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Sept. 6, 2023

Tow Trucks & Trophies 165

Tow Trucks & Trophies 165

Today we recount our trials and triumphs at the Windsor Fair, we bring you the good, the bad, and the awkwardly funny. From Tow Trucks to Trophies This weeks episode goes from mechanical failure to being recognized and appreciated as we emphasis  It's not all about business. We cherish the virtues of respect and kindness in the workplace and at home, sparking a ripple effect of positivity. We express pride in our craft and gratitude for the recognition received at the Windsor Fair. Above all, we highlight the pivotal role family and community support play in achieving success. We dive into challenges vendors face due to rising costs of goods and the importance of location in increasing sales. Buckle in for this hearty chat that we believe will leave you inspired and encouraged.

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Transcript
Speaker 1:

From tow trucks to trophies. It's a Windsor Recap from Loud, proud American. Our biggest display a bunch of new designs. We just put one of Maine's biggest fairs behind us. How did it go? Well, we're about to let you know. Let me tell you something. Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you. You have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be Back on time. We can back our days. Come on, we'll take on falling for height. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control and I think I like it. That was a good job on the harmonies. You came in there pretty solid. I thought you were sleeping.

Speaker 3:

I'm just about sleeping.

Speaker 1:

But well, you better wake it up, buttercup, because these people want to know, these lab rat Americans want to know how to last week go. They want to know, do they? Yeah, yeah, I was a dramatic pause. I thought you actually did fall asleep.

Speaker 3:

Now.

Speaker 1:

At that moment. To my podcast peeps out there, episode one 65. As in 165 Proctor Road, which is where we live, that's right Now that you just gave everyone our address. Hey, fan mail bro. Fan mail we accept.

Speaker 3:

Don't be so much fun if we got fan mail.

Speaker 1:

Fan mail would be cool We've actually-.

Speaker 3:

People get inboxes and stuff like that and people send them things off of their wishlist and stuff. I want to do that but I'm not cool enough.

Speaker 1:

We have received fan mail to 165.

Speaker 3:

You didn't show me any fan mail.

Speaker 1:

Dude the Lancer for In sent us episode 100 of fan mail no.

Speaker 3:

I'm not talking about that, that I know about. And then Kevin and Amy sent us that Christmas fan mail. I'm not downplaying that, I'm just saying It'd be really cool for people to chime in with fan mail.

Speaker 1:

Fan mail to the address would be fun, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I would get a PL box, probably because I don't want people to know where I am.

Speaker 1:

You're out of control. These are our people, man, people are crazy, not these people we learned that Not these people.

Speaker 3:

These are our people.

Speaker 1:

This is different. This isn't strange people. These are our people. You know what I mean. These are laprod Americans. They ain't strange, we're all a little strange. We're all a little strange Anyway. That's a choice that we get to make. I've received Moving on Super that was a nice note Super cool emails and stuff from people. So I've gotten fan mail that just hasn't been snail mail Like.

Speaker 3:

I love a good piece of mail, not the bills.

Speaker 1:

I can't even get you to read the mail we get now. How do you love mail? Those are bills, those are stacks of it that you don't even look at.

Speaker 3:

Because I only pull out the good stuff. Like the invitations, like the invites, that is an invitation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, those are the same things the invitation and the invite. That's all you open then, basically.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's it. That's all. All right, I would open fan mail. If anybody wants to send fan mail, I would do that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, I'm always open for fan mail. You can even leave a fan voicemail on the podcast website, which no one's done yet. I'm here for somebody to get drunk enough to leave one to see if I actually get notified or what it is. But I know it's an available option on the website, or it was.

Speaker 3:

I already know Kevin is dreaming it up right now.

Speaker 1:

One of these dogs just lit a beef stick on fire. That smells awful.

Speaker 3:

That might have been me.

Speaker 1:

No, oh my God. No, it's not, because those pants Fair food. Oh man, those pants would go in the garbage if that was you.

Speaker 3:

That is toxic. Hey, I'm a woman and I fluff too. This isn't fluff.

Speaker 1:

Oh.

Speaker 3:

Okay, then maybe it wasn't, me.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, they've spent the weekend with their grandparents. I don't know what they, but I saw a soft serve come on up, Ew.

Speaker 3:

okay, don't ruin the soft serve for me.

Speaker 1:

Get out of here, you stink finger.

Speaker 3:

Go.

Speaker 1:

I don't need to see you or smell you. Get gone. All right, we're already way off the rails. If this is your first time listening to this show, you're probably thinking what the fuck is this nonsense?

Speaker 3:

We're a bunch of nutjobs.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we're running on very little sleep, so this is just kind of how it goes. Welcome to fair season y'all. This is what it is. But to all of you that have been tuned in, from my day ones, from my every week number ones, I see you over there with your finger up. I'm proud of you. Keep it up, keep it up.

Speaker 3:

We're my ones, that this whole episode.

Speaker 1:

What.

Speaker 3:

This whole episode. You're my viewers. No, you can put it down in a second.

Speaker 1:

But I just want to say thank you to all the lawyer listeners out there that have been tuning in, been listening in. We appreciate you. You can find all things podcasts at wwwsharethestalkerpodcastcom. You can even find our main squeeze on number one sponsor, b&d Flag Polls. Bud and Dreamer, home of the Titan, telescoping Flag Poll, proudly made in the US of A Gift-giving season is coming right. I mean you can get yourself some made in USA awesomeness from Loud Proud America, but you can also get yourself a flag poll. You could give the gift of patriotic awesomeness this holiday season. B&d Flag Pollscom. You can put your hand down now if you want.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

You want to leave it up? All right, leave it up. So last week, just about a week ago, when we recorded, it was opening day of the Windsor Fair. We recorded on a Sunday, I believe, didn't we?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Sunday night.

Speaker 1:

Morning or something I thought we recorded before that we walked down to our first day.

Speaker 3:

You are correct.

Speaker 1:

All right, so we set everything up. We were talking about some of the difficulties that went into getting to the Windsor Fair. So for those of you that don't know, windsor Fair is Maine's second largest fair. It's been the big missing puzzle piece from our Maine schedule. And when I say Maine, it's an MAI entity, it's the great state of Maine, if you ask me. So we've been waiting on this Windsor scenario to finally happen. Thanks to Matt and Sarah from Ledgeway it did happen. They helped get us in there and last week we were really letting you guys in on the fact that we were dropping our biggest display on Y'all. We put together a 20 by 20 display, which was really just I don't know. It was really humbling to have that time that we were setting up and thinking about hey, we started with this. We started with this one 10-foot space. And here we are, and to most people that might not sound fantastic, but to us it really does. It was special to really just basically we have four of our original tents stuck into one, and then we dropped a bunch of new designs. Last week we have a new rodeo t-shirt design, we launched a Jason Aldeen Morgan Wallin t-shirt, new tank tops for ladies, new flex fit hats. We dropped some new stuff man, new kids' t-shirts. All kinds of cool things happened last week. So we're super excited about last week and the promise, the possibilities that were upon us. We also discussed some of the hiccups, some of the roadblocks, some of the obstacles, and one of those obstacles has been mechanical failures. Right, it's been vehicle nonsense. So last week, when you were on the podcast, you were describing to us the awesome experience of losing the brakes in the truck as we were going to leave with the camper. Remember this little scenario? Fun times, right. So we put that behind us. We embarked on a great first day at Windsor Fair right after recording our podcast, right? Yep, that was good, everything was fantastic. And then Monday morning, we got up early and the plan was for me to follow you home with the, the ambulance, loud Prod, american Express, because you still have new brakes, repaired brakes in the truck, repaired brake lines. We want to make sure that you get home safely. You were going to work and then I was going to pick my mom up and then bring her back, return to the fair, and I had to open at like 10 am, but we were running out of schedule, am I right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we were on time, we were doing good.

Speaker 1:

Then what happened?

Speaker 3:

Nonsense, nonsense.

Speaker 1:

How about you give the explanation, pitch the scenario, paint the photo from the driver's seat, because that was behind you on the old two way?

Speaker 3:

Well, I was driving along, just moseying along, and all of a sudden the truck started to buck. It just started to feel a little funky. I would like hit the gas Funky like a monkey yeah, I'd hit the gas and about 40, 50 miles an hour. She was acting a little weird. She wouldn't get out of her own way, she was bogging. She was just really boggy, bucking around. So I radioed over to you and I said I think we might be running out of gas. You said how many miles do we have? I said 56 miles is what the gauge says. And if y'all remember a couple of episodes ago, our gas tank is held up by a couple of ratchet straps.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, we are classy, yeah, classy broad. Yeah, old red, she's a looker so you said to me If you're into like Botox and other facial enhancements, she's a real looker.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I said to you I think she might be running out of gas or something's up because she's not acting right. And thankfully I was not hauling anything, we were just driving home. And so I come up to like a light, like a four way intersection, and this it's on a little bit of a hill, and I checked the gas gauge like three seconds before that told me I had 56 miles and I said, all right, let's find the next gas station, because I didn't actually see the gas station half a mile back. My bad, my bad. Maybe this would have all been avoided, I don't know, I don't know, but anyway. So I get on this hill because I'm like the first car in line and I am like straight downward and all of a sudden the gas gauge goes from 56 miles, bloop under the E dead. I'm like I'm going to be the first, I'm like I'm going to be the first truck shuts off. And again, thankfully I'm on a hill because the light turns green and I just coast. And I radioed you and I was like, yep, we got a problem. I couldn't steer. She was pretty stiff. There was an empty parking lot and then like right outside the intersection. So that was good, so we pulled into the little parking lot right there, wait a minute.

Speaker 1:

Back up for a second. We pulled into the parking lot.

Speaker 3:

Well, I sort of did.

Speaker 1:

How did you enter said parking lot?

Speaker 3:

Hercules, you had to push me because I was in the middle of the road.

Speaker 1:

I threw the four ways on the old ambulance which you want. To stop traffic, Just park an ambulance in the middle of the road and hit your four ways. People will go around. Yeah, they will, so I had to push all the way into the parking lot. Thankfully it wasn't too far of a stretch.

Speaker 3:

And we were on a hill, thankfully.

Speaker 1:

When you radioed to me, you were like I got 56 miles and we're like, all right, we're about 80 miles from home, we definitely got to get gas. And then you were like I don't know half a mile down the road you said, hey, when does your gas light come on? And I was like 19 miles and you're like, well, your light just came on and we're like how the hell will we go from 16 to 19? And the next minute you're like it's empty, and then it was dead.

Speaker 3:

Dead. Just literally all the lights went off Like there was nothing, there was no gas, no nothing, and like the key was still in the on position and I was like, oh dang, this is not good. So I just went, I let off the brake and we rolled down the hill and I turned and then I got to like the edge of that parking lot. And then that's when you had to come and push me, Because I was like I can't go any further.

Speaker 1:

We went up the street to the gas station, bought a $20 fucking three gallon tank of gas, can yeah, filled it up with gas, which I will say. Some fella actually came up to us and said you run out of gas, you need a ride. Which I was pleasantly surprised that doesn't really happen. I don't think that happens anymore, so I thought that was pretty cool.

Speaker 3:

It's probably because I was there on the lady.

Speaker 1:

I don't even think he saw you. He was looking at me. I was pumping and paying. I don't know what. So we put a fuel into the tank and she fired right up and we're like tragedy avoided. So you turned around, we're going to get more gas so we could fill the truck up.

Speaker 3:

And then you radioed back to base and said yeah, because you said, all right, I'm going to stay right here. You go back to the camp.

Speaker 1:

To the camp. I'm not saying you to camp.

Speaker 3:

You go back to the gas station, get some gas and come back. I said no problem. So I whip around, the truck starts up, no problem. And I get to the light and she, she sparks up, turns around, no problem. And I'm at the light and I'm like edging forward because I'm like all right, after this car I'm going to go and I put my, I go to put some pressure on the gas and she's going barely moving, like I'm like, oh, this ain't good, this ain't good. So I give her a little bit more gas and I'm just like trying to like egg forward, trying to get past this car, and she's in straight limp mode and I'm like Limp basket. This is not good. So and again, I'm now going in the opposite direction, trying to go up that little hill that I just rolled down and thankfully, right off to the right hand side is a Camden National Bank. And as I'm starting to limp up there, they're on the dash. Is this lightning bolt in quotes? Like on the dash? I'm like that doesn't look very good. So I radio to you because you're just around the corner and I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not going to make it to the gas station. And you're like, what now? And I was like, yeah, no, I'm in limp mode, I can't even get out of my own way. I am barely. I'm like limping into the Camden National Bank and I go right out back to the empty lot and just park it. She is seizing like I have my foot on the break and she's like, like the entire freaking time I have my foot on the break, trying not to die in the intersection, like I'm like one mile an hour going through the intersection, there's like a big truck coming and I'm like, oh shit, roadkill squashed. That didn't really happen, but that's what I was worried. So I get it there.

Speaker 1:

And then you come along and we fired her up and we're kind of thinking, you know, assessing the situation like maybe she out of gas, maybe the sensor's bad.

Speaker 3:

Like what's? We just need to get more gas. Fill it up. Like what's the status you know?

Speaker 1:

when I pop the hood I could hear clicking and sparking under the hood and say, well, that's it, she's, she's.

Speaker 3:

Noah calls that arcing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, she was arcing All right what it was. We couldn't see it from where we were, so I could hear like a spark, but nowhere said. When he says it is, there's an actual arc and we'll get to that in a second. So at that point we know trucks dead right, it's not going anywhere. You jump in the ambulance, we lock the truck up, call AAA again seven in the morning right Seven in the morning, call AAA to schedule this tow to get the truck home, to get things figured out, and I find out that AAA says you have to be with the vehicle with your driver's license and with your membership card or they will not tow it.

Speaker 3:

So we have an hour and a half drive from Camden National Bank in Augusta, all the way home, so I can get to work and you can get your mom. So we're like trying to like, in your words, do the math on timeframe and figure out like all right, an hour and a half down, hour and a half back, I still have to get a few things. What time can I get back there? So we schedule like a pickup between like 11 and 12. And I asked the lady on the phone. I was like all right, what's the over under that he's actually going to show, he or she, he or she is going to actually show up at 11. Like they're going to call you. So we're like all right that'll work out An hour.

Speaker 1:

It's an hour range at the cable car, so we're like okay.

Speaker 3:

So we're like all right, that'll work, perfect, because you can tell them like hey, I'm an hour out, like go closer to noon or what have you, and like go back. So they tell us what is it? K and D towing.

Speaker 1:

Something stupid, kdt or KDT.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's right. Kdt will be there to pick up your truck. Between you know 11 and noon. Make sure you have your stuff. You're there, whatever, whatever, and I'm like, oh great, okay, so you get home, I go to work.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I grab all my stuff and my mom up, shoot straight there. No one's. No one's there, not hearing from anybody.

Speaker 3:

No one texted me either. I had nothing.

Speaker 1:

You know, so I think I don't remember. I don't want to try to recall here. Did you talk to AAA? I tried calling.

Speaker 3:

AAA, no, I talk, I talk to the tow company directly right. Kdt yeah.

Speaker 1:

I called AAA and actually they never even called me back. Now that I bring it up. So I called AAA and I said hey, I scheduled this tow at seven o'clock in the morning. There's nobody here yet. They told me my appointment was at 11. It's almost 12. I have some place to be and they said oh, you know, we'll follow up on this While I'm waiting for the tow.

Speaker 3:

You had text to me and told me nobody's here and I haven't heard from anybody. So I was like fuck it, I'm literally just going to call KDT and because they're the ones coming. And so I talked to a sweet lady, gave her the rundown hey, listen, I ordered this with AAA. They gave me your information this morning at 7am. She's like Nope, not me. I'm like ma'am, come on Like she's being super sweet, but I'm like frustrated at this point, like I we have not had very good luck with AAA so far, like when it comes to like they dropped our tow so many times.

Speaker 1:

This time they never even came close to resolving the issue we had on the road no couple weeks ago now here we are again with the same situation you know and so come to find out.

Speaker 3:

The lady ends up.

Speaker 1:

I think she calls you, or me at all well you, so she didn't have us on the schedule at all, but she's just been staying there all day waiting for someone to show up right triple a never called me back, never got in touch with this lady, and so I don't know where that person is yeah, she told me so, the sweet lady that I talked to you at KDT.

Speaker 3:

She told me that she was gonna reach out to triple a and that they would get it figured out. That's when, and so she called me back, or she called you back.

Speaker 1:

She ended up calling me. In between the time for her calling me, I am now missing the opening time for the fair yeah so I have to actually call my. I don't know what the name is, but like the like the boss basically like my go-to, my point of contact the boss for my department, like my department head, like the head organizer for this portion of the fair. I have to call him and say hey, man, I'm, I'm running late, you know. So we've talked to you guys about how important this fair is and how difficult it's been to get in. Now, on the second day of the fair, I'm telling you that it's a call that I've never had to make since I've been in business is to call someone and say I'm not gonna be there. So that sucked. And obviously they you know they were nice about it, but they obviously weren't excited, right, they're not stoked to receive that phone call. So I kind of puts things at a bad note when you're trying to make a positive impression. So I'm like you know, this is what's going on, I'm waiting for a tow. As soon as I get it I'll be there. And then that lady that you spoke with called me and she starts saying I don't even have you on the schedule. They put you in the schedule now, but I don't know what time I'm actually gonna be there and I said listen, I can't can't sit around, I can't do this you know, I was told by triple A that I have to be here and she's like don't worry about it, put your keys in the ashtray, we'll pick the truck up and bring it.

Speaker 3:

You can go about your business and you had gone into the bank and, yeah, I went to the bank and talked to them and said, hey, I'm gonna believe in this.

Speaker 1:

So if the fucking lady from triple A would have told me in the morning that was okay because I left the keys in the gas cap and was that's what we were going on yeah, even the lady at KDT was like that's a policy with triple A.

Speaker 3:

It's bullshit, don't even worry about it. Which I mean I'm rightfully so.

Speaker 1:

I get that, because you just have any Gibroni's car like toad, just because you want to but I was like I could have been, I could have made my day, I could have been on on time, you know right? So she's like just go about your business and we'll figure it out from here on out.

Speaker 3:

I've just made the executive decision. If we have to use triple A ever again, ever again, okay, and I hope that it's never anytime soon, when they give us the contact information for the toad company, I'm gonna call them yeah, I just call them directly, yeah because you clearly cannot rely on triple A like so that was Monday, right?

Speaker 1:

and then I don't hear from anybody, right?

Speaker 3:

I'm not hearing from anybody about our truck, so you heard later on Monday night that they had picked it.

Speaker 1:

I called because I hadn't heard from anybody. So I called and said before I was like it's almost five o'clock and I haven't heard from anybody yeah so I called and said hey, just follow one up on my truck. I haven't heard from anybody. Was supposed to pick it up. I left it, you know, and you were gonna double. You weren't gonna be home for a while. So can somebody give me an update on my vehicle and they put me on hold, came back and said yep, you're all set, it's on the back of the truck, it's in route. And I said can we just confirm?

Speaker 3:

the ad to a rundle right.

Speaker 1:

Can we confirm the address? Because it was some confusion with triple A because they had for some reason your phone number, not mine. After several attempts to tell them what number to use, and they didn't know what the billing address was, which they bill us every month so we had talked about going to our friend's garage I'm going over to see Chris and Steve and Noah and then my cousin said I'll just show up at the house and do it. So we're like, all right, we need the truck back super quick, so I will just have it towed home. So I confirmed the address again with this lady and I'm thinking okay, truck's on its way, everything's good. I tell my cousin it's on its way and you get out of work. At what? Eight o'clock on Monday night.

Speaker 3:

I had to make a pet stop at the grocery store. So I think I got home at like 8, 30 and yeah. So to my surprise old red was not here, not here at all. So I'm like driving up a noun proctor road trying to figure out, like me, was it dropped off at the wrong address? Like then I limp into the house like what's the status? Real quick I drive down to the boys at the garage, see like maybe they dropped it off there. You know that was one of the addresses. So either ones you know our address or the boys, you know those are the two addresses that are on file with them. No, nothing. So I call KDT and I was like, hey, yeah, so just checking it on that, the o3 dodge and she's like I don't know what you're talking about and I was like ma'am, what do you mean that you? don't know what I'm talking about. I said this morning I called, spoke to a nice lady. She told me she put us on the on the docket. She spoke with my husband that the truck was being picked up and on the way to be dropped off. I said I don't know where our truck is. And she's like okay, let me get back to you. And I was like first of all, do you want to know who I am? Do you want to know my name? Do you want to know my phone number? And just click. So probably like 20 minutes goes by nothing, like I don't hear anything. And I'm like okay, so I'm texting you trying to be that. Did they call you? And he's like, nope, she calls me back. She goes yep, found a truck. Oh, he did. Yeah, it's an Augusta. I go huh, augusta, interesting, that's not the address. The lady says to me. She goes there was a mix-up with the address. There was a couple of different addresses and I said no, ma'am, there was. There was two, both of which are in a Rundle yeah, close to them, or an Augusta and neither one of those are where they're spoke, where it's supposed to be, and she's like, oh yeah, and then also, we didn't have a good contact number. And I said you didn't have a good contact number. Huh, that's interesting because you guys have called us twice, twice down on oh no, those, you called you and they called me and I called them and they got the ticket afterwards they spoke with both of us on the phone, both times calling out to us, and when I spoke with them a few hours previous, I confirmed the address when the truck was supposedly on the back of the tow truck yeah, I confirmed the address and phone number multiple times and triple a apparently had. They didn't know what our billing address was, which was hilarious to me and they had our phone number wrong they had our phone number wrong, and so I was like, all right, can you just confirm, like when the truck is gonna be here, cuz like it needs to be worked on, I need to get it to the garage? And she was like, yep, tomorrow morning, we'll send it down tomorrow morning. Okay, all right, great, and this is all going on. Triple a right, because we're not paying for this. And she was like, yep, you're all set. And I was like, okay, perfect, that sounds wonderful well hmm, next day rolls wrong. Have you heard anything? no me neither. Okay, so our truck is lost somewhere in Augusta, somewhere in the state of Maine. And I'm like telling this lady I'm like listen, you don't see it there. On your like, look out that damn window. You don't see the truck, like where, where is it? And I'm like you don't want this bad boy on your, on your loss. She's an eyesore, like she's got a rundle across the door, not keeping it for fucking beauty point she's rusted like you don't want her in your door yard and so so yeah, next day rolls around, that truck finally caught, dropped off. It was 24 hours later, the truck was dropped off to us. It was like six o'clock at night yeah. They picked it up super late, so probably like six o'clock, and then held onto it for 24 hours. And then what was it like? Tuesday you got a notification that was like how did we do AAA, you should have blasted them.

Speaker 1:

They didn't even send me one. They sent me one of those, the Thompson scenario it tops them.

Speaker 3:

I still think we should blast them.

Speaker 1:

They've learned to not even follow up on it, but so our truck was lost for a day and a half two days whatever. So we get it home. My cousin puts a fuel pump in. My dad actually cuts a big hole in the bed, dropped the fuel pump in my cousin puts a fuel pump in.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I came home to a gaping hole in the back of the truck, a small step stool ladder and a fire extinguisher, and I was like That'll do it.

Speaker 1:

That's really all you need.

Speaker 3:

The fundamentals of a good surgery right there.

Speaker 1:

So he says to me a video of it running. Everything's super strong, everything's great. The next day you're gonna drive it to work and then you're gonna go get some hay just to kinda make sure everything's running good around town before you head north, so you can come up for the weekend and then haul the camper home and you send me another message about the truck. I was like yeah, no, this is not I think you called me and said I'm not driving this fucking thing up there, I'm not towing with it.

Speaker 3:

No, no way. I was like this is not happening and I just went from my house to the local Walmart, which is five minutes away, and then from Walmart to my work, which is also another additional five minutes. So I was driving the truck for a total of 10 minutes and I was like this damn truck can't even get out of its own way, like I, what I don't even understand, like what is happening right now, and she is so boggy Like I can't even get her to go over 30 miles an hour, let alone get out of her own way to get on the turnpike. I was like I'm not driving this on the turnpike all the way up there, Like I'm gonna blow something, like I'm literally something's gonna happen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's when we go back to the clicking scenario and we're thinking this is probably another coil. We've been down this road. We've already replaced coils on this truck so many times, because I was told once before that the engine was blown but it just needed a new coil pack. Long to short of it. I reached out to Chris big old Chris Woodcock over the Rundle Motors and tell him what's going on.

Speaker 3:

Meanwhile I had already messaged him.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're all three of us are having separate conversations basically, and he's like you know where's the truck now? And I'm like, oh, you know the wife has it. And he's like 10-4, I'm on it, but head over there to take a look.

Speaker 3:

Actually, before that you asked him hey, when can you look at the truck? It's not acting right. And I had texted him and told him listen, I can't drive this truck. It is not acting right. Can you all just drop a scan tool on it, let me know if it's misfiring and do whatever, like they normally do right. And he had told you next week is what he had told you.

Speaker 1:

Are you trying to tell me he plays favorites Cause I'm not buying it.

Speaker 3:

And then I was having a separate conversation with him and he says to me yeah, no one, I need a drink, we'll be right down. And I was like that'll do.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And then he was in my parking lot working on the truck and changed the coil out. Yeah, in the parking lot of my work.

Speaker 1:

Chris called me and said you've got a super bad coil. That's actually it's arcing like it's sparking. It's arcing back there and you have a leaky fuel rail and the fuel leak is, you know, just a few short inches away from the arc on your coil. And said you guys definitely shouldn't be driving this truck. You know we might be in September, but that's going to be pretty close to the 4th of July if that sucker starts to, you know, connect the dots between a leaky fuel and an arc. So you know I'm like well, we'll get her home and figure it out. I don't know if you want to throw it on the tow truck or what. And Chris said well, the last time I put a coil in your truck they had one on the shelf at O'Reilly, so we'll go take a look. And he went there next. You know you were calling me, saying I could see Noah under the hood working on the truck. They put a brand new coil in in the parking lot at your work, fired that sucker out, took her for a test drive, said there was no codes and she was good to go.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm, actually right now to this day, so that was on Friday and he cleared out all the codes which you've had a check engine light for decades.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

She still hasn't come back home.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, pretty impressive so.

Speaker 3:

I don't know that that boy's dead, but man.

Speaker 1:

So Cousin Joe shows up, saves the day again, drops the fuel pump in it. Next day, chris and Noah show up and put a fucking new coil in it. And then you ride up strongest can be.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, she was motoring along. At one point I looked down at the friggin' speedometer and I was like going 90 and I was like whoa Nelly.

Speaker 1:

Dial it back. I'll say what? Man today, you in front of me, I couldn't keep up with you with the ambulance. Finally I said just keep, just go, just go. The old ambulance is in a death wobble at 80 and I'm seeing, and the words are Clint black, nothing but tail lights. So I was just bobbing and weaving. She's strong, she's back to good. The ambulance we had a close call. It was surging and sounding like shit. My cousin came all the way up and looked at it and was like hey, bud, this is actually what your truck is supposed to sound like when you have an alternator that actually works.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Cause I went so long with one that didn't so get the mechanical stuff out of the way. We made it home safe today. That's all good right. That's all well and good. So I wanna give a little recap on the fare After we put the craziness behind us and we get things squared away which also another shout out to my cousin, joe coming up picking my mom up, giving her a ride home too. That really saved us from having to double dip on trips cause we were gonna have to drive an hour and a half, turn around, do it again, to turn around and do it again. So you know, that was huge for us. So if we get all the commuting, all the travel, all the hiccups out the way and hopefully they're out of the way for the rest of the year and that we have two smooth running vehicles at least to get us through the season, to get into Windsor fare and to kind of give a little recap on the fare, I'm gonna say that from day one I felt good about that fare. Like from day one I felt like these are our people, man. Absolutely, and one of the things I said to you was like I can always gauge a fare based off of the clientele and what they're wearing, and when I say what they're wearing is for us. If there's a high per capita of cowboy boots, we're in good shape.

Speaker 3:

We're in Right.

Speaker 1:

And most fellas that were at that fare were wearing cowboy boots. And you know it just, I know the sign, the sign of success right there, and it just happens to be that a good set of cowboy boots means they're probably in the right area. So such a welcoming fare, this is probably one of the very few, if not only fares, where I don't think I had any one person come in and complain about what we were doing or say any kind of nonsense. Right, they were all super receptive and accepting of us.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no, I don't think so either, which is actually now that you bring it to light. That's a good point. Normally there was one that came close.

Speaker 1:

This lady came in. She was looking at everything and she came over to me and my mom and she was talking about the mission statement and then she read it and she said I have a question for you. So she starts going and she's like what are you guys doing? And like what is this all about? And I described that mission 2% is to support American manufacturing. Only 2% of all the apparel bought, sold and worn in this country is made in this country. And it's our mission to do our little part to make a difference to support American jobs and American manufacturing. And she's like there's nothing political about this and I was like well, I mean, you can see where I stand politically, but this is about American jobs and she started to reference the let's Go Brandon shirt that I have. And she's like I just saw some mixed messaging here that I don't really know what you stand for. And at that moment is when the I guess you have the fighter flight senses right which direction do you wanna go? And my initial reaction, my initial statement that I wanted to make was the Outpad. American is all about American manufacturing. We support American jobs, and if that shirt over there that you're referencing is in regards to a fellow that I don't think supports American jobs, that's where I wanted to go. Is that if you wanna talk about American jobs, I have that shirt in my tent because I don't believe he supports American jobs. I don't believe he supports America, period. But I didn't wanna start off on the wrong foot here because I was like I don't know this area and I don't know how far this Karen's gonna go with it. So I just said, well, this is what it's about. So I kinda dismissed it. But the point I'm making is we felt so welcome. Right, it was such an awesome feeling. Everybody that was just supporting us and coming in, and just from anybody coming in that wasn't even buying anything, just thanking us for our mission and what we were doing and having good, positive conversation. Obviously, a lot of people were buying things as well and then volunteers, organizers from the fair the support they were giving us this week was phenomenal and I think one of the things that really enjoyed about this fair is it just feels like a family fair, doesn't?

Speaker 3:

it. Yeah, it does feel very homey. It does feel very family oriented and by the end of the weekend, like we got some inside scoop from Sarah that it was like this family. The people in the information booth has been like generation and generation and then, like in the cattle barn, the judging has been generation after generation of the same family. So it just made so much sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we spent that. What was it Saturday night or Sunday night? I don't even know Saturday night, and no, it was Sunday. I'm blacked out Sunday night in the livestock office and the livestock is a president, you're not supposed to be there, sorry. Right, is it the livestock president? Is that what it is? I don't know if it's president or commissioner, I don't know. Man, I'm so tired right now I get lose train of thought and senses and vocabulary slipping at this point. But what is it? It's the livestock president. Livestock.

Speaker 3:

Probably Okay. There's probably like it's a committee, so there's like a president or treasurer, that sort of thing.

Speaker 1:

They all have different jobs, the folks that run the livestock. Let's call it a livestock president. It was Carolyn Dana, I believe, was her names, and Sarah was saying that before them their father was the livestock president. Before their father, their grandfather was the livestock president. And before their grandfather, sarah's grandfather, was the livestock president. So this is just a family scenario, man. This is just a fair that has deep rooted family heritage and ties to it and it's really easy to see that and to feel that everybody's invested in the fair, the success of the fair, the experience of the fair, and that was just awesome. Right, that's clearly one of the reasons why us, as visitors before we were in the business going to this fair we enjoyed it so much because you just felt like it was a nice fair, you just felt like it was family. And I can't speak to the hierarchy of the fair, but we got to meet the president and then his kids are running everything between JT and Dan, the president of our area, or the big boss of our area, like, and then his wife's involved. It's just awesome, man. It's just awesome that it's a family run scenario. I think this day and age we've lost sight of a lot of those family run things Like the mom and pop stores and businesses. A lot of those have gone by the wayside. They've gotten scooped up by big businesses, by conglomerate shops and things like that. So to see such a massive fair in our state run, that's basically a lot of the trustees are family and the ones that aren't, I'm sure they feel like family and they're all connected and they're all pulling on the same rope, working for the same goal. And that was pretty awesome. Like, if you think about Matt and Sarah, like Matt and Sarah are so dedicated to that fair and making sure that it's a great experience and that's all they think about, right? Like they're so focused on that fair. Those guys were eager to get us in there but also every day made sure to like check in and follow up with us to make sure we were having a good experience, that we didn't need anything. So it's awesome because, like they're friends and we consider them family at this point, right, absolutely. And they're invested in the success of our business and we've had that conversation, but you can see their hearts in it for so many reasons. Number one they care about us. Number two they really care about that fare.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, they definitely have. They want what's best for the fare, because it's a fare that they go to as well, like it's home to them.

Speaker 1:

And they're invested in it. Right, they care about it and it's really easy to see that they care, and they took us under their wing and introduced us to a lot of people this week and we just got to.

Speaker 3:

And also pointed out some good factors for us to keep in mind for next year's placement and requesting those and how we can better our sales for next year. Like it was really helpful because they've been there, they've done this fare a ton of times and been a part of it for so long that they know what's good for the fare and what's good for us.

Speaker 1:

It's nice to get the advice from them too, because they've been even outside of this fare. They've been on a fare circuit right and they know what it's like, and I've learned so much from that and Sarah that we would have to learn the hard way on the road our own right, and I always just have been in a position where I just take what's given to us right. I don't put up a stink and they're like no, no, your resource to these fares. The more you go, you need to step up, you need to ask questions. You need to say no, this isn't right for me in my business.

Speaker 3:

Sarah uses your quote.

Speaker 1:

What's that?

Speaker 3:

They need you more than you need them. She said that to me the other day, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

That's a full circle moment for us right there. So people were speaking of his Ledgewaif arm. Matt and Sarah Perkins, make sure you check them out. Best damn soap you're ever gonna use.

Speaker 3:

We don't use any other soap.

Speaker 1:

Loud Proud. Americans wash exclusively with goat soap. We do, we do.

Speaker 3:

There might be some, maybe some soap in the future. That we can carry.

Speaker 1:

Maybe even some chapstick, I don't know you never know, we'll see where it goes, but great people.

Speaker 3:

It's gonna smell like two stroke and rubber.

Speaker 1:

Hmm, America.

Speaker 3:

Whew, if that's not a panty droppa.

Speaker 1:

I don't know what is. I don't know.

Speaker 3:

Maybe a sprinkle of pine. Oh yeah, you're a hooker. For Christmas, you're a twig and berries.

Speaker 1:

I'm a real hooker for some pine.

Speaker 3:

You are.

Speaker 1:

Love me some pine.

Speaker 3:

I know. Number one I drove around in the truck was just, I was just going there, a tree on your dash.

Speaker 1:

I just took a limb off a pine tree at. Christmas and just threw it on the dash.

Speaker 3:

Right when we got together, I was the first.

Speaker 1:

what, 10 years ago, you rolled in a tractor supply and tractor supply, tractor supply and there was a bunch of loose pine branches and I just threw them all on the dash.

Speaker 3:

I think what had happened is we were actually out, because we got together in November, we were out Christmas shopping or something. It was like me, you and your mom and we rolled in somewhere and there was a tree, a pine tree, and I remember you like snapped a twig off. Maybe it was tractor supply, I don't really know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they were selling Christmas trees and there was a bunch of broken limbs out front.

Speaker 3:

And you literally grabbed it.

Speaker 1:

Threw it on. The dash turned the heat on.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep. The last time that you did that was a few years later. Do you remember? Remember that.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure. Fill me in.

Speaker 3:

So the last time that you've actually grabbed a full-on tree limb and put it on your dash was when we moved in here.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, when we went to get a tree, we moved in here. It was Christmas Eve, or something.

Speaker 3:

It was Christmas Eve and we were like, all right, our house is ready, but there was nothing in here. But it mounted TV.

Speaker 1:

That's right.

Speaker 3:

And an air mattress on the floor. No, we didn't even use an air mattress, we used our actual mattress. We climbed it up the stairs. It was Christmas Eve and we're like for Christmas Eve, we wanna sleep on our own bed. We didn't have a Christmas tree and so I was on Marketplace and there was a place right downtown Bitterford that had a few Christmas trees left and they were real Christmas trees and we ran down there and we grabbed a real Christmas tree and there was a bunch of like limbs left on the ground from other Christmas trees. That was a cute little Christmas tree it was perfect, but it was free. It was free. And you grabbed those branches and left them on your dash until they shriveled up.

Speaker 1:

Oh, the problem is when that pine branch starts to dry up and then needles start to fall. It's a mess.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, messy. It's a real mess.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, back on track. Big shout out, and thank you to Matt and Sarah for getting us into Windsor, taking us under their wing, introducing us to so many people. We're gonna spend time with our granddaughter, scarlett, this week too. She's so cute, super sweet, so I just felt so welcomed and I felt even more welcomed on Thursday because-.

Speaker 3:

It reminds me of the vibe of like Ossopy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, we have-.

Speaker 3:

I mean much larger scale. Yeah, big time, big time. But that's how homey.

Speaker 1:

It feels it's the feel there too and I think the feel at Ossopy. When we talk about Windsor, that family heritage. I feel like I have family roots at Ossopy, so I grew up there. As a child my dad was racing there, Both of my uncles were, so it was just something that some of my fond memories of my childhood all happened there. So I feel just a certain level of pride and ownership to that fair. So and you can see that same transfer of enthusiasm from the trustees and the people that are on the board and the volunteers at Windsor. You can really see it. So I think that's why it kind of trickles down and to really just further how organized they are, how professional they are and how family run the fair is. On Thursday they put on a vendor breakfast. We've been doing this for three years, four years now. I've never been to a fair where they're like we're gonna take all of our vendors and we're gonna give you something. That doesn't happen. No, never so they treated everybody to vendor breakfast and they usually just give us a map. Yeah, basically, basically. So we had a vendor breakfast and then they introduced some things and they talk about new changes and they try to welcome some new vendors in and they give out awards to some of the new vendors that are kind of going above and beyond and they feel like they're doing something to better the fair, to have a clean, professional display and stuff like that. So Dan had this great speech about vendors to the fair and that over the years they give out awards to recognize the vendors that they feel are just going a step above and trying to make a difference and saying that we try to share these awards, so we're not giving them all to the same people every year, but we really wanted to highlight a few folks and there was a couple people inside the mall craft area. There was another guy outside and then us. They acknowledged Loud, proud, american. They brought me up there, gave me a big poster of the fair that was framed, a certificate that basically congratulates us and thanks us for the betterment of the fair, the fact that we're there to provide a better experience and to uplift the fair, and they give us a blue ribbon and they just acknowledge us. And it was awesome man, it was such a cool thing. Matt grabbed my phone and was taking pictures and my mom was trying to get photos and you're up there just kind of shaking hands and it was just really cool because, number one, we pour our heart and soul into our display and to all the things that we do. If anybody knows us, every I mean every display there's so much thought that goes into it. I've been drawing maps for the Windsor Fair in our display for months. Right Remember at Union, when it was slow, I sat in the back of that tent during the week. No-transcript.

Speaker 3:

We did have a bunch.

Speaker 1:

We were drawing them up like what's the best traffic flow? Where is the cash register? How do I expand like my organization, how do I display things? And I mean it literally turned into during our setup night. I've got a skill saw. I've got 2 by 12s and I'm out there making shelves and all these things so that we have a better, cleaner, looking back stock area.

Speaker 3:

It looked really good.

Speaker 1:

We went and doubled our grid wall. Obviously, we had the investment for the new tent, so it was really just gratifying the fact that we doubled down, tripled down on our display, on the size, on the presentation, for the very first time that we ever set up as a 20 by 20. We got a freaking award for it. That was pretty damn cool, am I right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1:

So it just felt so good to be accepted by them, welcomed and acknowledged by them. It's just a really cool feeling. One of the things that trickled down from that that was pretty damn awesome is I couldn't even make it back to the tent when people were stopping me, congratulating me, introducing themselves to me and then wanting to come over and see what we're doing. So I had a line of vendors wanting to get into our tent and I didn't have a chance to open the doors to put things out. It's 2 million degrees in there. So as I'm opening the walls and trying to figure things out, I got vendors coming in looking to get things, looking to buy things, just asking questions. Man, I sold I don't know probably five or six T-shirts and a sweatshirt and some hats before the fair actually really even opened, because it was vendors coming in to support us and to congratulate us and to get to know us. That was pretty damn awesome.

Speaker 3:

I know you were stuck at work during that, but I was, yeah, you sent me a message and it was a picture of you as receiving your award and it was like I can't talk right now, but I wanted to send this to you and I was like freaking out. I was like, oh my God, you finally did it, like I was so proud, like it was a real huge achievement, because we have some friends that have won it and everybody says like, oh, when you're a new time vendor, you're gonna most people get that award and whatever, whatever, but we had been in business and on the road for three years and never once has anybody. But this was our, as you said, biggest and, I think, clean looking.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Like.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely think so. Sarah had made a comment to me during the week that was like when I'm out walking around, I'm at the fair, like I'm at the fair. When I step into your tent, I feel like I'm somewhere else, like I feel like I'm stepping into a business, I'm stepping into a storefront, like it's that clean and professional, and that's a heck of a compliment, man.

Speaker 3:

That's one thing that we strive for, because we do take the time and we have seen things at fairs in the way, like I mean, we judge what we're eating and where we're shopping and going into based on.

Speaker 1:

With the presentation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1:

Cleanness and how things are. So we wanna uphold that presentation and for us, like if we're charging a premium price for a premium product, we need a premium presentation.

Speaker 3:

And I think this week, like when we were talking about like driving up to the fair, you and I talked about kind of being more like in sync when it comes to like making sure that you and I are wearing similar shirts or we have a badge that says Lad Proud American, so it's like almost like unified. that it shows like all right, if you have any questions, you can ask these two people or what have you, and we had talked about getting like lanyards or clips or something of that nature. That way we look like if you have a question you can come to us kind of thing versus like not sure who's shopping and who's actually.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's tough because the way our things light up, I mean you just have a big tent right. So it could be mingling around, milling around. You don't know if someone's working there or not. It's not like you're wearing a Best Buy uniform, you know. And in some vendor booths, like it's obvious who's working. Like you roll the Matt and Sarah's thing, they're up on the high rise in the trailer, you know they're working there, you know. So if you have somebody standing behind a computer, you know they're working there. But when you're in like a merchandise tent of like apparel and stuff, you're kind of floating around wearing the product. It's hard to really know sometimes. So we take into consideration all those little things. We're really starting to add those to our thought process to kind of up the game a little bit.

Speaker 3:

So that's you know, yeah, it's like clean presentation. You know the cleanliness of our booth. You know we make sure that our labels are out and showing like the actual product. You come into our tent like every hanger's going one direction.

Speaker 1:

Everything's got a price tag, everything's. You know sizes for the most part are gonna be all filled and in order and things are gonna be straight. Unless we're sold out, it's gonna be there. You know, like we take the time, like we are constantly restocking, reloading, doing those things all day long.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and even our like overstock bins, like or overstock behind us, like yesterday was like folded up and like overstock hats with the new shelves are like above you, like they're on display still. So I mean, I think that we've done an amazing job of like making sure that you know we are. We put a presentation out there on how we want other people booth to look, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

For sure, you wanna lead by example, and I also feel like that's our storefront, that's our retail location, right Like we spend the money we spend on tents. And I think that you know people would think that it's silly, but for us, if it cost me $3,000 for one tent, it's because that's our office. Like that's our storefront, that's the awning on your building, that's the. You know that's paying somebody to clean the windows, that's painting the front steps, like that, you know what I mean. Like that is your curb appeal, that is your business, that is your foundation. So for us, we don't have a storefront, we don't have a brick and mortar storefront, but when we set up somewhere, that's our storefront, that's our location, that's our place of business, that's our retail store and we want it to present itself that way. So super excited to be acknowledged for that. And then the people that came in and showed us their support, like John came in from a neater built welding and he's a. He's a glass, I guess. Like, like, glad you call it like a glass blower or something when you heat up glass. I'm gonna post a video of him to pretty awesome Great dude man. Me and John spent a bunch of time connecting. The rest of the week he was coming in, checking on us, you know, asking how things are going. He's one of the only people that I've ever met. That's been asked by the fair to show up. He never replied for it. They asked him to show up and do demos and he's been there for a few years since and he actually we just had a meeting with me and cabin masters and he's doing all these things. He's been contacted by some cool people and he's like you know, things in my life and in his business are just kind of happening naturally and I feel like you know, relationships and connections happen naturally and I'm excited that we had this connection. So it was cool for us to spend some time, you know, shoot the shit about thoughts and philosophies and ideas and businesses and you know, when he gave us some some super cool glass stuff that he had made and he bought a bunch of stuff from us throughout the week. So that was really cool.

Speaker 3:

And then also I had a oh my God, that just reminded me.

Speaker 1:

Talk to me.

Speaker 3:

My necklaces is in my shorts that I wore last night. Don't let me wash those.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, get that out.

Speaker 3:

He made me a glass blown necklace. Yeah, that was really cool. It's absolutely cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, also Burns Bears. There's a dude that does chainsaw work and like wood burning and stuff. He came in and gave me a chainsaw carved eagle.

Speaker 3:

It was tiny. I was surprised, like the details that he got.

Speaker 1:

I can't believe you could cut that with a chainsaw.

Speaker 3:

I know.

Speaker 1:

You crafted an eagle out of a chainsaw that's I don't know, six or eight inches, like out of control, and then he gave it to me and I was like, man, I'm gonna take that with me everywhere on the road. He's like I know you will. That's why I gave it to you, and he won't find anything more American made than that. Like how does? that happen, like that was sweet when your vendors are as a fair. No matter what this is, this is a lesson for anybody in, either if you're in a leadership position at your work or if you're in a leadership position at home right, how you treat people as a trickle down effect, right 100%. So if you have employees that you take care of and you do a great job with at work and you start to invest in them and treat them as family, it trickles down and they will treat colleagues and coworkers that way and then hopefully they'll also treat your customers that way, right? Because it's a trickle down effect of that energy, of that philosophy. The same thing goes at home. If you treat your wife and kids with respect and make them feel comfortable and you raise them that way, they're gonna treat their friends and coworkers. And that's just how you fix America. In the first place, it starts with leadership. This country is in a leadership deficit. We don't have enough good leaders in this country. You can make a difference in this country by leading your household, by leading your place of employment, and for these fairs to treat people with respect, to make them feel welcome and appreciated. It trickles down to the point where their vendors are also invested in other vendors, because they want the fair to present itself in the right way, because they know if the fair is getting presented in the best way possible, other vendors are doing a great job, more people are gonna come and then there's more money for all of us so to have other vendors come over, that when you go to most fairs, you go to most events. Other vendors view you as competition, like you're there competing for somebody's dollars and cents in their back pocket. They might come here with a budget and we're all competing for the biggest piece of the pie in that person's budget. So, fellow vendors often look at you as competition. I did not feel that way at Windsor.

Speaker 3:

No, I think the only thing I mean this is not just Windsor in particular but I think the only thing that we as vendors whether you have t-shirts, whether you have belts, whether you have blown glass, none of that goes into comparison as the food vendors, cause I mean you go to the fair and you spend $12 on a sausage and then your money is dwindling down on what you're gonna have to spend on goods.

Speaker 1:

The rising costs, inflation and all those things that are happening. It definitely has again. I hate to keep saying the term trickle down effect, but people are gonna go to the fair to eat right, that's one of the things they do.

Speaker 3:

And if I go and shop but Right.

Speaker 1:

But if a larger portion of your fair budget goes to food, then you have a smaller portion of your budget to go to everything else.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

You know you have less money to spend on soap, to spend on apparel, to spend on jewelry to spend on whatever it might be. So I can tell you that when me and my mom bought two cups of chili and it cost me $37, if I'm there with a family and maybe I walked in with $50 or $100, if I spend half of my budget or a quarter of my budget on two cups of chili, I don't have money for the two t-shirts. You know, I don't have money for those things. So it makes it tough. Right, it definitely makes it tough, but just an awesome experience. Windsor Fair was a tremendous success for us and the exciting thing about it is we know the potential for more that exist, because your first year, no matter where you go, you're never gonna have the best location that you could possibly have right, and that's understandable.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. You gotta prove yourself.

Speaker 1:

So we fully understand that. But we know that we're proving ourselves and there's a potential for us to move, to relocate, to sweeten our spot, which will sweeten our scenario, which will triple denario, you like that.

Speaker 3:

That was a good one.

Speaker 1:

I thought so too. It just kind of happened, naturally. But location, location, location. It helps you sell houses and it helps you sell every fucking thing else in life. Because if you have a better location at a fair, there's thousands of dollars differences to be made based off the plot of land that you get given at a fair. And now that we've been to places more and more, we're a little more confident in asking for those better spots. There's a reason why a monopoly you can win with Boardwalk and Parks Place right. It's just how it works, man. It's just the facts of life. So, super successful week, very encouraging week. Again. We had to ride the Tiger of ups and downs. We made it through another week of vehicle difficulties, but we came out of it stronger and better. We navigated that nonsense without really freaking out, right yeah we did all right. We made things happen with the love, strength and support of our family and friends Without, you know, my cousin Joey coming in to fix the truck and then coming to get my mom, without Chris and Noah showing up and fixing the truck in the parking lot. These things aren't possible without that, without Matt and Sarah pushing to get us in the fair, introducing us to people. Without. Dan, giving us the opportunity to be at the fair without those things, without you know, jt, trying to get us in there without all those things happening. If you take one of those pieces of the puzzle out, then it doesn't go back together. Nope, so it takes all those helping hands, those loving hearts. Without those pieces, without those key ingredients, you take one of those ingredients away and then we don't have success right, there's no I in team. There is in the A hole.

Speaker 3:

You ever seen that?

Speaker 1:

You draw the I in between the A. Anyways.

Speaker 3:

You would ruin it.

Speaker 1:

But we talked about this last week, man, when we said I'm about to use that grease, right, and you're gonna take those ingredients and you're gonna put them all together. It's like if I had a spoonful of bacon soda, it probably tastes like shit, but if you don't put bacon soda in your freaking chocolate chip recipe, it ain't gonna rise, it ain't gonna work. So it takes every damn ingredient to make things happen. So so damn excited. Is it bacon soda or bacon powder?

Speaker 3:

I don't think so no.

Speaker 1:

One of those is in cookies.

Speaker 3:

Alexa, I think it's bacon.

Speaker 1:

Can you use baking soda or baking powder and chocolate chip cookies Powder?

Speaker 2:

Here's something I found on the web, according to feeddailymealcom, make sure you whisk these ingredients together. Well, baking powder and baking soda help loving the chocolate chip cookies. Both Cookies will rise more evenly if you put ingredients in the sugar beater yes, chocolate chip joke.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, give me the chocolate chip joke. Yes yes, oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

You confused her.

Speaker 1:

Alexa, can I have a chocolate chip cookie joke?

Speaker 2:

Okay for chocolate chip cookie. I recommend outrageous chocolate chip cookies from all recipes.

Speaker 1:

No, this is no For three minutes to make. No, alexa, oh that bitch. She sat me up with a good cookie joke and then she took it away she did. What a loser. Okay for dinner. No, shut it, alexa man. Oh boy, I'm hot and bothered. Now we got chores to do. Did we touch on everything? Did we get everything out there? Did you just say, touch all? Maybe no touch on everything? Why are you confusing me? You're distracting me. You see, I'm perspiring, I'm sweating.

Speaker 3:

The AC's been off for an hour, I think so.

Speaker 1:

No man, I think we hit everything Bottom line. Thank you to everybody at Windsor Fair that got us there, that participated, that played along, that encouraged us on, that stopped in, that spent from two cents that 200, whatever it is to come in and drop some common sense, some nonsense. I appreciate it all. We had a tremendous week. Thank you to everybody that helped us get there and to get home. We appreciate you. I got a quick turnaround. I'm actually reloading tomorrow. I'll make a bunch more products tomorrow and then the following day I'm gonna be heading up to Litchfield. We dropped the camper off today in Litchfield on the way home. I'll be heading there Friday, saturday, sunday I believe that's the 10th, 9th and 8th. I counted backwards. That's impressive 8th, 9, 10.

Speaker 3:

8, 9, 10. You confused me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's special. I'm a really gifted individual. Here, september 8th, 9th and 10th 2023. Litchfield Fair we're being there for the first damn time and after that we're gonna come home and get ready for the granddaddy of them all, the Freiburg Fair.

Speaker 3:

Speaking of the first damn time. While you're doing all that making money, I'm sitting over here chomping at the vet waiting to be in an allergy for the first time.

Speaker 1:

That's common quick, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

Any moment, any moment, my sister-in-law is going to drop my baby niece. I mean, don't actually drop her, but welcome her to the world.

Speaker 1:

Zach, don't drop her.

Speaker 3:

And I am beyond the moon excited. I cannot wait.

Speaker 1:

Little Cammie will be here momentarily, Big Z and Danny getting ready to welcome a bundle of joy.

Speaker 3:

Uh-huh to the family.

Speaker 1:

It's happening. Oh, what's happening, sweetheart?

Speaker 3:

Better not happen on the weekend, when I'm not here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's gonna happen either before I leave. I think it's gonna happen on the seventh or it's gonna happen on the next day I have a feeling maybe it's just a poop, but I have a feeling that it's gonna be the seventh. You did just spend a few days at the ferry. I might have to poop.

Speaker 3:

And she is having contractions. So stay tuned y'all. I might be an auntie next episode.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yeah, that could happen. Are you gonna record a podcast live from the hospital? That's weird, I know, but I was trying to see. If you were doing it, get me off the hook, I could take a week off. No, just checking.

Speaker 3:

But I will bring you an update.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, that works, zach, Danny, good luck. Good luck If you're listening and if you know it hasn't happened yet, or congratulations Either one, either one's gonna happen.

Speaker 3:

And good luck, or congratulations, we love you we love you both.

Speaker 1:

And every one of you for listening 165 consecutive weeks. Share the struggle. Podcast. Us beautiful, loud, powered Americans. We out.

Speaker 3:

Peace out y'all. We gotta go do the barn part.

Speaker 1:

First, thank you For supporting our American dream.

Speaker 3:

Now go wash your fucking hands. Get that face out of the wash.

Speaker 1:

That's it and that's all Biggie Smiles. If you found value in today's show, please return the favor and leave a positive review. Share it with someone that is important to you. Hit, subscribe and help us grow our tribe. Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Maybe you're looking to be a guest on the show? Find all that you need to know about the show at sharethestrucklepodcastcom. Subscribe to grow our tribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio and all other major platforms, and don't forget to like and share our official Facebook page at sharethestrucklepodcast. If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, you can find me on YouTube, on Facebook or the face page, as my mama calls it. Just search loud, proud American. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, the Instagram or the Tickety Talk, where the kids will be at Tickety Talkin' the TikTok, you can search loud, underscore, proud, underscore American. If you want to join the 2% of Americans that support American manufacturing, head on over to wwwloudproudamericanshop and get your hands on some of that made in USA. Apparel and join the mission, mission 2%. Together, we can bring back American manufacturing. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song that shared the struggle podcast. You can find the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers and show your support to those Mother Truckers. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, your filthy savage.