ran it by the copyright lawyers he doesn't wear hats he doesn't wear hats he doesn't wear shady slim what about lampshade?
Speaker 1:I don't know. Oh, that sounds wrong, all kind of wrong. I apologize.
Speaker 4:I was thinking like Cinnamon Twist Could be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, yeah, why not? What do you want to be called I?
Speaker 3:like Slim Jim.
Speaker 2:Why do we not have your voice? Where'd that go, sorry?
Speaker 1:We have your voice.
Speaker 3:Talk. Where'd that go? Sorry, we have your voice. Talk, eric.
Speaker 2:No you don't? Oh, there it is, I hear it, keep talking uh I can't hear myself. No, I can't either talk, hello, oh, there you are.
Speaker 3:That's better it's coming in oh well, hello I don't hear myself now nice jerry's off.
Speaker 2:Oh, now we've got crackles so much a one-time take. Granted. Granted, all this could be in there.
Speaker 4:Exactly Could be.
Speaker 2:Show the people what it's really like.
Speaker 5:Hello, there I am.
Speaker 1:All right, you two talk together.
Speaker 3:Hey Eric, hey Jerry.
Speaker 1:I like technical difficulties. Yeah, now you're too loud.
Speaker 2:I think it shows people what it's really like on this side of the camera.
Speaker 1:Wait, they see what it's really like on this side of the camera. Wait, they see what it's like on this side of the camera.
Speaker 2:They do. You can be all sorts of ready and then it's just like trucking you can be all sorts of ready and something happens.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You can, for example, vince Patrick, jerry, patrick, we're just going to throw it around the room. Patrick, you could be on your throw it around the room.
Speaker 2:Patrick, you could be on your way, though, and you could have done a perfect free trip and everything, and there could be that one finagley item. You didn't see that, maybe popped your tire.
Speaker 5:Or.
Speaker 2:That's something out of your control.
Speaker 5:Or A light went out or.
Speaker 1:Or you pull out of the parking lot and immediately get stopped by a train Immediately, and then Immediately out of the parking lot and immediately get stopped by a train Immediately, and then, when the train completely passes you, it just stays, no, it just stays down. The guardrails just stay down and you can't move. Oh, and so the train's gone and you just see ding dong, ding dong, ding dong.
Speaker 4:I saw that picture right where you were at.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just barely left the yard chain so why did it had it not passed its marker?
Speaker 1:so I thought it was I thought it was broken, but actually when I finally did cross the road not the road, what they call it the tracks when they finally did cross the tracks, uh, the train dropped off its cars. They'll do that, they'll just drop in that particular section. Let's drop a car and go run and grab something else, and then they'll come back and pick up that car and keep going. It looks like they dropped it in the area that where the signal still thinks there's a train there.
Speaker 1:They didn't quite pull it far enough. Yeah, it's aggravating. I know, csx, we're listening, we're looking at you rather.
Speaker 2:What did you say? I heard you say lights. That's what you said.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How about a windshield wiper?
Speaker 1:Maybe you'd check those out. No, those always work.
Speaker 2:What if the rubber accidentally flies off from a hard rainstorm or something? Does that ever happen?
Speaker 4:What if you pull up to a fuel island and go to clean your windshield and clip the windshield wiper and it comes off. It's possible. Yeah, it's happened to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Luckily there's a truck stop. I can go inside and buy another one.
Speaker 1:You know what I hated when I was at the truck stops, my first going out there, not knowing anything about trucking at all, outside of being able to do a pre-trip In the winter, in the winter, in the you know snow um, not in the snow.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry we were in summertime, bugs were out yeah, so we started in the winter so there's relatively no bugs move to summertime, springtime, summertime it's like, oh my gosh, these bugs on the windshield, yada, yada, yada. So I bought the expensive, um, fancy green, green, bug-be-gone whatever windshield wiper fluid and it worked great, loved it. And then I cleaned my windshield one time at a truck stop and they used the blue stuff in there. I didn't realize those two don't mix.
Speaker 2:Blue and green don't mix.
Speaker 1:No, and you get a nice film across your windshield and it just kind of looks cloudy. From that point on, I don't recommend anybody use the green stuff. Just stick with good old-fashioned $2 a gallon blue.
Speaker 4:Buy it at Walmart, save your money. It ain't $2 a gallon, no more At Walmart, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I know, eventually we went to like a squirt bottle of just pure solution and we'd give like a squirt bottle of just pure solution and we'd give it a yeah before you started, you know not, not while you're driving.
Speaker 4:No, no, but that was we. We rescued a truck, we recovered a truck up north in the winter and the washer fluid they put in the truck had frozen. Yeah, so we're driving through a snowstorm and I was fine until I got behind another truck. Another truck came in front of me and the mud off their tires, the dirt off their tires and sand would kick on the windshield and I couldn't clear it off. So I had to find another truck that was spraying clear or just water off the road to get my windshield clean.
Speaker 4:So we finally pulled over. I was following Melissa, she we finally pulled over. I was following Melissa, she was in our truck, I was following her and we had a squirt bottle in the truck that we would use anyway, full of that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we would do that when we got to a truck stop and it was really bad, like bugs everywhere.
Speaker 4:So that was like our pre-wash. I'm sorry, I said that was a different time, but you're right.
Speaker 2:No, but you would pre-wash.
Speaker 4:But then we did fill that watchwork bottle with negative 20 to help clean my windshield. I'd stop every 10 miles, pull to the side of the road, get safe, spray the windshield, wash it, wash it and continue driving.
Speaker 1:Makes sense.
Speaker 4:I felt that was safer than driving with a dirty windshield or a nasty windshield.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and once they freeze, it's extremely hard to thaw them.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I know we've had trucks come in like maybe they get in in like October, so it's still pleasant outside, and maybe they've got to go to a body shop or whatever. So they end up being like December or January before they run out, and the whole time we didn't realize it had summer blend in there, and so now it's like all right, a team is inbound trucks almost ready, but but the washer fluid is not solid ice block. What do you do so we've been able to get it out of the shops? Let them just close it in the shop overnight, and especially if it's overnight. Just close it in the shop overnight, a bit warm, and especially if it's overnight. The next morning you show up and it's thawed, drain all of it out and then top it off with the negative 20. But it's a pain because even if you can get the tank thawed, you've still got ice in the lines, so you've really got to.
Speaker 1:The only solution really is just warm the truck up.
Speaker 4:What we do in the yard, marston, the only solution really is just warm the truck up Does it make more sense to use the negative 20 all the time.
Speaker 1:You can't get it. A lot of stores pull it during the year.
Speaker 3:Plus, in the south they don't even know what it is. They have no idea.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I did not mean to cut you off there.
Speaker 4:Two things. One, I didn't know there was a negative 20 or a zero or a different temperature until I got on the road. Two, in the yard what we do is about October when trucks come in and we go through our checklist. That's one of the things we check is how much washer fluid is in it. We top it off with negative 20, starting in October and then about March-ish, we'll start topping off with the summer formula.
Speaker 4:That makes sense, Not the green stuff but the blue stuff and I'll tell teams when I'm doing my walk around with them. This is about when I start topping off with whatever fluid, Just so they have an idea.
Speaker 1:We get that.
Speaker 4:We don't get true negative 20, but we get working.
Speaker 1:It doesn't get negative 20 here in Columbus, so that's not really ever an issue. It does get zero. So a summer blend which is good to 32 degrees is obviously frozen at that point.
Speaker 2:Um, but getting it, even if you dilute the mixture down to where you're negative 10 yeah, it's something or zero, it's something and then if you're not from a cold area like we have a lot of teams who come from florida, what if? What if you're brand new to the industry and you've never traveled and what's? Like you said, what's this negative 20 stuff you talk about?
Speaker 1:Again, that's Eric and I from the South. We never knew about wiper fluid freezing up. We figured it out when we showed up at a truck stop and saw it and it's like, oh, negative 20, we should use that Right Like that clicked. But if you've got some on the truck, it may not. You may just be thinking like a lot of our teams will buy four, six, eight bottles, gallons of the windshield wiper fluid yeah.
Speaker 1:And just not think about it like okay, I need more washer fluid and I'm in Texas and it's pleasant outside, so I throw it in there and then by the time I get to New Yorkork and it's negative five, it's frozen, so I mean like that kind of stuff happens and it's and and so it. I can see that being an easy mistake for us. We started winter, so the first stuff we ever bought was negative because we started in the winter right um and then anti-gel.
Speaker 1:We didn't know about anti-gel until I literally gelled a truck up. Um had to have it towed and and the cat guy, it was a Caterpillar engine. We went to a Caterpillar dealership to get it thawed and he actually was talking to us and I'm like it gels. And so he's like, where are you from? And I said I'm from South Louisiana. We've never heard of this. So he actually went and grabbed the fuel filter off of my truck. It was already off, it was gelled, it was on a table. He grabbed it, brought it over to a saw, cut it in half, cut it open and then opened it up and showed me and it looked like petroleum jelly If you can imagine a jar of that just in the fuel filter.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, I had no idea. And then I found out about paraffin wax and all this other stuff, so I now know better. But yeah, I completely understand it happens. We deal with a lot of it within the fleet annually and we try to get in front of it now, which the people I was driving for didn't, but we try to get in front of it now, but it still happens. You know, it just is one of those things.
Speaker 4:Can we go back to the paraffin thing for a second? Sure, so what happens when diesel fuel gels? Paraffin wax is a byproduct of the fuel refining process. Yes, so there is still paraffin in diesel fuel. So when diesel drops below a certain temperature, that paraffin starts to freeze or gel, because it's not just solid paraffin. So that's what's causing the gel in diesel fuel. Is that paraffin wax, like a wax candle, is paraffin wax. That stuff starts to harden and gels up. And there you go. It's not going to flow through the engine.
Speaker 1:And it starts to harden up. But it had to be really cold to get it. Candle wax hard, oh sure.
Speaker 4:Again, it has the consistency of like a petroleum jelly you have the dilution of the diesel fuel and that's keeping it from getting really hard. But it doesn't have to get hard, just starting to gel. That's why we call it gelling, just starting to gel and, like you said, petroleum jelly.
Speaker 1:Easy idea Take a straw, stick it in peanut butter, peanut butter, and then try to drink out of your drink. It's almost impossible. It's the same concept.
Speaker 2:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Now everybody's going to try it.
Speaker 1:I know Nobody's going to try it. Who is going to be like what?
Speaker 2:I bet you, somebody tries it.
Speaker 1:And then they're going to write us online like we proved you wrong. Yep, we are able to. What straw did you use?
Speaker 3:A boba straw.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was one of those, exactly one of those huge milkshake fatty straws.
Speaker 5:Exactly All the keyboard warriors are going to be just going at it.
Speaker 1:But thank you all for being with us this weekend. We had so much fun. The Outerbrook crew got to hang out and I thought we'd dialogue about that. Dialogue about it.
Speaker 2:Where are you?
Speaker 3:Next on the British Broadcasting Corporation Dialogue Cheerio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pip, pip.
Speaker 2:It's going to say Jerry, says or Jerry, and then it's going to say Patrick, it's going to be very dialogue, word for word, right underneath it.
Speaker 1:That's captioning. Yes, this past weekend we stayed at.
Speaker 2:A campground, and I honestly don't remember the name of it, but it was.
Speaker 4:AW Marion.
Speaker 2:Yes, not the.
Speaker 3:Marriott the Marion the Marion.
Speaker 2:Was it Haggis Lake?
Speaker 3:Haggis Lake. Haggis, the motherland.
Speaker 2:We were in Circleville, Ohio.
Speaker 1:We were just outside of. Circleville.
Speaker 4:Just a short jaunt away.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we wanted to test out a couple motorhomes and see if we liked them or not. I have one. It's not really testing to see if I like it or not. Several years ago we had a motorhome. Did a bunch of trips with it.
Speaker 2:Four years ago you sold this story. You've told this story.
Speaker 1:Okay, so four years ago sold the motorhome. A couple months ago, well, a few months ago now, we went and bought it back and brought it back to Ohio. So this is our first chance. Take it out, remember how to do everything, make a list of everything that's broken into, fix and all that stuff. Right? The good news is the broken list is very small. That's awesome. I actually thought it was going to be more but the, but the relearning how to use it, oof, we'll talk about that later. Uh, and then y'all stayed in the motorhome and that was your first go in that one as well, right? Yes, it was a lot of fun. It was very explorative. That's a good word.
Speaker 4:It was fun de-winterizing it and then realizing there were valves that hadn't been opened or hadn't been changed position. Oh, that's why the hot water didn't come into the shower and you took a cold shower, because this valve was closed. That was all a good learning experience, great learning experience.
Speaker 1:It was fun.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed it. Don and Jerry, y'all came down and hung out with us one day I was going to say one night, but really you were there so long. You were there part of the day too. I just had a great time. Melissa pretty much acted as chef in command.
Speaker 5:Good food, great food.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:It's always better over a campfire.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and she literally cooked over the campfire.
Speaker 1:That blew me away Really.
Speaker 4:You didn't think.
Speaker 1:I was going to do that I did not think you were going to do that. So this had one of those fire rings that are steel, and then they have the metal grate for the grill that just kind of like flops over it and it looked is well used, the appropriate term.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they always look well used.
Speaker 1:It looked well abused. There was animal stuff droppings all over it, and so you know that just made the burgers tastier.
Speaker 4:I told Melissa, put mine right there on that big old white splotch, oh gosh.
Speaker 2:You're terrible, but what?
Speaker 1:did you do. You ended up bringing out and it looked like a perfect fit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have like a pancake griddle is what I would call it, a long rectangular cast iron griddle and I started the fire, got it going good, and then I kicked the coals over because you don't want flame necessarily under there. And I kicked the coals over and laid my skillet on there and I started with bacon.
Speaker 1:Because you've got to grease the pan properly, you've got to make sure and the way that they're great?
Speaker 2:was it actually naturally tilted a little bit, so everything just drained, but it didn't? It was very George Foreman-esque, very George Foreman-esque, yes, it didn't drain into the coals, which then caused this big flame. Not the way that I had everything set.
Speaker 1:No, that was the last night. We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then you just keep moving your coals over as you continue to cook. But I did, uh, bacon um. And then eric wanted some jalapeno poppers. They got a little messy but they turned out really good they got messy, but they were delicious they were they weren't falling out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they weren't burning well, a little bit of cheese burnt, but they weren't burning Well, a little bit of cheese burnt. But they weren't burnt. No, that was my concern was like how are you going to cook this without having a huge burn part? But then I was like, eh, you eat around the burn, so who cares. But they came out perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah perfect. And then we threw some burgers on there and did that. And then I knew the next night we were going to do brats. So I actually got the brats out and I kind of par cooked them a little, half and half so they'd be kind of mostly done and have that yummy flavor of you know, the bacon and burger drippings and everything on there, and they didn't even make it to the next night.
Speaker 1:They made it to the next morning. They did. They were breakfast.
Speaker 2:Part of what you have is like a grill a barbecue.
Speaker 4:A little gas propane. A little gas propane.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And so I actually sliced those brats for the next morning and then just kind of reheated them, got them nice and finished cooking them as well.
Speaker 4:To clarify she cut them in half.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:And then sliced them down the middle Yep and put the middle section face down on the grill.
Speaker 2:I kind of butterflied them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, butterflied them, which finished cooking them, but also gave them inside a little bit of char, then flipped them over.
Speaker 2:It was like one gigantic piece of bacon, really sausagey bacon, when you're all said and done. They just were really good.
Speaker 1:They were tasty, very tasty, and that's all we have for breakfast. There was no eggs, nothing, nope, that was it.
Speaker 2:We just mounced it down and then again we did do the filet mignons, bacon wrapped, and then salmon filets and some shrimp. Yeah, two pounds of shrimp between the four of us, and also I'd like to clarify that the first night there, we weren't cooking on the grill.
Speaker 4:We had a nice big campfire blazing and we flipped over the grill. We had a nice big campfire blazing and we flipped over the grill so that we burned off all of the organic material.
Speaker 2:I mean, we didn't cook directly on it anyway, but still, we did charcuterie the very first night, the night we set up. That was delicious, it was really great.
Speaker 1:You and Eric got the charcuterie set up. It was really good, we have a few pieces left. I'm hoping Tonight we'll wrap that up.
Speaker 2:I love camping over the fire. That's funny If you're timing it just right. It was not super hot Because your coals are barely underneath it and the flame is more on that side Of the smoke. I think it just makes food taste so good, especially when you're camping.
Speaker 1:And then again also put that bacon, grease or bacon on there to get that grease and have that soaked in the meat Seasoned, yeah. On top of putting the strips of bacon on the burger, really just. And you had a couple different types of cheese too. So it was. You know why go camping, really, just to have a different variety of food.
Speaker 2:And we just simplified it no veggies, there were no pickles, no tomatoes, no onion. Like we just made it simple.
Speaker 3:The peppers, the poppers.
Speaker 2:The poppers, yeah, but I mean I really enjoyed the jalapenos.
Speaker 5:I told Donna I'm going to try to make those. Yeah, yeah, they were good.
Speaker 1:You want me to tell you how to make make them Well it seemed kind of easy.
Speaker 4:There's a real easy way, okay, go to a store called Kroger. I had fun. There's a market we went to to get the food for our May the 4th slash Cinco de Mayo party. It's a Latin market. I'll tell you where it's at, but they had these huge jalapenos It'd be great for poppers.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Great for poppers Nice.
Speaker 2:The trick is to get all the seeds and any of the white pith on the inside which they call a rib out To cut down the heat. Yeah, in fact, most of them turn out almost like a bell pepper if you get most of that out of there, and then all you have left is that jalapeno flavor.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is different than a bell pepper, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:We've actually had large poppers with Home Chef quite a few times.
Speaker 1:Those are poblanos, but yes.
Speaker 3:I agree. A little smokier Peppers with cheese and meat in them.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those ended up being really good.
Speaker 2:I've had those with you and those were really good. I had fun. I had fun it was a good time.
Speaker 1:It was a good time. The weather held out. The weather did hold out it only rained at night when we were sleeping. Yes, and we were able to get some hiking in.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we did another eight.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was pretty much it. That was the weekend of camping. Really yeah, that was it, I'm forgetting something. No, there was nothing else. There was nothing else to talk about. Did we go swimming? Nothing else that matters. No, we didn't go swimming.
Speaker 2:We did not go swimming. No, no, no.
Speaker 4:The lake. There was not a swimming lake. You couldn't swim from the shore, correct?
Speaker 1:There was a beach.
Speaker 4:They had a designated boating and swimming area.
Speaker 1:You could swim off your boat if you wanted to. There was no beach.
Speaker 4:No, there was no beach.
Speaker 1:There was sand. I called it mud. There was muddy sandy muddy that angled slowly into the water and it dropped right off. It did drop right off, yeah, okay. Maybe that's why they're swimming.
Speaker 4:So you can swim off your boat if you wanted to. Yeah, it's a designated swimming area. So yeah, it was a nice lake. It was a really nice lake.
Speaker 2:Where was the designated swimming area?
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Was it around the corner?
Speaker 4:Probably, yeah, probably, not far out.
Speaker 1:Just A little bit to the right. Well, we brought all our kayaks out there, right, yeah, we did.
Speaker 2:And fishing gear. Fishing gear For two of us.
Speaker 1:For two people's worth of fishing gear, Two rods go in one comes out. Yep, and then we.
Speaker 4:I think that's enough of that story. I mean, the lake was nice, the water was glass, weather was great.
Speaker 1:I thought it was awesome. So you know, eric and I we're not fishermen. So we just got in the kayaks and started like cruising around the lake, as you do, and yeah, so it was a good time.
Speaker 4:Good time was had by all. Was that your?
Speaker 2:first time kayaking period ever.
Speaker 4:Yes, have you kayaked before?
Speaker 3:It was my first I thought that yeah, I was surprised at the amount of blue heron that were flying around. So many blue heron.
Speaker 2:It was a beautiful lake so many. Beautiful lake, a lot of wildlife, a lot of grass around a lot. They actually planted fish to eat the grass.
Speaker 1:They planted fish to eat the stocked grass.
Speaker 4:Yes, they planted herbivore fish To eat the grass underwater because it's so grassy.
Speaker 1:Is it really called planted the?
Speaker 2:fish. They planted the fish. Yes, that's what it's called.
Speaker 4:Yeah, is it?
Speaker 1:It's called seeding usually I thought it was called seeding or stocking.
Speaker 4:Stocking. They stock the lake with fish. Same. Thing.
Speaker 1:Is it called? Leave us a comment below. What do you call it?
Speaker 3:I know it is planted. You stock the lake with fish. You stock the lake with fish.
Speaker 4:That's what I thought, yeah, they stock the lake with grass perch.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, with grass perch. It's a fish that's native to like Thailand A lot. But it can sustain itself off of eating grass. That's cool, so that just keeps. I mean, it's a grassy lake to begin with, and they just maintain.
Speaker 2:They're a lawnmower.
Speaker 4:They're a lawnmower.
Speaker 1:I like it. They're a donkey, they're a landscaper. That's what I meant.
Speaker 3:So if you're fishing and you catch one of those, fish, release it immediately. So even if you wanted to be mean you don't keep it.
Speaker 4:No, legally, you have to release it immediately. If you get caught with it, it's a big fine, yeah, a huge fine, oh cool, otherwise it's called poaching.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 4:Gotcha and not poaching in olive oil, it's poaching yourself in jail. Well, yeah, that was a good time. I'm really glad we did that, really glad we did that.
Speaker 2:Really glad we did that, are you?
Speaker 4:going to share. What am I sharing?
Speaker 1:So Eric and I we're just cruising the bank right and we got a little away from y'all, because y'all are fishing, casting and all that stuff and I don't want to get hooked because that's also called poaching.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:You have to release me immediately as well, right.
Speaker 4:If we can get you to stop writhing and yelling and screaming, that's right. I'm going to put a needle in your arm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're doing good. And I hear Melissa scream and I turn around quickly just in time for I'll let you take it.
Speaker 5:What happened was. I knew there was a story somewhere um, we fish with light tackle.
Speaker 4:We're not going out for big fish. We fish with relatively light tackle and this lake had small fish in it.
Speaker 4:It had bluegill and crappie and some larger bass and channel catfish, which can be really big and those fish don't know. Oh, he's not going after me, I just see food, I'm going to eat it. So a channel catfish caught my line and took my line. It threw me off balance in the kayak and I went ass over a tea kettle into the water. You did, I did. I balance in the kayak, yeah, and I went ass over tea kettle into the water.
Speaker 2:You did, I did, I'll tell you what Ass over tea kettle?
Speaker 4:I've never heard that one before, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I wasn't very far away. I saw the rock of the boat. I thought he was going to save it. I almost did, you almost did, but that fish was pulling me. Yes, I paddle over. And he says, will my oar float? And I said yes. He's trying to grab everything he's trying to grab everything as you're going in. Most people, if you've ever been kayaking on a lake or in a river or anything like that, if you're going over you want to try to grab your oar or whatever you know your fishing tackle, your phone.
Speaker 2:Yes. I said, yes, your oar will float, just like your life jacket's keeping you afloat. And he stopped, oh, he stopped trying to tread water and fighting it all. And he's like, oh, you're right, he actually told me that. Oh, you're right. He actually told me that, oh, you're right. And then I said, take a breath, what can I help you with? And he's like here and he comes up and he's got this huge box of tackle and I'm like, seriously, out of everything, you grabbed, you grab that. And so I took it. And then I'm like where's your phone? He's like it's in my pocket. I'm like, where's your phone? He's like it's in my pocket. I'm like, okay, at least we still have a phone.
Speaker 1:Who knows if it's waterlogged or not, but at least we have a phone and then he was trying to flip the boat over.
Speaker 2:These two came back over. It wasn't going to happen. There were some nice people that started kind of off with us on the bank and then were out. They paddled over and he made the suggestion for Vince to just swim with the boat over the kayak over to the shore, which was all of 15 feet or less.
Speaker 3:It wasn't that far.
Speaker 2:And he's like and it'd be easier to flip the boat, it'd be easier to get back in, so then I go back over there. No, you also had the backpack in your hand.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did have the backpack, so you had.
Speaker 2:Oh, we had the backpack too. So we had the fishing tackle in one hand and the backpack in another, and trying to fin for the oar.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that's why it was like well, the oar float. So we have a backpack like a hiking backpack full of tackle between the two of us. You chose to take it on your boat and you actually saved it.
Speaker 4:I strapped it down on the strap in the kayak.
Speaker 2:Yep, and so you handed me that and that thing was so heavy, it was so water, it's all drying right now that and that thing was so heavy. It was so water. It's all drying right now.
Speaker 4:The first thing I grabbed when I went over was my glasses.
Speaker 2:It was because you've been in this before.
Speaker 4:I've been in this before. So I grabbed my glasses worn off my face before I got my glasses on my face and then it was okay, what's going on?
Speaker 2:At any rate, we all got back in and all in all, I thought you lost your water bottle, but you actually had put it in the backpack I did, hence the reason why it was extra, extra heavy.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember you tried, so I went over there to you and I got your fishing pole.
Speaker 2:Yep. Melissa's fishing pole, the one that we so I could be hands-free and not fight around it.
Speaker 1:And then you asked me to take the book sack. Yep, and when I tried to take the backpack, I started tipping over, yeah, and we tried a few different ways to figure it out and it was like there's no way I'm gonna flip over if I grab this thing.
Speaker 2:it was so heavy so that's when I took it over at events and I'm like you hold it I pulled in straight I was on the shore at this point, yeah and we pulled in kind of nose to nose. I'm like here, you take this, I'm gonna back up and then come back in with my derriere in so you can strap it over that backside, because it's got ropes and stuff back there and that worked fine. But the only thing you lost let's tell everybody everything.
Speaker 4:I said two rods in her one leaves. So I did lose my rod and reel, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Phone was safe.
Speaker 4:Phone was in my pocket, safe. It actually worked.
Speaker 2:Phone was safe.
Speaker 4:Phone was in my pocket, safe. It actually worked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I did.
Speaker 4:It's funny, Oliver Tackle I plug it in last night and when I wake up this morning I didn't realize I didn't get a full charge. So I get in the truck to leave and I plug it in and it gives me the alert Water's found in your lightning port and blah, blah, blah. So I just left it unplugged. I had Yesterday, I was fine. But iPhones are water resistant up to three meters for half an hour I think it is. So just that quick dip in and out was not bad. I know that it's not guaranteed they don't guarantee anything if it gets wet but thus far it's working okay. Tomorrow, when Patrick calls me to chew me out about something, it may not work. Or when Kelly calls and says I need this truck sooner, it probably won't work.
Speaker 2:You got back in the boat.
Speaker 4:I got back in the boat I mean, the shore was very steep I get to the point where I can stand up and I'm thinking I'm still too low in the water to try and get them. I take one step back and I'm two feet higher than I was. I was very them. I take one step back and I'm two feet higher than I was.
Speaker 2:I was very steep.
Speaker 4:I'm at my shins, I'm like, oh, okay, it was a very steep bank and I was able to climb in and get back out there.
Speaker 2:And then we went and tooled around and had a great time.
Speaker 1:We were out there for a while.
Speaker 2:We were.
Speaker 1:Found a little island, we cruised around it was overcast, but warm.
Speaker 2:I didn't feel it was windy to where you had to take it Because I took a sweatshirt, but it wasn't windy where it's coming across that water. In fact it was glass, there was no waves or ripples, and it made it very nice to just tool around there was a point where I literally looked at you and was like this water is glass.
Speaker 1:There's nothing, it was insanely pretty. It would have been nice if the sun was out, but also we didn't melt.
Speaker 2:It was nice. No, you didn't feel like you needed to take a dip.
Speaker 1:Yes, correct, it was comfortable. Then, if the sun was out, I might have considered joining Vince. Not right there, I'd have gone to the swimming area, but still Was that over. I never found it. I don't know. Oh, I don't know either.
Speaker 2:I was thinking maybe the day park over by the bridge, the dam.
Speaker 4:Could be, but you had to swim off from your boat. You couldn't swim from the shore.
Speaker 2:Interesting rules. I've never been in a lake like that. We had fun.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was a good time Again.
Speaker 2:Sad to see that gods will give you back even more. So as soon as Vince gets a new fishing rod and reel, we're going to go fishing and hopefully he'll catch a big one.
Speaker 4:Tomorrow.
Speaker 2:There you go. I already found one, I want no.
Speaker 4:Dix has the rod on sale.
Speaker 2:Nice Tomorrow, nice Nice job.
Speaker 4:I can't wait. I did ask for permission first from Melissa, but it happens.
Speaker 2:I get it.
Speaker 4:It does happen.
Speaker 2:I get it. Wait until you take the child out and teach him the first time, and they cast.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And the whole poll keeps on going.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds like there's a mystery there.
Speaker 2:Typically you start with the smaller little princess and Shrek reels and rods and the whole all-in-one for $12. But no, that typically will happen. There were a few of those in our time. They don't understand that you still have to hold on, even though they watch you. It's just their little brains, aren't? Quite navigating all together.
Speaker 4:Working on coordination still.
Speaker 2:So anyway, there's a story. I'm sure we're not the first family.
Speaker 4:In all honesty, there wasn't a channel catfish that took my rod away from me. It just I don't know what I did, but I got all discombobulated. That's how it sounded too.
Speaker 1:It is kind of how it sounded yeah there wasn't much of a wake. It just kind of like went right in.
Speaker 4:I got a 9.9 from the Russian judge, I'd give you a 10 for what you saved in the end.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, you lost the rod and reel. You lose two points. Sorry, sorry, it's not me, it's the rule book.
Speaker 4:No, I get it. I mean I appreciate the 9.9 from the Russian judge to make up for some of that. Two points, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, they were going for style. You know it is great difficulty to dive off of a kayak sideways. It truly is.
Speaker 4:It truly is, and a little splash yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an art, Jerry's like. I know there's a story in here somewhere. That's the story.
Speaker 5:I was waiting for it. They're sticking to it.
Speaker 4:It was a good day. It was a good weekend. I thought it was funny in the notes Vince sleeps with the fishes. Is that what you?
Speaker 3:wrote oh swims, Swims with the fishes.
Speaker 4:I did make sure and put it in the appropriate way.
Speaker 1:Our Godfather fans will get that, but it was really cool. And then I tell you what it's. Workout too, man. You spend a couple hours on a kayak. Your upper body just oof.
Speaker 4:My wrists were hurting, not even the forearm was a risk area. They were hurting this morning from just twisting the paddle.
Speaker 1:Got a good workout on that.
Speaker 2:And the hike.
Speaker 1:And the hike, yeah, I think I had a lot of pretty things going we got back to the campsite and sat down and I got in that chair and I'm like, oh, I feel it now, like it took that long, because this is a weird part the campground is on the other end of the lake and it does not connect to any other part of the.
Speaker 2:You have to drive around to get to the marine. Yeah, you have to drive on your kayak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but not like drive on park roads. You have to go on like a highway to get there.
Speaker 2:You have to drive back through almost like town, but not town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're passing houses and the Dollar General and all this opposite sides. It is very strange that they're not connected yes, um, so that was weird and we had to use gps because there's no signage telling you how to get between you get to that last turn before yeah, the last turn.
Speaker 4:It says campgrounds five times before you get there.
Speaker 2:So it's weird exactly.
Speaker 1:It was a very odd situation, but so we got. So it took me that long from pulling the kayaks in and cleaning everything out and getting rid of all the water and vince's kayak for some reason the only one that had water in- it um and uh, you know, just getting everything back to up in order, and then literally back sat in that camp chair and I was like, oh, I feel like I just got back from the gym. Yeah, like, really, just like.
Speaker 1:Oh, I haven't felt this in a hot minute and then of course, that's when we did the steaks and the salmon and the shrimp for our it was a nice replenish.
Speaker 2:It was very nice.
Speaker 1:Very nice. It was an early night because we stayed there and then y'all got up the next morning and headed into work and yes.
Speaker 1:Eric and I had a little more to break down, but we were able to do that and be out. Break down, but we were able to do that and be out. I go there again. Oh, we too. Yeah, the one bad thing about the campground is the water and the sewer are not at their site, right, um. So you got to top off your uh water tanks when you get there and if they run out you have to break camp and go get more water and then come back.
Speaker 1:So that's a little bit aggravating, but if you know that going into it, you can plan, you can ration your water accordingly. Sure, no, it was a great place. It was fun. I was so glad that Don and Jerry were able to come down.
Speaker 2:It was a good conversation.
Speaker 1:It was. You know, it's so funny too, Not in work.
Speaker 2:It's weird how, when we get in those, we work. We work really hard to keep work-life balance.
Speaker 1:Yes, it doesn't always happen, but we try. It was funny too, because we were out of wood for the fire. So Eric and I ran up to the store and grabbed more wood and came back. They had a rule you couldn't scavenge for wood, which I hate, those campgrounds that do that. If you've got dead wood on the ground, let me get it and use it in the fire, otherwise you're just putting your woods at risk of fire. So, anyways, we went and got that and we came back and then had a conversation and everything. And then, once y'all left it might have been the next day we were talking about something and they were like, yeah, jerry told us this, and Jerry told us that. And I'm like when did y'all talk about all this? And it occurred to them oh, it was while Eric and I were out with the wood and y'all just had a great old conversation about stuff.
Speaker 4:And I was like we did he was a little hurt that I was we were supposed to sit in silence, so they got back.
Speaker 1:I think it was Melissa turned to look to me and was like, were we supposed to just sit here in silence? And I'm like I don't, but I missed out on apparently some great conversation. I got a little butt hurt.
Speaker 2:We talked about some vacations and other things. Yeah, it was great, it was a good time.
Speaker 1:I saw that we had a couple articles today to talk about. Sure Vince had nothing, but you did, Melissa.
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:And I've got something to mention Mine's quick and short and sweet. All right, let's have it.
Speaker 2:TA Express. Actually, ta opened three new truck stops this last month and one of them is an express, and it opened in Grambling Louisiana. I thought you might know where that's at. I do, did I say that right? Grambling Louisiana. I thought you might know where that's at.
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:Did I say that right, grambling?
Speaker 1:Close.
Speaker 2:Well, there's probably more of a draw, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 3:Say it a little more laid back.
Speaker 2:So TA announced the opening of this new store and it opened on May 29th. Amenities at the new TA Express include quick-serve restaurant Jimmy John's, which doesn't actually come until September. So don't think you're going to get yourself some Jimmy John's now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Six diesel fueling positions with diesel exhaust or DEF, hmm, 31 trucks, parking spaces, more coming, two private showers, laundry facilities and a dog park. I'm assuming this is a small little area.
Speaker 1:It's gotta be, it says it's an express. Yeah.
Speaker 2:How big is this little city?
Speaker 1:Tiny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds like it.
Speaker 1:There's a school there, that's it.
Speaker 2:Is it before you enter a major city?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:It's basically in the middle of nowhere in North Louisiana. It's along the highway though the interstate.
Speaker 2:They must have felt a need for 31 spaces and possibly more to come. It does say it's the third again of a TA location to open. This week the company opened truck stops in St Rose Louisiana.
Speaker 3:That's south.
Speaker 2:And Jonesboro, Arkansas. That's not in Louisiana, that's south and Jonesboro.
Speaker 1:Arkansas, that's not in Louisiana.
Speaker 2:That's opening up three. Give you some more spaces to park at.
Speaker 1:Well, it seems optimistic because TA's been on the struggle bus for how long now?
Speaker 2:And they didn't say renovated, they said new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you think about the whole deal with BP buying them and everything. We were all kind of curious what's going to go on with that this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you think about the whole deal with BP buying them and everything yeah.
Speaker 1:We were all kind of curious what's? Going to go on with that, and this is encouraging to see some improvement. We haven't heard much about that recently.
Speaker 4:We haven't.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's done or if it's still under review or what.
Speaker 2:Maybe they snuck it in under the radar.
Speaker 1:It could have. You know that was close to the time where JetBlue and Spirit were going to buy each other, so that maybe took bigger news, or whatever. It's definitely interesting. I'm curious how it did shake out, but still I don't like the TA Expresses when we were out riding. When I think of TA, I think of a full service truck stop. So when you show up and it is an Express, it's kind of disappointing, disappointing.
Speaker 1:At least yeah, so I definitely prefer the full-service TAs over them. And again, when I was driving years ago when we started, tas were nice. They were not worn down like they are now. They were really, really nice places to go and get showers and everything and they had huge driver's lounges and Country Pride was freaking licious.
Speaker 2:But they just didn't maintain that level of. They didn't keep the money pouring into maintaining Correct.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like they thought, well, if we build it nice, then we don't have to worry about it, and it's like, no, you still have to maintain.
Speaker 4:Well, I think some of that is they have a captive audience too. You know, you have drivers that have to go there for fuel Sure, and so Doesn't matter what it looks like, doesn't matter. They're going to use us anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't like that attitude.
Speaker 4:I don't either. Sorry, I really don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, it's just kind of how it used to be Sure, pet Petro's square tile showers and stuff. They were known as the nice truck stops and they weren't ever really that great because by this point Love's started doing their really nice places and Flying J and Pilot had some really nice stores. As an industry, the truck stops are getting nicer period because they have to which I think is cool.
Speaker 2:What's this store in Castaic?
Speaker 1:Pilot.
Speaker 2:I actually like their showers.
Speaker 4:Which one the Pilot in Castaic? The whole area is a little. Are you thinking further north? No, the bigger one, no, no, yeah, there's a Pilot down there. Yeah, castaic, the whole area is a little ready and it's always so busy.
Speaker 2:Most of it's reserved parking. I think it's like the first place you can kind of stop. They did put the new one in up on the hill or whatever.
Speaker 4:Right, but you're right, it is the first place, as you're leaving LA on I-5.
Speaker 2:Or entering, yeah, or the last place entering yeah, it's right there outside of Santa Clarita, kind of thing. But anyway, I always thought their bathrooms were nice just because we typically use loves, and that was that anomaly when we would go west that we would use their showers, and I just always thought that their showers presented so much better than the exterior. Their store was pretty decent too. They had a nice deli case of some sort and all the hot chickens and whatever. The store was nice yeah.
Speaker 4:The outside was a hot mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is this the one where, like half the yard is gravel?
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's huge and a big, huge power tower sits right on the backside, back by the pumps.
Speaker 1:And it's like 200 trucks could park there. No, no.
Speaker 4:What's the one I'm thinking of? The backyard wasn't gravel, it was all paved.
Speaker 2:Oh paved.
Speaker 1:Which one I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2:But their landscape is gravel because it's California, of course.
Speaker 4:Are you thinking the one up in Lebec, just north on I-5? Might be.
Speaker 1:Oh, that one's huge. That was older when it's huge.
Speaker 4:They've remodeled it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Completely replaced the store, so I guess sorry.
Speaker 2:That's okay.
Speaker 4:We rebuilt the store completely. The Denny's there is no longer there.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been a few years now, I mean since you went off the road, of course. But yeah, it's a huge truck stop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, huge truck stop. The one in Ontario is still there.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, both of them are there in Ontario still.
Speaker 2:We never used their bathroom, their showers. I don't think we ever used their showers. No, I don't think we did.
Speaker 4:We were typically in and out, though If we were there, we were staying at our parents' house or using their shower.
Speaker 1:They're 20 minutes away from that I spent many, many, many nights at the Ontario right out front, and I remember their laundry room is massive.
Speaker 2:Is it maintained? It doesn't look it on the outside. Anytime we would be there, I would say no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was always a few broken machines, but when you've got 60 machines or whatever, because again it's huge- yeah, but whenever you open up the machine and there's a big old dog inside, Ew, ew.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they don't clean it. How about the?
Speaker 2:showers.
Speaker 5:No, oh, I don't remember them either.
Speaker 2:Don't touch anything. Wear your shower shoes for sure.
Speaker 5:It got to the point to the end of our time out on the road. It got to the point to where we would deliver in LA area or whatever, and we would automatically drive to Barstow, barstow, barstow Wow, we would not even go there. I mean paying the $25 a day to park and nasty facilities. Well, see, that's all different.
Speaker 1:That came after me because back when Eric and I were driving, you could park out front for free.
Speaker 1:I remember the truck stop being cleaner, riffraffed a little bit because of where you're at, but still reasonably nice. I can't remember the showers at all, but I know we used them because LA I've told a lot of people this before when Eric and I used to drive on the weekends, if we were going to be down for two or three days, we always had a deal we were either going to get a rental car or a hotel. We're not going to get both, and Los Angeles is a place that we'd get a rental car because there's so much to do and drive around and see that I'll sleep in my truck just to be able to explore. Right, we would. We'd stay at that petro out in the front with all the other fedex trucks and panther trucks and whatever, and so I know we showered there. I know I remember doing laundry there a few times, but I don't recall much more on the inside. I know they had a rental car place in there as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:It is interesting, but we never used them. Very old cars yeah, enterprise was really close to there, sure, so we'd go there.
Speaker 2:They opened up the new one. Where is that? Up by Palmdale, that new one's kind of out in the desert Between Barstow, the new loves, between.
Speaker 4:Barstow, the new loves between Barstow and oh and Boron. Boron, that's a nice one. It's out in the middle of nowhere. If you're passing through there across 58, you're coming across I-40 and going to Bakersfield or the Bay Area or north, then yeah, it's a perfect place to stop in there because it's out in the middle of nowhere but it's aligned perfectly on US 58. Well, that's kind of like that, or is it California 58? I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's kind of like that giant Petra there by Gilroy. Isn't there a giant Petra there, TA Gilroy.
Speaker 2:The garlic capital of the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's on the interstate. You have to right by the reservoir and then you have to cross over the mountain, basically to get right.
Speaker 4:Oh, you're thinking on the other side. On the other side, yeah, on I-5. Where there's a giant petro, there's a loves there, yeah.
Speaker 2:Isn't that in Santa Maria?
Speaker 4:Kettleman, kettleman.
Speaker 2:Is that?
Speaker 4:where the no Kettleman's further south? Oh yeah, santanella.
Speaker 2:Green Pea Soup.
Speaker 4:Santanella was where Anderson's Split Pea Soup is Okay. It's in Santanella, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because I remember we stayed there once. We had a long weekend and we ended up driving into whatever that town was right there, not over the hill, but right next to it.
Speaker 2:Okay, Got an.
Speaker 1:Enterprise rental car there and then dropped the truck off at the Petro and then we went into the city. Yeah, how fun. It was about two and a half hours something like that. Yeah, and had a great time. It was the first time in San Francisco and it was nice to do it in a car, not a truck.
Speaker 3:Yeah of course.
Speaker 1:Be able to hang out and drive down Lombard Street, you know what I mean, just all that stuff Go over the bridge. We went over to. Yeah, be tourists. We went over and did the Alcatraz. No, what are the trees north of the bridge? Oh, the Redwoods. There's a park there. Giant Redwoods yeah they're giant Redwoods, but there's a park there. I can't think of any other park. But do that and then, of course, doing. One of my favorite city parks of all time is Golden Gate.
Speaker 3:Park. I love Golden Gate Park. It's a beautiful park.
Speaker 1:So being able to walk that and just spend hours there and just had so much fun, Boy.
Speaker 2:that brings me way back.
Speaker 5:Like way back. I remember those days of exploring, you know, feeling like a tourist or gotta do the same thing. Yeah, we parked at the truck stop and got a car. We would spent three days in san francisco, did the whole tourist thing. What truck stop just yet, though I think it was that area that you're talking about yeah, because it's not that far you're. You're within a couple hour drive, you know traffic and everything to the city and there's a few options too, like up by sac. There's a couple truck stops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 49ers Places there. You can drive in the city from there and then north of there there's some more truck stops. So I mean there's options to get in. There's not like options not good options to use the subway to get in, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:No, there are not. It's one city we didn't explore. We did do. I think two pickups I can think of that were a lot of fun and it felt like you were exploring, but definitely nothing like getting out of the truck and going and you know fresh fish, but it definitely took you down a little. Yeah, san Francisco's a fun city. That would have been fun.
Speaker 1:It's a fun city. It's a busy city. It's an expensive city. I think a lot of people have the Family Matters ideology of or the Mrs Doubtfire view of San Francisco. You get out there, you find out it's not that, but it is still a really cool city I enjoy. Oh hello.
Speaker 5:We went to where they filmed.
Speaker 2:Did you?
Speaker 5:We did a boat ride and went out to Alcatraz.
Speaker 1:Did you walk Alcatraz?
Speaker 5:No, we just did a boat ride. They take you by it, they circled it and then they take you under the Golden Gate Bridge and turn around and go back.
Speaker 1:Don didn't get sick?
Speaker 5:No, he didn't. I've got pictures of us on the boat and everything.
Speaker 1:See, there's all these great joys of driving. I just you know you got to find the beauty in the work you really do. Yeah, you really do.
Speaker 2:What was your article about?
Speaker 1:This was interesting. It's business side of things, and so those of you that know trucks, you've basically got three big companies right. We've got Daimler, which owns Western Star and Freightliner and Detroit Diesel. Then you've got PACCAR, which owns Kenworth, peterbilt, daf, which is big in Europe, paccar Engines. And let me back up, daimler also owns Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Europe, daimler PACCAR. And then you've got Volvo, the Volvo group. Volvo owns Volvo. They own Mac. Of course. They build their own engines and transmissions. They brand them Volvo and Mac. They don't have a lot of separate companies. They're pretty tight on what they do.
Speaker 2:If I wasn't aware, like if I was trying to educate myself. How is Paccar spelt? Because I hear you saying it one way, but I, honestly, I've heard you always talk about them in your presence, but if I was going to go Google, it would be very.
Speaker 4:P-A-C-C-A-R.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's definitely not how I would spell it. Thank you, I'm sorry. Yeah, okay, the others make sense.
Speaker 1:Sure, and, like I said, volvo Group.
Speaker 1:Well, daimler, freightliner Western Star, daf I'm sorry Freightliner Western Star, mercedes-benz, in every country, but America, detroit Diesel and Volvo Group, volvo, mac and Volvos all over the world are teaming up to form a partnership for to establish all of those all over the world are teaming up to form a partnership to develop a common software operating system for future commercial vehicles to make everything standardized.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because you've got two companies and they're going to be 50-50 in this. They're massive companies, they are fierce competitors. They all have literature about why their product is better than the other person's product like very serious cutthroat. They're not friendly at all and here they are working together to build this new software platform operating system that all these trucks within the two OPCOs can work on simultaneously. The article says that they are working together to provide differentiating digital vehicle features for its products, enhancing customer efficiency and experience, and they want to set the standard, the industry standard, for a truck operating system to offer to other OEMs as well. And they do actually say 50-50 joint venture and potentially other partners to be involved. So this may end up being something that a pack car or someone else that's smaller jumps in.
Speaker 4:I think what that looks like too is if you're building an operating system that can work in a Volvo or a Freightliner, if your partners the guy who makes the widget, if he can write software or his firmware to just that one software package and it works on both trucks, great, because then his costs go down of not having to engineer the part to work in different operating systems. If it works one part he can develop that works in both trucks or one package. I mean it doesn't have to be a part necessarily, but one thing that works on both, then great. It cuts his cost. It cuts um dimer's cost and volvo's costs are working together. They're hopefully sharing that um, that brain trust that they both have of engineers and software developers. You know it sounds like a great know.
Speaker 5:It sounds like a great hopefully.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it sounds like a great plan.
Speaker 5:I think it sounds great. All I can think about is Windows you have one software that goes on tons of hardware. There's nothing but clashes and problems.
Speaker 4:Because, yeah, I get that. There is good news here, though, is that both of these companies Daimler and Volvo in 2020 established another joint venture to develop hydrogen fuel cells, and that looks to be I mean, we don't see a whole lot about hydrogen fuel cells, but the joint venture name, select Cell Centric, includes operations in Germany and the headquarters of Mercedes fuel cell with production facilities in Germany, and the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Wielse with production facilities in Germany and Canada, so it looks like it's worked at some point with the two of them. Hopefully they can get it together and it'll work again as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so, like a lot of times, people think what is the purpose of having, like, what do you mean? You have one operating system.
Speaker 1:I think people are curious about that too, you were talking about those parts and pieces, right? I? Uh. So eaton fuller is a big transmission maker. They're probably the largest transmission maker on the planet right now.
Speaker 1:Allison might come close, but eaton's overall, their portfolio of products and services is bigger, um, so if they make a transmission the new Eaton-Fuller automatic 629, they have to make a Volvo version of it, they have to make a Mack version of it, they have to make a Freightliner version of it, they have to make a Cummins version of it, they have to make a PACCAR version of it. They got to make a Western star version of it, sure, and so, even though it's one basic transmission, all that stuff has to be added in there so it knows when to shift and it knows when to decelerate or when to uh, use a, um, any kind of braking system for the engine and lock up in certain ways. So it really does add cost and complexity. It also hurts the supply chain because if Eaton builds, you know, 10,000 or 9,000 transmissions, 3,000 go to Freightliner, 3,000, or Daimler, 3,000 go to Volvo, 3,000 go to Mac right or Volvo Group, you know Paccar tears their 3,000 to go to Volvo, 3,000 to go to Mac right.
Speaker 1:Our Volvo group, you know, pat Carr tears to their 3,000. And Volvo's like well, you don't really need but 1,000. We don't need 3,000. We thought we did, but we don't really need them. Well tough those transmissions are built.
Speaker 1:They have that processing power on them, you can't do anything with them. Same with Freightliner you're kind of stuck with what you got. If you have an operating system where they all speak the same language, well, now all of a sudden you're buying one transmission. That's good for anything, right. And if Eaton needs to rebalance its inventory because, hey, these people aren't taking as many as we thought they were, their projections were off, that's fine, I can resource and put them somewhere else. Cummins same thing. Cummins puts engines in all those brands and they could easily if they had one computer to talk to. That would simplify things. And now, with all the new emissions stuff coming out, there's a lot of people that make emissions. Components are bailing. They're like yeah, we're good, we're not doing this anymore.
Speaker 1:It just becomes that much more important for the existing ones to talk to each other and be able to agree. So I do agree with you where the Windows thing is. You know there's clashes all over the place. I do think on something like this they could build it to where there won't be clashes because it is so much smaller of a group and they're so much more tight-knit.
Speaker 4:I think the difference in the Windows analogy is Windows is a third party all its own and they weren't building pcs when they built windows.
Speaker 4:They were writing to what was available. And then when you bring in the compacts and the ibms and the hewlett packards and the dells and all those manufacturers and they have their own software, they want to add to it, and then you're bringing in hardware that is designed to a spec but may not work with dell or you know the other manufacturers out there. That's where you had the conflicts with windows. I think this is the reverse of that, where you have the manufacturers coming together to work on this versus telling a third party hey, try and get this done. The manufacturers know how their hardware works and and what needs to tie in to make that stuff happen properly, and they're working together to say, okay, yeah, we're competitors, we sell the same product to the same people sometimes, but if we can write this software where it works in our trucks and your trucks, we're all better off that way. So it's a little reverse of what the Windows thing was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again, the trucks are getting more digital. Yeah, right. Oh yeah, that was one of the things that shocked me when Eric and I started driving is how, even on a modern truck at that time, it was still very analog. The digital screen on the dash was smaller than an iPhone screen screen. But if you get a car, even a you know, a more inexpensive car, it's still mostly a huge digital screen in the middle of it. Um, the radio was that rectangular two din radio that we've had since the 60s.
Speaker 1:Um, there's no big screen there. Yada, yada it. It like everything was very, very old school. And these trucks are changing. Now they are becoming digital. They're they're getting the side view cameras when you flip your your blinker.
Speaker 1:But if you do that you gotta have a screen. So now they're putting screens in the dash. Well, if we got a screen in the dash, we might as well give it functionality. Let's get a truck gps you can download to it. Let's get um potential for hours of service integration, things like that in the dash. Uh, apple carplay let's get uh. Then there's actual um, you know, your, your, your uh screen with your speedometer and your tachometer and all that stuff. They're moving all that starting to be more and more digital to where you can now buy a fully digital panel, you don't? There's zero analog gauges, um. So I mean, like, as all that stuff creeps forward, having a uniform language to speak sure, I think, will make it easier for them to get parts and pieces and supplies to repair people yeah your mechanics oh
Speaker 4:yeah, possibly that's a kind of a different right to repair issue. Yeah, actually the next I happen to scroll up, the next article talks about that. We that's not on our list. We'll discuss that another week, is it? Both companies provide their own end user applications on top of the platform. So having this, this jointly designed platform, doesn't mean that all the trucks are going to their displays are going to look the same. The displays can look differently and have different functionality, but that underlying software will be the same.
Speaker 1:Well, and a good example of that, too, is if you fly like I fly a lot and you've been in an airplane, in the back of the seat in front of you there's a television screen and you can watch it and enjoy it. And if you're on Delta United American, they have different content, it looks different, it's all different. Right? All of those systems, every single one of them, is running on an Android. Is it Android based? I think it's Android based.
Speaker 1:I would assume, I've seen it before. I think it is Android based platform, so they all speak Android. I think it's Android-based. I would assume I've seen it before. I think it is Android-based platform, so they all speak Android. And then all the developer had to do is cater it to Delta, or cater it to American, or cater it to United, or cater it to Emirates or whoever else. All of them are using the same platform. I was going to say it's either Google, it is Google, which is Android.
Speaker 4:Yeah which is android? Yeah, android's free. Yeah, you can download android yourself and and put your own skin on top of it yep it's, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:So that's the kind of language they want to come up with. Is they want to get an operating system where they can do that, as, as the end users, we won't really know it, because we're seeing the Volvo product or the Freightliner product Makes sense. But in the background it's just operating that operating system so it speaks to each other.
Speaker 2:Which company do you think reached out to the other to? Like you said, they're so competitive who did what for an olive branch here? And let's come together and see what we can do together. And now they're so competitive who did what for an olive branch here? And let's come together and see what we can do together.
Speaker 4:And now they're working together. It feels like this may have grown out of their fuel cell venture, that that works so well together. So it's like they probably went back before that, to where they decided to come together and work on this joint fuel cell venture and then at some point in those conversations it was, hey, why don't we do this? But that's a good question.
Speaker 1:That's a good question. When you think about fuel cell, there's so much technology that has to back that up. I could see this being something where it's like, okay, well, on the Volvo side we're doing this, on the Daimler side we're doing this. You know, one speaking Swedish, one speaking German, and they're like, well, if only we could figure a way to make it all the same, find a common language to speak. Yeah, I, I just think it would.
Speaker 1:I, I don't know who extended the olive branch, yeah, but I can absolutely see it coming out of that partnership, sure, and potentially even more down the road. You know, um, as we become more competitive, we also become more connected, sure, so it's sometimes I always.
Speaker 2:Could it be an outside source reaching out to both of them saying let's do this together, or is it more the two of them? You think Again. I know you don't know, but just some food for thought maybe.
Speaker 1:I don't know if something this big, if an outside source would do it, unless it was an outside consulting group, maybe, yeah, possibly that suggested it. But I mean they're saying it's a 50-50 partnership.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 4:The outside group would have to have some body.
Speaker 1:That would make sense, good deal Unless the outside group would be hoping to supply the infrastructural backbone or something Could be Cool story.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Again, you've got two ginormous companies saying we need to work on this together. It's fascinating. I really do love it. I don't know, going back to that, what is Volvo and Mercedes-Benz doing? Because if they're working together, then I could see that trickling down to the heavy duty side of things. Right, because Mercedes-Benz cars recently broke apart, but they have for a long time been. It's been Daimler-Benz, right, so they've all been one big company. And, like I said, even in Europe if you see a Mercedes-Benz commercial truck, it's a Daimler truck. It's not even technically a Mercedes-Benz truck. Just like here in America at a Mercedes-Benz dealership you'll see a Mercedes Sprinter van. It's built and made by Daimler trucks. It's not made by Mercedes-Benz, but it's still branded under Mercedes-Benz.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:It's a cool, I don't know. I love the big business side of things is always interesting to me. Why do people choose what they do? I think there'll be some cool things coming out of that. Very cool. I think we need to talk about a couple. Things real quick Sure, some housekeeping. This is the last episode of the podcast. Things real quick sure, some housekeeping. This is the last episode of the podcast or of the of the. I really gotta stop saying that. This is the last episode of the outer belt for about two months roughly for this season?
Speaker 1:yes, for this season. We'll be back with y'all in a couple months. Um, traveling schedules, summer scheduling, it's just all over the place and we just realized we can't make a schedule that works. Sadly, we are going to stamp the end of it and Outer Belt Season 2 will be over and we'll be back in the fall with Outer Belt Season 3. Really looking forward to that. In the meantime, as you run into people and you see them, feel free to share our content, just because we're not putting anything out right now doesn't mean they won't appreciate what we had before.
Speaker 2:I'd love to come back with a whole host of topics to talk about.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I was so scared you were going to say to a whole new set design.
Speaker 2:I'd be like I can't do it. I can't do it again.
Speaker 1:I finally have found the set I like, I might consider changing our two chairs Not crazy about the ones that we're in.
Speaker 4:I think these are better than the ones we started the season in, absolutely those. After a half hour I'm like, okay, can we be done now? Yes, it was brutal.
Speaker 1:But these are a little more comfortable. You are correct about that.
Speaker 4:I'm going to talk to Jerry about the lighting in here and maybe we can do some changes with the lighting A little brighter Possibly camera angles and stuff. There will be more behind-the-scenes Jerry fixing stuff than the rest of us.
Speaker 2:I'm good with that Got ideas.
Speaker 4:No, I have none.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't have any ideas?
Speaker 4:None whatsoever. I think it looks good.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's hysterical. So it's that time of the episode. It's that time again. Keep going, all right, so.
Speaker 2:I thought you had more lyrics. I did. I couldn't think of it. It just come to me Zipped yeah.
Speaker 1:I hate when that happens. You ever start talking and you don't know what you're going to say. You're just hoping it comes to you. Yeah, as you talk, talk and then you're like I don't, this isn't working. Yeah, well, it is that time we have made it to patrick's weight loss. Uh, final challenge, season two of the outer belt podcast. We're going to talk about the final weigh-in, but first we have to acknowledge our sponsor of today's event and by that I mean the non-sponsor, the non-sponsor, the one that we don't get any money for.
Speaker 1:But first we have to acknowledge our sponsor of today's event, and by that I mean the non-sponsor, the non-sponsor, the one that we don't get any money from, optavia, and today's fueling is going to be the Optavia Chewy Chocolate Chip Mix. So what this is, this is a chewy chocolate chip mix. It makes a chewy chocolate chip mix. It makes a chewy chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 1:Oh, um, and I, I don't have the white square little but it would be like a piece of paper, like that so you just pour this in there, you add a couple things of water, stir, stir, stir, throw it in the microwave and boom, bob's your uncle, you got a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. If you do what I do, I add a little bit more water than what it calls for and I don't quite microwave it as long as they say that way I got a gooey, ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're really into insanity, mix it up as they say. They're really an insanity. Mix it up as they say Stick it in the fridge, get it cold and then eat the cold chocolate chip cookie dough. Ooh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So those are my little hacks. Could you have one of those for your birthday, and it counts as a cookie cake Cookie cake.
Speaker 1:Ooh, you could. It's a good idea actually. Yeah, because this is kind of cakey here put a candle in it, celebrate yes, but that's already come and gone, so maybe next year, okay. Um, you can also bake these in the oven. They do come out better baked in the oven than microwaved, I will say that. But it takes 10 to 12 minutes and you got an oven and you know. It's just effort. Did you ever get?
Speaker 2:these yes, I think, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I think they were out during the time that we did it. Really good one Again. It's full of all the healthy stuff. It's nutritionally similar to all the other fuelings. You can have five of these a day if you wanted, obviously being a cookie, especially one that's baked. I typically would have this at night as a later night snack before I go to bed, Because this Playbill plane you literally eat as soon as you get up, every two and a half hours, and so by the time you're getting late night you still have an extra feeling usually, and that's where I'd use this baby, for it's a really nice.
Speaker 1:you still have an extra feeling usually, and that's where I'd use this baby for Nice. That's a really nice. You know. Watch a little TV right before you go to bed. A little cookie Cannot go wrong.
Speaker 1:So that's the last one of the season and the actual weigh-in, this not this morning. I didn't get to weigh in this morning, but I did get to weigh in before the show, so summer's a little off, but I think it means it's a little off in a good way, right? It means I put a little weight on, so this could be a little high, could be, high, but it is 265.1 pounds.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:What was last week 266? Something like that.
Speaker 1:So, it's about a pound lower, about a pound lower, and I I'm actually really happy with that, especially considering what you don't know as a recording audience is last week we recorded late in the week, yep, and this week we're recording early in the week, so it's actually quite a bit less time, a couple less days, than I normally have. Yeah, yeah, I'm starting to notice not just the weight, but I'm starting to notice a lot of my shirts are baggy. A lot of my clothes are just kind of look like they're dripping off me and I'm like yes, let's keep doing it.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to go one size smaller shirt, and it makes me like fat all over again.
Speaker 2:Like we're just going to what NSVs Non-scale victories.
Speaker 1:Oh, non-scale, I was like is that a new crypto?
Speaker 2:No, it's a card NSVs non-scale victories. Yes, yes, they do make you feel?
Speaker 1:good, they do.
Speaker 4:You know what we should do next season. We should have a board with a running total and every time you go to this, we go to the board and see where your weight is on that board.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea.
Speaker 4:We could do it as a set of signs. It was rolled down when it came to the Patrick's Wave.
Speaker 2:Rolled down. Do y'all remember what I started with?
Speaker 4:290-something.
Speaker 1:I don't remember what was it for the first episode.
Speaker 5:Off the top of my head. I don't know. I know it was up there, it was. I was thinking like 280.
Speaker 2:I think you were encroaching the 300s.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that's what got you on the bandwagon. I do remember that conversation. So something high 295.4.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't that crazy. So I am down 30.3 pounds. Yeah, that's a good season two kickoff.
Speaker 4:That's a great season two kickoff and finale, finale, yeah, kickoffs, we should have left it a cliffhanger.
Speaker 1:I'm not comfortable with all that, but we should have left it a cliffhanger.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we should have left it a cliffhanger, a cliffhanger, and so my way is.
Speaker 1:I would never do that to my viewers.
Speaker 2:Or your viewers.
Speaker 1:Our viewers the viewers the viewing my viewers or your viewers.
Speaker 2:Our viewers.
Speaker 1:Our viewers, the viewers, the viewers, the viewing populace, or the listeners, or the listeners.
Speaker 2:Subscribers.
Speaker 1:The subscribers, the true heroes Right, and let's not forget the likers.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 4:You know what we should have done? Put it on our Patreon page for our Patreon viewers and listeners. We should Side-by-side photo. A month and a half later, we could post it to the regular subscribers on YouTube.
Speaker 1:You have to say it like that.
Speaker 4:I know you don't have to, but it helps.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be pretty cool to do a side-by-side, even if you're just sitting in the chair.
Speaker 1:I can tell you right now when I looked at the video earlier because I couldn't remember what the number one was. Oof. Yeah, it's obvious. Are you feeling better? I feel so much better.
Speaker 2:Energy levels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they suck, but I don't know. I mean, you've got to remember I'm still a fat person. I'm not a fat person. You gotta remember. I'm still a large person and I still have a long way to go in a short time to get there in a short time to get there. Watch old man didn't run, so um, like I still need to lose, like really 40 pounds before I know like I could take a heartburn pill every morning yeah I know my body because I, because I've been large and I've been smaller not really small, but smaller when I get to about 225 pounds, the heartburn just disappears.
Speaker 1:It just disappears. So I know I need to get at least down there so I can stop taking that heartburn medicine.
Speaker 2:And I got a long way to go. Well, congratulations on 30. Don't discredit that.
Speaker 5:I'm proud of what you've done. Yes, me too, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I've gotten rid of a couple decent Thanksgiving turkeys. It's a small child.
Speaker 5:It's no easy feat. No it is not yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to keep seeing how hard I can go. Hopefully we start up season three. I'm not like well got it all back.
Speaker 4:Hey guys. 295.4. Yeah, got it all back.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, 295.4. Yeah, no, no, don't say that I have faith.
Speaker 1:Oh well, I'll try. We'll see Until next time. It's going to be a minute. We miss you. We will keep you all in our thoughts. We'll still. If we get pictures or anything or do anything fun, we may throw them out on the Insta or Facebook, but we appreciate y'all hanging out with us over the last few months. Can't wait for season three, very excited about what the future holds. Yeah, uh, you know the routine. Like subscribe, hit every button in front of you. If you want to reach out to us at the outer belt podcast at gmailcom, please do that. We read all the suggestions again. We're ramping up for season three, so we'd love to have all those suggestions, comments, feedback, um recipe request. All of it.
Speaker 4:Until next time, stay safe, make decisions enjoy your summers, be safe and don't leave money on the table. Thank you, those wills eternal.
Speaker 3:Bye. Be safe and don't leave money on the table and keep those wheels turning.
Speaker 2:Bye you.