Welcome to “Ear Biscuits”, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Link. And I’m Rhett. Nope. No, no, I’m not. I’m not Rhett. You can probably tell. You are Jenna. I am Jenna. I’ve invited Jenna to be here today. Wait, you gotta finish. You gotta say, “I’m Jenna.” Do you know what to say after that? I’m Jenna. This week. This week. On “Ear Biscuit”, no? No. At the, at the– Shoot. No, you said, “At The Round Table Of Dim Lighting,” already. So then I thought– No, I didn’t. Yes, you did. No, I didn’t. Okay. That was your part. This week on The Round Table Of Dim Lighting. At the round table. At the round. This week at The Round Table Of Dim Lighting, we’re off to a great start. What? We’re gonna talk about solo trips, the Streamys, GME. Okay. So you do know some stuff. Look at that. I invited Jenna to join me here to keep me a little company. I’ve been going solo a lot lately and you know, I’m just not in the mood, so thank you for hanging out with me. How does it feel to be in Rhett’s seat? Rhett’s still sick as of this recording, so. Mm-hmm, it feels very weird. I feel very short. Everything, yeah. He– I feel taller. Yeah, you in camera look much taller next, yeah, you look like you are six feet, which you are. And I look like I am five three, which I am, so. Okay, well let’s just be ourselves. Yeah, we’re just gonna be ourselves. At “Good Mythical Evening”, well, there was a certain point where he was making out with a sex doll, and then I was the one who suggested that he go first and then I realized, he told me that he was feeling sick. And so that’s why if you watch “Good Mythical Evening”, I was like, “You know what? “I am not gonna make out with this sex doll after you,” that’s my standard. Yeah, yeah. I’m not gonna get sick off of my friend via a sex doll. Yeah, if he wasn’t feeling sick, you would’ve gone after. Well, yeah, I would’ve gone after it. I would’ve totally gone after it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for using those terms. Sorry. Yeah. I mean the great thing about “Good Mythical Evening” is that it’s live, it’s chaotic. First of all, I had a great time. If you were watching or if you watched it later on Video on Demand, I don’t even think it’s available anymore. So you’ll have to wait until the next one, assuming we do a next one. That’s not an announcement. I don’t know if there is gonna be a next one, but I hope so, because I tend to have a good time. You do, yes. But I was really happy about “Good Mythical Evening” this year because it, are you all right? See you’re coughing. I’m already ruining things. What are you you doing? I sipped things the wrong way. I’m already ruining the show. Well, I wouldn’t say you’re ruin it, but it is quite a distraction. Yeah, sorry. You were talking about “Good Mythical Evening”, uh-huh. And now it’s coming out your eyes. Coming out my eyeballs. You’re like left eyes. Try not to cry. Don’t do, don’t make it worse. Don’t make it worse. Don’t make it worse. Maybe drink more. I don’t know. Should you chase it down? I’ll switch to water. It’s the tea. It’s definitely the cinnamon. When I get up in the morning, I immediately drink water and then I go downstairs and I take my pills and it doesn’t matter how much water I’ve drunk, when I take my pills and then I walk the dogs. And as I’m walking the dogs, I realize like the pills are like here. They’re like under my sternum. It’s like, what the, how am I, what do I need to do? I take the pills in my mouth and I swirl them around. This is weird. And then I swallow them. What else can I do? I mean, I don’t know how it’ll lube up the esophagus anymore than I have. Do you take them all at once? Well it’s two wellness pills and then a little anxiety pill. Okay, well, I had a friend in high school who swallowed pills and didn’t use enough water and one got lodged in her throat and then she got really, really ill. And so just drink water. Shit, what kind of ill, like grumpy? No, it got lodged and her lymph nodes started to swell and she was out sick for like weeks, I think. Was it in a tonsil or was it in the esophagus? Oh, I think it got stuck like in a tonsil or something. It must have been back there. Yeah but– It didn’t hit, if it hits the esophagus, you’re gonna know it. Yeah, yeah. ‘Cause I can feel that thing. I mean, you feel– You feel it moving down, yeah. You gotta be in touch with your body a little bit better than your friend was. I mean– Listen. She was doing the best she could. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I’ve turned, I’ve made this her fault. Yeah. You know what, this is your friend’s fault, I mean, I’m just gonna say, I really do think it’s her fault. If you go to the doctor and you go, “Oh, well, there’s a pill lodged behind your tonsil,” and I don’t have tonsils, but back when I did, I knew if something was lodged in them, trust me. That’s why I got them removed. That’s hard to imagine. I mean, God did it… That is disturbing. Yes. Yeah, so– And it doesn’t actually help me at all. Well, it just– Which is kind of what I was asking for was help. You give me an anecdote that now I’m gonna fixate on. I’m gonna obsess even more about these pills. Yes, you get to do what I do now. I drink way too much water with my pills because I’m constantly thinking about, “What if one gets stuck?” I started drinking more and more when I wake up, like I’ve got the, of course I got the tall thing of water right by my bed. I take it to the bathroom. I’m drinking constantly, I’m like, “You know what, “this, I’m gonna totally get everything just slick “and ready for some pills.” But the pills are so sticky, I guess. I don’t know. It’s like, maybe I need a new pill. Maybe I need to take them one at a time. One at a time, yeah. And then just like a big gulp. But then what I do is I’m like, “You know what?” My coffee great chaser. Yeah. So I drink my pills with my water while I’m making my coffee, then I take my coffee out and I string up the dogs and I walk with my coffee as I’ve said before. So I think the heat from the coffee is supposed to like, even though it’s stuck here, then I imagine and can feel, I think I can feel the coffee melting it. So like all the drugs and vitamins that I need are now being dispensed from my esophagus– Along with the caffeine. Yeah, along with the caffeine. Yeah, I like that. So, maybe this isn’t a bad system. I don’t think it’s a bad system. You might just need to switch to one at a time and see how you feel. I mean, I don’t feel ill or anything. Yeah, I’m sorry to make you fixate on it, but now you get to fixate on something that I also fixate on, so we are now joined. You’re gonna think about that every morning now. “Oh gosh, what if?” I don’t, yeah. I don’t like this power that you’re wielding. Sorry. Of planting. I mean, that is a power, planting fixations in my mind. It’s like you’re building a downward spiral staircase. No. Into obsession. Thanks Jenna. This is a really good choice. Go back! Go back to your seat! This is why you don’t have me up here ’cause I have ridiculous stories that will make you question everything. But I felt particularly good about “Good Mythical Evening” this year because, and as I tweeted after, I was like, “I had a blast,” and you know what? I feel like it was the best one. Credit to the team for creating this playground where we can, as I’ve said, “They create ‘Good Mythical Evening’ as a safe space for us to let loose. But, and here’s the, I had a realization when I had gotten some feedback from people at work that are like, “Hey, we’re, you know, “maybe we need to, we need to work on the pacing. “There’s, you know, “it’s like we don’t get bogged down in any one thing.” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” It’s like, “I don’t want to go too off the rails,” ’cause then if the show goes off the rails too much, then we’re not making a good show. So, but it’s been an interesting journey to try to find that balance. And the thing that helped tip the scales for me is we had a Mythical Society react and we do those on the Mythical Society. We’re like, watch old videos, but they played first Good Mythical Morning like it’s the scene from that with Brittany, the Sex Doll and like– A “Good Mythical Evening”? Yeah. Yeah. “Good Mythical Evening”. And so we were reacting to it and I just, I was very critical of just the meandering nature of it. So I’m like, “I wanna dilate in just enough “where I’m having the same amount of fun, “but I’m not getting obsessed about “the equity of nipple clamp placements.” That was “Good Mythical Evening 2”. So I actually felt like the adjustment was made, we were at a nice happy balance this year for the first year. Third time’s a charm. At least that’s how I felt. Yeah. And I think I’ve gotten feedback from Mythical Beast and from crew and I feel like there’s a good consensus there. So I was happy with it. Yeah, I was in it for a very brief moment and then I wasn’t, but like I– Oh yeah, you were gonna be in the song. No, I was going, I was with Emily. Oh, right! You had a dramatic reveal. I had a very dramatic reveal that I did not expect. I mean, that was crazy. Yeah. Selfishly, I love the fact that a highlight of the evening didn’t involve me or Rhett directly. Yeah. You know, it’s nice to spread the love a little bit. Things still went off the rails this year. It’s nice for somebody else to fall flat on their face besides me for people to be talking about. But I mean, if you don’t know, we had this, we had a segment. It was the pain hole. We brought back the pain hole. You put your face through it and instead of Rhett and I doing it, we got crew members who willingly volunteered to, behind the wall, either something pleasurable or painful was happening to them. We had to look at the reaction on their face in order to decide were they experiencing pain or pleasure. And it was going swimmingly. I had a great conversation with Jordan Myrick, while she was in, while they were in the pain hall and Matt Leeb and then, was it Emily after Matt? I think. It gets a little fuzzy if I’m missing somebody. I think Emily was after Jordan, I think Matt was first. Okay Matt Leeb, then Jordan Myrick and then, so Emily shows up third and she, her face goes through the pain hall. We’re like, “Hey Emily!” She’s like, “Is this live?” And I’m like, “I’m told that it is.” And then all of a sudden she’s like standing up and I could kind of tell that she was like, trying to get her boob, I mean, she had a shirt on. Yes, she did. So, and her shirted boob through the pain hole and she brings down the entire set, the thing just like boop flat, flat on the ground with her stuck to it basically. And Mikayla and I were behind. And that’s your dramatic reveal. Like I’ve seen the images. I’ve definitely re-watched that clip many times of the shot on your face. And I don’t know what was, well first of all, at that point I’ll say what I was thinking and then I’m curious what you were thinking. But then also what was actually planned, because I didn’t know. Oh yeah. At the point didn’t where, slam, everything goes down. I was just thoroughly amused immediately. I was shocked, but, and I told Emily this when I walked over there, immediately after the show was over ’cause I wanted to talk to her about it and reassure her that it was an excellent thing that happened. And what I told her is what I thought in the moment, which was, “Wow, that was amazing.” And that, “If you did that on purpose, “that was a great choice.” And I didn’t know, I didn’t know if she did it on purpose or if it was like a complete accident or somewhere in the middle. You know, sometimes when I do things, I can’t even explain how much of it is an accident or there’s some form of calculation. I think that it was an accident completely. Yes. Based on when I saw her, the fact that she was trying to deal with the fact that, like, “Okay, how did people take this?” Yeah, we had been consoling her. I’m really glad you came in and we were just so adamant that it was wonderful because she was mortified and thought she was gonna get fired. And it was like, I think she’ll be okay with me saying all this because we talked about it so much. I said some of it on the show in the GMMORE. Yeah. In the “Good Mythical Evening More”. Yeah ’cause you just showed up in between the end of the main show and there was like a seven minute break before the GMMORE and you ran all the way across the studio. She was hiding at the yeah, yeah– Yeah, we were hiding. It was hilarious. I’m so glad you came in though. I was like, “Why are you?” I was like, “Wait!” I was like, I already knew she was okay. But I was like, “You’re okay?” She was like, “Yes, I’m okay.” I was like, “Then what are you concerned about? “It was awesome.” I was like, “Get over it. It was awesome.” That’s what I ended up having to tell her. I was like, “I didn’t come over here, “just to make this about you. “I kind of came over here to get compliments for me.” How did I do Emily? No, but that was an amazing moment. And I just love the fact that it’s the perfect environment for that type of stuff to happen. So when it does you kind of hope things like that happen. That’s like the right amount of chaos. I love it. But what was supposed to happen? Oh yeah. What was– Pain or pleasure? What were you doing back there? Well, that was interesting. See, I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to be, ’cause, okay, so Mikayla and I were going to be biting Emily’s fingers, which for me, I was like, “That could be pain or pleasure,” so like, I feel like that’s not. What? It depends on how hard you’re biting. Listen, it’s not GME anymore. I don’t have to go into things. It not Sextember yet. But that doesn’t mean I can’t ask. You can ask. You can ask but yeah, I was– Jenna’s into having her fingers gently bit. Yes. Is what… Gentle biting is acceptable. Yes. But the fingers specifically, I’m like looking at your fingers for gnaw marks. Don’t do that to me. Don’t bite my fingers. What? No, I’m not gonna do it. No, yeah, of course not. I’ve gnawed my own fingernails for years. You find that comforting and you enjoy it? Okay, there you go. Yes. Yeah. I did. Okay. All right. Yeah. I think it was supposed to be pain though. I think it was supposed to be pain, yeah but it was one of those where I was like . So you didn’t even get a finger in your mouth? I did not, no fingers in the mouth. I mean, and Emily was like, she came up to me multiple times and was like, “I just washed my hands, “we’re good, I just washed my hands.” Like, she was so concerned about her fingers being dirty. And I was like, “Okay, great. “Yeah, totally cool.” And yeah, didn’t even get a finger in the mouth before the collapse happened, yeah. But she did great, she popped right up. She popped right up. She had jokes ready to go. We put the wall up and then she puts her head through the wall she was like, what did she say? “I would call that pain.” Yeah. It was pretty great. And, you know, and then they made a directorial decision to cut, like. Yeah, switch to the next thing. They held up a sign to me off camera and they were like, “Let’s move on.” And it was the perfect call like the edit, like she had that line and then all of a sudden we cut to the next thing and it couldn’t have ended better. It couldn’t have. She forfeited her whole bit, but this is a much better bit. It was a better bit. Not that, I mean, you biting her fingers would, you can still do that? I could still do that later. Yeah, yeah. Her and I are friends. I could. But I think that was the highlight and it was just the perfect amount of chaos with the right amount of pacing. I’ve seen pictures of people watching from their homes and having a ball. I’ve also seen pictures of people at the Alamo Drafthouses and like that was a cool little addition for some people to be able to have that experience. Yeah. So, I love that. I almost wish I wasn’t in GME just so I could like sneak into one of those screenings at Alamo Drafthouse and just like bear witness to it. I feel like that would– Can’t have it all, Jenna. I can’t, I can’t have it all. Sorry, you all had to see me on the screen at Alamo Drafthouse but yeah, I think– You were shocked. I was shocked. Yeah, my face, as soon as I knew she was okay. And she made that first joke that like, “Don’t worry, “my boob broke my fall.” Oh, she said that? Yeah, she said that. And as soon as I heard that from her, I was like, “Okay, she’s okay.” And then my big concern was, get up, stand next to me. I will support you. Was all I could think was like, “Come, come, come and let me support you friend.” That was great. Yeah. That was great. It was. And then apparently, Rhett got sicker and I have not gotten anything. I have to think if I would’ve licked that mannequin, I keep calling her a mannequin. Brittany. Brittany. She has a name. I would be, I’d be sick right now too, so. I agree. I dodged a bullet. I had enough judgment. That’s the thing. Yeah. I’m very proud of myself, you know? Yeah, I think you should be. And later on in the GMOORE where like I was pushing Rhett to disclose as much about his sex life as I could, I also had the wherewithal to not disclose things that I didn’t have permission to disclose ’cause some things don’t just involve me. Right. So yeah, I’m tooting my own horn here. You did good, yeah. That yeah, I kept it together enough to like, we’re making a good show. And if you feel like you’re ready for the chaos, just again, I have to think we’re gonna do another one because it’s so much fun and the team is so good at it. But there is a challenge of like, “Okay, where do we go from here? “They’ve done a great job year over year “of coming up with different segments “and kind of changing the emphasis a little bit.” So I do think there’s a creative challenge in where “Good Mythical Evening” goes because you just don’t, I don’t wanna do it just to do it, you know? And it’s not just about us and our chaos. It’s a combination of everything. So everything has to kind of line up creatively. We gotta figure that out. Yeah. So we’ll see about that. And then, Rhett got worse and it was just a couple of nights later was the Streamy awards. I know. And so then I was like, “Now he’s leaving me high and dry. “And I got to,” we knew that we were presenting, we were presenting the last award of the night. No, the next to last ’cause we were up for show of the year. We didn’t win this year. We won last year, you know, we’ve won twice. I think we’ve been nominated, man, at least six times. Yeah, yeah. Oh, nominated a lot. And so I knew that I was going to have to give the intro. What’s it called? You know, the intro speech, the award– Presenters? Presenter. I keep, I always forget the word presenter. That we were gonna present the creator of the year nominees. And honestly, the way this typically works is the day of, or the night before the, with all the stuff that as much as Rhett and I see each other, at a certain point, he’ll just be like, “This is what I’m thinking. “This is what I think we should do. “I have this idea. “I have this thing like written in my mind.” And so this year, on the day of, I called him, I did ask him how he was doing. He said he had a shitty night. He was like running a fever, not doing great. So it was like, there’s no chance of him showing up. I just want a good move there. Yeah. And I was like, “Well, let’s talk, “let’s do what we do every year. “Would you tell me what to say?” You know, ’cause I like to revel in this like, he creates some structure and then it gives me some space to play. Yeah. Like, ’cause that’s how I like to work. I’m less of the writer or planner. I don’t like knowing exactly the words that are gonna come outta my mouth. I just like to kinda go with it. And as a duo, he gives me the space to be able to do that. So I made that joke. And to him I was like, tell me what to say. But I had thought of it. I had thought about what I wanna say. So I did, I told him about the whole, just the idea of, I’m basically gonna walk out there and act like you’re dead because what you’re doing to me tonight, you’re dead to me. That’s what I told him. Rhett McLaughlin was my best friend. And he will be missed from this bit because he’s the one who would always stop me from saying something stupid. But he’s been missing and presumed dead. The nominees. You know, he had a couple of notes, I will give Rhett credit like there was, between me saying that he’s been missing for days and presumed dead and then I paused and said, “The nominees,” and that’s kind of what got a huge laugh. I had another line or two in there. And he was like, “What if you took that out? “What if you just,” and that really worked. Yeah, the pregnant pauses you always do are really great. Let’s talk and I want to talk about these pregnant pauses because like, I can’t, I honestly, I don’t think I can take as much credit for these. I mean, the main thing that I knew I had to do was just stay poised. Yeah. You know, it’s like so much, it’s like with dancing, it doesn’t really matter how, what your moves are. It doesn’t matter if they’re big, if they’re small, if they’re crazy, if they’re good or bad or horrible. As long as you’ve got the right look on your face. We wrote about this in “The Book of Mythicality” ’cause it’s so important. If you’ve got the right look on your face, and it’s a look of poise, a look of confidence, a look of whatever is happening right now, I am meaning to do, that goes so far. So I knew, that was my first thing. And then I was like, “All right, I’m gonna keep it short “so I can remember what I wanna say “about him being presumed dead.” And then I’m gonna say, “The nominees for one of the most coveted awards “of the night, creator of the year are,” and then I saw I got that laugh, and then it goes to the package and the video package where they’re going through the nominees. I didn’t have to say any of the nominees, but as the package is plain, I’m realizing I don’t know who the nominees are. I’d never looked because I didn’t have to introduce the nominees. The package does that. But then I realized whoever wins, I’m gonna have to, I’m gonna have to say their name. So I better listen to this package. So I’ll know how to say the nominee’s, the winner’s name. Yeah. Because I don’t wanna be that guy. I don’t like it when people know who people know, they’re fans of a person and then I’m up there looking like an idiot who said their name wrong. Like, I don’t wanna be like John Travolta at the Oscars. Yeah, Idina Menzel. What? Yeah, whatever. This is what’s going through my mind. I’m standing in center stage where I delivered my Rhett’s dead bit. I’m looking out at everybody in the audience. I’m like, you know, and this is what I’m thinking. And then the production person comes up to me while the package is still playing. And she says, “You’ll open the envelope, “you’ll read who the winner is.” And I was like, “And I’ll say their name right, hopefully “if you stop talking to me, “I’m trying to watch how to pronounce their name.” And the person over here will hand you the statute to then hand to the winner. And then she says, “If the winner is not present, “you’ll need to accept on their behalf.” And so then I’m like, “Oh shit. “I had not, this had not crossed my mind.” So I put so much pressure on myself to get my thing that I had already said right. I was like, “Okay, I’m halfway there,” by the way I also, the pressure wasn’t off ’cause I thought we were gonna win show of the year. And I had a speech prepared because Rhett wasn’t gonna be there. So I was like, “Damn, I gotta have that. “I gotta have some sort of approach to this “and not seem like a bumbling idiot “like the past two times that we won.” But the honesty of it all, it’s wonderful. So I had a lot on my mind. And then she adds this on my plate and I’m like, “Oh no.” And then I turned back to the package and it’s Mr. Beast. I’m like, “Oh, well he’s probably gonna win. “I do know how to say Mr. Beast, that’s good news.” And then the package is over and I’m standing there and I’m opening the thing and I’m like, “If this is Mr. Beast, I gotta.” You have to accept on his behalf. “I gotta accept on his behalf.” So I open it up and it says, “Mr. Beast,” and if you watch, you know, you could interpret the way that I said, “And the winner of creator of the year is Mr. Beast.” As I don’t know, it is open to interpretation of like, is he not happy about him winning? Does he have an opinion about it? And really it was like, “I now have to come up with something to say, “’cause now I’m accepting this.” And then, so I just said the first thing that came to my mind, which I think is what is the first thing on everybody’s mind when it’s the biggest award of the night and they’re not there to accept it. And so I was just like, “If you’re gonna keep giving him this award, “he should probably show up for it.” Winner of creator of the year is Mr. Beast. You know, if you’re gonna keep giving him awards, he really needs to show up. And I got a big laugh. because sometimes the biggest laughs come from like, somebody just acknowledging the thing. Yeah. It’s like, it’s just, in a sense it couldn’t be easier. So here I’m feeling like, “Oh, I gotta laugh. “I passed the test,” but then I’m like, “But I’m still standing here.” And of course, from the outward perspective, it was just a pregnant pause. Yeah. And then I gave a gesture and I walked off and it got another huge laugh because it was like. The gesture, we thought you were gonna say something else and then you walk away. It was, I thought it was perfect. I was dying laughing when I saw that. I was going, there was no calculation. Yeah. I’m going completely on instinct, which I guess is what I was describing that that’s my, that’s my, that’s my zone, right? Yeah. So I felt good about it in that sense. What was happening with that pregnant pause was I was trying to figure out what I was gonna say next. And as I was figuring it out and debating, what am I gonna say next, I was like, “Well, I guess I just need to say “I’m gonna accept it on his behalf.” And so as I gestured with the, to accept it on his behalf, it suddenly dawned on me, I don’t need to say anything. And then I just walked away. It went, it really, it really worked. It did. It really worked. And then afterward, you know, I was like, because it wasn’t calculated. I’m like, man, it seemed like such a, I took a shot at Mr. Beast. And you know what? He can take it. He’s, he’s, he’s. He’s doing very well for himself it’s all right. I don’t know the reasons why he wasn’t there. Yeah. I do start to think things like, “Oh look, “I’m getting in my own head.” It’s like, the irony is, I mean, my dude wasn’t there, so, but I was there so they were both dead to me, I guess. Yeah. So that’s how it went down from my perspective. But I’ll take all the credit for it to be very intentional and just perfect comedic timing or something. Absolutely, yes. If we had won for the show of the year right after that, would you have gone up and then have to like, since half of the duo isn’t there, then since Rhett didn’t show up for what– Well, we, I had a plan. I did have a plan, I had a speech. But I will say Rhett, I had a plan that involved Rhett and the Rhett’s Dead bit in my mind was kind of a setup for winning, which is pretty presumptuous. And now there’s boils and egg on my face because there was more of a payoff to that if we would’ve won, honestly. Yeah and spoiler alert, it involved him not being dead. Oh, wow. Yeah, because for the record, even though he’s still not here and is missing and presumed dead still, I don’t believe he is. Yeah. I believe he’s on the mend, but he’s not coming in yet. Let’s promote this. You don’t have to put it on. It’s too hot in here. It’s too hot but it is so soft. We made this Mythical Society blanket hoodie. It is the coziest thing you can ever wear. Ugh, yeah. It is our quarterly collectible item exclusively as a third degree member of the society. So if you’re not already a member of the society as third degree, you gotta join quarterly or annual by September 30th in order to qualify for this thing. So go to mythicalsociety.com. You’re really putting it on? I changed my mind as soon as I touched it. It’s so soft. I know, but now that you’ve put it on. I have to wear it the whole time? No, I wouldn’t do that. Okay. I’m, but my, I’m done. You’re done? Now that you got it on. Oh, it’s really comfy. I just gonna wear it. I’m just gonna wear it for, I’m just gonna wear it. I will, okay. All right, you can take it off at a certain point, but. Ah, I love it. You can’t even see my chair anymore. Are my arms in the thing? They’re, no, they’re not. They’re not in. No, they’re not. I love it so much. It’s so, it’s so, it’s got that– It’s so soft. What is this? What is this? Fake sheep’s wool? I think so, yeah. You know, Sherpa, it’s got the softed Sherpa on the inside of it. And then the outside is like– It sells itself. Yeah, it really does. Okay. But yeah. It’s giant on me. You’re helping. “Ear Biscuits” is brought to you by Better Help. Last night actually, at 2:30 in the morning, I woke up wide awake. This never happens to me. And my thoughts were just racing about something that I went to sleep worried about. And you know what? It turns out, one great way to make your racing thoughts go away is to just go back to sleep. No, is to talk them through. And therapy gives you a great place to do that. 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For a limited time, you can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 40% off. That’s $179 for unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 40% off at rosettastone.com/ear today. In the theme of solo and just being left high and dry without companionship or support or company. Yeah. I want to talk about my solo camping trip. And I know that you have experience with this. That’s the other thing besides just keeping me company and on this is I know that you have experience with doing this. So just to set up here, it’s been a few weeks back now. We had like, it was, basically Rhett and I scheduled our summer breaks towards the end of the summer. And I ended up having like five days where I didn’t have anything planned as a part of that. And I just, the itch to go camping and to do another solo trip, just it that really, I really started to feel that, so. Once you go once it’s nice. And yeah, the solo trips that I’ve been on, I mean, the first solo trip I went on was when I went to Slab City. And I’m certain I did a whole episode of “Ear biscuits”. You can go back and listen to it and that adventure. But that I actually don’t consider that what I now call a solo trip because I was interacting with people. Yes, I was. I rented a hollowed out abandoned RV, a shell of an RV in the middle of the desert where a bunch of people are permanently squatting on public land on the other side of the Salton Sea. That’s Slab City. So I was on the edge of that. It was quite an adventure. But I was, I saw like my landlord or whatever you call her, my renter, my presenter. Yeah, presenter. My RV presenter. And so it wasn’t like, it wasn’t camping per se, and it wasn’t completely isolated and it was only, I think two nights. And then I was jealous of Rhett because he was able to, the last time he did solo trips, he was able to do more of a solo trip and I didn’t get to do that for at least for as long, if I remember correctly. Anyway, so I was like, “I’m gonna take this whole five days “and I’m gonna rent that sprinter van to do my, yes, I do glamping and I’m not gonna apologize for it. Like, I love the fact that I can drive this four-wheel drive sprinter van. It’s got a bed in the back, it’s got a shower with a toilet in it. It’s got a sink. You can lock yourself in it at night, which also makes me feel a little more secure. And it’s just, and you can bring so much stuff, like all of my creature comforts. Like it’s very important to me that roughing it is not the part about that I’m interested in. I was interested in the isolation. I was interested in the nature. And also I just love having everything that I want and need for a trip right there. And I don’t have to set it up and tear it down if I’ve moved to from place to place. It’s something about that is extremely comforting and exciting to me. And I actually even more fully realized it on the first night, but there were a lot of questions going into it. Like five days, at what point when you’re alone in the wilderness, and potentially not seeing anyone for the whole time or talking to anybody. How crazy am I gonna go? I had asked people, when I tell people that I was planning it, “Say, have you done a solo trip? “At what point did you start to feel “kind of wild in the brain?” And a number of people told me, like, “After day two,” more than one person said, “That’s when I started talking to myself.” Now, so what’s your experience with solo travel, I know you’ve done solo travel, I mean, I know you have friends. Yes, I do have friends. But yeah, I– But you like doing stuff on your own. I like doing stuff on my own, yeah. And I’ve been single for over five years now. And it was one of those things where I wanted to do all this stuff and friends were busy and I didn’t have a partner and I just said, “The hell with it, “I’m just gonna figure it out on my own.” So I just started doing it on my own. Like what types of stuff have you done? Camped, I’ve gone camping but I’ve never done public land camping like you have. And I haven’t been in, I haven’t rented like an RV or anything except, I mean, the one time I had to stay in the RV for the whole video. Yeah. Overnight. You had to guard the equipment. I had to guard the equipment, yes. Right. It’s very, very important job. But other– So you would camp in a tent, but at campgrounds. Campgrounds or I use Hipcamp. Yep. Which is actually really great because Hipcamp is a lot more secluded. It’s an app, it’s like Airbnb, but it’s for people just renting like little spots that you can camp on on, on their private land. Yes. Usually private. Yeah, yeah it’s private land. It’s their land. It’s theirs so like and you can find really, really remote ones there, which I did a few years ago around like Halloween, I spent like three days and like nobody was there. Like, the woman came and checked up on me and made sure I had enough firewood and she left some fresh eggs from her chickens and like a bottle of wine for me with a– What area was this? This was. This was south. I remember you telling me about it. No, this was a little north actually. There was a lot of pistachio farms around. Oh okay. So yeah, central California. It’s cool though because it works like Airbnb and that you can review these people. Yeah. So there’s some accountability and they wanna do a good job. And a lot of places, at least out here is like, if you wanted to stay at a campground, you can’t, you have to reserve it well in advance. I mean, sometimes if you’re trying to like beach camp, so the coveted areas, all right, Yosemite is over a year in advance I think to the day. Yeah, I do Leo Carrilo for last minute stuff. A lot of times I can find a spot there. They keeps some open. Yeah, they usually keeps some open and it’s a short drive. So if ever I’m just like, “I see night. “I just need a night in the woods,” then I’ll– But that’s on the beach though. It’s just off the beach. You can walk to the beach. You can walk to the beach. Yeah, you walk under the PCH. Okay, yeah, yeah. I’ve been there. To get to the beach. There could be a lot of people there. There can be, mm-hmm. It’s really. So like the Hipcamp thing is nice because you get that isolation, but you also get some, you have a contact ’cause you’re staying on private land. And if so, when campgrounds are taken up, you can usually find a place like that around. And I’ve stayed on one of those in the van before too. It’s like you can have a RV parking type thing. Because I definitely prefer, and especially for, I didn’t want be in a campground. I didn’t, my goal was to subject myself to the experience and the experiment of, you have five days, four nights and I didn’t wanna travel around a lot. I kind of wanted to stay put and kind make it this rejuvenative exercise in boredom. I knew I was gonna be at a place where I didn’t have cell reception. And yeah, I didn’t wanna see anybody. Christie was concerned about safety. She was like, “Well, so you’re not gonna be able to communicate. “You don’t have your cell phone.” I was like, “Yeah, I think that’s part of it “is not being able to use my phone.” But she wisely encouraged me to get like a satellite phone. And I got one called SPOT X. And if you get the right one, not sponsored, they let you, it has like a Blackberry type keyboard on it and you can, you can text, you can send and receive texts and you can send pre-sent, pre-written messages at the push of a button so you can communicate with numerous people and hear back from them. And of course the main thing is that the SOS button, which then automatically communicates with search and rescue. So it’s like worst case scenario, you’re covered. It’s a great thing to have. You gotta pay a monthly fee for the connection service. But, and it may be $30. I can’t remember. I wonder if REI– You could cancel it afterwards. I wonder if REI has like a buyback kind of thing for that ’cause for their members. That’s a good question. I am a member. I should have asked them. But I had that and then I was like, I was so excited about this trip. I was like telling my mom on the phone. And then, when I was driving home from work telling my mom about, “I’m going on the stripping a few days. “I’m so excited.” And she had some questions about safety and then I answered them I thought, and I hung up the phone. And then by the time I get home and see Christie, she’s like, “Your mom called me “and said she was really concerned about you.” And I think she was concerned about my safety, but she was also concerned about like, is everything okay? “What? Is he running from something?” What is this choice? Right. Yeah. “Is he,” and, and so. I get those all the time when I do solo stuff. All the time for my family. Apparently, even though I was just gushing with positivity and reassurance, my mom has trust issues with me. But that’s a great thing about Christie is like she doesn’t, apparently, when it really matters, she only believes what Christie says. Okay. You know, she’s like, “Are you two okay?” Yeah. It’s like I could talk about how much I love Christie up and down the wall, but it takes Christie saying that like, “Oh, we’re doing great,” for this is my mom issue. I wasn’t trying to get away from my mom. But yeah, there is a kind of a safety thing too ’cause once you get to a spot and you’re isolated. Yeah and there’s no cell service. I’ve been in a few where zero cell service. And how do you protect yourself? Or talk to yourself? I talk to myself. Well, I go a little crazy. Let’s talk about the crazy stuff in a second. Just the safety part of it. Like I know that when you stayed at the medium sized hole site. I had cell. Rhett left, you had cell service but Rhett left his like 10 inch bowie knife. He did, I– For you were asked to keep it. Yeah, yeah. I slept with it next to me, yeah. I mean sheathed of course like it was this very large dangerous knife but yeah, I slept with it next to me. Okay. Okay so– And then I told him I really liked it and wanted one for my birthday. And he got me a really nice knife for my birthday. We got you. We, I’m sorry. He remembered that I said that and then you all got that for me, I’m so sorry. It is a very nice knife gift. I like it very much. It was a gift for me too. Yeah, I like it very much. You’re well, okay. Thank you. I see you, yeah okay it was just from Rhett. Thank you. Fine. It was his idea. I mean, you guys had the knife moment. You didn’t have to use it. No, I did not. It didn’t make you feel bad, I mean it’s like, I will say this, the first night I was camping, I set up at this spot and I’ll show you a video that I took from there. And then it was after the sun went down, I picked this spot very isolated, I used an app called iOverlander. Oh yeah. This is where people find places where you can boondock or it’s dispersed camping, you’re supposed to only stay at places where people have already camped and left no trace except for a fire ring at most. I was not starting a fire, didn’t start a fire the whole time I was there. It’s actually not allowed right now. But I picked a place based on the couple of reviews in that app and it’s pretty homegrown this app. But you can really find more isolated places and then people will tell you, “Hey, you need four wheel drive to get to this spot. “Got great views, no cell service,” this type of stuff, it’s all in there. It’s really great. So I found a pretty isolated spot in Sequoia National Forest on the north side of the park. I wasn’t gonna stay in the national park. I was gonna stay in the forest. You can’t stay in the park if you’re not at a campground. There’s no dispersed camping. So I was pretty isolated. But then after dark, all of a sudden somebody drives up and like 60 yards away, they’re parking and I’m immediately getting paranoid. I’m immediately like, “Okay, how’s this person gonna kill me?” Yep, yeah. You know, and I’m like peeking around my van ’cause I was sitting on the, my van was blocking my vision of him, I’m like peeking around and it’s just like a station wagon and then I see one person get out and like walk up the ridge and kinda, I don’t know, pee or try to see a view or something. And then he’s walking back down, he walks back down and he just kind of gets in his car. Like setting up no tent, no nothing, like nothing being set up. It’s already dark anyway. I said, “Okay, this dude’s just gonna sleep in his car,” which I would’ve felt better if there was a tent being set up. You know, if there’s just a car pulls up and then it’s just a guy, you know? Yeah, that’s sketchy. Oh man, you know what’s, and then I was like, “But you know what, “he could be thinking the same thing about me.” If I just, if I walk over here to the edge of my van and I have really good posture, like really, they’ll be again, poised. It’s about the look on your face. He couldn’t see my face, but I bet you he could from the glow of my LED lights in my glamper, I bet you he could tell that boy I wasn’t to be messed with. So I John Wayned it over there and just kind of put my hands on my hips and just kind of like spread my feet apart a little bit. I did not have a knife, but I guess I would’ve been wielding it at that moment. No. No. No. ‘Cause then, then– I was alone, I was paranoid and I was a bit terrified. So. Yeah. I might would’ve made that choice if I would’ve had the knife. I mean, I had a steak knife. That works. I don’t know, he couldn’t have seen it from that far. And I just kind of stood out there and I just unapologetically just kind of like surveyed his arrangement. Yeah. From 60 yards away. Yeah. And I just thought that’s the best I could do. I think that works, you are– And if you saw me, I might, would’ve waved. You are a six foot tall man. That is, yeah. With a steak knife waving at a fellow camper. See, I cannot do that. I try and puff up and they’re like, “Oh, there’s a woman camping by herself.” Yeah. I mean– But that works. That’s all you have to do is just like, this is who I am and I am here and I see you and I acknowledge that you’re there. I felt safer because it was on the edge of a national park, international forest. It wasn’t like in like Bureau of Land Management land out in the middle of the desert, where like all of a sudden you got Meth heads crawling up to your tires and gnawing on them. Has that happened? In my brain it has. Oh. So I felt a little safer. Okay. Something about the, like if you’re on BLM land of the desert, like anybody can roll up any rock in order to cause any type of shenanigan. Yeah, I haven’t stayed on BLM land. Yeah that gets a little shady. And it’s if, I mean, I don’t wanna say, I don’t wanna presume that there’s a difference you tell me if just being a woman out there alone. You know, you said you can’t puff up as much. Yeah. It’s like, “Oh, there’s a woman alone in the woods.” Typically, what a lot of solo travels do, especially women is like the weapons they carry, which I don’t really go into the things that I bring with me just for safety, I don’t publicly talk about what I bring with me. But what I bring with me is stuff that– Well this is public Jenna. Yeah, that’s why I’m not saying. Oh I thought you were about to say it. But I’ll say whatever you do bring you, you just bring something that you know actually how to use. You’ve had training with it and you feel comfortable using it. Which is why I had nothing more than a dull steak knife. Yes, yeah. That’s the rules that I always say for people, whatever makes you feel comfortable, just whatever you feel like you need and know how to use. But yeah, a lot of times women who go solo camping will bring an extra chair so that while they’re sitting at the campfire, there’s a second chair and it’s presumed that they’re staying with someone else and not just by themselves. Oh yeah. Yeah. And that– Little tricks. Usually those chairs are the type where you can just like gather them up really quickly and beat someone. Oh yeah. Beat the hell outta somebody with it. Oh Yeah. So that’s a two for one. Two for one. That’s a good tip. What? Give us some more, give us some more safety tips. We should have talked more in depth before this. What else, every time I know I’m without cell service ’cause I don’t have one of those fancy satellite phone things. I can let you borrow mine next time. Sweet. Yes! I was hoping you’d say that. Yeah. No, I will send messages like I’ll let my friends and family know, “This is where I’m staying specifically. “I’m gonna be off grid for this amount of time. “This is when I’ll be able to check back in definitively. “So if you don’t hear from me by this time, “maybe a little concern.” Yeah. So I did that when I went a couple years ago up to, and I stayed on that person’s property because it was very isolated and there wasn’t any, like it was a far, it was a long ways to where her home was. And it was like just desert. And I ended up going on like a long hike up to this mountain that seemed a lot closer but wasn’t. That’s when you really need the GPS thing. Yeah. When you’re actually doing some hikes on your own. I had my Garmin watch at the time, so I was able to keep track and like north, south, east, I had the compass on it and everything and told me elevation, so I was fine. Okay. Which is why I used that in the Grand Canyon too. I did that at the Grand Canyon too. Let me show you video. First of all the– And you went with Jasper. That is the big decision I made. I decided to take Jasper. Jasper is Mr. FoMO. He does, he always wants to go wherever I’m going. He’s always at the door when I’m leaving. Yeah. And I just felt like, is it still a solo trip if you’re taking your dog? Yes. Yes. Yes, of course. Yes. And– That is another form of defense. Yeah and first of all, who do I need to defend what a solo trip is to anyone? You don’t. Put a pin in that though. Okay. ‘Cause that’s also– Gonna defend it to me? You don’t need to defend it to me. I’m gonna unpack the fact that I think that way. Okay. I had some epiphanies. That’s great. That’s what you want. But Jasper was my muse. I mean, just look at these pictures I took, this is our first night. The sun isn’t not going down yet and I’m just taking pictures of him. He looks so majestic. Because, and you know, and then I sat down. Ooh, is that your setup? This is my setup. That’s gorgeous. I mean, look at the sunset. So you, yeah, you’ve got, you know, you got the, it’s hashtag Van life. Yeah. I absolutely. You were living it. Love it. And then, okay, so I’m gonna play this video for you and just go with it, okay. Okay. This was I didn’t know I was, I wasn’t making this video for “Ear Biscuits”, but when I set up camp and I sat down in my chair with my dog and my Topo Chico and I was experiencing the sunset, I think, well, I just kind of wanted to memorialize this moment for myself. Yeah. But I’m fine with sharing it with you. This view is absolutely amazing. And everything is perfect. I got my Topo Chico, got my buddy. He’s looking for chipmunks and I’ve got the sun setting right there. Good gracious, it’s beautiful. Everything’s perfect. I got the chair and I went to REI specially to get, and I got the most expensive chair. It’s like a hammock chair. This thing reclines back. Everything is perfect. I think that’s what I’ve been looking forward to coming out here on a solo trip ’cause I’m able to simplify things to the point where I can control every aspect of it. But I actually do feel like everything is perfect. But… I’d kinda like to have somebody I loved here with me, but that’s why I’m glad Jazzy’s here. Good boy, Jazzy. Good gosh. It’s amazing what the, what the sunset is doing to the mountains over there. It looks a lot brighter in this footage than it actually was. Somebody made fire here when they shouldn’t have though. It’s so pretty. I’m not making a fire at all. Like the mountains and the sunset is gorgeous. It was like watching a painting unfold. Yeah. It’s crazy good. Crazy beautiful. And isn’t it funny, like, going out in the wilderness like that and when you do speak, you speak so softly because you don’t wanna quiet disturb the quiet. It was so quiet, and I’m gonna stop this video, but I will tell you, there is five more minutes of me just holding on. I just filmed those, it was a– And then that tree right there like that’s straight out of a Bob Ross painting. Like you can’t tell me. And yeah, I was, I just wanted to save this moment. Yeah. For myself. I think I started talking about acceptance, but that’s just for me. Yeah. So, it was the best feeling. I mean, and yeah, because it was night one, I did come to that realization that as a perfectionist, making my world so small so that I could control every aspect of it was something that was extremely rewarding for me. But then realizing that like, “Okay, that is what’s happening.” I think it’s important for me to know that everything is going exactly how I wanted. And I can control everything. And that’s why I’m happy right now. I think that was an important realization for the rest of the trip to just say, “Okay, maybe there’s a version of being “not having to control everything, but still being content.” You know, still being happy. So I’m not explaining away how special that moment was to me. I’m just, I was just processing that like, “Okay, that is part of it.” Like, “That’s part of it for me.” That’s why I like the van and having everything so I can get everything how I want it. And having the right chair and– Yeah. Having the right drink and the right dog. The right chair is so important. I would’ve brought, I didn’t bring Jade just as a side note, I missed Jade terribly because she can’t hike and she wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Yeah. But I kind of felt like Jasper has, he has his own anxieties, but I knew that he would enjoy it and would really wanna be there. So I definitely think I made the right choice. And he was kind of the… He was a huge factor in, I think, me never getting to the point where I actually felt strange or like I was going a little nuts because I was able to like, take my energy. It’s the emotional support dog principle, I guess. at work, it’s like I was able to put energy him and I didn’t really talk to myself ’cause I was just talking to him or I guess doing my ASMR speeches, which I did a few of those. Yeah. But yeah, it turns out that Jasper was like a big, a big part of my experience and like, “Oh, we were so bonded,” and like we were talking about everybody that I was missing back at home and– I love you said, “We,” we were talking about do you Jasper. Yeah, yeah, yeah I do think I got a little. You might have got a little loopy. I might’ve got a little loopy, but I mean, it was so, I mean, except for that other guy pulling up that night. And then I, here’s the thing I didn’t mention, Rhett was less than four miles away. I know. Because he left a few days before me. But and I will say, once I was like, “I’m doing this,” and he ended up having a window of time before he went back to North Carolina. He was like, “I really wanna do a solo trip too.” We usually plan them at the same time, our vacation’s at the same time. But because of how hot it was around California, we’re like looking for elevation to get somewhere cool but not having to drive so far that we, I mean, Sequoia National Forest ended up kind of being the answer. And then he went to the south side and then I was gonna kind of, and then he was gonna go up north and I was gonna kind of follow two days later. Yeah. But then he communicated to me, I was like, “Let me know about the first spot around Lake Isabella “and how the weather is.” He had service at one point. He told me, the second place is so much better. The weather’s, it’s a lot cooler here on the north side, like around Lake Hume or Hume Lake, whatever you call it. So I opted to just go straight up there my first night, I found this camp spot and I was like, “Dude, this place is amazing.” I ended up communicating with him and just telling him, “I’m leaving here tomorrow. “Are you leaving your spot?” He was like, “The spot I’ve found is the best camping spot “I’ve ever been at.” And so I said, “Well, if you have one more day here before you leave, “I’m gonna set up a tent.” I brought a tent. I didn’t bring an extra chair, but I did bring in a tent that I wasn’t gonna use. And I set up the tent to claim the spot for him so that he could experience that sunset the next night. And no one would take the spot ’cause it would’ve been claimed by a tent. And I’m driving around in my van hiking the next morning. I come back, we did like an hour and a half hike to the largest Sequoia, not within a national forest. You can’t– Oh, okay. You can’t hike with a dog in a national forest. No, I’m sorry, National Park. National Park, yeah. So we hiked in the national forest and went to like the bull tree, which it was amazing. A lot of them had been logged. It was like a bunch of Sequoia stumps, which is kind of sad. But they tell the story of how the forest rejuvenates itself. And so there’s a lot of sequoias that are now growing there, but they’re all like babies except for this one that the loggers didn’t take. And so we hiked to that. We had an amazing morning, went back to the van, we’re driving out, and all of a sudden I see a van identical to mine pulling up and of course it’s Rhett. And I just bust out laughing because like, the only person I’ve seen on my solo trip is him. Is Rhett. And he rolls his window down, I roll my window down and we’re just like sitting there, just, “Fancy meeting you here.” And I was like, “Did you find the spot?” And he was like, “Yeah, “I set up my thing so you can take your tent.” So like, I talked to him for like 10 minutes, didn’t get into it too much. He has his own stories that he’ll tell at some point, I guess. And then, so he went and did the hike that I just did. I went and got my thing. He camped where I camped and I went to where he camped, which was even better of a spot than this spot. I mean, we like went on this forest road, went up a couple of miles, and then all of a sudden you’re overlooking this vat, there’s this like, huge boulder. And you could, I scrambled up on the boulder and I was able to set up my fancy camp chair up on the boulder and overlook. And I could see Lake Hume down there. There’s like a big camp, like some sort of sort of Christian camp down there. And after the sunset, like I could hear like all the campers singing a song and they were on like a, they were like on a PA and stuff and so I could like hear like way down there, like hear all this activity. And then they kinda went to bed. But like, I mean this is, that’s the view from the boulder. See that’s the lake. Oh yeah. See how little it is? You could hear them singing from all the way down there? Yes. It’s wild. Me and Jasper. That’s also very beautiful, yeah. Yeah. And you know what, I did take a picture of me actually cooking something. Yeah. Did you cook some veggies? Did you do a little stir fry? I did a little fajita stir fry. Nice. Every other night, potato chips and cereal. Hey, whatever works. But for one night, I splurged on some fajitas. Yeah, I like to keep things simple with food when I go to, but yeah, I don’t have a full kitchen usually. I had a hammock. Nice. Like overlooking this entire valley. You had a whole setup. And it was absolutely… That’s a great band you have too. It was absolutely perfect. The other thing that I just, I relished in was not just being able to perfect everything. I think I kind of moved past that and it was just like embracing the boredom. Another piece of it for me that I realized and I actually talked about in therapy afterward, because it was this concept of like, nobody’s here, nobody’s watching, nobody’s watching. Not that I was doing anything clandestine, but like, so much of my life is being watched. I mean, I’m a performer, you know? And so I’m used to being watched. Yeah. And I think I’ve always been used to being watched because I was taught, I was raised from a young age to believe that well, God is always watching. Yeah. God is always there. And I wasn’t taught like Christie that her dead grandmother was watching, but I’ve always had, I’ve always been watched and I have this embodiment of that and it’s like inner critic that it’s like there’s a version of myself in there that is watching the rest of myself and judging it. So you put all that together and I think that’s why it meant so much to me to be isolated. I mean, it was beautiful, it was quiet, it was rejuvenating. But I did, there were no external expectations. I could take a nap. I could take a second nap. I could take a third nap and not have to like, the only person I would have to justify that to is my inner critic and in that environment, I think he was able to be as quiet as I’ve ever experienced, which is awesome. Like, “oh, I want to take a hike now.” Like, “Jasper has some needs,” but like the main needs that he had was just to be, just to sit in my lap, you know, I mean, he was kind of like, he wasn’t a burden at all. Yeah. He got obsessed with the chipmunks the first night, but other than that, it was, yeah. It was just, ever since I’ve been back, I have just been craving it. Just craving this feeling of, I guess you could call it freedom, I don’t know. Like, for me it’s like connecting those dots to why it felt so good to me, I think helps me get in touch with, “Okay, this is a way that I can love myself.” And you know, it means a lot that maybe Christie knew even more than I did about it because when I brought up the idea of, “Hey, I’m gonna take five days on my vacation “and I’m gonna leave you. “I’m gonna leave the kids.” You know, we had a little bit more vacation when I got back. So that helped mitigate it a little bit. It was like, “Trust me, by the time we get back “and we have the rest of our vacation, “you’ll be tired of me anyway,” is kind of how I justified it. But she was very encouraging. Yeah and she done trips without you as well before. Yeah, she says she doesn’t like the idea of being totally solo. Yeah. But for me it was exactly what I needed. Even more so than I realized because I’m pretty much never alone. Yeah. You know, it’s, yeah, it’s… But I love it. Yeah, that’s how I feel a lot too. I’m pretty much never alone. So like when I have that, yeah, it’s this almost like unfurling and like expanding that I kind of feel like in my body like everything just grows out. Like everything starts to grow out of me. And I’m just like, “Ah,” that’s how I feel when I am solo. I just feel like larger. Yeah and when you– Which I think is because so many women as well, like we’re taught to be like smaller and like be a little compact. So being free and not having people watching as well for me is one of those like, I could do like, I howled at the moon once, I danced around a fire and howled at the moon on one of my trips and it was the best. There you go. Were there clothes involved? There was clothes involved. It was a little chilly. It was chilly. I thought that I might go just totally, that’s one of the things I said was I want to be in a place where I can be naked and it doesn’t matter. Like to really be in, to really fully embody nobody’s watching is to be totally new. Maybe with sandals depending on the terrain. Yes, yeah. But yeah, like how howling at the moon, like doing a little jig around the fire. Yeah. I mean, let’s not get too ceremonially cultish here, but. I’m having a cult in the forest. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, just you expand. And you’re describing being in your body too it’s something that I’m still learning a lot about is like, “Oh, what do I feel? “Where do I feel it? “What does that mean for me?” And when you’re out there and you’re able to you say open up or grow, it’s like these things really happen when you give yourself space and it, you know, I don’t feel like I’m too attached to my phone, but not having it as an option was a huge positive. Yeah. Huge part of it. Because I’ve definitely been camping before and once you get in that chair and you’ve looked at the sunset for a few minutes, then what you’re doing is you’re pulling out your phone and you’re looking at something, you know, you’re looking at something or you’re talking to people or you’re like, you’re satisfying whatever desires you have to maybe connect with somebody who’s not there or, you know, like I said, in the video I wished that someone I loved was there with me. Like my heart started going out to all these people. But that was a great exercise too. Yeah. Where it’s, I mean it’s such, I think maybe I’m describing some sort of a practice for me it’s like a, I don’t know if it’s a, call it a spiritual practice, call it whatever you will. But like the impact that it had, I just, I’m definitely gonna do it sooner versus later again. Yeah ’cause it’s like you were sitting there and you felt this gratitude and love for people and for yourself and if you had your phone with you and doing other things, you wouldn’t have had that space to think about how wonderful you feel and how you care about the people around you. And yeah, having that moment of like, “Oh, I would love to share this with someone,” isn’t the fact that like, you somehow don’t wanna be there anymore. It’s just this peace and this love is you want to give it more. Like you want to share it kind of. Yeah, I mean there was a couple of moments. Like I was sitting there that night after we had done the hike and I had taken this picture of Jasper staring into the forest. No. And but actually it was, I was like, “I’m gonna see if I can make this “the one standing sequoia tree “in a national forest disappear.” And that’s really what I was doing. So it’s like I can’t connect with anybody. I can’t use any apps, I can’t watch any videos. I did have music downloaded. Like that’s of course this big thing for me is like, like when it got late at night, I would put on the music and I, oh, I threw a party for myself every night. Yeah, it’s great. Don’t you get me wrong. It wasn’t all about like this, I wasn’t a Buddhist up there the entire time I was having some party time. You dance, it’s great when no one’s around and you’re just dancing and singing and yeah. Oh, it was so much fun. But leading up to that, there were moments of like, “Can I Photoshop the tree out?” That’s what I did. You photoshopped the tree out? Yeah, see? Oh my gosh. It’s the same photo. See look, I made the tree disappear. You did. All right, you’re so impressed. I am impressed. It’s something that you can circle anything in like Google– I don’t do any of that. Google photos and I had not either. Yeah. But I was like, “Oh, you can circle a tree and make it disappear.” It’s the future, Jenna. I know, I always see the stuff where, like, you go places, you circle something and like you can remove people from backgrounds and things, but– Yeah, remove your people that you’re cutting out of your life from all of your Google photos. You could do that. Oh, that’s good to know. So that’s my story. I love it. I’m happy for you. Any more cautionary tales of… I can make a rec unless you want to give the recommendation, bring a second camp chair. That’s, that’s– Bring a second camp chair, yeah. If you’re by yourself, it’s good to bring a second camp chair. Bring bright clothing when you’re hiking– Jenna’s taking care of you. Especially on someone else’s land. I went on a hike through these mountains, ones on someone else’s land, and they warned me that there was a mountain lion. And I was like, “Oh, okay, I’ll just be on the lookout.” And so I was like walking through and I definitely saw tracks of the mountain lion, which was interesting. But then there were gunshots and so I heard like gunshots in the distance, like towards where I was kind of walking and I was like– Damn, the mountain lion had a rifle? No, I think so. I think the mountain lion had a rifle and I was like, “You know what? “I don’t have on any a bright colored clothing today. “I kind of blend in with the scenery. “So I think I’m going to end my hike here and walk back.” So yeah, yeah don’t wear, because you don’t know people just out there with the gun sometimes. Yeah, on private land, yeah. On private land it’s all, you never know. I’m gonna make a rec. The book that I brought with me is called “The Overstory”, which I think Rhett, I think Rhett told me that he had read part of it when I went to Big Sur I went, I saw it in a bookstore and it’s got these amazing redwoods on the cover and it’s a novel by Richard Powers and it’s award-winning. It was his 12th novel. This book is about nine Americans whose unique life experiences with trees bring them together to address the destruction of forest. So it’s the, I’m only about halfway through, but it was the perfect book for me there because it gives you, it’s the stories of people. And it’s not just that trees are related or integral to every story, but more than that, the entire, the way that it’s presented is almost as if it’s in tree time, not in human time. Yeah. So it gives you this overstory, this different vantage point on like how fleeting life is. Because from a paragraph to paragraph, you might go from a character experiencing a life changing moment to then just, it’s 20 years later and they’re dying. So it’s like the forest through the trees kind of thing. Like, I like, I love a good theme book when traveling. So yeah, that sounds great. It was so good. It is so good, so now I’m that’s, that’s my wreck today, “The Overstory” by Richard Powers. Jenna, thanks for hanging out. Thanks for bouncing stuff off of me. Thanks for inviting me. For being a better co-host. Oh, whoa, whoa. People, you know what people are gonna say? They’re gonna say– I think it, I think it needs, you might need to stay this way. I think they’ll say, I interrupted less, maybe. But I think that people are gonna want Rhett back. I love being here. This is wonderful. Well, we gotta find him first. We gotta find him, yeah. He’s still missing. Hopefully he’s living. I think he’s responding to messages but is he? But is he? Is that him? Let us know about your take on solo trips, hashtag ear biscuits, or you can call us at 1-888-EARPOD1. Okay, see, you actually do listen. I do listen. Look at me when. You’re over there. Hi, this is Megan from Virginia. My commute recently doubled and therefore my podcast listening time also doubled. I just listened to the “Ear Biscuit’s” episode with Link’s dad, and you have turned me into a dispatches from Myrtle Beach Podcast listener also, they’re downloading as I speak. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend, all that. Thanks, bye. 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.