Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Link. And I’m Rhett. This week at The Round Table of Dim Lighting, we are catching up with one another and with you about our recent trips that we took. I went to Florida for parents weekend to visit my freshman in college son, Locke. This was your first visit since you dropped him off- Since dropping him off. … at college. Yeah. So that’s a big deal. That’s a milestone moment. You, Jessie, and Shepherd, you all went. Yeah, we decided to not leave our 14 year old alone and to bring him with us, which ended up being an interesting choice. I mean, we would’ve never not done that, but I just have a POV on what it’s like- That normal choice became very interesting? Well, I have a POV on what it’s like to hang out with a 14 year old- I would hope you do … that you might find interesting. And you had a little bit more pleasurable trip, I assume. Oh yeah, definitely. Christy and I had a getaway to Big Sur. About this time last year, I believe, is when we went to Big Sur. So I’m not gonna rehash. There was a decent amount of overlap. Last time, there was a lot of rain on the tin roof of the cabin, none of that this time. But still a bunch of beautiful trees. But there were a couple of things that happened, a person that I met that I could not have predicted that I would meet deep in the forest. Okay. And an encounter, an intimate encounter unlike any I’ve ever had that did not really involve Christy. Oh my. How’s that for a teaser? I’m excited. You actually look kind of tired, you don’t look excited. Well, I am tired. I mean, that’s the thing. We work hard, man. I saw a few comments, I can’t remember where it was. I tend to not read comments and I find out why whenever I do. But back when you took a vacation and then I took a vacation and we talked about them on Ear Biscuits and because we are YouTubers and because we like to be sensational about the way we title things and the way we describe things because it’s called entertainment, we called it Worst Vacation Ever, right? And then there were a few people who are like, I don’t want to hear two rich guys complain about their vacation that they can afford to go on. Which I appreciate that perspective, but I just want to remind you that we talk about these things for your entertainment. If you’re not entertained, there’s many other options on the Internet. Oh. Don’t send a packing, man. Please don’t go. Please don’t go. Please like us. What I’m saying is we work very hard for your entertainment, and also for the lifestyle that we would like to live. And that involves doing things like going and visiting your children when they go off to college or taking your wife on a nice little trip away. We’re not going to apologize about those choices. And when we do them, we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk about them on this podcast. Oh, . You have the privilege and the freedom to comment about how you feel like we’re too privileged rich dudes who complain about things, because we are too privileged rich dudes who do complain about things for your entertainment. And we’re going to continue to do that. We’ll complain about the things that bug us, and we’ll celebrate the things that please us, and you’re welcome to come along for the ride. But we’re gonna do what we wanna do. That’s one take. I think the other take is I’m like, ooh, I’m cringing inside, ’cause I’m very self-conscious about, okay, having money. It’s a hang up of mine. I really- I wasn’t planning on talking about this, but you talked about how I look tired and the reason I look tired is because I’m a middle-aged man who works his off running a company and making entertainment. And then you feel like you have to apologize for complaining about your vacation which you only did for entertainment purposes. Right. Right. I get that, I totally get it. I am not disagreeing. There is something about the evolving relationship that we have with Mythical Beast, casual fans, I’m making a list now, just interloping commenters, and sometimes, so there’s different categories of people that we can get feedback from. Sometimes you don’t know how to weight that feedback. So on one hand, I don’t wanna be like, well, I don’t listen to any feedback. And I’m not saying that. But like I was telling you, I was listening to- I think we demonstrated that we listened to quite a lot of feedback and take that into account. If anything, a healthy exercise for us, and I think this is maybe what you’re kind of embodying at this point is that since our tendency is to be so, sensitive isn’t the right word, but there’s a high fidelity to the give and take between us and the vocal Mythical Beast, the feedback that we get. It is very important, it’s very valuable. If anything, we need to guard against overweighting that and not not going with our gut sometimes, or not being ourselves or saying, I’m doing this for entertainment value or I’m doing this to reach somebody, but it can be misunderstood Yeah, I agree with that. I was just telling you that, I don’t really listen to Joe Rogan, but Rick Rubin was a guest, and I listen to everything that Rick Rubin shows up on. That guy is so inspiring to me. So on the way in, they were at a point in their conversation where Rick was asking Rogan about what kept him grounded and what, despite experiencing success and fame, what keeps him sane. I think it was less of grounded and more of sane, ’cause they were talking about, there’s a lot that goes along with being in the public eye, being successful, being subject to so much scrutiny. And again, I’m not saying anything about Joe Rogan’s point of view or stance on anything here, but his response was he works out, he does his cold plunge stuff, which I know you’re getting into that too. And so I thought this would really resonate with you. And then he said, “I don’t read what people say or think about me at all, at all.” Yep. That’s a privilege. That is a wild privilege. You can do that as a really famous music producer. You cannot do that as an Internet person. Well, no, this was Joe Rogan talking, not Rick Rubin. Oh, okay. So Joe doesn’t listen to what anybody says about him. And it shows. Yeah, and it shows. We’re different people than him. So I think it would show- We approach things in a different way, But also if we didn’t listen to anything, I’d like to think we’re true enough to ourselves and what we’re putting out into the world, that that’s what Mythical Beasts are connecting with so that even if we didn’t listen to any feedback, we would still be in this safe zone of we’re still us, you’re still you, we still have this connection. But, and I actually don’t know what the but is. Well, I see, where you’re going with this. I don’t know my point is, so you tell me where I’m going. I think that there is a difference between accountability and cowering in fear about being yourself. So for instance- And I see that in myself sometimes. We have a big team and they do read all the comments and they know exactly what people are saying. Good point. The team is listening and then telling us. So- The team is listening. … recent example, we did an episode of GMM where it was our, can we follow directions in a different language? And we decided we wanted to feature American Sign Language on that episode. And we had a deaf person lined up to be the person to do sign language, because again, representation is important to us and we were like we want to get a deaf person to actually do this. They, unfortunately- And our team, and by the way, our team knew that. It’s not something we needed to tell them. The GMM team already knew that so that’s what they were working on. Of course. It’s not something we had to like, well make sure you do it this way. Yeah, and so- They were going about it in a way that I feel good about. That person was unable to make it. And of course our production schedule is crazy and very tight. And so Matt Carney’s friend was in town who, you saw the guy who was on the episode and his brother was deaf and he had to learn, the whole family had to learn sign language in order to communicate with the brother. So we were like, oh, that’s a cool story. And it’s not exactly what we wanted, which was a deaf person, but we made a decision to still move forward to be able to have ASL featured on the show. And of course, we got immediate feedback from a number of people about how this was not inclusive to the deaf community. And you know what? We totally understand that and we listen to that feedback, and I think moving forward, it’ll be like, okay, even though we know the backstory, which is we had somebody who was ready to go who was deaf and then we ended up using a non deaf person or a hearing person, because that’s a difficult thing to explain and contextualize and we did run the risk of making the deaf community feel excluded, maybe we should have taken a different tack. And this is great feedback and we’ll taken it into account moving forward. And we commented to the people on Twitter who said it, we commented on a TikTok video. That’s accountability and that is something that we listen to. But me being a person of privilege and wealth because of all the success that we have garnered for reasons that are a lot, we’re just very fortunate and very lucky and right timing and things have gone right, and we do live an unusual lifestyle. but that is the life that we live. That is the life that we have found ourselves in, is being the CEOs of this big company that’s doing well and having figured out this Internet game and having the ability to work really, really hard all the time, but then take much needed breaks and then come on this podcast and talk about them. I understand that if you are not in a situation where you can afford a vacation or you don’t have a job that pays well, you don’t have a job that you even enjoy, that it may be difficult to listen to us to say that we do enjoy our job and we do make a lot of money and we do go on vacation. And again, what I’m saying is, you have the right if that’s triggering for you to not listen, but I’m not going to not talk about my life because my life might be triggering to you. And I just think that there’s a place where you have to draw the line. I wanna be sensitive to it and I don’t wanna make this podcast all about two rich guys talking about all the rich guy stuff that they do, ’cause that would be stupid. But if you- And we don’t do that, I don’t think. But the podcast is about our lives. I mean that is it, this is what you signed up for, this is what you click for. Yeah so this is us being ourselves, and so I’m not gonna apologize for being myself, But we are two middle-aged dudes from rural North Carolina who have changed a whole hell of a lot over the course of the past 20 years. And there’s still things that we’re learning and there’s things that we don’t know. And so when our more informed, more sensitive audience lets us know where we’ve missed the mark, we do listen. But I don’t think that two guys talking about their vacation and if I had a bad vacation complaining about that vacation, that’s a place where I’m not gonna let people bully me into not talking about it. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. I was thinking the same thing this morning when I was brushing my teeth with ground up diamonds. I’ve found that the abrasive properties of the most expensive diamonds really do a great job cleaning my teeth. Yeah, I found that as well, Link. Right, Of course, you’re using my leftover diamonds. Yeah, because I’m a cheap skate Because I get them first. Right, I’ll buy them off of you because- I put them in my mouth first. I don’t pay retail. My children use them then they’re sent to you. I am still a cheap skate. So this is how we started this podcast. Yeah, well- Should we just keep going? Should the whole podcast be about like- No. Well, on your feedback. You know why it shouldn’t be? Because there’s a lot of people, and I see you and I respect you, who are like, guys, you don’t have to talk about this, we don’t care. I understand that and I appreciate you that you don’t feel the need to comment, but, I wasn’t planning on talking about this. I was gonna give you guys a bear update, which I’ll move on to now. Should we talk about Vote Like a Beast first? Yeah, we should. Because I mean, if we wanna make this more controversial, let’s tell them who to vote for. Okay, well, we don’t do that. No. We did create votelikeabeast.com. And the midterm elections are extremely pivotal, don’t underestimate your local state and the national midterm election, what is it, November 8th? So, rapidly approaching. We created a Vote Like A Beast to not tell you how to vote, but to help you become informed on how you want to vote. You can check your registration, you can get all your affairs in order, and you can, in terms of your point of view, so that you can be educated to vote your heart, mind, soul, toenails, whatever it is you vote with. Votelikeabeast.com. Go for it. Ayt? Okay. I recently talked about my trip, yeah, me and my trips, where Jessie and I went with friends, Lance and Lacey, to a cabin for the weekend and there was a bear that ended up- A bear drove your car. … getting into my car. Apparently, there is a bear network. They are communicating with one another, and at least one of them listens to this podcast. Uh-oh. This is my theory. What? This is my theory because you will not believe- So far it sounds like a sound theory. … what happened to me. As you know, we live in Los Angeles, and we live in relative close proximity to mountains that contain wildlife. You’ve had encounters with bears. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But I’ve never had an encounter with a bear. In fact- At my trash can, in the dark, I had a face off with a bear. On my way back from the airport, the Uber driver was saying, as he came up into the neighborhood was like, “You guys ever see bears up here?” As I was coming back from my trip to see Locke, and I was like, “Nah, I mean, our good friends who live about a mile away or so, they’ve seen them, but we’ve never seen bears.” And I was like, “As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen a bear outside of the zoo.” ‘Cause even the bear that I had an encounter with, I didn’t see it. You just saw- Lance and Lacey saw the bear, and then I saw the evidence of the bear in the car and on the porch. The sanitation people can give you a special trash can that is bear proof. That’s how pervasive bears could be in certain times of the year in our neighborhood. Well, interestingly- Yeah, so I kind of assumed that you’d seen a bear too. Your house, the back of your house touches a wildlife area where a bear could be at home. I’m more in a insulated neighborhood with rows of houses around me. Right, which is why I’m better than you. Right, and so I always thought to myself, when my trash can gets knocked over, I was just picturing three raccoons standing on top of each other or something. Hey, they can do it. They’re so smart. And cute, and vicious, and hungry. But my trash can has been knocked over a few times and then the trash has been rummaged through. But I was just like, this is a real smart raccoon, ’cause I’ve seen a bunch of raccoons. Well, Jessie and I are coming back from a birthday dinner that she had for me, which I will tell you about later the other night, and- Oh, is this the tortilla picture that was tweeted? Yeah, yeah, oh, I’ve got way more pictures than that. Oh, yes. And we’re pulling up to our driveway, and there’s a little space in between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway. Their house is currently under renovation and the driveway has got all kinds of crap in it just from stuff they tore away from the house and stuff. And walking down the road in front of my house is a giant bear. And I don’t mean like, the one you told me about was a juvenile bear, right? Mm, it- This was a fat, giant bear. I don’t know how to estimate bear size, but 500 pounds? It was massive. Yeah, I have not seen a bear that big. And so I immediately, and he walked up- What time of night was this? 10 o’clock? 9:30 maybe Wow. And he walks up the neighbor’s driveway and I immediately, of course, get out the phone. I actually wanted to get out of the car, but Jessie didn’t let me. But this is the video that I captured, and prepare to be disappointed because I pulled up as far as I could in the driveway and then got this, Oh, it’s carnage in their driveway. Oh, my gosh. What? Are you getting him? Yeah. You getting him? He’s huge. He’s real big. “He’s real big.” “He’s real big.” He is real big. She’s from Fuquay. I’m gonna tell you right now. That is a big freaking bear, dude. Yeah, it’s hard to to tell. That was just his head. That was just his head. Yeah, I would say he’s 1/3 bigger than the bear that I had to face off with in my backyard one time. So now the only animal that I haven’t seen that I know is in the neighborhood is a mountain lion. I haven’t seen a mountain lion. I’ve seen a good amount of long-legged bobcats and a whole lot of long-legged coyotes. Seen a bobcat at the creative house. Yeah. Seen deer all the time. I love seeing a bobcat, that’s cool. That was the first bobcat I’ve ever seen. First and only. Mountain lion, isn’t that crazy though? I mean, my neighbor’s seen some of those. So anyway- So now, you think that they’re talking to each other and they’re- Well, all I can say is I have not seen a bear up until this point. I talk about bears publicly on the Internet, and bear shows up and he had been, yeah, I mean I’m not a detective, but I believe he had been up to my trash to inspect it and we hadn’t put anything in the trash yet. He he’s not following along, he’s not following the schedule very well. We had been out of town. I always forget when to put the trash out too. I have a reminder. And that is a reminder to then tell my son that. Yeah. That’s what I need. That’s his job. I just look at when all my neighbors put out their trash cans while I’m driving in. So leaving for the trip, sometimes the most important part of a trip is going. And sometimes that’s really difficult to do. I think back to that RV trip we had where getting out of my driveway was literally a test of will and human ingenuity. You remember that? Mm-hmm. I’m a big fan of filling up with gas the night before. The last thing you want to do is pack up, get really excited to get on the road. and then you start getting on the road and you realize, oh we, we gotta stop for gas before we get on the road. There’s something like- It’s like a stutter. Is it a dad energy? Is it a man thing? I don’t know what it is about, I don’t, I want to get on the road, I wanna get going. Let’s get going. There’s a lot of standing around the house. Like, you ready? You ready? I packed everything last night. I packed it in my brain the night before, kind of a thing. But this is just you and your wife? It’s just me and Christy, so it- And she’s pretty on board with, I imagine that she packs well in advance. I’m dealing with, my family, man, it’s a war zone. You know the neighbor’s driveway. I’m the least organized person in our duo, but I am by far the most organized person in my family. And so know I’m packed at 9:00 PM. Christy and I are very, we’re very much on the same page, but I will say she didn’t fill up the gas the day before we’re taking her car. So had to pull over and fill it up at the bottom, before one mile into the trip. I’m like, let’s just get it outta the way. ’cause once we get going, I just wanna be going. And thank goodness we did that because I don’t have a little lever inside of the car that you pull to open the gas cap. you just walk up to the gas cap on the outside and you push it, you push it in and then it opens, the flap opens- And there’s no cap. There actually is still a cap underneath. Oh, interesting. In our car. I pushed on the thing, nothing. Pushed on the thing, nothing. Pushed harder on the thing, I couldn’t get it open. Now, we had half a tank of gas, but I wanted a full tank of gas And you want the ability to gas in later. But more importantly, I want that ability. and I’m like, oh gosh, I’m glad we’re still here. Across the street is the guy who does our service on the car. And Christy’s like, “Well,, take it over to him, maybe he can pop it.” We take it over there and he can’t pop it. And he’s like, “Well, just leave it with me.” And I was like, “Well we don’t have another car. We’re going on a trip, we don’t have another car that we can take.” And we start taking everything outta the back of the car so that he can see if he can get access from the inside to the backside of the thing. This is crazy. And I’m like, yeah, it’s just, it’s, I’m … And then I’m like, oh no, this can’t, I’m looking so forward to this trip, I need this so bad. This can’t happen. So while they’re rummaging through the inside, these two mechanics who are stopping they’re doing to help us ’cause they know Christy ’cause we get so much work done there. It’s good to have a mechanic you can trust and they know your face if not your name and your wallet. So I was like, I can’t, I can’t do this. So then I just started wedging my fingers in between the door and the fuselage of the car, and I’m like, something has to be done. something has to- You’re prying at this point. I’m prying. And then so I pull it hard and then all of a sudden, pop. I just ripped the outside of the body part, the smooth body part of the gas cap thing. I just ripped that whole sucker off. The door came off? The door came off in my hand. But it was just the facade of it. So then underneath, there’s this apparatus, the thing that’s actually broken that you have to push on. And then at that point, they could take a flathead screwdriver and pop that open. And then he said, “Well, because there’s a gas cap underneath it, don’t push that thing all the way back in and you’ll be fine. Just drive with this thing just kind of like flapping open a little bit.” So, but Christy and I both had a similar thought. We were like, okay now we can get back on the road, we can get gas, we went back over and got gas and we’re both independently thinking the same thing. Which is strange ’cause I don’t like thinking this type of stuff ’cause I don’t think I believe this way. But I was like, is this a sign that we shouldn’t go on this trip? Wow, okay. It’s like- How did that come up? We talked about it a little bit later. Christy was like, “I kind of feel well we shouldn’t go.” A bad omen. A bad omen. I was like, nope, I’m not believing in omens. This is not happening. I believe in going on this trip, nothing else. But I got a little nervous. And then it is a six-hour drive to Big Sur. And we stop for lunch, we get back on the road, we’re driving a little bit further and then I’m like, “You know what? Let’s switch so you can drive a little bit. We’re about to hit the curvy stuff.” She gets real car sick. So it’s like driving should help. Right. I pullover on the side of the road, basically in the middle of nowhere, we were about to lose cell service. Again, thank goodness I pulled over where we did because the moment I got out of the car to then switch sides, the car just died completely. All the power just died. Car wouldn’t crank. You didn’t turn the car off, It just died. I didn’t turn the car off, it knocked off. And I don’t know, a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas, it’s not supposed to knock off. And so here we are, we’re on the PCH, we’re on highway one, just starting the scenic drive. Beautiful, beautiful. It’s so beautiful. And we’re sitting there, I don’t know what to do. I feel very inadequate. But then everything that Christy’s telling me doesn’t make sense. It’s like, I feel like what you’re telling me right now, like, “Can you put it in park.” “Try to use my key.” “It doesn’t see the key, it says that the battery’s dead.” Okay, I guess the battery’s dead, but why of a sudden would you just stop on the side of the road and the battery would be dead? And so we start fighting. Christy and I never, we don’t raise our voices with each other. We never yell at each other. But it quickly escalated on this side of the road where she’s like, “Call AAA. Go ahead and call AAA.” I’m like, “I’m just gonna sit here and think, I need to think for a second and need gather my thoughts.” She’s like, “Well you can call AAA and then think. And so that way we’re waiting even less.” And like she’s making good points at this point. And she’s like, but then I ended up doing this thing where she was like, “Just, well, I’m trying to help.” And I’m like, “I’m trying to help. I’m trying to help.” This is how toddler I got. I was just so, it was just like feeling like this is ruining our trip, I am totally inadequate to fix this. I just felt, I don’t know, it was just like, I felt like I was really in my head and this is all an excuse because there’s no good reason. And half of it was, and I told Christy, 10 minutes later, once everything was resolved I was like, “It was so funny how we were yelling at each other. I wanna let you know that I was halfway joking. I thought it would be funny.” You told her that you were joking. That I was halfway joking. ‘Cause I was, I was like, ” don’t know what to do.” It’s like I was yelling like that, literally. It wasn’t like- Yeah, that’s half a joke. It wasn’t like I was angry at her. And she was yelling too, and then she just went to the back of the truck. Was she joke yelling? She was joking, I mean, a little bit too. It was one of those things where it was just like, because it was just funny that we were on the side of the road yelling and- Christy texted us at this point. There was a part of us that knew that. That’s why I’m not embarrassed to tell this story because it was so embarrassing at the time ’cause it was just silly. Well, she texted. It didn’t get that, no one was about to cry. She just went, but she was like, “Fine, I’ll just go to the back of the SUV and I will just stand there if you think you got this.” We called AAA and they came and they charged the battery. It was that simple. What did she text you at that point? ‘Cause she wasn’t talking to me. “Don’t talk to me.” Oh, well, the first text she sent was not to our four-way text. ‘Cause she didn’t want me to see what she was saying about me. So let’s see what she said. It was probably just me and Christy and Jessie. I don’t know, I can’t find the text. But it was essentially, we’re on the side of the road yelling at each other right now. She didn’t say joke yelling. I will say at the moment she did not say that you were joke yelling. After the guy, it was the type of thing that neither one of us had to apologize. It didn’t get that real. It was this kind of like ridiculous joke yelling type thing. It’s like, “Leave me alone.” And the guy from AAA showed up? AAA showed up. Alternator? Nope, the battery was completely dead, and come to find out, we just needed a new battery. They can do that right on the spot. But for some reason, they didn’t- Didn’t have your battery? No, they didn’t say I need a new battery. But Christy has since taken it into the dealer. And by the way, me ripping off the outside of that gas cap. Helped a lot, $300. Oh, okay. That was a 300 dollar- Yeah, cars man. But- So they just jumped you at that point and got you going? Because apparently the part that I ripped off, the manufacturer just ships you an unpainted one, so you have to install it. Well, that could be cool. And then you have to get a body shop to paint just that thing. Or you could leave it unpainted to call it a joke cover. A joke gas hole? This is my joke gas hole. So we’re adding this to my gas hole stories. I’ve had some really embarrassing gas hole stories over the course of my career. You can look those up. You have had a lot of issues with that car though. Yeah, we gotta get rid of it. I mean, it could be a lemon because, I mean, I don’t know anything about, I don’t know much about cars or car brands or which one- I gotta get a Rolls. Yeah, and the ones that run on diamonds? Yeah. Yeah. The diamond burning Rolls SUV. And then we can just make a whole podcast about your Rolls. Yeah, you see where I’m going. So at that point we were like, should we turn around? Should we turn around? Because if we get to the place where we’re go, we drive three more hours, is the battery gonna die again? All we did was charge it back up. And it had something- That’s what I’d be worried about, especially on that road man. Yeah ’cause there’s no cell service for the next two and a half hours. And then you finally get to the place you’re going. It was like, we cannot stop the car, we cannot get out, we cannot do anything until we get to the place we’re going so that then somebody can jump us again in to get back home. Right, yeah, you have to basically slow the car down, and then you get out of the car and Christy puts her hand on the wheel and moves over and then you go use the bathroom and then she comes back and does the same thing. The car never stops, that’s how you do that. We didn’t, I just drove and neither one of us used the bathroom. Okay, or you just pee in your pants. I held it. But it turned out not to be a bad omen because everything else was great and even the battery was fine for the rest of the time and now it’s been completely fixed. So don’t worry about me. Good. I’m totally good. I’m not. So no bad omen. ‘Cause we tested it, we went forward, we pressed on. Two signs that we should turn around, we thumbed our nose out and it all worked out. Yeah, I agree. I don’t really believe in omens as well. It’s just like you’re starting out on the, I’ve started watching the 1883 on the plane, which I think you’ve already started. You’ve already watched. I watched it all, it gets better. Well, it starts great so if it gets better, count me in, man. Oh good, yeah. I loved it right from the get. Yeah, Jessie will like it too. Yeah, I ended up watching all five episodes that they had on the plane without her. And I was like, you can catch up but I’m all in for Tim and Faith man. Anything they do, I’m in. And it’s so good. But- Sam Elliot. Oh, of course, you start on the Oregon trail, you gonna lose some people right at the, spoiler alert, some people gonna die. I didn’t realize it was the Oregon Trail until- They were on a trail to Oregon? Seven episodes in. I was like, oh- Yeah, everything that happens in video games- That’s why everybody’s dying from dysentery. Right, exactly, yeah. But you can’t just stop ’cause it’s gonna be hard, man. Can’t just stop ’cause it’s gonna be hard. You gotta pop out gas hole. Yep. I had an interesting car situation. I think last time I told you, last time we went to visit Locke, there was a issue with the rental car company. We had reserved a large SUV in order to house everything that we were moving him in with. Yeah. Things that had been shipped down there and we’re putting it all in. So we requested just a mid-size SUV this time for me and Jessie and Shepherd and then Locke to be able to take him around. And we show up at a rental car place, and just like last time, and I’m not gonna be one of those guys that complains about a specific rental car company or an airline the way that some people would, a Twitter following will do. I get it, but I’m not gonna do that, I have lodged, I found out that it is lodge a complaint. You stick it in the crevice, you cram it in there. I have lodged my complaint with this company as I waited in line to find out that the reason that everyone was waiting in line instead of just immediately going and getting into their car like usual, was that they didn’t have enough cars. But what they did have was a whole lot of minivans. Yes. I mean, minivans for days. Nobody wanted them. Well, I go to the lot, he’s like, “Sir, you’re in spot J23,” or whatever, and I go over there and that’s when I realize that they’ve got no cars but 40 minivans. I don’t know what they think everybody in Miami, Miami, that’s where we were, wants minivans, ’cause it doesn’t feel like a very minivan place. But, I gotta tell you- Can’t be beat, cannot be beat. … I am just more and more appreciating the minivan. It’s funny because I’m moving into this stage of my life where I don’t really need one because the kids are leaving. But I think I might be, our first empty nest purchase might be just a minivan for me and Jessie. Dang, I know that ain’t true. There’s so many ports. That is not true. There’s so many ports. Well, and you know what? They said, “Sir, we have either a convertible or a minivan.” A convertible minivan? The only choices they had, convertible or minivan. Why didn’t you get a convertible? Well, because there’s a family of four that I’m gonna be taking around in this thing. Yeah, okay, all right. Shepherd was not happy about this choice. He wanted the convertible. It was also, it was forecasting to be raining most of the time, most of the days it was gonna be raining at least part of the time, so … But when faced with a minivan or a convertible, I mean, those are the two ends of the spectrum when it comes to car choices. It should make it easy. I think you made the right choice. I felt like I was in a dream. This is not the kind of thing that you should have to make a decision about at a rental car place. “Sir, we have the coolest vehicle and the most uncool vehicle. Which kind of person are you?” Form or function? That’s not a dream, I’ll tell you a dream. Oh, okay. Christy told me, we were on our trip, and I was like, “How’d you sleep last night?” Because when you don’t have kids around and you’re just drinking your coffee and enjoying each other, you can ask things like, “How’d you sleep last night?” And she’s like, “Well I had this weird dream that I had to pee. And actually, I was afraid, part of me was afraid I was gonna pee in the bed. But I started peeing and then I realized I wasn’t on a toilet, I was on a hamster cage.” No problem there. Newspaper suck it right up. No, she said, “I was peeing on a hamster, and it drowned.” She killed a hamster with her piss. And she said, “It had a napkin over it.” After it died? No. She slowly pulled a napkin over it? Don’t want anybody to see that. She said, “I looked down and it had a sopping wet napkin over it.” I guess it was snuggling in his bed. No, I don’t believe in omens, but I do believe in dream interpretation. That’s a dream, my friend, She killed hamster by drowning it in her urine. That is some hardcore, I mean, I ain’t yelling at her on the side of the road anymore, you know what I’m saying? There’s no joke yelling and you know. Are you the hamster? I could be the hamster. I mean, are you on a hamster wheel? You’re just endlessly running and working and grinding yourself down to nothing. And she’s like, the only way to stop this pattern is to pee on him. We had no interpretation. We were just too baffled by it. That’s a dream, not convertible minivan, but- All right. Well, here’s the thing. When we picked up Locke, well, actually, Locke came over to the hotel that we were staying in, which was pretty close to campus. We got in pretty late and we were actually just expecting to see him in the morning ’cause that’s what we had talked about. But once we, cause it was 10 o’clock when we got in, he said, “I wanna see you guys.” So he comes over and it’s been what, a month or so since we dropped him off. Not long enough, in my opinion. If the fall break comes, the parents weekend comes real early. Too quick, too quick. But I think the whole idea of it is, I think this is multifaceted, but I think one thing is just like, we should get the parents in there pretty early so they can check on these kids before they really derail themselves. They still got time to correct course before they’ve dug too big of a hole, which a freshman can tend to do in that first semester. Well, yeah, It’s like we moved, well, you know what, I’ll keep this anonymous. I might have moved one of my kids into college for her second year, and then the next morning we went back to see her and she was like- You talking about Lily? “Don’t come in our apartment because there’s vomit all over the rug.” All right, she’s living that life. It wasn’t hers. Okay. Yeah, but somebody threw up. And Christy was like, “I brought that rug.” “Just weeks ago.” “Just last night.” Oh, just last night. Yeah, ’cause we moved her in. Oh wow, it was a fresh rug. Just testing it out. Oh, my god. A little peeing on the hamster, if you will. Oh, man. I’m throwing my whole family under our bus in this episode. I’m gonna get strung out. Well, so the general report is Locke is doing great. He is enjoying himself. He’s doing well in school. But he’s still very much Locke, which is a guy who is filled with so many ideas that come at you in rapid succession. That’s your fault, genetically. Here’s the mistake that I made, right? I was kind of gearing myself up, and I’m gonna say this by way of lesson learned and then maybe advice to other parents out there. We talk often about the goal being to maintain the relationship, right? Preserve the relationship, that’s paramount. It’s more important that you have the relationship than you have control, right? And there’s an illusion of control. And even when your kid is at school, you still see them and even if they’re 18, you still see them as your child that you have power and influence over and you care about them and you want the best for them. And so when they come at you with a bunch of ideas that, it was just way he was seeing things and things that he was gonna thinking about doing and, there’s a slow down, and I immediately, he triggered dad mode in a hard way. And I wasn’t expecting it ’cause I wasn’t even expecting to see him that night, I was gonna see him the next day. And we very quickly return to a dynamic that often manifests itself in our family, which is, Locke’s talking at a million miles a minute about all the things that he wants to do and all the things that he’s thinking. And Jessie and I both go into mom and dad mode where you’re trying to give advice and course correct. And it ended up being not a great initial reunion. Now, it ended well that night and we hugged, said I love you or whatever, we’ll see you in the morning and gonna go eat somewhere. But the first thing I did when I sat down with him in the morning, I was like, “I wanna apologize for how I was reactive to you last night when we talked, and I feel like we started the trip off on bad foot and I don’t want that to be the dynamic between us. I trust you believe you, love you,” whatever. It actually was- Pretty good. That was very helpful. Now, it’s still the McLaughlins, and so everyone has an opinion and everyone is passionate about their opinion and everybody thinks that they’re equally right. And Shepherd now, he’s a whole thing in and of himself as a 14 year old, which the best way I could describe a 14 year old boy, and least the one that’s in my house is, is as if someone suddenly got, they got turned on, slow motion was turned on. It is like you’re watching a YouTube video, and then all of a sudden you put it on half speed and everything slows down and gets deeper. That’s what’s happened to Shepherd. He’s been stretched from a boy to a man. I was watching the video where we took him out in the FJ during one of the vlogs and kind of like let him drive. And his voice is so high, he’s sitting in my lap. At this point, Shepherd is six feet tall. His voice sounds like- He’s my freaking height. His voice sounds exactly like me. So much so that, so Shepherd had his own room at the hotel and when we got there late, restaurants were closed and so we just got some food from the hotel and he was like, “Dad, can I call and get some food from the hotel?” I was like, “Yeah.” So he calls, and then I call from my room to get me something to eat. And then the first thing the guy said was, “Didn’t you just call?” And I was like, “No, that was my son.” So our voices sound the same now. So that little boy that was on my lap just a couple of years ago is now this big man, but he’s still a boy, right? He’s a boy man. Right. He’s a moy. And he’s moving in slow motion and he’s entering into the conversation like this. It’s like he’s becoming an ant. And boy, getting him up, waking a 14 year old up. So we had to have a discussion, a lengthy discussion about what sound he needed to pick for his phone to make in order to wake him up, because he sleeps through multiple sounds. That there was an alarm. There was me calling his hotel room phone, There was me going down there and banging. And then finally, I was able to get him up and be like, “Dude, we gotta go eat.” But despite the fact that he is become a moy and is moving in slow motion, he is still a McLaughlin and that comes out when we sit down and somebody just, it’s so funny because this was not the dynamic of my family. The dynamic of my family was my dad would kind of say something and everybody would just kind of agree with it. That was sort of how my family worked. The dynamic of Jessie’s family is that everybody has an opinion and everybody is very good at debating. And it’s just like, hey guys, we’re just talking about what we’re eating right now. That doesn’t have to become a debate, but the way they actually show love to each other is by entering into debate. And so Jessie kind of has that in her. And then I can adapt to either situation. I can be like, I’m along for the ride, or I also have an opinion and I can defend it. And so the dynamic that has emerged in our family is that we go out to eat brunch, and we we’re in this restaurant and we realize that we’re talking very loud and everyone’s talking very passionately about whatever they’re saying. And it’s like, I feel like people are now realizing how loud we’re being and like- Noticing. Definitely, definitely. But we actually, we had a chance to kind of like have the meta conversation about the way that we, ’cause the funny thing Locke said was, “It’s just amazing how quickly our dynamic returns.” Like, this is the way that we interact and- That’s comforting. Well, he’s like, “It’s a little bit frustrating but also comforting at the same time.” But we talked about our dynamic and then we were like, we need to believe the best about each other. There’s certain topics that we might bring up that we disagree about, that, there’s just no reason for us to talk about those things. It’s like, this is about connecting, this is about figuring out what you need at this juncture and us being there to be supportive or whatever. And then we went to a football game. So I was excited about this because we just don’t, now that we’re in California and we’re so far away from NC State, if we still lived in the triangle, we’d probably be going to NC State home games for not all of them maybe, but I definitely would be- I would be going when you ask me to go. I’d have season tickets to the Wolf Pack. And I just love college athletics. I completely give myself over to the mania, to the completely inexplicable mania. Especially that my only connection to this school now is my son’s going there, I am giving them a lot of money. And they were also playing Carolina in football. Gross. And so I was like, Am I gonna have to go and watch Carolina beat another team that I’ve now gotten dressed up for? We went to the student store, we got the clothes. We were like, we’re ready to go. I’m completely embracing this. And yeah, Carolina beat us. But I also was so into it that I lost my voice. I’m still, that game was on- I noticed yesterday. … Saturday. You were real raspy. Well, what ended up happening was there was this crazy, it was one of those things where everybody started leaving because it looked like it was over. But then they started coming back and then there was this crazy onsite kick that they got. But it turns out when they watched the replay, the guy had gone out of bounds. But when they recovered the onsite kick before we realized that there had been a violation, it was freaking nuts. And that was the point in which a series of yells that I do not remember came out of me and caused me to like lose my voice for several, not lose it, but be raspy. I’m still kind of there. Blew it out. So anyway, that was a really good moment. And Locke was like, “I had so much fun. I’ve never had that much fun at a sporting event.” We ended up having a very, very sweet time as a family. And then when we were leaving, Locke was like, “This is almost harder than when you guys dropped me off.” Ha. Got to meet his friends and the people he’s connecting with in his dorm. There was lots of hugging and I love yous and it was good. So we did the thing, we did the parents weekend thing, checked in, and I feel- Mission accomplishment. We were already in very close contact, in very frequent contact, much more than we were even when he was here, when he was living with us. But that frequency has even picked up since then with multiple texts a day. I’m sure it’ll die back down, it kind of dies back down a little bit. But the relationship, which again, if my goal is preserving the relationship, maintaining that relationship, then mission accomplished. You want to hear about the person I met in the wilderness? Yeah. So we were staying, it’s the same place we stayed last year with, had the cabins, Glen Oaks. Shout out to Glen Oaks. It got cabins around the Big Sur River. So you’re in the forest, you’re not on like the cliff’s edge seeing the ocean from this particular point in like the Big Sur Canyon. But it’s absolutely amazing, redwoods everywhere, these cute little cabins. Last time we went, they had shut down part of it because there was a wedding. And so they do have weddings. We saw some people walking around in tuxes our first morning there where we had a full day there. But we went down, we found the Adirondack chairs and just hung out next to the river. And it’s absolutely beautiful. I took my shirt off, get a little vitamin D, very comfortable. How warm was it? And, it was probably 70 degrees. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Which is chilly to take your shirt off if you’re me. But like the sun was just giving you that nice, giving it the D man. And at certain points, I just have this, I like to be to myself, I like to connect with Christy. And then at other points I feel this need to want to connect with other people. It is so outta character for me, but sometimes I get to a point where it’s like, I like having conversations with strangers, when we go to breakfast and I’m like, “Oh, where are you guys from?” I don’t know. You think this is that a character for you? Sometimes. Like when I go on a retreat, sometimes, oh, I don’t wanna talk to anybody, but sometimes I’ll get in that mode, I’ll get in that mood. I saw a couple come down to the river below us and the guy was dressed up like he was going to a wedding, I guess, this wedding that was happening. And then he was taking a picture of his girlfriend and I was sitting there shirtless and I was just watching them and I was like, you know what? I kind of want to go down there and be in the picture with her. I just think it would be funny. Well, yeah, funny is one word. Funny for me. Ding, ding, ding. Totally, you know how I am. I love the funny for me humor. And I’m telling Christy this, I’m like, “I’ll also take a picture of them together ’cause he’s just taking pictures of her. He looks nice.” And she’s like, No, don’t. You don’t need to be social with them.” Thank you, Christy. And they were a little far away, but he did turn and look at me and I waved at him. Okay. And he did not wave back. Yeah, ’cause it’s a little strange. Which I took it to mean that Christy was right. And then, she pointed the other direction and there’s like a foot bridge crossing the river, and this is 300 yards away. I know you’re into football so you know how far that is. You think it was three football fields away? 300 yards. Three football fields? Okay, fine. 200 yards away. Because I mean, that’s almost 1,000 feet. That’s, I mean, some people can’t even see that far. Okay, how far is far enough that you can see someone crossing a foot bridge? Well, imagine yourself out, the way I think about this- This is a divergent, I imagine myself out- 100 yards. One football field. And I’m looking across, I mean, you played soccer, you know. They were one football field away. Yeah, that sounds a lot more reasonable. Okay. And it’s people in tuxes, groomsman crossing this foot bridge. And then also- You found the wedding party. And I was like, oh, there’s the bride. And I’m telling Christy, I’m like, “That’s the one I want to talk to. I wanna talk to the bride.” And I know that this is putting Christy on edge and it’s just funny to me. And she’s rolling her eyes. And we are talking about the wedding and how it would be so beautiful to get married here and stuff like that. We’re almost talking ourselves in renewing our vows, which I’m against. My vows are still very much intact. Okay. Even though they were very Jesus centric in one sense, you can make an argument that we need some new vows, but I also feel like we’re doing great. There’s nothing to renew. It’s still going awesome. Isn’t it just about the party? Well, we can have a party anyway. Okay. But then we’re sitting there in the chairs chilling out, and all of a sudden outta nowhere, pops this guy in a tux, the groom, with a photographer behind him. How close is he? How many football fields away is he? I would say he is five feet away from me. Okay, that’s very close. I mean, popped out of nowhere. And then I saw behind the photographer, the bride. And I’m like, oh, , it is on, it’s time I get to meet this bride. And the guy’s like- Why? He’s like, “Would you mind if we kick you out?” And he was like, “Okay, we’re gonna take wedding photos.” And I was like, “Oh yes, yes, yes, yes.” And I was shirtless, felt a little weird. I’m scrambling to put my shirt on, and he’s looking at me strange. And then I was like, well, I know I’m strange, but he’s like, “Don’t I know you from the Internet?” And I was like, “Yeah.” I was like, “I’m getting outta here, you guys take over.” He’s like, “Let’s get a picture.” So I a picture with the guy. Shirt on, shirt off? Shirt is on at this point. Okay. The bride’s walking up, she’s very quiet, she did not say anything. ‘Cause she’s probably concerned. And I’m like, “You look beautiful, congratulations.” And then all of a sudden, there was a teenager there and a baby. And all of a sudden I’m confused. Is it Instant Family? And I started thinking because it was on my brain that they were renewing their vows. And for some reason I came this close to asking them, “Are you guys renewing your vows?” Wouldn’t that be the stupidest thing to ask someone who’s getting married? Yeah, yeah. I didn’t say it, because instead he said, “I’m from Naked and Afraid.” And I’m like, “What?” Okay, all right. I was like, well we were already leaving. You’re getting married. You don’t have to drop the fact that you’re in a reality competition show where you’re naked and surviving. But it’s like, okay. But he knew you from the Internet So he knew me, I guess he was trying to get- What did he look like? He was a tall, strapping, bearded man, middle-aged. Okay. Did he look anything like me? I mean, you said tall and strapping and bearded, so-. Yes. Because there’s multiple people who have, I don’t watch Naked and Afraid. Well, I don’t wanna spoil it ’cause I think that the season’s not out. And I didn’t ask him if he won or lost or whatever or like- Is he a recurring character or he hasn’t been on yet? What do you mean a recurring character? It’s just like Survivor, I think. I think some people, the best of come back. Oh, I don’t know. And people have said they thought that I was on it. You’re dropped in the wilderness. People who think that just a tall bearded guy is always me. I’m sure there’s plenty of tall, bearded guys on Naked and Afraid. Yeah ’cause I mean, if you’re tall you’re gonna end up bearded ’cause you’re out there anyway. You start tall, you’re gonna become bearded. Yeah, well more than one beard, you know? Right, yeah. See all the beards That’s really more of a mustache. So that’s the guy that I met. And then I’m like- Did you ask any questions about the, did you talk to the bride? I said, “You look beautiful.” She was like, didn’t wanna say anything. So then we just kind of left. They got married. What did Christy say? She was just kind of like. She wasn’t talking to them. She was shooing me out of there ’cause she didn’t want me to be too talkative. And yeah, turns out they got married. And then Christy and I are hanging out for hours in our cabin, having a grand old time. And then we both had to use restroom at the same time. So I was like, I’ll just go down to, there’s more of like a cabin is like public restrooms, and I’m gonna walk outta our cabin and go there while you’re using our bathroom. Yeah, while she uses the hamster. Yeah. So then once I used the bathroom down there, at this point I was just wearing a bathrobe and flip flops. Nothing else. Okay, that’s odd. I mean, and you are at a resort, but there is a wedding party wondering. But they are from Naked and Afraid, so- So once I exited the bathroom, instead of going back to the cabin, there was a path, and I’m like I’m just gonna walk this path down through this beautiful forest. And I found myself just having this contemplative time where I was just enjoying nature, walking around in my stark white robe and my flip flops on this little path, trying not to get poison ivy. And all of a sudden, these two 14 year old boys dart around the corner wearing tuxes, and they stumble upon me and almost run me over. And I’m like, I gotcha. So I talked to these, it turns out that this 14 year old boy, a moy, I guess you would call him. Was he moving in slow motion? He was. His dad was Naked and Afraid dude. Okay. Who just got married. Okay. So he had been in the photo shoot earlier. So I talked to him for a while Did he recognize you? He did, he was like, “You’re that guy.” I was like, “We’re all just people. How long have you known your friend here?” We’re all just people. Yeah, and he was like, “Three years.” And I was like, “That’s a full third of your lives that you’ve known each other.” Of course that was not true No, not true. I realized that later Almost a fifth. Right. But I was just trying to give them something, like give them some perspective on life that, it’s like- You gave them some perspective. ‘Cause we’ve known each other for like- What was a third of your nine years? … like 90% of our lives we’ve known each other. Maybe more than that. And then, so I was just trying to give them perspective. It’s like, it’s good to have a friend. Yeah, it is. It’s great to have a friend. But they were probably thinking, why is this naked dude in a robe talking to me about incorrect math? How did this conversation go? What did they say back to you? And what did- They didn’t wanna be as philosophical as I felt like I wanted to be. The forest tends to do these things, it’s like I was on a retreat and they’re getting, I was like, they had already gotten married. They were taking pic, I was like, “You guys are running from pictures, aren’t you?” They’re like “Yeah, they want to take a lot of pictures.” I was like, “You just need to party. Don’t worry about pictures.” That’s what I told them. They’re gonna tell their friends about this interaction. Who knows what the hell they’re gonna say. So then this is like 30 minutes. Who knows what you’ve done to the brand. When I walked back up to the cabin, Christy was standing there in her robe with her hands like, “What the hell, where have you been?” Wait, how long was it you think? Half hour, 20 minutes. To use the bathroom. Yeah. And she was like, “I just knew that you were trying to crash the wedding. You were trying to crash the wedding.” I was like, “Well no I wasn’t, I was just taking a walk.” But we did get invited to the reception, so, and they really want us to go. And ’cause I saw the Naked and Afraid guy when I was coming back and he was like, “We’re going to the reception right now, you guys should come.” I was like, “Well, if I can talk Christy into it, we’ll be there.” And I’m just in my rob. It’s a big if. I’m like, I like to party, but I’m not really dressed for the occasion. And I made sure that my junk wasn’t hanging out. That’s good. When I told Christy, “We’ve been invited to the wedding reception, let’s get dressed, let’s go right now.” And she’s like, “Who invited you?” I was like, “Naked and Afraid guy, and his son and his brother.” And she’s like, “Did the bride invite you?” And I was like, “Well, she was there. She was sitting in the car waiting to leave. But I kept talking to Naked and Afraid guy. So they were kind of delayed. But she never invited me.” And Christy’s like, “Exactly. We can’t crash their wedding reception and make this about you.” I’m like, “You know what? I respect that.” So we didn’t go, I’m glad you have a wife. She’s so great. She is my rock. Can you imagine if you did these things alone? She’s my rock. She gives me freedom to just to let loose. I know that she’s there for me. I feel the same way about you a lot of times. Well, it’s a lot of work. I mean, listen, I don’t go on retreats with just you, so, but God bless your wife. I love her to death. She’s amazing. She needs a raise. Oh, I gave her a raise. Okay, I see what you mean. I love Big Sur, man, It just puts you in a- I would just love to hear that story from the perspective of any one of the people that you talked to, but most especially the bride. Christy said, “I knew you were naked and I was afraid.” Ah, yeah. She’s brilliant. And then she was like, “You know what” That’s what we should be for Halloween. You can be naked and I’ll be afraid.” That’s pretty good, that’s pretty good. She was like, I can just be my, and she’s like, “I tend to be more afraid about things and you tend to be prone or wanna be naked about things.” I teased at the beginning that I would talk to you about the tortilla margarita that got posted on the Internet. So Jessie took me out to a birthday dinner. And we were going to this place in LA that Jessie completely nailed the description of it, which is, it’s a place that kind of embodies the thing that people think Los Angeles restaurants are, but actually aren’t. Okay. Meaning, everything is completely over the top and super showy. And it’s sort of a you do this one time and you probably won’t come back. This is how I feel about it. Gimmick? Gimmicky, but in a, let me just, I’ll just take you through a little photo essay and I will describe these photos for those of you who are listening. So just the two of us, originally we were gonna take Shepherd, but he was moving too slow. And just, he basically had become stationary. No, he had like a bunch of homework to do and he is like, “Sorry dad, I’ve got too much homework.” And we were kind of like, you know, this will just be a date between the two of us. Maybe even better. Great. Have you said the name of the restaurant? It’s called Barton G. And it’s an experience. Like I said, the food was good, but it’s not really about that. It’s about the presentation. So it started off and the waiter said this right up front. He was like, “Everything you order here is gonna kind of come with a little bit of a show.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I did- A little bit of a show. I did pick the, I mean- The first thing you order here is gonna have a tortilla on. So this is a picture that my wife took of me and my drink, which it was just some margarita. I’m obviously, at this point I’m very, very happy. I’m just content to be with my wonderful wife on my on my birthday. And there is a tortilla that is on top of the margarita. Actually- It looks like an adult version of a kid’s sippy cup lid. Like you’ve popped through the tortilla with the straw. Yeah, this was called the La Playa-Rita. So you can’t really see in the picture, but there’s a picture frame below it and it’s sand and a starfish, so like, oh, we’re putting this margarita on the beach on your, I mean, not too flashy, just sort of like, okay, it’s on this frame and it’s got a tortilla. Okay. All right, I was like, I mean it’s odd, and I did eat, yes, the entire tortilla. Were you supposed to? Why not? I mean, I believe it was edible. So then we got a- You ate it and you’re still saying, I’m still open to the fact that it might not have been edible, but I did eat it. And now things picked up a notch here when we ordered the Caesar salad, which was one of the best Caesar salads I’ve had, I will say that. I like a good Caesar salad, especially if it’s real strong. And of course, the Caesar salad came with a bust of Julius Caesar. As you can see, I’m a little bit intimidated and perplexed. Is that made out of cement? It’s rock hard man. Oh. Yeah. And it is a little bit odd to eat a salad while Caesar is at your table. It’s just so weird. It’s not even part of the salad, it’s just a statue. Oh, you just wait, friend. Then we order the, I actually went kinda light on the number of things that we ordered because, you know, so we got that salad, then we got a highly recommended appetizer, the lobster pop-tarts. That sounds good. And as you can see, they come in a toaster, right? Uh-huh. They were very tasty. But it- How much lobster was in there? Did they skimp? No, they actually went real hard on a lobster. I mean- Oh, great. They didn’t skimp at all. At this point, I told Jessie, at this point, I said- That makes sense, in a toaster. “This is, A, something that the Mythical Kitchen would make for us on the show, and B, how they would present it to us.” You know? Yeah. And so I was like, “I feel like I’m on my show now.” Okay, but not in a good way. No, I was enjoying myself but then things got a little bit crazy ’cause I ordered, well you know what? I’m gonna come back to that ’cause that’s the kicker. I ordered something that was a little underwhelming. It was the fish. Is that on your head or in front of you? Well, Jessie thought that this would be a cute way to take the picture. It’s hanging, it’s a fish that’s on a rod hanging over a fish that you’re eating. So it’s a little bit weird, right? A little bit weird. Fish was pretty good. But then they brought out the short rib, and this was three full beef ribs. I actually have so much of this left over because we didn’t put hardly a dent in it. But it came out on top of a lawn mower that took up the entire table, the entire table. Because it’s grass-fed. So, and here’s a video. So that is a push lawn mower? Yeah, here’s the video complete with sound. It’s a video. It’s making a whole lot of noise. The lawn mower is taking the whole table. This sorta came by. What? And it makes a scene, it’s loud. It’s a lawn mower, now there’s like a speaker inside of the lawn mower. It’s making all this noise. I don’t know how to feel about this. It’s so easy to poo poo it, but I don’t wanna just go there. Well, let me just say, as somebody who eats weird on the Internet for a living, and has people make weird things to bring it out in, even I was beginning to get a little embarrassed. And I don’t like to draw attention to myself, but everyone at the restaurant is drawing attention to themselves over and over again because that’s the whole point of the restaurant. So this lawn mower is coming out multiple times. You’ve seen the lawn mower on other people’s tables? No, actually I saw it first for me, but then we got there a little early I guess, but then I saw it multiple people’s tables. Actually it wasn’t that crowded. I think people in LA are maybe a little bit over this concept, we’ll see. But it was also a weeknight. How did they put it on the table? Did it take two people? Yes, but here’s what they did. They brought it out, they set it down, and then they come to you and they say, “Did you get your pictures or whatever?” And then they take it away and then just bring you back the meat ’cause you can’t eat with that lawn mower, it takes up the whole table. At this point, we needed dessert. And Jessie was like, “What do you want for dessert?” I was like, “I want the least embarrassing dessert.” Wow, your spirit had been broken. Yeah, I was like- That says a lot. I mean, ’cause I had seen a dessert that had a fork that was seven feet tall, it felt like. And also I looked and they had a pie. It was just like, this is a pie. The least embarrassing one. I was like, “What’s the pie tonight?” And they were like, “It’s peach pie with ice cream.” I was like- Yeah, but what are you going do to me? That feels- Peaches, it might come out on a big ass. So this is that moment. So they gave you a birthday candle? Yeah. What is that? It is a pie eating contest trophy with the full pie. You get a whole pie. And then they have multiple empty pie plates. It’s a video. Do you want a picture now? The way that Jessie gives commentary on these videos is the- It’s not her gift. It’s the running headline. You buried the lead here that like, my wife will say some funny stuff. She’s like, “It’s a video, do you want a photo? It’s a lawn mower. This is what our carne asada came out on.” You know, she does listen to this podcast. She’s gonna have words with you. I have to give her about it, it’s hilarious. So it says fifth place on this photo, and you get a trophy and you get these empty pie plates. And again, this is my dessert. It is a full pie for two people. So I definitely think if you wanna have fun, I think- What would Shepherd have been doing, would he have been cringing? He would’ve been more embarrassed than me, he’s 14. Now, I think that this could be a good group outing. I do think it’s worth going out as a group, because again, the portions are huge- This is our profession, though. The meat, the short rib, which tasted great. You could have fed five people, and of course a whole pie. We each ate a slice of that and I’ve got like a whole pie in my fridge now. We could go one or two directions. We could make fun of this or we could invest in it. It’s kind of like the minivan or the convertible. Well, you know what? One of the things Jessie and I talked about when we were eating there was, I was like, I don’t think I would do this again because I get it, I saw how it is. I’m much more interested in just eating good food at a cool place. But it did make me think about some of the things that we’ve talked about, years ago, really pre-pandemic. We talked about, and people, I mean, have asked us about this 100 times. Like, what would a Mythical Restaurant look like, right? Yeah. You guys play so many games with food and you’ve got all these crazy ideas and what would it looked like? And so we’ve concepted some different restaurant ideas that incorporate playing with your food. But the thing that hit me is I think I would go to a place like that and- It needs to be in a tourist trap. Doesn’t need to be- Yeah, you gotta get people who are in the right mood to be like- It’s gotta be on a pier. I want to have an experience right now. And so you gotta, you are totally right, it’s gotta be in a place where people are like, we’re here to have fun. ‘Cause honestly, I want a good thing to eat in a- People who are saying, “What do we want for dinner?” Well, been there Bubba Gump that, what’s next? You know what I’m saying? Well, it’s kinda like the Rainforest Cafe. Which the food is not as gimmicky as the atmosphere. Which is very moldy. And it has definitely passed its prime. And the prime wasn’t even that impressive. I don’t ever order the prime. But I don’t know, it made me think twice about that. First of all, I just opened a restaurant. Just feels like a fool’s errand. Somebody will probably talk us into it. I am not gonna share. I’m gonna save my given time, I’m gonna save my story of my intimate encounter. But I do wanna leave you- Oh, I thought, so the story of meeting Naked and afraid wasn’t the intimate encounter? No. It got more intimate than that? Than being in a robe on a trail? Well, I mean, what are we talking about next week? What’s on the docket? We can give a little teaser, and I maybe I can add this to it. The MythiCon live episode. Oh, the MythiCon live episode comes out next. All right. So what we just experienced in MythiCon is our next episode. What about after that, what are we planning on doing? [Inaudible] Right, maybe I can throw it in there, I don’t know. Or maybe we make it a Car Biscuit, I don’t know. We’ll talk about, but I do wanna leave you with, first of all, I’ll leave you with this picture of me. Christy took a picture of me and the sunset holding a glass of wine, she told me where to look. So I feel like this should be the cover of like AARP or something. I look like- It has a brochure-like quality, It has a brochure-like vibe. And I just look like, I don’t know. Now, this is the same place that Jessie and I got all of our anniversary pictures taken. See there’s me looking at the sun setting. That’s not good enough. She said, “Look to my left,” then I become AARP material. And we went on, it’s the same place that you guys went. And we went on this amazing hike and we go to this, there’s like all of this ocean fog coming in up the cliff and then over the redwoods, and we’re hiking in this meadow. All of a sudden we come outta the woods into this beautiful meadow, and we walk around the meadow and then I look back and the sea fog or whatever it’s called, I took this TimeLapse video, look at that. That’s just like something out of a Lord of the Rings spooky horse chase scene. I mean, it’s the most beautiful place I’ve been. Isn’t that amazing? I mean- Big Sur’s most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Ah, I love it. I love it so much. So that’s what I’m gonna leave you with and I’ll share that other story at another time. We’ve packed so much into this episode and you’ve made it, you’ve made it to the end. Unless we pissed you off at the beginning and you didn’t. And you’re not here anymore. And I’m, you know. Yeah. You don’t know. You don’t know what we’re talking about yet. I had fun. You know what? I’m grateful. Forever grateful, forever grateful. I’m forever grateful. I’m gonna give you a little rack. You probably have heard of this musician, but I’ve been recently introduced to her. Yola. Have you listened to Yola? Yola? Yola with an exclamation point? Uh-uh. Oh, she is incredible. What type of music is Yola? Well, as she says on her Twitter bio, she is musically genre fluid. Okay. Six-time Grammy nominee. I got introduced to her because people were talking about, and this is very humbling, some people were talking about her and me in the same sentence in terms of kind of an approach to music, which, I’ll take it. And especially with my first track on my album, Believe me, which has that kind of throwback, she has this throwback meets soul meets country, at times, and I think that’s where the conversation cross over with me. She’s got some really good country songs. Oh, her new album is produced by Dan Auerbach, from the Black Keys, okay. And that’s a great album. My suggestion is that you start with her album, Walk Through Fire, and just that first song, Faraway Look, is just immediately like, this woman is doing something very, very special. All right, all right. She is singing her ass off. I’m gonna check this out. And the production is just wonderful. So Yola with an exclamation point. Oh, she appeared on the High Women Collaboration album and the Elvis. Yeah, yeah. She’s in the High Women- Soundtrack. With Brandy- Oh, she’s not in the High Women. It’s four- Oh, well she’s in- High Women is four White women, she’s a Black woman. She’s in that but she’s in that song, the High Women’s song. Okay, yeah, yeah. It’s got a Amanda Shires, and then Maren Morris- Gotcha, gotcha. Who else? Brandy Carlile, who else? I can’t remember Okay. All right, I’ll check this out. Highly recommend it. All right, so, Walk Through Fire, 2019. In the meantime, hey, we’ll be at MythiCon next time you’re hearing from us. Hope to see many of you there. Hope to have many of you join us for the live stream. No, that’s already happened. Oh, yes. So forget that. Well, I’m just saying that, and I’m retro future at this point. Thank you for those of you who join us for the live stream, and join us at MythiCon. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. 1-8888-EARPOD1. EARPOD1. Hi, this is Cassie. My fiance and I will be getting married in October 21st, 2023. A year from the day that I am calling. I would love to invite Rhett and Link. They’ve never done this. So how about being the first one to my wedding? Hi, this is Paige from Michigan, and I just wanted to say on behalf of all veterinary medical Mythical Beasts, we’re so glad that you adopted a dog and that you didn’t by a puppy. So I hope that you and Sean and Barbara have a wonderful life. Just wanted to throw that out there and give you a little appreciation for that. Love ya, bye. Hey, guys. I just wanna say love you guys, love the podcast. My boyfriend and I listen to you all the time. Make sure we catch every single new episode. However, we also listen to you guys, GMM, Mythical Kitchen and Ear Biscuits as background noise while we work from home. So our dog, I heard this similar caller had a similar thing, has really bad separation anxiety, but when we leave him, the only time he doesn’t cry is when we put on an episode of Ear Biscuits. I think because he associates it with you guys being his friends and being home with us, I think he thinks of you guys as like actual people in his life and it’s super cute and it’s something we’ve only recently discovered, but it’s totally cured his separation anxiety. So thank you so much. All right, have a good one. To watch more Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous episode of Ear Biscuits, click on the playlist to the left. And don’t forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it’s available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your mythical best.