The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Coffee Clashes and the Road to New Rides | Special Guests Eric & Kayla
Coffee expectations clash and name pronunciations take center stage in this fun episode of the Outer Belt. Our special guests, Eric and Kayla Bendner, add a dash of Swedish-German flavor to the conversation, as we share laughs about holiday traditions and the peculiar phenomenon of Spirit Halloween stores popping up in vacant spaces. With the holiday spirit in the air, we explore Eric's exciting new role at Hyfield and the comical challenges of navigating workplace communication with common names.
Join us on a thrilling ride as Eric reacquaints himself with the ever-evolving world of truck equipment after two years off the road. We dive into the intricacies of troubleshooting APUs, TCUs, and the generational shifts in equipment technology. Kayla shares her excitement and a touch of apprehension about new systems, highlighting the importance of teamwork and communication. The episode revs up as we switch gears to motorcycles, sharing personal anecdotes about choosing the right bike and the camaraderie of group rides, with plans for future adventures on two wheels.
Our journey doesn't stop there! Motorcycle enthusiasts will love our exploration of the decision-making process behind selecting the perfect ride. From the surprise choice of a Kawasaki Vulcan S to the thrill of mountain riding with a new Kawasaki bike, we capture the joy and challenges of long-distance rides. We wrap up with a heartwarming note on personal milestones, including an eagerly awaited addition to the family, blending humor and heartfelt reflections in a lively discussion that promises to keep you engaged from start to finish.
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Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
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Hey, he brought coffee. Hey, not. Both of us can be perfect.
Speaker 2:Did he no, what he didn't bring coffee.
Speaker 3:He didn't bring coffee.
Speaker 1:I thought that was a requirement. That was a requirement. He didn't bring coffee. You even said you were going to text it to him. Nobody gave me the memo.
Speaker 4:Oh, I sent you the memo. I don't think so here, let me get my phone, I'll find it.
Speaker 6:Hey everybody, Welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you all know my friends Chili, Buttermilk.
Speaker 7:Eric Jerry.
Speaker 6:And tonight we have a couple special guests. For the first half of the show we have my good friends Mr Eric and Mrs Kayla.
Speaker 5:I think you missed the hint Nailed it.
Speaker 4:You did Eric and Mrs Kayla Bender. I think you missed the N. Nailed it, you did. You nailed it.
Speaker 6:Say it correctly Nailed it. How do you say it again, because I always screw it up?
Speaker 2:We just say Bender, but technically you're supposed to say Bender.
Speaker 4:Bender, yes, I think it's Swedish, german, german, swedish-german.
Speaker 5:Swedish-German Swedish-German. Yeah, it's that hybrid. I am a Swedish-German, you are a.
Speaker 6:Swedish-German.
Speaker 3:You know he can't get Cheshire right either, and I love the way he says it. How do I say it? Cheshire right?
Speaker 6:No, what Is it not right?
Speaker 3:It's only because I said it.
Speaker 6:I'll have to. How you say it, you do like Cheshire.
Speaker 3:Cheshire, it's not Chesh.
Speaker 6:Cheshire.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Cheshire Farms? No, it's not. They make really good the sausages, the summer sausage, the summer sausage and the cheese and the pasteurized cheese product. It's coming up on holiday time.
Speaker 4:They're going to be having a little. It is coming up on holiday time and Spirit Halloween.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 6:Yes, and we got a brand new Bed Bath Beyond. They could move into.
Speaker 8:Recently vacated. Plenty of space, plenty of space, plenty of space. They got some big lots to take over too.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they do. Oh, that's sad. We didn't talk about that. It's going to be a world full of Spirit. Halloween there's going to be so much Spirit, so much Spirit.
Speaker 7:We right around the corner from our house.
Speaker 6:What's it in? What was it? I have no idea what it was before. It's Tiffany lamps over boots. That's funny. Well, welcome to the show everybody. We are so happy to have you all here and I appreciate you for letting me twist your arm to be a part of the fun circus, the morning show circus, right.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 6:First and foremost, I believe we should congratulate Mr Eric.
Speaker 1:As we announced on the show last week, he is Highfield's latest addition.
Speaker 3:I've had to be careful with Eric's now that I've added him to a couple things. Yeah, because I email him more in my job duties, but I have to make sure it's the right Eric with no b.
Speaker 4:I had to email them both today.
Speaker 3:But then also Mel has changed hers and I've had to make sure the right Mel's had it.
Speaker 6:You're emailing yourself.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 6:That's what it says.
Speaker 3:I know Mel Lee so Vince's associate in the ops department. Yes, Mel Lee, Melissa.
Speaker 2:She's got at least three emails from me that should have been yours. It's chaotic.
Speaker 3:It's the duplicate names. You just have to be very intentional, very conscious, very aware. It's the duplicate names.
Speaker 2:You just have to be very making sure Intentional.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have to be very conscious, very aware of who you're sending. Not that it doesn't matter, Obviously, if it's not meant for you. Hopefully somebody would say you sent this to the wrong person, what's this about? So you can then maybe resend the email to the correct person.
Speaker 6:Eric's like why do I have a loves receipt for an oil change and they're asking for a money code?
Speaker 1:And then we realize it's not that Eric, it's that Eric. Maybe we should e-bender.
Speaker 6:Well, maybe so for those of you that don't know, kayla Eric's wife is also on the show. Say hi, kayla.
Speaker 3:Hello.
Speaker 6:It was for them to say hi to you. But we get it and she is our Panther Fleet support. I forget, because we've been doing it so long now. It's years, years, Years, years. Have y'all been on the show before? I thought y'all had.
Speaker 2:I have.
Speaker 6:You have.
Speaker 2:I don't think Eric has.
Speaker 1:I don't think I have, I've been interviewed by you guys before and somebody else, but I don't think I've ever been on a podcast that was so long ago.
Speaker 6:So many interviews.
Speaker 4:We interviewed them out in California at Castaic.
Speaker 3:I don't think you ever produced that.
Speaker 4:I didn't, it was weird and I never found a way to put it together. Thanks, you're welcome, wow.
Speaker 1:What a way we did a good job.
Speaker 3:I still have the footage, I can probably still put it out, give it to Jerry, he can figure it out.
Speaker 4:Jerry will figure it out.
Speaker 3:We had two different cameras going. Oh okay, it was something new for us.
Speaker 6:No, jerry can do it. I mean the good thing about. Jerry is he does it with six cameras here, yeah, not only that, he doesn't have a lot going on, so it's not a big deal for him.
Speaker 7:He's.
Speaker 6:Ah, luke Shire circa 2008.
Speaker 3:Maybe not that far back, but it feels like it.
Speaker 6:How do you like it so far? So catch the audience up. Vince real quick what has been going on? Because, as I understand it, even though you don't work in the same department, you've been working very closely with this man for a little while. So catch us up on what's been going on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so after we talked last time and Eric didn't- bring me coffee. I still haven't got coffee from Eric, so I am that close to recommending that we.
Speaker 6:Tomorrow you're getting a box of Dunkin'. You ever had the catering box of Dunkin' coffee.
Speaker 4:You better not forget the cream, though, because that's important to me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bring in the powder Nesquik.
Speaker 4:So yeah, he's working with myself and bring in the powder. Here's your powder Nest click. So yeah, he's been working with myself and Mel in the yard. He's helped us with a couple of initial inspections and doing some minor repair stuff, small stuff, Just getting reacquainted with APUs and the controllers and learning the TCU and that controller. We've done some troubleshooting. We had to troubleshoot a rooftop AC today that wouldn't come on, so we did some troubleshooting on that today.
Speaker 4:So that's the kind of stuff he's been working on us with to understand what Ops does with the truck when it comes back from a team He'll get to work on a brand-new truck here in the next couple days as well and see what we do for a brand-new truck, how we get those prepped, but just getting him reacquainted with the equipment so he's ready to go once he takes phone calls from people.
Speaker 3:Because maybe most people don't know, Eric and Kayla both drove with Highfield as contractors on the Panther side.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's correct, so I don't know that that was mentioned so far. They were also mentors and they were also mentors yes.
Speaker 3:So he's familiar with the equipment, but it's been like two years since he's been actually on the road and utilizing the equipment and you lose some of that when you're not on the road doing it all the time.
Speaker 6:I know, like we used to have O-Nane generators and we quit buying them for years and then we started getting them again with these tractors. And I know I was talking with you, maybe, or Jimmy, the other day about the controller and I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was you and I talking about that.
Speaker 6:It's like it's been so many years since. I've used it. I used to be able to be like oh no, you just gotta beep and it's done. And now I'm like um, I think if you scroll left and you're like, it only goes up and down Crap. I've never used an.
Speaker 4:Onan before, so I actually went through and pulled up the owner's manual on the On end to walk myself through the different settings of it and trying to learn it with these tractors because you know we have them now.
Speaker 4:So I need to understand them. And then we've got the own ends of the tractors, have different um bunk heater controllers and different uh inverters. So that's been a lot of fun to learn that stuff and, not being sarcastic, I actually enjoy learning that stuff. So that's where I'm trying to get eric too. So when you call in, when contractors call in, and they get Eric, he can walk them through. He has that knowledge to be able to walk them through and understand what's going on and help contractors troubleshoot issues they may be having with their truck.
Speaker 3:And he doesn't know TCUs either.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 3:I mean we don't have those on the Panther side.
Speaker 6:Are the tractors different intentionally, or is that just how it happened? No, we have a new uh manufacturer for a couple of the sleepers, and so they are uh utilizing different parts and pieces, right?
Speaker 4:yeah exactly.
Speaker 6:So there's some of that. There's also some of like generational changes, so like the s-bar heater, which we and we have tons of. S-bar heaters. They changed a year and a half ago, two years ago. So now it's still the same heater, but the controller is different, completely different.
Speaker 3:It's a dial.
Speaker 6:Yes, yeah, it's a dial.
Speaker 4:It's a little more complex than the other one that has three buttons and that's it. Okay than the other one that has three buttons and that's it, but it's still simple. But when you see all the different stuff it's a little more complex. But when you understand it it's like oh, I just got to push the button, hold the button and we're good.
Speaker 6:I think it is simpler once you've learned it.
Speaker 4:But if you haven't learned it.
Speaker 6:You know, it's one of those things where sometimes someone shows you how to do something and it's like, oh my gosh, this is so easy.
Speaker 4:But if they don't show you, it's like how on earth there are way too many options and just ignore them. It's all you need Carrier.
Speaker 6:We have a few carrier reefers in our fleet Not many but a few. They changed their controller so they've actually gone digital and it's a lot nicer looking unit and it actually works very well. But I remember the first time we got one of those I was like how on earth do you change from celsius to fahrenheit? Like I couldn't figure it out. Come to find out it's a setting that's locked in and so they had to actually go to the carrier dealership and unlock that feature so that we could bounce between the two so you know there's some of that stuff.
Speaker 6:Um, the new carrier generators have a new controller. Versus the old carrier generators it's learning that one Again. They're making it simpler. If you've never done it and it's not like anything you've worked with before, it's a little bit of a head scratcher.
Speaker 3:Some of the thermostats, for the heaters too, are the air conditioner digital.
Speaker 4:There's a couple of different kinds.
Speaker 3:I know ours wasn't that way. Maybe it was A few of our trucks weren't.
Speaker 4:We've had both. Yeah, but there's two different digital ones now.
Speaker 5:Oh, and still the manual one.
Speaker 7:Yep.
Speaker 4:And the one in the tractors is a different style still.
Speaker 2:Wow, a couple of them. So that will be interesting for you to learn all of that. You'll be on the phone with a driver and you'll have to ask them which one they have. Can you text me a photo of?
Speaker 3:what it looks like. That's what I'd say.
Speaker 6:Well, and we've done our really diligently over the past couple years of trying to or past, let's say, five or six years of trying to standardize the fleet as best we can Supply chain issues and availability. Like, for example, we had a bunch of Western Star trucks with Premier Custom sleepers on them, a bunch of them, and the reason we have them is because it was really hard to get Freightliners. For a while they were all sold out and the Western Star dealership had like 50 chassis they had to get rid of. So we were able to take those, make them into our expediters and throw them in the fleet and work, which is kind of nice. We have enough of those that they are kind of a sub fleet, right.
Speaker 6:Sure, like they are, because we have so many of one type of product, it actually does kind of make it easy. Sure, we've identified problems. When all those trucks came out they had a couple of wiring issues that we had to deal with, but now most of those trucks have had that corrected and so it's just little things like that we've had to figure out throughout the years. But the past couple of years let's say since COVID, I guess four years supply chain issues have been a nightmare.
Speaker 8:They really have.
Speaker 6:And so we used to be an all Coleman air conditioner fleet. Now we are Coleman and Dometic the Espar thing, but now we have Espar and Espar that brand. Yes, yes we used to be like only having the two power inverter options. Now we have four. I want to say it's four. The AA, the PCS, are similar but a little different. Yeah, and then you've got the Bolt product, which has remained constant, thankfully, and then you've got the ARI product now, which is a different one altogether. So I mean, like we tried, yeah, it's just not been easy.
Speaker 6:And then you know when a team gets a truck, sometimes they go through and they customize and they change things up and so then we get it back. We got to kind of work with those changes and sometimes it's not worth the money to fix because what they've done is good enough, and sometimes it's like, all right, we got to get this out and redo it all over again. We've got to get this out and redo it all over again. It's been real interesting. The past couple of years. Supply chains have been really dictating what we've been doing and not doing or how good we've been able to keep that standard fleet so far. From your perspective, eric, being out in the yard and working on all this, is it all flooding back to you? You're remembering everything. Are you overwhelmed, underwhelmed? It's exactly what you figured it was going to be. It overwhelmed, underwhelmed, kind of. It's exactly what you figured it was going to be.
Speaker 1:It's completely different. Like, what are your impressions so far? Learning it's been cool. I think that, like he said, just having it come back and seeing the old, we started with the Comfort Pro APUs. I know that's most of our problem, so I'm trying to sink that in the most. But going over the truck, actually going for like doing the VIRs, seeing every aspect, even though it's not all going to apply to me still helps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, we only worked with the comfort pro, I think, for like the first six months. The rest of it was with the dynastist, so that's still a little bit more familiar for me and going through and seeing the codes and learning the um, the reefer system yeah, I don't know anything about that so well, I got to see a, though, and how to run the codes, because there was something wrong. There was a sensor code in there. But yeah, it certainly hasn't been overwhelming, but refreshing maybe is a good word.
Speaker 3:That's a good word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, refreshing, going over everything, I got to drive a truck today on the yard again for the first time in a while. Yeah, it was nice, it was like riding a while. Yeah, it was nice, it was like a you know, like riding a bike.
Speaker 1:I was like, all right, this ain't, this ain't too big yeah, gotta just adjust those mirrors and yeah yeah but it but it's been nice working with uh mel and vince both, actually, they're they're good people to have around. They're both very knowledgeable at their job. I'll tell you, that aren't they.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's neat that they've. I always thought it was neat that they've got expertise in things. Mel's got the dish down the DirecTV or whatever. She's not that Vince can't, but boy, she's the one lickety split. She knows it all.
Speaker 6:It's funny if you've ever been on one of her phone calls with her provider, not when she's talking to a team, but when she's talking to the supplier.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, is she on first-name basis?
Speaker 6:Yes, they're like oh hey, melissa, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Like all this stuff.
Speaker 6:Oh, they just know her, yeah, oh wow, yeah, but she, you know because she does. She even provides a lot of support once the trucks are out of the yard into the running the roads. She still helps with a lot of that stuff, she's very proficient in the satellite.
Speaker 6:It's funny too, because I'm the one that found all that and set it all up. Recently I was doing a thing. I had to go out to Bolt. We had a satellite out there that was getting replaced. When you do that, you bring the receiver with you to make sure they actually fix the problem. And I do it.
Speaker 6:I get the 771 code and I'm like crap, and so I'm like text her or call her well, I actually I reached out to her and she was busy I think she was doing a movement with the team so I'm like, okay, so I can do this, and so I actually did go back to the paperwork and I read every step and I called and did everything the way they said to do it and it's like I did it, but I know it would have taken her three minutes, took me 30.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 6:You know what I mean?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that was an interesting experience, you know, you could have called me too.
Speaker 5:Do you know the system? I do know the system.
Speaker 4:We had to troubleshoot a system. Well, actually, I'm sorry, let me back up Eric troubleshot a system by himself today, nice, and he found the problem in that truck and I said was it a code 771? He goes yeah, 771 is the code I got.
Speaker 2:You said you troubleshooted a rooftop AC today. Did you fix it? No, it's not something that we can fix.
Speaker 4:It has to go to a shop to get repaired.
Speaker 6:That's what I'm texting Patrick about, right now Listen, we remember things at all kinds of crazy hours. I can't tell you how many times it's been like, all right, 9, 10 o'clock at night on a weekend. We just hung out for a few hours, maybe, went out to dinner, or something like this. We're saying our goodbyes, we're hugging each other's necks, and then it's like, oh, I forgot. And then we have a 35-minute conversation about something that's work-related and it's like, okay, well, 35 minutes at 9 o'clock at night on a Saturday. It's not ideal, but there's so much going on when you can remember something. Sometimes you just got to power through it.
Speaker 1:It's the truck you're taking tomorrow.
Speaker 6:Is it the truck I'm taking tomorrow, the dash air or the rooftop Rooftop? Oh good, I won't be using it.
Speaker 4:Dash air works great, rooftop and the coax into the satellite receiver.
Speaker 6:Okay, yeah, yeah, that's a big deal Cool. Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Kayla, how does it feel to you? A? He's been out of the house for a few hours but B are you excited about this transition? Are you nervous?
Speaker 2:A little bit of both. I think I dread the massive learning curve. I kind of dread that, the massive learning curve. Yeah, and I kind of dread that for him. I remember starting with Kelly and thinking how am I ever going to get all of this? It's so much. I don't think I realized how much it was and I'm sitting back waiting for him to have that moment where it's like, oh my gosh, it's so much information to know. But I'm actually really excited for us to work together. I send so many messages to Don and Jimmy saying what's this truck doing? Are they actually out of service for truck repair? And I'm excited to just have him around the corner and get all the information firsthand.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it'd be nice to go like hey, what's wrong with so-and-so?
Speaker 8:Exactly. Yeah, because that's something to go like hey, what's wrong with so-and-so? Exactly.
Speaker 6:That's something we do. We've learned over the years. It used to be, you see, a truck that's not moved for three or four days and it's like let's reach out to the team and find out what's going on. But as we've grown and gotten bigger and all this stuff we've learned maybe we shouldn't do that. Let's talk to maintenance first, because if they're at a shop waiting for their truck to get fixed and then we call them going, why aren't you moving? It's a little salt in the road right.
Speaker 6:So being able now to kind of get around that and see what's happening and you know Jimmy's done a great job and Don has done a great job of identifying shops that get us in fast, get us out fast and being able to figure out you know, hopefully you don't sit for five or six days, but it still happens occasionally- I like that they started staff started by putting Eric in ops just so again he can get that refresher.
Speaker 3:but to see the parts and pieces again, you know hands-on. I know you guys are doing this for a week, two weeks, whatever it might be, before he then moves, you know more, into an office role and I think that's a great thing to just have that hands-on.
Speaker 4:Well, we don't do him or the fleet any great service by throwing him out there without any knowledge. Yeah Right, because one if the contractor is calling and has a problem that Eric can't address or doesn't know where to go to address the problem, they might need a solution right now.
Speaker 4:I mean I have a lot of time for Eric to research it. So we do them an injustice by not having him knowledgeable. And throwing Eric to the wolves like that without him having those resources or understanding where they're at. It does him an injustice, since nobody nobody benefits, and I wouldn't yeah highfield as a whole doesn't benefit from sure. I'm not providing eric with the tools that he needs to do his job and I wasn't saying that we wouldn't have done that that wasn't what I was trying to say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just I think it's great.
Speaker 6:I I love it well, and some stuff too. Too. You learn, you perfect, you do Like. There are things that we did when we first started that I would not do again. Sure, I can think of several things that we did when we first brought people on. That I would not do again. You think I would still have Kelly working for it? I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:She just turned this podcast off Exactly.
Speaker 4:I think that comes with the growth of the company too. She just turned this podcast off. Exactly, I think that comes with the growth of the company too. You know, melissa and I didn't have Melissa and I started we had like a day of here's Trello and they were off on vacation. When I say they, I mean Eric Patrick, melissa, mel and Donnie were off on vacation. That was planned before we were coming on. That was planned for us to be here for those three weeks and we didn't have that introduction to what was going on. It was they were available by phone.
Speaker 3:Kelly was too.
Speaker 4:We could work through it. Kelly was too, so it worked out, but we didn't have that. I still want to get Jimmy up here to watch us do an initial inspection, or actually to walk through an initial inspection with us, more than just seeing it on paper, actually do it. I'd love to have Don in the yard to do it as well. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 6:I think it would be great. I mean A, it's like. So they're similar to y'all. Kelly and Jimmy have come up here and done this for weeks on. While Eric and I were like in Italy, for example, years back 2019, they kept here and spent several weeks up here. When my mom passed away, they spent several weeks up here. They definitely have done the job. They just haven't seen the level that y'all do it now.
Speaker 4:It's a totally different level than it was. We're a bigger fleet, a much larger fleet than it was then.
Speaker 6:The turn times and being able to juggle shops. It's a very different situation than it used to be.
Speaker 3:I love the growth yeah it's great.
Speaker 6:I've seen it just in the two years we've been here. Yeah, it's fun. I mean the growth is. You know, it's been kind of weird the past couple years. We haven't really added any trucks. It's kind of been stagnant. We have a fleet that's going from a brand new fleet to a little bit of an aging fleet, so it's exciting now that we're starting to actually buy trucks again so vince, and I picked up a truck this afternoon morning.
Speaker 4:Well, so excitedried to.
Speaker 6:I know Vince is like. Vince is like I've enjoyed all this. Not putting trucks on, yeah, but we did. We had picked up a truck, or tried to pick up a truck this morning and had a little air leak on it, so they're going to fix the air leak and then we're going to get it back.
Speaker 1:That truck's ready by. Do you have an expectation on the amount of trucks you want to get to?
Speaker 4:yet Wait, wait, wait, we're interviewing you. Hold on, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:You've never had an expectation. You've always said it's open. Are you there yet or no?
Speaker 6:No, I think we're in an interesting phase where I think a lot of our growth we're still going to have some on the expedite side, absolutely straight truck side. But really we see tractors and I've talked about it on this show before, which I'm sure you've seen we definitely have see tractors as a big growth opportunity for us. Right, it's an area that we are just dabbling in. We have six tractors. It's not much, but we've seen amazing things come from that tractor program and Kayla, you actually run that tractor program.
Speaker 2:I'm super excited about it.
Speaker 6:And so I would like to see something like 50 tractors in the next five years, which doesn't sound. It sounds like a lot, but it's 10 tractors a year. That's not a ton. Eventually it will be a decent size. But I've got a friend of mine who runs a tractor fleet and he's getting like four tractors a ton.
Speaker 6:Eventually it'll be a decent size, but I've got a friend of mine who runs a tractor fleet and he's getting like four tractors a month, wow, and I'm like, but he's got a huge fleet but still it's like and it's his bread and butter, it's what he does. So certainly I think that's the side that I really want to see grow. I mean, we have a 120-something truck straight truck fleet yeah 120-something truck straight truck fleet.
Speaker 6:So you're going to maintain that, but grow the other Exactly, and we may grow that to about 150 straight trucks. I could see that being something over the next you know, between now and 2030, for example.
Speaker 2:You also have to consider that some of those new straight trucks are going to replace the older ones. So we're not always gaining at this present moment in time there's a little bit of ebb and flow, absolutely.
Speaker 6:It's an interesting time to be in the industry. I like what we're doing. I am very excited about the tractor market and just branching into that, while still staying the leader, I think, in Expedite being able to balance all that it's a lot of fun and I'm glad to be able to work with all the people you see here and yourself. Having the staff that we have makes this fun. It makes it stressful, it makes it difficult, but it makes it fun being able to surround myself with people who have the expectations and the standards that I do, which is a lot of fun. A lot of people know Eric and I from, like, the trade shows or something and that's about it, and we are definitely the like. Let's party and have fun at these events and let's get to know each other on a social level and everything is very laid back, and then our staff sees a totally different side of us. You know, and you're going to find out, like I think y'all would all argue, that I'm a tough person to work for.
Speaker 7:Yes, I've said it before he's got it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you are difficult to work for if you don't understand what your expectations are.
Speaker 4:If you understand your expectations then and you're willing to meet those expectations, then you have no problem yeah, yes it doesn't make the job easier as far as actual work because Eric witnessed it today you know we talked about a plan this morning, the three of us me, you and Mel and that plan. Some of it got accomplished, some went by the wayside because things changed. It's always fluent, so if you're able to be fluid like that and make those changes, great. The expectations didn't change. You know it wasn't like we had to meet a higher goal. It was we need to get this truck, particular truck, turned faster than we had planned to originally, for whatever reason. So we have to now pivot from something else to that truck. So that stuff happens all the time, but the quality of work on that truck doesn't change. It still needs to be at that, that, that standard. So you're challenging to work for because you do have really high expectations for your staff. But if you're, if you're willing to meet those expectations, yeah no problem yeah.
Speaker 6:You're not.
Speaker 4:You're not difficult in the sense that you're inappropriate or aggressive or demeaning. You treat us with the same respect that you want us to treat you or any of our contractors. So in that sense it's not like. Every time I see the phone ring with your names on it. I go not this again. You know, even though it might be a change in the plan that we weren't planning for. Okay, we'll pivot and take care of business.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, I would say that you're a different person in the aspect that you rise above in every single scenario that I've ever seen you be in, and I'll be describing a situation like this driver was having this challenge and he's like well, this is the answer and I'm like but that's not what Patrick would do. Patrick, always, you know, you and Eric always rise above in situations and it makes me make different decisions when handling the fleet.
Speaker 5:I get that.
Speaker 2:Because I try to do what I know you would want done and represent the company in a way that you would want it represented.
Speaker 3:We talk about that all the time though, internally, as girls on this. You know us ladies in the staff. But I'm like I'll do a, you know we'll have our chat. And then I'm like, what would Patrick do? And then we'll like I'll just a, you know we'll have our chat and then.
Speaker 3:I'm like what would Patrick do? And then we'll like I'll just kind of stop and I'm like I think X, y and Z, someone else might say yes or no, what about this plus yours or whatever it might be. But sometimes, if you know, it's like you don't have to bother you all the time, but it's just like we're representing Eric and Patrick's company Highfield, so what would they do? What has been done in the past? Especially if you're on vacation, right, that's usually when it comes up.
Speaker 3:But, what would they do? Let's make an executive decision as staff and we'll go it in solidarity. Okay, we made the decision, but what would it have been? And I agree, you have a high standard for your fleet, but I think that's known in the community of trucking, or at least expediting, and that's why people want to come here.
Speaker 6:Well, I was going to say I think that's part of like A having the great staff we have is y'all have shown time and time again that y'all do at least try to get to the ethos of why we're making a decision, so that you can make a good decision based on that situation.
Speaker 6:And the thing that we always do is because Eric and I do love to travel that is no one's hiding that and so we do frequently a few times a year travel, and it's usually like out of country, sometimes it's out of continent, sometimes it's out of hemisphere. I mean, you know what I mean? Like we are not always the most accessible person, accessible people in the world, sure, which is only possible because of the great staff we have.
Speaker 6:But I think, too, one thing that Eric and I made the commitment of is, when we're gone and y'all make a decision, we will stand by it, even if we don't like it Right, even if at the end of the day, it's like okay, let me tell you why I wouldn't do this.
Speaker 6:Yes, we'll have that conversation, but we're still going to stand behind the decision you made, and I think that empowers y'all to make decisions knowing there's no retribution coming To be clear when a mistake is made, you're not necessarily all smiles and Cheerios. I get it.
Speaker 4:Another phrase I wanted to use, but and I don't mean that in a negative way I just want the viewing public to know that when a mistake is made, we know a mistake was made and there is a correction. Right. It's not a pleasant conversation necessarily when a mistake is made, depending on the severity of the mistake, right. So it's not like we're all just singing kumbaya around a campfire all the time. We do. When mistakes are made, we do hear about it and it's not an easy conversation. However, when the corrections are made, it's done, we move on right, we correct the mistake, we learn from it and we move on, and unless it's made again, it's done.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 4:So there is the disciplinarian side to Eric and Patrick.
Speaker 6:Well and a lot of that you know a lot of people like. A lot of what we talked about is operational stuff, which I handle. That being said, the minute you file something and you don't capitalize it correctly in the system, and you forget something you have a whole new wrath coming. And it's not from Patrick, it is from this kind gentle soul right here.
Speaker 4:Or you leave a truck number off of a receipt oh.
Speaker 6:Oh Sinners in the hand of an angry God. Why would you ever leave a truck number off of a receipt? That is just that's funny.
Speaker 2:You better be minding your P's and Q's. I'm telling you you're going to get some emails from Eric, yes, you are. You did not file this right.
Speaker 1:This is not labeled, right? I'm like Jimmy told me, it's all caps all the time.
Speaker 3:You know what I like that Pass the buck, there we go.
Speaker 6:Do you know what's funny? I hate the way he files stuff and I typically will send him things and say you file it, because I can't stand that level of tediousness. That being said, when I'm looking for something online on our big drive oh, it's beautiful. It is so easy to navigate, so easy to find stuff. It's a huge database. How many gigabytes is it, jerry Used?
Speaker 7:or available that we're using right now. Using is well, we're just under a huge database. How many gigabytes is it, jerry?
Speaker 6:Used or available. That we're using right now we're just under a terabyte. That's a lot of data, that's a lot of PDFs, that's a lot of Word files. It is really awesome to have that available and easy to navigate that tediousness.
Speaker 5:You're going to find out.
Speaker 6:I appreciate hearing that it's really super helpful.
Speaker 5:It's the other half.
Speaker 6:You get to endure that. That being said, welcome to the fleet. Thank you all, so much for being so generous to sit down with us and we look forward to doing this again with you all. But I know you've got a heart out and I'm not going to keep you from that, so thank you again. Everybody, stay with us for a couple seconds. We're going to do a little set change, costume change, probably a restroom break, probably, probably, yeah. And then we'll be right back after these brief messages from our sponsor, lakeshire Expediting Adventures.
Speaker 3:Take it away.
Speaker 5:Lakeshire, you ready.
Speaker 4:I'm ready. Okay, I thought we were already recording we are oh, okay, and action hey, mel and Vince here from Lokeshire Expediting Adventures. We want to say hello here in this outer belt recording. Those guys do some amazing work. It's really entertaining and funny. Oh my goodness, so funny. It is very. Those guys do some amazing work. It's really entertaining and funny. Oh, my goodness, so funny. Patrick, jerry, eric oh, I'm in it too. Buttermilk, I'm sorry, buttermilk and chili. Part of the Otter Belt, so check it out, if you haven't.
Speaker 4:I mean, if you're watching this, you have.
Speaker 3:I know right. Maybe Jerry will post this on our channel too. Wouldn't that be great? It would be awesome. It would be like a double cross post.
Speaker 4:It would be a double cross post Two for one.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Or maybe Jerry will post it on other YouTubers' channels too to push. I don't know, I don't know what he's doing.
Speaker 3:We haven't done anything in a hot moment. We have.
Speaker 4:We've been so busy with work, I know information on our channel is still relevant. Still relevant, certainly To today's expediting world.
Speaker 3:Truly is, and that's why our channel is still up. So if you haven't checked us, out, go back and watch our stuff, even if it's from two, three years. Well, it's going to be over two years ago.
Speaker 4:It would be over two years ago.
Speaker 3:Three four, five years ago. Yeah, Still watch it, it's still very relevant Still fun stuff. So check us out, and I still respond to comments. I get one probably every couple weeks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I still give response. We're still in the expedite industry.
Speaker 3:We are, we are. So, anyways, back to your regular scheduled show.
Speaker 4:Thanks, Outer Belt, for letting us squeeze in here a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what else?
Speaker 4:Don't leave money on the table, never. Just don't do it.
Speaker 3:Don't do it All right bye.
Speaker 4:Good night.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's not the right sound.
Speaker 6:That was a great ad. Thank you so much, luke Shire, for that, for sponsoring our video today. It's great to be here. It's a great day to be alive.
Speaker 3:Did you know that we had rice cooking? Are you with us today? What I thought? You said rice-a-roni. I did. Oh, you did. It is a great day to be alive. I got rice cooking In the microwave. Does he really say that? I think so.
Speaker 6:He microwaves his rice. That's disgusting. No self-respect in southern microwaves. I mean we do, but his son just covered one of his songs.
Speaker 3:I saw that on my facebook scroll. Yeah, I like to listen to his son's voice. See if they're similar. It could be for those of you who don't know who we're talking about no one's listening to us. This is all peached well, I'm just sure, maybe it's not peached Well.
Speaker 6:when you get ready to talk and your microphone is six inches above your face, it's hard to do it.
Speaker 3:We're amateurs around here.
Speaker 6:Amateurs Amateur Like an auteur Just am.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 6:Welcome back everybody. We're so happy you're here with us. What a great advertisement for our sponsor. It was amazing. So we did lose Eric. He has an engagement, not engagement, that's.
Speaker 3:Eric Bender.
Speaker 6:Eric.
Speaker 3:Because the other Eric's sitting next to me. That's right.
Speaker 6:Eric Bender is left. He has a poker tournament that he's in. We wish him the best of success, but he left us with his bride Not bride, is it?
Speaker 7:bride yeah, it is After you're married.
Speaker 4:You still consider bride.
Speaker 3:Absolutely a bride.
Speaker 6:Let's be honest, it's the better half, right, we got the prize.
Speaker 5:She's not learning anything, she's already there, this ain't no amateur, this is like two years of professionalism.
Speaker 6:She does good too. I'm really glad you're here Because, as our listening audience knows, our viewing audience listening if you're catching us on the YouTube or on one of the podcast apps. Eric and I have recently taken up motorcycle riding.
Speaker 2:I've been super excited for you guys.
Speaker 6:I know, and you were the one that talked us into the Harley Davidson course, I know.
Speaker 2:I feel bad about that. Now Hindsight 2020.
Speaker 4:Ooh, set you up for that one.
Speaker 2:I still had a great time at mine. I do not regret mine. Maybe different trainers, I think, I don't know.
Speaker 6:It was definitely different trainers. Well, I say that because you had two males right.
Speaker 2:I had two males.
Speaker 6:So we had a male and a female, but this is 2024.
Speaker 2:So you know, there's been time for I want to say I took mine in 2020. Like prime COVID time, why would you take your?
Speaker 8:How is it even allowed?
Speaker 2:You're outside.
Speaker 8:Well, you have a helmet on Full face.
Speaker 2:So, you can't.
Speaker 6:That's true, and they said you had to wear gloves. They did get us. It was all COVID compliant, wasn't it? Yeah, wow, did they give you pizza? Nope, oh, okay. Look, we've been very hard on Harley Davidson in that horrible class. They put us through and those people who Half the class failed.
Speaker 8:It's unacceptable One of the ladies fell over her own motorcycle.
Speaker 6:One of the ladies who was teaching the course.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 6:Well, not one of the ladies teaching the course. The lady teaching the course.
Speaker 8:It was like watching a disaster happen right in front of you and you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 6:It was very slow motion. I did feel bad for her. She's 74 years old out there still teaching people how to ride. Well, going through the motions, yes. But she was very kind and polite. I actually liked her a lot. I think she was fine. He was less than.
Speaker 2:Did he drive a big BMW Like a?
Speaker 6:big BMW. No, he drove like a little Honda Civic.
Speaker 2:No, we didn't have the same people, yeah definitely not.
Speaker 6:But where I have to give Harley mad props is on Saturday. Yeah, saturday they provided pizza from a local pizzeria I believe is how they call it and it was fantastic. What did Eric? It was really good.
Speaker 2:Nice, you guys got also hammered by some bad weather.
Speaker 8:No, the weather wasn't the worst. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been a lot worse.
Speaker 6:They were talking about.
Speaker 8:so, like Columbus, has been in a area, Honestly, to tell you the truth, we can tell the difference between our sweat running down our body and the rain running down our body. Yeah, it's true, it's true, it's true.
Speaker 6:Because it was raining but it was in the low 70s and so when you put that rain gear on and it doesn't breathe and you're already nervous because it's literally like so many people I know, go get their permit, they get a motorcycle, they ride like so many people I know. Go get their permit, they get a motorcycle, they ride a little bit and they take the course, and they take and they get the test at the end of it and whatever. We didn't do that. It was literally my first time ever turning a bike on, like Eric and I were talking the other day. I was so dumb. You put the key in, you twist and it fires up, right.
Speaker 4:No, not on a motorcycle.
Speaker 6:I literally did not know it was a push-to-start situation until I was on the bike having the discussion. That's how green I was right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 6:I knew a foot brake was rear and a brake up there up on the handlebars was for the front brake, because I have ridden bicycles my whole life. Even though I'm fat, I love riding a bicycle. We have these really cool electric bicycles that are big, fat, tire off-road bikes and they're a lot of fun. So I had some experience with that. But I had no idea what pulling the clutch was going to be like. The friction zone which you use and it doesn't tear up your clutch was foreign to me. When they're like, oh no, you use that, that's how you maintain speed, it's like what you destroy your clutch. No, not on a bike, it doesn't work that way. So like lots of stuff. So we were green, green, green, green green on it. And my point is what?
Speaker 3:Pizza. That's where you're going with it.
Speaker 6:I had great pizza, no.
Speaker 2:You needed the high field of motorcycle training. Not that we do a lot of training, but we set people up who are green for a good opportunity.
Speaker 6:You're right. You're right, I did not get that. Thank you, kayla.
Speaker 4:I want to personally thank you for recommending the Harley Davidson class, because you haven't dealt with the Retribution, the aftermath, like Buttermilk and I have.
Speaker 6:And Jerry's got it too. We call that the Pharaoh storm. No, but we actually had a great time today. Eric and I did get away for a little bit. We went up to the motorcycle store. That's where they sell motorcycles, and I'm so glad we did so. I had my idea in my head, had an idea of what motorcycle I want to buy, and I still want to buy it. And what's crazy is back in 2015,. No 11, 10, 9.
Speaker 2:8.
Speaker 6:No 7. 9., 8.
Speaker 3:Pick one.
Speaker 6:No before that. Okay, way back 2008. Pick one no before that Okay.
Speaker 3:Way back in the 2000s, 2006.
Speaker 6:So 2006, when I was interested in riding a bike, a motorcycle. I got on this bike. It was brand new and I really liked it. I didn't ride it, didn't turn it on, I was inside the dealership, yada, yada, and it's still today the same bike. I want to get on like. I've gone back and I've re-gotten back on. I've actually tried. A couple. Others are like if you like this bike, you might like these other ones. I don't like the other ones. I still really just like this one. So I'm very happy that that's kind of how I felt. Now, you know, just want to buy it and ride it.
Speaker 6:may change your mind but for now um, it's the one that definitely feels right to me. So so Eric has an idea. We kind of talked to him about the bikes and what he was looking for to bike and we all kind of decided Honda Rebel Made sense, it's what he likes. It's kind of cool looking. Yeah they do look cool. It looks like a nice bike. We thought about what is the one? You and Eric had the Grom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Grom Love Groms Thought about the Groms.
Speaker 6:But even Eric was like I'm going to break this thing if I had a bump too, hard.
Speaker 6:So he was. So we did say the Rebel and he had gotten on one before for like two seconds and then got back off or whatever. And I actually watched a video on YouTube and they talked about how unergonomic a Rebel is and how it can lead to kind of back pain and stuff because of how you sit. And so I was like, hmm, now he's already talked to someone on I was going to say Craigslist, they don't have that anymore, do they?
Speaker 4:It's still out there, is it?
Speaker 6:It is Well he found one on Marketplace that he wanted to go talk to somebody about used one, and it's an hour and a half away or so. So I said before we go out there. I just watched this video. I'm a little nervous. Let's go to the dealership and just have you sit on it, he agreed. So we go out there, he sits on it and we do that thing where, like, I've got the tire between my legs. And I'm holding the handlebars here, and so he sits on it.
Speaker 8:I haven't seen any of these videos. You're talking about Correct so everything I'm saying this afternoon or whenever Correct Is your thought, is my thought. Without watching somebody else's opinion, I did not.
Speaker 6:I didn't show many of those videos. He's seen videos on my bike, the one I'm interested in because I've seen like 17 of them, but so many that I was getting confused anyway. Yeah, but none of the Rebel, because it was such a known like.
Speaker 4:Well, of course he's going to get a rebel. It was that kind of thing. We just all figured out what it was.
Speaker 6:So we stand there and I got the thing and I'm holding the bike, so he's got both feet off it and he's sitting there and he's like this is pretty comfortable. And I noticed his hands were like on the fuel tank. They weren't touching the handlebars and I was like, do me a favor, reach up, reach up and grab the handlebars.
Speaker 6:And so he does. I'm like okay, grab the clutch, do the clutch thing, shift through a couple gears, which you did. Grab the throttle. You made the point that the throttle was a little loose on that one.
Speaker 8:Which was a big problem with the Harley Yep.
Speaker 6:And so we were kind of playing around and he's holding me. I said, okay, we're riding for an hour to two hours. How do you feel? And he's like absolutely not. Like already, within a few minutes of not minutes, a minute, two minutes of sitting, there you were like my back is already bothering me and I said why? And he said because I'm having to lean forward to ride, and a rebel Rebel's not a sport bike, it's not where your feet are, behind you, it is a cruiser, but you lean forward.
Speaker 4:But your feet are forward too.
Speaker 6:No, they're kind of mid, are they mid? They're mid.
Speaker 4:But it's still an uncomfortable.
Speaker 6:It's an odd.
Speaker 4:If they were behind you and you're kind of laying forward a different story. Like a sport bike is, yeah, sport bikes ninjas and all that stuff.
Speaker 6:That's how they do. But this was just kind of a weird scenario. And so he was like I don't really like it and I thought, oh cool, because I saw the video and I kind of had a feeling that might be an issue. So then we walked. What did we sit on like 10 different bikes.
Speaker 8:A number of them.
Speaker 6:Oh, it was a lot. Yeah, it was a V-Star by Yamaha. It's a great little bike. It doesn't have ABS, it has a carburetor. It doesn't have fuel injection and I know from like A just back in the day, carbureted vehicles what a pain.
Speaker 4:They were great before we knew what fuel injection was Correct.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like I'm flying to get my program, my private spy license and a carbureted airplane is a nightmare compared to a fuel-injected airplane and I'm just like thinking, oh my gosh, like I don't want a carburetor. I talked to Jimmy, our maintenance guy, who Eric's going to be working with, and he talked about how much he loves it. His bikes feel injected because he remembers the old carburetors and you'd get into curves, curves and the fuel would slosh to the side of the little bowl.
Speaker 6:And you would just lose power until you straighten back up and then it would work again. And then I'm also thinking like carburetors are so easy to flood, and what if you stall and you're trying to do a quick start back up again and it's just so, although it fit him, it was like let's keep looking, we'll keep this in mind because if, at the end of the day, this is the one you're most comfortable with, then that's sure that's it, but let's keep looking. And he actually got on one that I literally told him to get on as a joke, as a gag. I knew it was too big of a bike, he wasn't going to like it, but I'm like, get on it and try it and tell me what you think it was. A Kawasaki Vulcan S S, I think, is sport, or whatever Pretty bikes.
Speaker 6:Yeah, beautiful bike, but I'm like he's not going to like it. He gets on this thing, he grabs it. He's like this is kind of comfortable and I was like what? I was completely shocked. I'm like there's no way in the world you're going to like this bike. We do the thing. I hold it up, he puts his foot on there, the shifter's a little in a weird spot, but he's like I think I can learn to work around it and he ends up really liking the bike and I'm like you've got to be kidding me. I literally asked you to get on it as a gag because I didn't think you would like it.
Speaker 8:And that's the one that that, that's the one that it's a good thing you didn't say that.
Speaker 4:I know. The funny thing is as soon as he gets on the bike he puts his feet on the pegs and his hands on the handlebar. Magically, sunglasses and a bandana appear on his head. That is true, it's just perfect. That is true, Just perfect.
Speaker 6:I did find one. That was that. So there was some sports bikes there and Kawasaki has one.
Speaker 3:It's like a black bike that slowly goes into this beautiful emerald green. It's a gorgeous bike. Those are pretty over there it's a dark emerald green.
Speaker 8:It's just, it's nothing like kawasaki green, it's like emerald green, yes. So if you drool over, if you, know motorcycles.
Speaker 6:Kawasaki has a green. That's kawasaki green.
Speaker 8:It's like lime it's like a lime, green it's very bright.
Speaker 6:Think about a lime scooter right, it's that color green it is. And so lime, it's like a lime green, it's very bright. Think about a lime scooter Right, it's that color green it is. And so I'm like well, let me just look real quick. And of course they've never made the bike he wants in that color scheme.
Speaker 8:It would be a collectible?
Speaker 6:It would be a collectible, but I did find you a lime green one. He literally was like. I'll take black. He was like I'm not doing that. I said you know what, If you get a black one, we can always get it painted. You know what I mean, If he falls in love with it and decides that's his forever bike.
Speaker 2:You can get it painted, take it to a bike show and they'll do pinstriping and make it yours Draw all over it.
Speaker 6:I'm excited for y'all. Yeah, I'm excited he found what he likes. I looked him up online on on marketplace. There's several of them around, all in the price, right around the price point you were looking at, and so, um, yeah, and this is even one step better. It actually is front and rear is abs, not just the front, like the the rebel is. Yeah, they're cool bikes.
Speaker 8:I'm, I'm very uh, I'm very excited, I'm a little more motivated now than I was a week ago. Yeah, Good.
Speaker 3:I'm glad that you got him sitting on the Rebel, because that's all I've been hearing for like 30 days now is Rebel, rebel, rebel which is a cool bike.
Speaker 5:It's a very cool bike.
Speaker 3:But to actually sit on it and feel, maybe, that it was uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:You have to remember, most people buy motorcycles and spend a lot of money customizing those type of settings, like new handlebars.
Speaker 6:Sure yeah.
Speaker 2:New foot pegs that are adjusted and all of that I mean.
Speaker 6:Well, that's something I haven't told you. Is you, eric Heifeld? Is I actually have done some research on the bike because I don't know enough about it and I'm like I don't want you buying a crotch rocket. That's going to like be too much bike right, because there is a thing where, like, if you're learning to ride, you don't want a bike that's crazy fast because you'll just end up killing yourself on accident. You know, you're like in a situation where you got to move quickly and you just go way too quick and you're popping a Exactly and it flying off the back.
Speaker 6:Correct. So we don't want that, but you also don't want it, so docile that you get bored on it Sure you want something kind of in between. So I'm like let me see if this is even a good beginner bike. It may not be, and every review is like the best beginner bike you can get for the money.
Speaker 6:Really Tons and tons of stuff. That engine apparently, if you're easy on the throttle it's actually quite fun. But you really have to lean into it. But if you do really get into it it's quite sporty. And there's a lot of people talking about how much fun it is when you get into those higher RPMs and really wind it up.
Speaker 8:I'm trying to imagine if I want to go fast, I can lean forward and get into it.
Speaker 6:Well, it's not a bicycle. You, I can lean forward and get into it.
Speaker 4:Well, it's not a bicycle. You've got RPMs and gasoline. You just twist that throttle the other way. Yeah, twist the throttle.
Speaker 8:Slow it down.
Speaker 6:Can I tell you how many times I did that at the Harley Davidson course and I'm like why am I going fast? Oh, that's right, that is going to be a hard, that's a You'll get used to it.
Speaker 4:I know it's funny. I learned this a couple weeks ago listening to another podcast on motorcycles where somebody asked the question. You know we go forward to go forward. You think you'd roll the throttle forward to go forward and the reason you don't is because when you're reaching for the brake on the right side, on the throttle hand, if you're reaching for the brake, you're pushing the throttle forward. Possibly if the throttle went forward to go forward, to go faster, you would be going faster potentially when you went to reach for the brake, and that makes perfect sense that you don't want to do that.
Speaker 6:Absolutely. In the Harley course they did talk about rolling the throttle forward.
Speaker 4:Slow it down and then grabbing the brake.
Speaker 6:I find myself several times actually moving my hand and not really moving the throttle. It's something I have to consciously think about and learn. Of course it's a Harley bike with different electronics and stuff.
Speaker 4:So it's going to be different.
Speaker 6:I'm hoping the Suzuki that I end up with is going to be a little easier, but yeah, so this is one of those things. It kind of reminds me of the airplane. Those who have been listening to the show know I've been two years into getting my private license and I'm a month away. It's so close. If I could just get the time in the air. There's been so many ups and downs and days. I get back to the airport and I'm so discouraged because I did such a terrible job. And then a day later you go and do it again and it's like, wow, because I did such a bad job yesterday.
Speaker 6:I thought about some of these things and I did so much better today right and so, just like the ups and downs of that, to where now I'm pretty good, like when I mean I've got over 100 hours flying. When I go fly, now I feel pretty confident what I'm doing and I'm not slamming the airplane into the runway and bouncing and jumping off and we're not porpoising as when you hit on your back gear, then your front gear, then your back gear, then your front gear. You know what I mean, like bouncing back and forth.
Speaker 6:I'm not doing any of that stuff anymore. It is nice. Getting to this level took over 100 hours in the air to be this comfortable.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 6:And I know the motorcycles are going to be the same thing. Sure, Just reputation and we talked about it last night, actually getting the smooth clutch down and trying to figure out all that stuff.
Speaker 4:I told them last night, Kayla, that my plan for them when they do get bikes is to go to the school down the street from our house in the parking lot and do nothing for the first little bit of start and stop. Start in first gear, get the bike going, get to second gear, stop, put it back in first gear and start again just to learn the friction zone.
Speaker 2:That's what I did too. We went down to.
Speaker 4:We live by beside a ymca and we went after hours because I was only open to like six well, we were going to go during school hours it's elementary school I mean you know, kids to practice swerving around exactly, emergency stopping, swerving.
Speaker 6:Yeah well, you did you did tell us to get a kawasaki dirt bike right so we can get up in the playground exactly, exactly On the sand.
Speaker 4:So you went to a YMCA. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 2:No, you're fine, and we just did that for hours, for multiple days in a row.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And eventually you just get comfortable with it and you'll get to a point where you don't think about the throttle. Right, it's just something that happens when you want to go.
Speaker 8:I kind of wish I would have did that before the class, but then how would I have ever known?
Speaker 4:And that's part of it too is you spend the money on the class and if you don't like it, you haven't spent thousands of dollars on a motorcycle that now you've got to figure out what to do with. So that's kind of part of it. But you now have the basics from the class and not someone who's not a trained professional, because these instructors go through a lot of training. They have to have ride-ridden for so long they have to go through these classes plus additional classes for the trainers, and then they have to also show that they know how to do this and can teach the class. So it's not like it's some guy who I've been riding for five years and, oh, come on, let's do this training. No, they go through a lot. So you learn from a professional who knows how to teach, versus some schlub like me who gets out there and goes well, just hold the clutch slowly and grab the accelerator and you whiskey throttle.
Speaker 8:Also, I like that I know what the goals are.
Speaker 4:Sure I like to.
Speaker 8:I know what the goals are to pass the test and get the endorsement. I know the three things I'm going to have to know how to do Sure, and I can practice those on my own now.
Speaker 3:Kayla, did you ever ride dirt bikes growing?
Speaker 2:up no. I tried it one time and I whiskey throttled. It really bad right into a—.
Speaker 6:So is whiskey throttle when you just crank right back?
Speaker 4:Yes, whiskey Throttle, so you grab way too much throttle and it comes up off the ground, yep.
Speaker 3:And you go backwards, so you didn't do trail riding or anything off-road.
Speaker 2:No, we did four-wheelers not dirt bikes.
Speaker 2:Four-wheelers, not dirt bikes. And then, because of that situation, I've always wanted to ride motorcycles. I I like them. But I was scared when we first started. I was scared to whiskey throttle. That's what led us to groms, because eric was like you can't, you're not gonna whiskey throttle and hurt yourself on a grom, there's not enough power. So I needed the stepping stones and bikes. I did the grom, then I did the sportster, then I have the bike that I have now. But I needed the stepping stones because I was afraid of the power. Sure, makes sense.
Speaker 4:I think that's important to start on a lower power bike and work your way up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree. Then when you get bored, then you're like, okay, now it's stubbed up great.
Speaker 6:Well and that's what I think I like. If you look at a 300 Rebel what the bike weighs, how much power it produces and then you look at the Kawasaki Eric's looking at, it's 200 pounds heavier. It's a bigger engine, right, but it's 200 pounds heavier, yeah, it's compensating, it's still. Your weight to power threshold is about the same. So the motorcycle I'm looking at is 200 pounds heavier than the one Eric's looking at.
Speaker 6:Sure, so it's a little more powerful than that, but again, all three of those are about the same power to weight ratio. None of these bikes are doing wheelies.
Speaker 4:And then, when you look at my bike, it's 200 pounds heavier than what you're looking at and it's 500% more powerful. It is, yours is a machine. I look at yours and I'm like Do you know, though, I've never, if you look at.
Speaker 3:Kayla's bike yeah.
Speaker 4:Kayla's bike is beautiful. It's a beautiful bike.
Speaker 5:I've never seen it. I'm so, I'm so envious.
Speaker 3:It's the shark gray matte. You know the cars are now coming out with that.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Military shark gray color. Hers is that Hers? And Eric both have matching sets. We have a his and her bike. I like that one. Their bikes are beautiful Vince's bike I've never felt, though jumps off the line Like I've never felt. Yes, I do know his has power, but I've never felt like it's had any kind of like that kind of power and maybe that's the way he's driving it, but like even when he gets excited when he kills it and he has to restart it. It never feels Well that's embarrassing.
Speaker 6:I wouldn't have said that, but it never feels it happens.
Speaker 4:No we talk about it.
Speaker 3:But it never feels like when he gives it because he's anxious, whatever the word you want to use.
Speaker 6:I did that at Harley Inn.
Speaker 3:It just never feels like he's giving it so much that we're in the next county, you know, three seconds later. It never feels like it has that much power.
Speaker 6:What if you're on County Line Road?
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe. But, I've never, you know, and we've ridden it quite a bit since we've had it since just a little after July 4th and I've never felt like it. It feels like it's sturdy because it is so heavy.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it feels sturdy and it feels like it's sturdy because it is so heavy, it feels sturdy and it feels like it fits two people the way it should. I think one thing you've got to keep in mind with the bike y'all have is it's not so much the fact that it's the way he's driving it, it's that it's British and it's polite. It is polite. So those of you that haven't heard.
Speaker 4:Melissa and I have a Triumph Trophy. It's a sport touring bike. I don't know if you noticed on the ride we went on a couple weeks ago where we come out of a roundabout.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:So we were on a group ride about mid-pack, and when we go around a roundabout, people get out of the roundabout a little faster, so I had to catch up.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:So I would come out of the roundabout and give it a little bit. I did feel that, but it wasn't a jerky thing. And then what? I stopped myself from saying? Kayla. And Kayla caught me and she starts laughing. Eric Bender asked me last week. He's like hey, my bike's at the shop down here in Columbus. If Kayla drops me off one day, can you take me over to pick it up when it's ready? I'm like yeah, I can do that for you. He goes, I might even let you ride it.
Speaker 4:And I was like you were giddy, I was all giddy, but I'm like you know it's a different style of bike than mine.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know it's a big bike, it's a beautiful bike and it cost a crap ton of money. Yes, I realize he has insurance, but still the last thing I did like.
Speaker 5:I don't know, Did he? Tell you, though, that his ride by me?
Speaker 2:is him riding on the back of my motorcycle on the way down here, though he didn't tell me that I've got to get the camera set up for that.
Speaker 4:Get some video of Eric on the back of the bike. Oh, that's awesome. That'd be fun.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so what do you all have? So I'm looking at Suzuki Boulevard, eric's, looking at a Kawasaki Vulcan S. You've got the Triumph. What are y'all riding?
Speaker 2:I think Eric has a Road Glide Special. I think is what it is Is that a Harley. Yeah, and then I have a Harley Lowrider ST, oh cool.
Speaker 6:Jerry, what's your bike? Brand Schwinn. This has four wheels. No, he has a bike. You've heard of a Honda Rebel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he has an Acura. Oh, don has the bike. What kind of bike does Don have?
Speaker 7:I have no idea.
Speaker 6:Oh, come on, you've got to come up with something it's composite though this is Don's bike right here.
Speaker 4:This is it right there. It's composite, though. This is Don's bike right here. This is it right there.
Speaker 3:It's right here on the screen. Yeah, is this motorized?
Speaker 4:No, it's Donorized.
Speaker 3:Yes he's got left and right legs Donorized.
Speaker 7:Donorized. Why didn't you?
Speaker 3:know if it was like half and half. No, half motor, half pedal.
Speaker 7:He likes waking up early mornings and taking off and doing like 10, 15 mile bike rides. That's awesome.
Speaker 6:See what I like is taking off early afternoons.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 6:And on a powered bike where, after you know, I do the assisted pedal. Yeah, so I'm still pedaling, but it's assist, yeah. And then when I'm tired of that, I just grab that throttle and just I whiskey, throttle it back and let that electric motor.
Speaker 8:just take me on home Big 15, 20 miles an hour.
Speaker 6:So our electric bicycles do 28. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's pretty fast, it's cooking.
Speaker 6:It's cooking. I mean especially because you get those kids. It's like get those training wheels off the sidewalk. Don't you know better? You should be in the road, and it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:How long does it last?
Speaker 6:Well, with me on there or with Eric on it, because there's a weight distribution situation there.
Speaker 5:I guess I didn't think about that.
Speaker 8:We never burn the battery out.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they claim 45 miles, but we've never worn it out.
Speaker 2:That's pretty far. That's pretty far.
Speaker 6:That's very far. That's a long ways, and not only that, but we have a spare battery, because some kind person was so loving that they stole the bikes off the back of our vehicle once.
Speaker 8:But we never leave the battery. With the bike, we never leave the battery.
Speaker 6:Because you're not supposed to leave the battery on the bike when it's on the back of your vehicle. I guess it's crash protection and also water and all that stuff. So we had the batteries, we kept, but not the bikes were stolen. So we got the insurance money and bought new bikes and so now we have two backup batteries. Now they're heavy.
Speaker 2:That's the only downside. Now do you put a lock on it so people can't steal it.
Speaker 6:I had a lock on it.
Speaker 8:It got stolen with a lock on it we had the Kryptonite.
Speaker 6:The unpenetrable, non-stealable lock.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, that sucks.
Speaker 6:It does, but that's what insurance is for right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they really wanted your bikes.
Speaker 6:They really did and I keep looking. Every time I go around Columbus I'm like where's the person with the electric bike with no battery?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no battery. That's funny. Maybe you should put some stickers on it and stuff so it's identifiable.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's too much effort. I'm also a bone stock person. I like bone stock. I like the fact that the Suzuki that I'm looking at isn't loud. It looks good and it's got bone stock mufflers and whatever. I don't like loud pipes. I don't like doing all those upgrades. I'm not a modder. I like you know.
Speaker 3:A modder. I like that word yeah.
Speaker 6:The stuff I like is just very like. This is how it was meant to be. Now, don't get me wrong. I fully intend on replacing the seat. Everything I've read online says you've got to replace the seat. It's a terrible seat Like that's the big knock gets the bike. It's a great motorcycle but the seat's terrible. That's $1,000, by the way, for a new seat. Wow Very expensive, very expensive.
Speaker 4:But everybody says it's like having a lazy boy. I'm trying to get them to ride out to California with me California where Corbin is. We can do a ride in and they actually will customize a seat right there in person for you for about that same $1,000 for buying one off the shelf.
Speaker 6:Now the surgery I'll need on my wrist because the motorcycle doesn't have cruise control. That's going to be a little rough.
Speaker 5:Is yours, kayla, she's like of course it does.
Speaker 6:Because, they'll do thousand mile rides, they don't think twice about it.
Speaker 8:I didn't even look at the Vulcan.
Speaker 4:It doesn't At that level it doesn't.
Speaker 2:No, you're fine. We broke our record this year. We made it from the Ozarks All the way home in one day.
Speaker 6:You did the Ozarks trip on a bike, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:You didn't tell me that.
Speaker 3:I thought you drove down there in the car. No, oh my gosh, I knew they did it on the bikes Woo.
Speaker 6:That's a long way.
Speaker 3:We love doing long trips.
Speaker 4:I even answered my phone call in her helmet while she was riding.
Speaker 2:I answered the phone how legible is she Very.
Speaker 4:You can't tell that technology is so amazing these days.
Speaker 2:You can't tell. I have to focus to hear them. But I also wear earplugs. I wear earplugs and my helmet, so I have to focus to hear them. But they can hear me. But I think.
Speaker 4:I'm yelling.
Speaker 2:When I talk I'm sure it sounds like I'm yelling, but nobody's complained. I'll get off the phone faster, probably because it's not the most ideal conversation.
Speaker 8:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:In a pinch it works Cool.
Speaker 3:How far was that drive?
Speaker 2:700 miles.
Speaker 3:Wow, you did it all in one day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were flying On highway. Yeah, yeah, that's all right yeah.
Speaker 4:That's a ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a ton of fun. Was your butt sore? No, we did it later in the season. Once you get used to it enough, it just doesn't bug you anymore and we stop about every hour. We'll stop for like five, ten minutes and then just keep going.
Speaker 4:If I can translate that for you.
Speaker 3:I'm like, did you start at six in the morning?
Speaker 4:Once your butt gets numb, you don't feel it anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know right.
Speaker 6:So that's going to be a new thing for me is like everything I've seen in the class and hearing y'all talk about this kind of stuff. You stop often and frequent and take breaks. Yeah, when you're driving a car. When you're driving a truck, you just go. I need fuel. I got to stop, I got to pee.
Speaker 4:No, on a bike you enjoy the ride, the experience of being on a bike and riding is great, but you stop and take breaks and check stuff out, smell the roses. Smell the roses. See the local stuff. It's about the experience and not just A to B. It can be A to B, it's less fun.
Speaker 6:My idea is like, whenever it's time to go west, motorcycle trailer hook it up to the Jeep, do the 1,500 miles it is to prettiness, or 2,000, depending on where you're going and then get the motorcycles out.
Speaker 8:I imagine biking across Kansas.
Speaker 6:Or Nebraska Wyoming. I imagine biking across Kansas or Nebraska Flat and straight, or Nebraska Just Wyoming.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think once you guys get the experience here in Ohio, where the roads aren't that great, it's pretty flat, there's not a lot of curves, the roads aren't that great and we go. Georgia, california and get into some curves, like taking you up to Northern California and just ride around Santa Cruz, san Jose area. My goodness, just a whole different world.
Speaker 6:So Eric and I, like we love going to the mountains, we love going out to Gatlinburg and going into the Smokies or going out to Colorado and going up to Vail and all that stuff, or Montana and being in West Montana, that stuff I love, and that's another thing against the carburetor.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 6:When you get those higher elevations, you've got to lean your carburetor out, you do. And let me tell you I remember working on carburetors with my dad when I was a kid. I am that old and I remember how happy he was when we got rid of our carbureted car and moved to fuel injection.
Speaker 4:Well maybe we never had to mess that up again. I can see you and Eric on the side of the road changing jets in a carburetor so it works in higher altitude, Maybe when those rides come maybe a different bike will be in order.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe you'll have different experience and have upgraded a bike or changed bike.
Speaker 6:Well, that's the thing I like, especially so. Like the bike I'm getting. I know it's going to be good in the mountains period. Like it is big enough, it has enough torque. I was nervous about the Rebel because Because it is such a small displacement motor.
Speaker 6:How's it going to do when we go see, like Kelly and Jimmy, who you all have seen on the podcast they were here a couple weeks ago with us. Like, they live in the mountains of Georgia, they live in a beautiful area where it's great scenery, it's awesome rides. It's awesome rides in a car.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's just it's beautiful, but I tell you right now, some of those really steep, long mountain climbs I could just see us riding up the mountain and then get to the top of the mountain, take a break and wait for Eric and the Rebel wound up. Just Right, 28 miles an hour, just you know. And that's what I don't want to see happen. And with this new Kawasaki it's not going to happen. You're going to be able to climb up that hill just fine. So it's not necessarily about going fast. Street racing Forget that. Neither one of us want to do that. I don't find that fun at all. If I want to go fast, I'm going to fly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 6:But motorcycle. I don't want to kill myself, but when it comes to terrain and climbing hills and things like that, you need power I also have a lead on a trailer we can borrow that'll hold three bikes.
Speaker 4:I I got that. We had a conversation a while back. I got that phone call the next day. It was like hey, I meant to tell you last night we got on something else that, um, I got a trailer that we can. We can put three bucks on if you ever want to borrow it.
Speaker 6:Well, you know, the only thing to consider is what happens when Melissa gets hers.
Speaker 4:Well, one of us rides the whole way. Yeah, and the other three trailer I'll ride, I volunteer. Well, you guys are riding anyway.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 6:Because that would be a six person. Those of you not watching.
Speaker 4:the borrowed trailer would be from Eric and Kayla Bender. Yeah, and it holds three bikes. We'd have three bikes that aren't on it.
Speaker 2:I would almost argue it could fit four if it's put on there. We did the rail systems that are the same in the straight tracks.
Speaker 6:Oh, yeah, it works pretty good.
Speaker 8:Nice.
Speaker 6:We'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:I'm not looking to get anything until probably next time.
Speaker 3:You've got to figure it out 50 bikes.
Speaker 6:I've got to figure out how to hold 50 bikes. I've got a 20-foot aluminum trailer. I've got the rails on the floor, the rails on the wall.
Speaker 8:No question, alyssa, the D-rings, all that stuff. It's just Vince's bike to practice on before you take the classes.
Speaker 6:No, you're too heavy. Should be borrowing the cow socket Way too big.
Speaker 3:You can borrow my Vulcan.
Speaker 8:There you go.
Speaker 3:You can I think I might hit up one of Dalton's friends see if they've got a dirt bike that I could maybe just go out for an hour Just kind of brush up on my skills, because it has been a hot moment since I've ridden. I used to ride dirt bikes. That's why I was asking Okay, because I know that you hail from country, rural, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, raising the kids and that kind of thing, you know, boy mom. So to be part of the action, I had to drive something, and it was either a sand rail Most people know it as a dune buggy we called it a sand rail.
Speaker 3:It's a Volkswagen engine or I had a motorcycle. So I had like a circa 1970s with no suspension, none Kickstart, and it was probably about the size of your Groms, probably a little smaller than the Groms, but that's what I rode on and you know I was doing 25, 35, whatever you do on gravel road.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know we had Forest Service roads. You grew up in Idaho so I don't know if you had Forest Service roads, yep, but we had Forest Service roads. We don't have those in Ohio, but it was all gravel. So that's what we would do. We would go out either evenings or we do weekends, pack a picnic you know those kind of things, and the four of us you know the family would go out and go riding. So I have motorcycle experience. I was just telling Vince it would be kind of cool just to hop back on see if I still understand it. They both have been trying to convince me to maybe do the one day course because I already have experience. But I'm like very different street riding than I think, backwoods, country road riding, I think if you're comfortable doing the four day class or three day, whatever it is.
Speaker 4:It's either one or two days in classroom depending on where you go sure and then two days on the range, if that's what's comfortable for you it's still.
Speaker 3:That's what I want to do the same 75 bucks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, either one right, so why not?
Speaker 3:yeah, so anyways, I'm gonna take mine in the late spring, early summer yeah, next year, and then consider if I want to get a bike or not. I don't know. I like riding on the back. I don't know how to do anything. It's more relaxing. I just get to look at the scenery.
Speaker 8:I can see her back there crocheting A little Tom.
Speaker 6:Daley action.
Speaker 3:I don't know about that because I truly look at all the sites We'll get back. And I'm like did you see XYZ, abcd, I'll go through. I truly look at all the sites We'll get back and I'm like did you see X, y, z, a, b, c, d? I'll go through it all? And he's like I was driving.
Speaker 4:Well, sometimes I'll see that stuff. When we were on the group ride. I didn't see nothing.
Speaker 3:He was very focused.
Speaker 4:Oh my goodness, I was so focused.
Speaker 2:It's hard to get comfortable riding in a group.
Speaker 3:I didn't like it for a long time. Yeah, there was a Jaguar tractor, huge tractor, and it had the Jaguar glorious emblem on it. And we got back and I'm like again asking him if he saw everything and I'm like, did you see the Jaguar tractor? I've never seen one. We're talking like a harvester kind of tractor. And he's like no. And so he Googles it. They have a whole line, Really. No. And so he Googles it. They have a whole line, Really, but it's not the same as your car.
Speaker 6:Oh, it's not Jaguar. No, it's Jaguar Spelled the same. I thought it was a Panther truck.
Speaker 5:I'm like we've got a big Jaguar inside of our truck, but I'm like.
Speaker 3:Those are the kind of cool things I like to see. Like you know, the color of it was really weird. It wasn't John Deere green, it wasn't a red one, it wasn't whatever your normal tractors are, it was really something obscure.
Speaker 6:It's Kawasaki green.
Speaker 3:And I'm like you know, but I like that kind of stuff how many sailboats were on the lake when we crossed over the bridge? Or silly, silly, silly things? Or did you smell the barbecue, or smell like somebody was roasting a pig or something, or whatever it might be.
Speaker 6:But right now I enjoy riding on the back. I I love driving. I'm a driver at heart. I love it. If things were just a little bit different, I think I'd be a race car driver. I love driving. It's it's just one of the things I think it's so much fun. But I will say there have been several times we've done scenic drives or we've just been in really bad traffic and I will get the oh my God, look at that building. And it's like I turn to look and I have to snap my head right back because I don't know what traffic's doing or I don't know about this road or this curve or whatever.
Speaker 6:I remember doing the Blue Ridge Parkway years ago when we brought that team their truck out in Boone, north Carolina, doing the Blue Ridge Parkway in that Dodge Ram, which was I love that truck, I love that road, it's great, but man, I was so focused on keeping that truck. It's not like the Jeep. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee. For those of you that don't know, it is the 5.7 V8 Hemi. It is all-wheel drive it is a fun vehicle.
Speaker 6:It takes curves like a sports car. It's great that pickup truck did not that diesel pickup truck, man. And it's a curvy road and it's fast and it's slow, and then it's RV pulls out and cuts you off and then, jerry, you've done it.
Speaker 5:I know you have You're from that neck of the woods, as they say, that's my hometown.
Speaker 6:And so doing all that like it was so stressful. I didn't get hardly any enjoyment out of it and Eric, when we got done with it, eric was like this was great. You know, I had so much fun, I'm like.
Speaker 8:I am stressed out.
Speaker 5:Like I'm just worn out.
Speaker 6:It was a rough drive but I think motorcycles. I'm hoping that I continue enjoying that, but I do know by driving by, the amount of stuff you have to pay attention to and using. Sipt. I'm not going to see certain things.
Speaker 4:I'm going to miss out on stuff and that sucks, but that's why you take those breaks, though, right, you take those breaks to enjoy it. If there's something coming up, and if you're with a group of people and somebody sees something, you say, hey, let's stop over here and check this out. Or if you're planning a long trip, you plan that stuff out. Pre-planning is everything when you're doing your motorcycle.
Speaker 2:We plan exactly where we're going to stop. And then our rule, because I love the scenic overlooks if Eric sees a because he's usually the lead he has the GPS in his bike. If he sees a sign for a scenic overlook, he's supposed to pull in.
Speaker 4:And one of the things on bikes too, depending on the bike is your fuel range usually is less than what you can do in a car or a truck.
Speaker 2:By far we can go about 200 miles.
Speaker 4:I can get about 350 on a full tank, but I'm riding a big bike. It's designed for that touring. But the bikes that you guys are looking at 150, 200 maybe, so that makes you stop more frequently as well.
Speaker 3:But I like that you've got a rule. Anything that says Overlook, you already know it's an added stop.
Speaker 2:I'm yelling at him in my helmet too, if he passes. I'm like you missed it. We have a great time.
Speaker 6:Oh my gosh, I just got a picture of this jaguar. It is Kawasaki green.
Speaker 4:It is Kawasaki green, just about. Yeah.
Speaker 6:That's awesome. You can see that picture right here. It's got a little white on top, but it's Kawasaki green and it's got the red. It's actually a nice look. It's a very Christmassy look. It was pretty cool it was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:There's just really cool things. You know, vince still does the smells. We'll talk about those when we get back. Or oh, how about that wing gust? What did you think?
Speaker 6:about that. That makes me nervous. I've not experienced gusts yet You've done it in a truck. You've been on a 80.
Speaker 2:What do you do Same thing? No one warned me about the wing gusts and I was on the Grom. That's so light.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, I had no idea and I was on a two-lane road. Now that's a bike that if a Vespa passes you, you feel it right yeah.
Speaker 2:And a semi passed me going the opposite way and I screamed. I mean I screamed. I thought I was wrecking and it just jerked the bike so bad. Eric was behind me. We didn't have the comms in our helmet yet and he's like I just saw you slam on the brakes and I knew exactly what happened. I pulled over. I was like I need a moment. That was so scary.
Speaker 6:So how do you plan for it?
Speaker 2:now Assume that passes you and you're like, okay, I know it so. I'm going to lean out of it so that when it hits it doesn't, I'll move more to the right and my bike doesn't react like that, not like the Grom, it's a heavier bike.
Speaker 4:So I used to live in the Antelope Valley downtown Los Angeles in high desert. In the afternoon the wind picked up and part of my ride from work to home was across the runway of the Palmdale Airport. So wide open space in the desert and the wind would run from north to south. And on my ride home if you were to look at me just in a still you'd think I was turning left because I was leaning into the wind.
Speaker 4:And that was keeping me from doing all kinds of stuff. The wind and that was keeping me from doing all kinds of stuff. Now, melissa mentioned the wind was we went across a land bridge, over a lake and we came out of trees and little hills into open space and the wind just hit us until we got across the land bridge into civilization again, and it was not there.
Speaker 4:It's like in a truck you come out of a pass, you know crossing a bridge, and that wind's just going to tag you. So you prepare for that stuff and, like Hala said, lane position. You think about your lane position where you need to be. So there's still a lot to learn.
Speaker 3:I try to make sure that I'm facing forward when I know we're going to go across those kind of bridges, because if I have my head turned a certain way, it feels like it catches wind a little different Does that make sense.
Speaker 6:It does, yeah, so I try to because we've ridden this area several times.
Speaker 3:It's Sunbury up by the Pilot, kayla, and then you come across Alum Creek Lake. Okay yeah, so it's wide open and that wind just comes down the plane oklahoma uh anyway, um, but I've just learned, you know, okay, we're gonna across it just face forward because again, just that little bit of a tweak of the helmet you know where you're turning and looking just kind of the wind will catch in with whip you.
Speaker 3:But once we're in it, that first initial once we're in it, then I may just slightly swivel to look at the sights and scenery.
Speaker 4:And count the boats on the lake.
Speaker 3:And count the boats on the lake. There were a lot that one weekend. I think it was prime property if you could find a spot on the lake.
Speaker 6:The jet skiers are going between the boats.
Speaker 3:I know, seriously, that's awesome.
Speaker 6:Well, this has been Motorcycle Talk with the Otter Belting Crew. That's right. We hope you enjoyed your time with us. We hope we maybe gave you at least some fodder, some little couple of chuckles, on your past hour drive. And thank you, kayla and Eric, for joining us. It was a lot of fun and we hope to have you all back soon. Jerry, jerry, what are we forgetting?
Speaker 2:Is he still awake down there?
Speaker 6:He is.
Speaker 2:I think he said he got up at 4 am today. He always does, he always does.
Speaker 6:It's his thing, it's his thing For those of you who don't know, it's about 4 am now, so it's been a long day. It's been a long day. It's been a long day. The only reason we talked to him, the only reason I asked him now to fill in the blanks, is because I want to make sure he, like, wakes up for his drive home. So what are we forgetting?
Speaker 7:Hit that thumbs, hit all the buttons in front of you. If you would like to reach out to Highfield Trucking, if you're interested in doing what we do over here, or talk to somebody or driving or anything like that, visit our website at highfieldtruckingcom. We would love to chat with you on there, live Monday through Friday, 8 am to 6 pm Eastern Standard Time, or give us a call at 833-HIGHFIELD H-Y-F-I-E-L-D Recruiting would love to talk to you as well. You can also send us an email over at the outerbeltpodcast at gmailcom or send us an email from highfiltruckingcom, either way.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and if you didn't like what we had to say, just hit that thumbs down.
Speaker 4:Let us know what you didn't like and we'll give you a refund of everything you paid for this podcast. Let us know what you didn't like and we'll give you a refund of everything you paid for this podcast 100%.
Speaker 6:We have a 100% policy. I want to see some suggestions. Yes.
Speaker 3:Our viewers have suggestions. They're driving along. They've got them. Hit us with your best shot.
Speaker 6:We've had a few people reach out and be like, hey, why aren't you all talking about trucks again? Not trucks, but trucking. The story yeah, so we're going to continue that. We've had a couple little interruptions.
Speaker 4:And we didn't know, that they were coming and we didn't know you were going to be here. We didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Kelly and.
Speaker 6:Jimmy were going to be here and last week was kind of a fluke. We will resume. We will resume. It's literally.
Speaker 3:I have a note right here. You can't see it, but it's there.
Speaker 6:And it is no.
Speaker 3:We're supposed to be talking about the thing we did with the trucks to make them different, and how the thing that couldn't be done changed the world. I have one last thing to say. Okay. So, I know we record on a specific day, but this will air on another day. Yes, I will be a grandma by the time this airs. You will be.
Speaker 4:You will be a grandma.
Speaker 3:For a third time you will be. For a third time. First for this son.
Speaker 4:And just so you all know, I won't be a grandpa, she'll be a grandma.
Speaker 3:I'm super excited Again. I know this here is at a different day, but we had a chance to talk today and they do go in tomorrow. That's awesome On Tuesday, the 8th. Let's hope he's born on the same day too that they go in, but otherwise that'll be a long labor. Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 6:I'm excited for you. Can you imagine spending 20 plus hours in labor?
Speaker 3:Women do it. I did not, but women do it.
Speaker 4:Imagine doing it as a father, because I did. My daughter was 21 hours.
Speaker 6:That's just rude. It is rude.
Speaker 4:Have you ever told her, like you know what I do love you but Next podcast I'm going to call her live on the air and tell her how rude she was. You know how.
Speaker 6:Unless Jerry vetoes it. No, and we're going to do a 21 hour podcast.
Speaker 4:Yes, in honor of her, and she has to be on the phone the whole time.
Speaker 6:The whole time yeah.
Speaker 7:That's funny. We should do that. I'm vetoing that yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm vetoing that. Thank you, jerry.
Speaker 7:I don't have the energy to do that.
Speaker 3:They're middle school sweethearts.
Speaker 4:It's just a lot. I'm ruining things for myself. Thank you, jerry, for that. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:They're high school sweethearts, they're middle school sweethearts and for a very long time I've always wondered what their babies would look like, and I never thought they would Get married. At a certain point in I realized it probably was high school that it was going to be a forever thing. But I've just been waiting to see what their babies are going to look like.
Speaker 6:Well, at this point, you know.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 6:Very exciting I can't wait to celebrate with you. Yes, We'll be doing my birthday, we're going to do cigars and bubblegum cigars and champagne.
Speaker 4:There we go, I'm excited. Sparkling cider, sparkling cider.
Speaker 2:I expect a photo, not, you know, right away, but in the near future.
Speaker 6:I'm in the very near future.
Speaker 7:Why don't you send?
Speaker 2:you a photo.
Speaker 6:I don't want one of the like new, new, new ones.
Speaker 2:That's kind of gross. He'll be bundled.
Speaker 8:W new more. That's kind of gross. He'll be bundled. Wipe it down, take one of those.
Speaker 6:They sell them at the stores the dude wipes.
Speaker 3:Is that what they're called? Yeah, there you go. I'll send appropriate photos.
Speaker 6:See its little cute, little scrunched up face. Looks like a pit bull.
Speaker 3:They know it already has hair. They already know he has hair. They can see it in the 3D or 4D.
Speaker 6:That's too much information, that's definitely not Dalton.
Speaker 3:Dalton was bald for like until 3. Wow.
Speaker 6:I wonder if he's going to be a redhead. I don't know, I'm pulling for a redhead.
Speaker 8:There's a choice between redhead and blonde. That's it. I see only two options for those two. If it's something.
Speaker 6:Alright. Well, that's it. That's pretty much it. I see only two options for this too. Yeah, if it's something. Anyway, we're not going to do that, all right? Well, everybody, we'll talk to you next week. Stay safe and make good decisions.
Speaker 7:Don't leave money on the table and keep those wheels of Turner. Good night, good night, good night We'll be right back.
Speaker 5:Thank you.