Mountain Madness & Tobacco Trouble (Ep. 6)

The story starts with a mistake: a spur-of-the-moment zin and a stubborn first cigar that ends in a parking lot spiral. From there, the road opens wide. I head for Zion expecting Angel’s Landing and find something better—quiet miles beyond the crowds, a reminder that the best parts of a park often live past the famous lookout. In Moab, I trudge a sun-baked gravel road that turns into a rocky off-road climb where jeeps crawl and hikers fly, then step onto a cliff-edge viewpoint that makes fear and awe feel like the same breath.

Pike’s Peak brings a different kind of intensity. The summit is busy with cars and a train, but the descent is where things get real—dark clouds, fast choices, and that electric sense that mountains make their own rules. On the way out, curiosity shifts shape. I “rescue” tiny conifers, water them with cucumber-lime Gatorade, and start thinking about roots, survival, and the strange urge to nurture. Omaha is a softer gear: a date shake that finally lives up to the legend and a zoo day with baby elephants and giraffes that kick up my old fascination with animals and ethics.

Then the crash: a hotel parking lot cigar has me dry-heaving, the next morning’s drive turns dangerous, and a test back home names it—COVID. Two locked-down weeks turn into a blueprint. I dive into hardy-tree research, map out sun and shade, fence everything against deer, and start planting. Ginkgos for autumn gold, Dawn Redwoods that rocket skyward, cold-tolerant maple hybrids that bring color to a Midwest winter. Year by year, the yard fills in. What began as a chaotic road trip and a string of bad nicotine choices becomes a practice of growth you can see and touch.

If you like road stories, national parks, hard-won trail wisdom, and the slow satisfaction of building a living space you love, you’ll feel at home here. Listen now, share it with a friend who needs a nudge to take their next trip or plant their first tree, and tell us: which place—or project—changed you the most? Subscribe, leave a review, and join us for the next adventure.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Bad Zin And Nicotine Curiosity
• 2:28 Cigar Misadventures And First Trucks
• 6:20 Zion: Lottery Miss, Long Hike, Quiet Miles
• 10:35 Moab Desert Grind And Top Of The World
• 14:18 Pike’s Peak, Sudden Storms, And Tree “Rescue”
• 19:00 Omaha Zoo, Date Shakes, And Exotic Pets Daydreams
• 23:25 Parking Lot Cigar Crash And Nicotine Aftermath
• 26:15 White-Knuckle Drive, Mystery Illness, COVID
• 30:10 Quarantine Spark: Building An Arboretum
• 35:40 Ginkgos, Redwoods, Deer Wars, And Yard Design
• 40:05 Weather, Dust Bowl Questions, And Wanderlust
• 45:00 Gratitude, Growth, And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello everyone. We are back with another episode and your boy is not doing so hot, feeling like I'm about to yak, cause um exciting moment. Uh popped my first Zen. Not necessarily a wise idea. Um but I don't know. I think I was just curious to hit up the bodega. I don't know if that's the right word. I don't know. I feel like I'd cheer that people in like the East Coast talking about that. It's like just like the convenience store. Anyway, and copped one mostly because I was curious. Um and I think I got the maybe stronger ones in Y Boy Could Not Hang. I like put it in my mouth. I was kind of hearse. I'm like, it started to hit me, and I'm like, felt like I was, I don't know, going for a ride and had to spit that shit out eventually. But now I'm feeling a little bit nauseous, not the greatest. Uh so I feel like that was, you know, honestly probably the best outcome. But yeah, I just was curious for the one time. I feel like I have it's probably just not wise to be curious or dabble in things that are pretty addictive, you know, like nicotine. But I was just curious what it's about. I mean, I guess them out recently. I like just impulsively off of Amazon bought a whole pack of like nicotine gum and chewed that. It's kind of similar the first time treated that. Not maybe not as bad, it's probably a little bit weaker, but that stuff. I mean, I don't regularly do it. I was just kind of curious. I don't know. And it's probably best not to. But I don't know. The curiosity is gonna kill this cat for sure. I don't know why. Kind of like for lots of other things, I feel like I'm a very addictive personality in terms of like just doing shit. I'll get like, I don't know if it's like ADHD focused, sort of, you know, on the spectrum, like where it's like I get just well totally totally absorbed in something, total tunnel vision, not want to do anything else or think about anything else but that until I finish it, and it's really hard to pull myself away. Where I'm like, actually, I don't know, like I don't feel good, but I'm like just tweaking, I want to do whatever this is or whatever I get like hyper-fixated on. But not so much with other like any any chemical stuff, which is I guess good. I think there's definitely been some of the problems with that in the family, so I really shouldn't be, you know, experimenting with stuff. Not that this is uh at all that crazy with how much I guess how widespread or prevalent it is. Um but yeah, maybe, maybe build a tolerance, but I guess hopefully not. Kind of reminds me a few, I guess it was after finishing undergrad smoking the first cigar as that total wine, and they saw they had the whole like humidor room, and I was like intrigued. I'm like, oh wow, I feel like I'm in like some Cuban like room, I don't know, some millionaires like fancy cigar room. Um and it was nothing fancy, so I bought like a five-dollar cigar. I was thinking about two of them. My plan was it was I just graduated um undergrad college, and then I was like, bought one of those. I'm like, hmm. I was planning to hike some mountain, Mount Baldy in Southern California, and I was like, oh Ms. Phil, this will be fun. I'll hike this mountain and try to light this at the top. Um, and that that didn't work. I mean I tried. I tried my best, got to the mountain, sat on some, tried to find some little cove hidden. They have like kind of these like rock shelters set up at the mountain peak where people are kind of like set up and maybe eat. Or maybe I don't know if people camp on the mountaintop. I feel like that's not maybe they do. I don't really know. But I sat in one and spent like half hour trying to light this cigar. Did not work. I went through like a whole box of matches trying to light it, and I did bring like a zippo lighter and also totally burned through all the fuel doing that. I don't know if that's I don't know if you're not supposed to. I mean, I think you can bring matches. I don't I don't know what's fire hazard. I mean at that point there's like no trees around when you're at that elevation. I don't know what the elevation is. I mean it's over 10,000. I don't think it's I don't think it's 11, but it's like there's enough wind on the mountain top where nothing was nothing was gonna lie. I I gave it my L, but that was an L. I did eventually smoke the second one, and that was that's rough. That was I guess a few weeks later, maybe like a week or two, when I was driving back home, and at this point I was kind of doing a little bit of a road trip out of it where I'd stop at stuff along the way. It's pretty fun. So I think I first stopped at um Zion, yeah. Although this was 2022. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That summer. And it was peak gas prices where like every gas station from LA to Vegas that I stopped at was everything was$6.99. So I think I paid like$130 for a tank of gas a few times. That was so painful. I was I don't know, just hurt. I guess I was glad I didn't have my my first truck that I had. I guess the first truck, I guess both my trucks have been F-150s. I had some older used one that I got first when I turned 16. And I did like that truck a lot. It had a 36-gallon fuel uh fuel tank, which was super nice that I like could fill that thing up like once a month, especially when I was only going to and from school, really, or to practices and shit. And that I mean that's so ridiculous. Like how big that is nice and convenient that you don't have to fill it up. But it was even when gas was cheap in the middle of nowhere, it was still like I could be a hundred bucks to fill up. So if I had to fill that thing up, that would have been like a 200. I mean, yeah, that's you know 250 250 for a goddamn tank of gas. But it the the second truck I got was a little bit newer, um, and that has like a 20 gallon, so I mean still DC size tank would not not the as painful to fill up, although it doesn't really matter. It still would still was rough all around. That was crazy though. It was I guess so I had the original truck, and the second truck I got ended up being, I think it was, yeah, it was basically brand new, but it was some truck that had been sitting on the the lot for like a year or two. So it was one that the the dealership wanted to get rid of because it was like a new truck but from a few years ago that they just hadn't sold. And my mom was car shopping for I don't know why. I think that she was wanting to get a new car because my sister was about to turn 16 that she maybe wanted to pass on her old car to her. And she went to this dealership and I came home. I think she she maybe took my truck there. I don't remember, but she's like pulled up in a new truck, and she's like, I was like, where's my truck? She's like, Oh, like I tried to do it. I'm like, what? But I guess I got a nicer truck out of the deal, so I was I mean, I was could not complain. I was I was very hyped. So it was it's nice. I like, I mean, don't only, I mean, I feel like it's it's very nice. It's gotten lots of love. I'm I try to take care of it, and um hopefully it can last me forever. Cars are ridiculously expensive. I mean, uh, I can't cop one now. I mean, I don't even know. I do like that it's got it's not so new that it's got like all the crazy touch screen stuff. It's got like a screen on it, but it's got all the buttons. I like the manual buttons. I feel like I hate the cars, like the Tesla's where it's like the I had with a million different options. Drives me crazy trying to figure out how to do stuff. So this one's got oh, this one actually had Bluetooth. My first truck did not. I had to like get an aux cord. Although I guess even a phone out, that would be kind of an L. It'd have to get like one of those adapters for your phone, or if you've ever used, I don't know, maybe I'm dating myself, and y'all had to use the uh there's like these um like mock radio stations where you could like plug this thing into like the car charging port, and it would basically make I just it wasn't like a Bluetooth channel, it would like, or I guess you'd connect your phone by Bluetooth of these things, and then it would make like a fake radio channel broadcast that you would, I mean it's not fake it is a real trip like radio broadcast, I assume, and then you would like tune your car to that and that would be like some of your your leg Bluetooth. It worked decent enough. I feel like I did it for a few uh you know high school drives or road trips with some homies when we had driving some beer cars around. I remember one of my one of my boys, he had a I don't know, it's just some like old sedan, but he had crazy subs in the back of it where if you turned them on, they were like too strong where it would actually knock, like knock his rear view mirror like just off. I don't I don't know how that happened, but like you know, the bass would drop in a song and his fucking rear view mirror would just fall off into our laps. And like, what the hell? Like your car's actually getting taken apart and demolished by your damn speakers. It's pretty entertaining. I mean, gotta love it. But so that was that was the actually the biggest upgrade that I was hyped about. I think it had some I mean, other a few other bells and what it's not like uh crazy, it wasn't crazy fancy, but I was I was very grateful. Anyways, where was I going? Oh yeah, it's I was driving, driving, bouncing around. Okay, from California. Um first stopped in Zion because I was gonna as like I could, you know, really just get back home and like I think it's maybe like 24-ish hours of driving, but kind of wanted to make a funeral trip out of it, find some stuff along the way. So I mean it was ended up being a little bit more roundabout. Um, but stopped at Zion. So I basically stopped at a few parks and then would like spend a day hiking at it and then just drive all day the next day. So I stopped at Zion and did some like big hike. I tried to do there's like this Angel's Landing thing, which is kind of this cool rock, this kind of sketchy thing. You gotta like crawl and pull yourself up by chains to go to this cool overlook point. But there's like some permits that you have to like apply to get. I did try. There's like, I mean, like a maybe further out lottery that you can apply for if you really want a specific day, or they have like a daily lottery, but that one's also maybe a little bit more iffy to get. I did try, I didn't get it sadly, so I just like hiked up past the point of it. Um it was super busy those first few miles. It was a good little hike that first three miles, then I ended up hiking like another 20 miles through some big loop in the park that's cool. You didn't get up to this rock above this angel landings, Angels Landing rock to like kind of look out, which is a pretty cool view because you're a little bit higher up and you can see that point. It would be cool to go back and hike that. Um but hiked through some big trails and kind of the desert, cool red rocks. Although I feel like the back part of this trail, I did remember like reading this review on like all trails at the second half of it, it was boring as shit, and it definitely was. Because it's kind of like you're doing this big loop, and I and then you go back down the same way you came. But I think with some of the recommendations were like just go halfway and turn around, which I definitely should have done, because of the second part of that loop going back around was like there's nothing cool to see. It was just like overgrown, like thorny trees and shrubs. So I was just getting like couldn't see anything cool, and I was just getting scraped to shit by all these rough branches and cut up, and that part wasn't great. I mean, it's it's still fun, still good vibes. Um, and then at that point, it's it's pretty quiet because I think I mean it was super crowded, even though I started pretty early. I mean, it started way before a lot of people got there because I knew I was gonna be gone and wanted to get a spot to park, so I could get to the parks pretty early. But um hiked around for the day. Uh the first three miles I was kind of like gotta like fight through people, especially when you're trying to like hoof it, because most people are kind of I mean, these are average Joes and you know, families, you know, on their road trips going to see this thing, so they're like getting gassed up or like just totally winded on like every turn. So I mean it's kind of rough. But then it's also kind of annoying when you're trying to, you know, make good pace because you got a big day ahead of you, so it's like kind of weaving and bobbing, dodging up, dip diving and dodging all the way around to the top. I think yeah, I think it was only like three miles up there, maybe less. I don't know. That seems kind of far. But I think it was about that, which is honestly for like folks like that, that's the that's a rough day, a rough go of it, but it's cool. Um But then when it's past that, it's kind of nice that it's quiet. I do like pretty places where it's like, yeah, then you're kinda on your own. It's kinda it's kind of fun. Sometimes kind of spooky, but also kind of cool when you feel like you're out there so alone. So like you feel so insignificant, which is I mean, it's kind of like humbling, but kind of spooky, kind of fun. I don't know, it's kind of a little bit of a rush. Not so much when maybe about this one. There's sometimes when you're like hiking mountains, you're like, wow, like ten feet over, that's just like a straight drop. That's like you dead there. It's kind of I don't know, that sounds kind of morbid, but not in like a spook uh I don't know, not in a bad way, but it's kind of like trippy. If you're ever driving on like the interstate and you realize like if you like hit something at that speed, like you that's you're not gonna be in good shape. It's like wow. Like danger is like right there. It's kind of a spooky feeling. But I guess it's like probably good to recognize, you know, good to be aware. But also, I guess if you got anxiety, maybe it's not, maybe you're better off just not doing it if it makes you bug out. So I went to Zion. Oh, I think the town I was, you know, stayed at, or maybe drove through. There's a town called like Virgin, Utah. They had to rename it after I left, obviously. Um, I'm not gonna elaborate further. Uh but stayed there, go hike for the day, and yeah, find uh find a nice little local restaurant, pull up, eat there, and then go usually go back to the hotel and chill in the hot tub and yap with people. That's always a good vibe of like traveling and then you know doing some crazy shit all day long and having a hotel to go back to to shower and vibe in the hot tub and see who you talk to. So always always some interesting conversations, I'll say. Um yeah, it was kind of a good vibe. It's kind of like I prefer it's like a little bit more of you know like glamping, although it's not even like it's not even camping. Man, it's not even like I mean, there's some glamorous parts of it. I haven't really done any like proper backpacking, honestly. I've done some like sort of quasi-camping on some like school trip once where we went to like Arizona for a few days. That was kind of cool, that was fun camping out around like the Grand Canyon area. I mean, not I don't know how close to the actual Grand Canyon we were, but somewhere in like those elevated areas of Arizona. Anywho, um most of the hikes that I like to do are kind of like long like hikes that take me all day that are normally a several-day backpacking trip for people, but I like to just you know kind of fly through it and then also don't need to bring all this stuff like cooking stuff, uh sleeping stuff. I mean, that just sounds like a pain, and it's I don't know, it sounds kind of like rough to be hiking with all that on your back and lugging that all around. So it's kind of fun that you can um, you know, pack light and you know, just hoof it, go fast, and then get back to a a nice hotel with a nice bed and you can shower off the rigid all grimy. I mean, I think backfiting could be fun, but I don't know. I feel like there's lots of things. I mean, you should probably get used to it. Also, you know, having an actual bathroom, that's you know, a luxury relatively compared to what you gotta do when you're hiking in the wilderness. Luckily, I've never had to, you know, drop a dookie on a hike. I've had some homies I have to, and especially the places where you gotta like, you know, pack your shit out. I'm like, I would not be a fan of, you know, bagging my own shit up like my dogs and you know, just throwing it in the bag and having to carry it out. I mean, I get why you gotta do it. Like, if everyone's doing that, if everyone's, you know, going doo-doo on the trail, it's gonna add up even if you're digging it up and burying it. There's, you know, only so much mountain for people to be dropping dung. So you gotta pack it up, pack, pack, pack up, back out, leave no trace. I forgot I forget what the the sayings are. What's it? There's also something you gotta carry, like a wag bag. I don't know what that stands for. Is that an acronym waste and gross? I have no idea. Maybe I don't know if it's actually an acronym. But I know I've had some friends that have like gone places where you actually like need to have it. And I don't know what like specifically counts as that. It's kind of a thing. It's sort of like a weird like rule, or like I don't know how you enforce it, but like can you just say this bag is a bag I'm gonna shit in? Can it just be any bag? It's gotta be a special doo-doo bag. I don't know. If you know, let me know. Holla at your boy. But I've never had to do that. I've I mean I guess I've only done like one day thing, so I'm sure if you do longer, you gotta go. And I normally don't pack that much for food and drink. I think I did the first time to do like hike and pack a lot more and get heavy. But the thing is I don't like to eat that much while I'm going. My stomach is like sometimes it gets upset. I've gotten better at it. What I used to do, which is pretty headass, I would like buy a box of brownie bites and legit just eat like 2,000 calories of like brownie bites, like a whole big thing of it, and then hike. And sometimes, dude, I would feel atrocious going up. I'd also just be totally like ripping ass on the way up. Anyone who had to like be in the vicinity was probably not having a good time. Luckily, I was mostly hiking alone. But that was that fucking that wreaked havoc on my guts, eating all that, and then trying to hike up a mountain. I mean, it worked though. I felt good. Well, okay, like energy level-wise, I felt good. Maybe like uh gut-wise, didn't feel great. It was not the the ideal situation. Um, but you know, it was early, early uh revision, early model of my uh hiking feeling as I learned. My new pinnacle typically is just a lot of cucumber lime uh Gatorade. I'm a big fan of the cum line. G juice, as they call it. Uh it's it's pretty gas. Definitely my favorite Gatorade. I don't think, yeah, no, nothing tops that. So I would just like go to the gas or normally the the grocery store in these towns I top, I just like buy like an eight-pack or twelve pack, whatever. I think they're actually maybe more than six packs. If they're like the regular size ones or like the extra, you know, girthy bottles, those like 32-ounce ones, maybe those, and I just either fill my bag with them or like eventually, you know, upgrade to a bladder. Although eventually broke RIP. I'll get to that later. But just do that and chug that, and it's like there's enough sugar in that where I'm like, you know, I'm getting some maybe not nutrients, but I'm getting some energy to keep, you know, hoofing it through the mountains or the deserts or wherever that I may be, through the forests. So I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna be uh a healthy snack for whatever bear I come across. And hopefully got the the gas, the the feel to get out of dodge, but you never know. So that's normal to do. Sometimes I'll bring some treats, honestly. I don't usually eat them. Sometimes I'll have one of them on bake myself, but if I'm really sipping the the cum lime juice, I'm usually doing pretty good. I sometimes have done some, you know, probably not the best thing to do, you know, of feeding wildlife with some of my stuff. Sometimes it's entertaining. There was this one time though, I didn't realize this until after a fact. I probably killed like a whole family of you know, at least chipmunks in one of these hikes. I was giving it a cliff bar, maybe like a chocolate one or a coffee one, and I didn't realize till after the fact that it has does have caffeine, and I like showed a picture to or video of it to one of my homies, and he's like, bro, that's kind of caffeine. You just killed that that that little chit. I'm like, nah, he's good, he's good, he's built different. But I was like, oh shit, he's right. That I hope I hope he didn't eat that. I hope he shared, or maybe even if sharing killed him all, so maybe I hope only he ate it, or maybe something else came and ate it. I don't know. I don't really know what is toxic to stuff, but I know, yeah, like caffeine. Because I think that's why dogs can have chocolate because there's like sort of some it's I don't know if it's exactly caffeine, or something that's basically the same effect, or some sort of stimulant, and then they can't process it fast enough, or like they don't break it down, so they just basically have a heart attack. And I think that's what's the problem with uh caffeine for dogs, maybe cats too. Can cats have chocolate? I don't know. I guess I wouldn't try it. So I don't know what animals are we like the only one that'd be fiending on the caffeine beans? Well, I would guess cats are maybe somewhat better. Because there's those like bougie coffees where it's like these wild cats in the jungles of South America, they like eat the coffee beans and shit them out, and then they go digging in the dung for the little like digested beans and they make coffee out of that. I think. I don't know, don't quote me, but there's something like weird, like coffee cat, jungle cat poop coffee or some expensive thing. I'm don't think I really want to try it, but I'm kind of curious as to what the hell that tastes like. And it's like it's I like I feel like it can't be good, it's just gotta be you're some D billionaire on some freak shit, you know. That's that's just how you get up in the morning, you know, just because you can. And because it's expensive, not because it's good, but maybe I don't know. I'm I'm skeptical to say the least. But so hopefully, hopefully, you know, maybe they got some dark hand for squirrels and they got on that. They're cute, shouldn't have done it, but they keep pressing me. And that's definitely not a good way to stop it, but it's kind of entertaining watching this little chipmunk with this whole thick, like cliff bar that was the size of it, and him like hobbling around a rock with it. So it's normally uh outside of my my Gatorade, occasionally bring some of those or stinger waffles, those are pretty fire, but we'll say those are just like good. That I did give to uh other chipmunk, that was pretty cute. This is like a little chipmunk, this big waffle. And I think that was safer. Still not good for you know conditioning wildlife, so don't do that. Do as I say, not as I do, whatever they say, you know, all that jazz. But uh I think oh, I think I did bring a baguette once from the grocery store. I bought some like fresh baguette, it was pretty bussing, I will say. Got the bread on the this candy and topas much another baguette. Just needed some head to you know, complete the day that I've been she has her keys. There that's there's a motion. Anywho. Those are the the the standard fuels. So first day of Zion. Trovia Vegas through Vegas. Oh, I did try. I guess I'm like bouncing all around. Maybe I'll go back to camp. Nothing that I guess we'll continue on. We did stop in or I mean, wow, I'm saying we, I guess just me. Well, I did have turtle eggs with me, so me and all these little unhatched is it unborn? What is it like? Do you like do you say is it like you are you say you're born or you're hatched if you're a turtle? I don't know. What's like more are they like the same? Is like born like a a generic term or hatched? Like is it like hatched a subset of born? I don't know. This is a good question. One of those philosophical questions that really doesn't matter. Anywho. I think it was slightly outside of Vegas. The only real stop I remember, other than like where I was just getting my my wallet booty hole just totally ripped and shredded at the gas station. So the only other stop I did was I saw some big old billboard for date shakes, you know, like those, you know, measual dates, but in a shake. And I was like, the only reason I stopped was because I went on this field trip with where we drove to Arizona that's pretty talking about where I did this camping trip, and me and a homie, we were driving like some rental car with the professor for the class, and he was he's an entertaining dude yapping about all sorts of stuff. But one thing he like did not shut up about was like date shakes. And it's like, have you ever had one? We're like, No, what is that? It's like I was just dates and ice cream, but wounded up, and he was just like a raven. And you know, at one point we stopped at some random like ice cream shop. He's like, Do you have any date shakes? And they're just like, Look at this old dude. They're like, bro, what what are you talking about? And he's like, Okay, whatever. We just got we got ice cream out the deal. So I wasn't mad, but I was kind of intrigued with the lore of these date shakes that I'd never really heard of. It was a good trip. I'll I'll rehash that later at some point. But I did see some big billboard that was advertising date shakes. I was like, I gotta stop for the boy, you know. Um so I did try it. It was it's pretty good. Would recommend. Um, I mean, I don't know if it's like my favorite up there, but it was definitely a solid shake, it's definitely different. Um, especially if you're a fan of dates, which I am, they're pretty good. It was it goes well with ice cream. I guess I didn't think it wouldn't, but I was just you know curious, had to try it. And I did feel like I think I made some my own or like attempted to. I don't know if I blended it. I maybe just chopped them up. No, I think I did blend it in in a smooth like a blender at home, made it like a milkshake smoothie with them after the fact to make the fam try it, you know, keep the date shake alive. But then yeah, just uh Zion hiked today, then next stop, I believe I went to Moab, Utah, yes. That's where they have Arches National Park. I'd stopped there once before, I guess when I was going out to California the first time with my mom, that was fun. And uh so I got there, hung out. Um then the next day I found some trail. I guess I I wasn't like too didn't feel the need to go to arches necessarily so much because I've kind of been there before. And there wasn't a whole lot of hiking. There are some things, like some arches that you could hike to a ways, but I was like, eh. It's not, it doesn't sound like I mean it's cool, but it's kind of like, you know, it's an arch or whatever. No hate though. But I saw some trail, it was like top of the world, and it was saying something about this cool view in this big canyon in the middle of the desert, and it's like a 20-mile hike through the desert. And so I just like basically drive to the desert to some random like parking lot thing. I mean it got there early and just started like walking on this basically a gravel road in the desert for like 10 miles um one way, and it was like I was I was like, I was so skeptical. I was like, am I like, did I go to the wrong thing? I like I had the GPS on my watch, and it was telling me I was in the right spot, but I was looking around, it's like this is just bare desert. Like, what the hell is going on? Like, this is boring. Like dirt bikes that said what's up, some guys on like, you know, those gators, those side-by-side things. It was pretty boring, just hot. I was just like walking, slurping the gatorade and just baking in the desert sun. You know, one of those good desert vibe, you know, character building experiences. Then the last like three miles, it turned to like this really like rocky, it wasn't that steep, but it was like a really extreme terrain. And it turned to like some extreme Jeep like off-road course. So that's pretty fun that there's like these super souped up like jeeps that were like just like trying to drive over these boulders and go around. It was kind of cool to see, but they were going so damn slow. Like, I was actually passing all these jeeps, like walking on my way up because they had to go slow, so slow over this like crazy terrain. They were cool jeeps to see, and it's kind of fun to watch them drive through it or try to get stuck sometimes. I don't know. I feel it's gonna be pretty hard on them. I kind of want to try it, but it was fun to like walk through them and walk by these guys just struggling onto them, struggling to get their jeeps up these rocks, kind of flexing on them. Like, boy, I can walk faster than you guys right now. I beat all of them to the top, but once I got to the top, it was it was definitely worth it. Like, because like out of nowhere, like you've been just walking through like boring desert. I mean, you look around, you just see some you know dart and weeds and sun. And then all of a sudden you get to this like big clearing and you say, Holy shit, this is a big canyon. And there's like this cool like point to the rock where they like go park their jeeps on, and like there's like kind of nothing underneath it, so it makes a cool pick. But no one was there. I was like the first person up just walking. I mean, I don't I think people I'm guessing not many people hike it. Mostly it's the the jeep people going to off-road and go park their car up there, but I took a nice pick. I had to like set up my phone on a rock and go run to them the top and like go like throw my arms up in there, strike a pose on this rock for a cool pick and did that. They may try on some other ones, but I feel like I just get nervous by the edge. Like, I don't know how people like dangle their feet over the edge. That makes me too nervous, you know. My my asshole gets a little bit tight, real real clenched up when I get kind of a little too close to the edge. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not gonna be one of those people that take a selfie and just fall off uh into the canyon. Wasn't trying to do that. But it was it was fun, fun day, different, different vibes. You never know what you're gonna come across out there. And then hiked back, found some little restaurant in the town again, pulled up at the bar there and ate a little steak or something, said it was up to some random people that were there, and it was a good time, nothing to nothing too eventful, just kind of fun to go around and see what you come across or who you say was up to. But from yeah, that was Moab. And then from there, oh wait. Yes, yeah, from there went to Pikes Peak. Yeah, because I had a homeboy staying in Colorado Springs for the summer, so I stayed with him, and then we decided to spend the day hiking Pike's Peak after I got there, which is pretty fun. It was it's like a 26-ish. I don't know if that's right. It's it's like 7,000 feet-ish and like 26-ish or mid-20 miles. I don't know. Doesn't really matter. But we started, it's a long day. It's it's pretty fun. Although it is like cool that it's one of those well, I don't know if it's cool. Actually, it's kind of less cool that it's one that's got like stuff at the top. It's nice that there's stuff at the top in terms for like food and like you know, somewhere to you know take a piss and get some drink of food. But then it's also kind of crowded, so it's a little bit like less fun because there's like a big road up to the top. And then there's also a train that goes all the way up, which we I mean I kind of wanted to hike the whole thing, but I think maybe he was maybe interested in like you know getting a ride back down, which you know we should always well, there's there's been some events where we should have just gone back down and tried to get rides, and that didn't go well, but that's this is foreshadowing. Uh it's another story for another day. But we you know hung out at the top for a minute. It's cool up there. The thing is though, it got a little bit spooky on the way down. A lot of times in like the mountains, especially in Colorado and the summers, there's like just random thunderstorms that roll through in the afternoon. So you want to be pretty like uh speedy when you're you know going up and getting down so you can be like off the mountain or at least. the the the what do they call it the rage line where there's like no trees there's some like timber line is that what it is the timber line maybe think but basically it's like where the trees just stop growing because I don't know if it's like I don't know what the biggest factor is if it's the air is like too gets a little bit thin and probably also like the soil is not that great of the mountain maybe not eroded enough or maybe I don't know I don't know what's the biggest factor that defines the timber line. That would be interesting to know if someone else let your boy know but we were like so we go up we didn't realize we could have like you know taken a ride down or whatever because there's like a whole like road up to there and like a train line down and we on the way down we hear the whole the train honking the whole time like dang we should have maybe taken that that back down because sometimes going down is worse because your legs are tired and you're just like slamming your feet down even though it's like not as tiring on like your joints going uphill when you're just kind of like plotting down your knees hurt and you just your feet hurt it's not always that great. But um where was I going with that? Oh yeah all of a sudden like it started to get like really dark. We were like inside this cloud and it was like a little bit spooky we're just like trying to like go down the damn mountain back to the trees as fast as we can so you know if there is lightning uh nothing is gonna hit us. We didn't we looked at the forecast and checked the weather there was nothing like no mention of storms but I think this can be just so like sudden and unpredictable that you just gotta be ready and ready to get out of there and it was just like dark and you're in this cloud I was kind of I was pretty nervous didn't didn't like it. It was kind of I mean it was kind of exciting kind of fun but also like I want to get the hell out of this. It did just nothing happened we're just in these spooky clouds so it just really turned the spook up for for whatever reason Mother and Nature just wanted to play with us a little bit. Didn't get the the static electricity feel your hair start to rise I think one of his roommates what worked maybe like for like uh search and rescue for the mountain and they talked about like having to bring down like oxygen tanks the people that were like having altitude sickness and needed air and they'd be like hiking down to these people and all of a sudden they are in a cloud like that but they feel their hair start to rise so there's like like a thunder cloud so they just like throw these big metal tanks which you definitely don't want on your back when you're goddamn thunder cloud. You don't want to be wearing the big metal lightning rod in a lightning storm so they have to like throw them off and just run for the tree line which sounds kind of terrifying kind of fun but have anything uh that high stakes eventually made it back down did cop I don't know this is maybe not you maybe not you're probably not supposed to do this. So allegedly we maybe you know on the way down just for fun harvested a few small trees and saved them for you know gardening purposes which was kind of fun. Although it's like get off the mountain grabbed on some burgers. Oh that was the first time I ever tried an alcoholic shake kind of ass I'd rather just have a shot of vodka and then a milkshake. It's not that great mixed I don't I think there's a lot of like things there's a lot of like mixed drinks where I'd rather just have the shot and the drink. Not everything. Some cocktails some I'm definitely kind of a a big fan kind of a slut for some like sweet cocktails. Some of them. Although if you have too many you can feel really gross the next day if you have like way too much sugary stuff so be careful. Drink responsibly but yeah no I'd probably just get regular milkshake next time and some burgers. Then we had to go to Home Depot to get some dirt and like pots for these little trees that we tried to you know extract. It's crazy though like little trees how deep their roots go and like how extensive they are just for like something that's like the size of your like thumb. I like thought of a tree at home that was like growing in a rock bed and it was like maybe the size of like my pinky nail like the nail itself just like this little like butt of like tree leaves or needles and it was like carefully excavating the rocks and pulling them out to like try to like disturb or like not break any as few roots as possible. And it was like the size of my hand and then like just like this little tree like that with all these roots. But I did get them out and have like planted in a little pot for a while and grew and now it's in the yard in a bigger spot. So it's it's done good. But that was just like in loose rocks when it's in like mountain and like it's somehow sprouted and survived a few mountain winters it's probably like got to be like at least five years old some of these little trees and getting them out they're like really entrenched in deep rock so I think it's maybe probably not that easy to get them out. Although at least most of the ones we took were like in the trail itself so they're just gonna get trampled anyways or like cut down so I didn't really you know feel too bad about it. Some of them I feel like most of them were probably just a little bit too shredded being pulled out of the ground but I did find one like decent sized one that was able to get out in like a good clump of dirt and that one's actually still kicking in the yard at home. I planted it and that one survived a few winters. I think that might be the only one but it's also like my favorite one so I'm kind of I was hyped that that one is making it but we kind of well had yeah basically I filled up all these like old Gatorade bottles each had like a different tree in it. Because I didn't really know how to do with like a loose tree how do you hike down a mountain with that but it's like I'll have all these loose Gatorade bottles so these trees got nurtured by the the the sweet kisses of Gatorade cucumber lime and that's you know what kept them thriving at least until we got to Home Depot and got some dirt and little pots to put them in. And then I drove those the rest of the way home from there. Although the next day after that like I woke up in the morning and oh I did not like I mean I this is pretty normal though I assume it was just oh I don't know I s I can't say for certain what it was but it was like pretty like sore throat and stuff which I feel like happened. And sometimes when you're just like hiking at altitude and it's like dry air and you're breathing hard it can kind of like you know really leave a little bit raspy. That happened to be a lot in California not even um hiking all the time but racing cross country particularly when I'd race track in the 800s when you're like really running and like sucking air like you know really really sucking that shit slurping it up pause um hard for just two minutes quick giving it everything the air there was like so dry. Because this didn't happen for like cross country races which you'd think it might which are longer and you really do think you're doing it but I don't know if there's something the way I was huffing a puffin for an 800 meter made it meet an 800 meter race can't talk. There we go. That that California air the next morning I'd be like talking like I had like one of those stomas where I'm like like trying to talk and like I'd have meetings at some points like with like a research professor and advisor I was trying to talk to her and I'm like I can't talk I don't know why but I think it was with air so I thought it was like that and my throat was a little bit sore after this hiking but whatever I was I just think it was just the altitude. Because from there I went to Nebraska Omaha yes Omaha is that where Warren Buffett's from I think so should have said it was uh actually I don't know if he's from there. That's besides the point. Um got there and then spent the day there because I wanted to go to the zoo. You boys a big fan of zoos and my mom came down because I was not too far only a few more hours from home to join me to go spend a day at the Omaha zoo and I was pretty hyped to go because they had uh um a pair of baby elephants that were super adorable that was kind of like the main draw for me. I mean although I like going to zoos like any of them in general to see what they got. They had this like giant big glass dome for like their reptiles and stuff inside which is hype um gives me you know design exp ideas and inspiration for how I want to construct my own uh reptile animal etc menagerie is that the right word yeah menagerie I think so it sounds kind of menagerie qua menagerie sounds French is a French I don't know I think there's I think it's like a thing though in like I know too much about well actually I don't know that much to be honest. I've just looked at like exotic animal laws by different states and like there's a few with like no laws. I think like Wisconsin's one of them like really states where they uh can basically there's yeah I don't think there's like anything you could have a tiger or whatnot. And I think there's a few states there may be a few others maybe like North Carolina I don't know. I forget which ones. But then I think in the past few years I was looking and they passed some dumb law like where no one can have a tiger and that's dumb some big cat law. I need like an NRA for exotic animals. Where are they at though for real? I that I want that in the Constitution you got the right to have a tiger cub little tiger kitty um anyways I think I've seen well menagerie. I think I learned that we're playing Brutenscape because that's where you'd like have your summoner pets if anyone's familiar with that. I don't actually know if that's the right thing but it's just some game and then you could I was obsessed with getting these like parrots that were like each based on a god and I wanted one of them. But I don't think I ever got it never grinded that hard in that game but became familiar with that word. Learned something you know learned lots of words from video games some dirty shit but I think I just ref was you know it reintroduced itself into my vocabulary because reading about like Montana laws at one point and it's like they do have laws but it's like unless you unless this is a menagerie which is loosely defined if you just say oh this is my this is my menagerie like the rules don't apply or something you can just you know have a whole elephant. But the Omahazu had some cool glass stone that was like if I'm you know somewhere cold still with these big old tortoises they're gonna eat some you know winter habtats that's a good idea. And other cool stuff. Oh they did have got to feed some giraffes that was fun. Give them some branches and they just got some crazy tongue game they're just you know licking that wood up if you know what I mean. And it's like and just eat these whole branches it's pretty good pretty entertaining. It's a good time. Do they have anything else? Oh they have ostriches I want an ostrich they're not that hard to get hold of there's some like farms in the US maybe Texas but I think they live in the cold too like maybe if I see I've seen stuff of them in Canada there's some ostrich farms there. Those motherfuckers are big though they're huge. They got like I don't even know it's like a shack of a chicken. It's they got some like even though they're not the b though there are like other stuff like emus I can see how that like would fuck you up. I think there's like it from Australia and they've like had problems with them. There's like legit like a thing where it was in some war where the emus were just going crazy and the like Australian army had to like fight the emus and they lost and they just got outnumbered by emu just kicking them to shit. But like ostrich is like double that like they're scary looking but they're awesome. I feel like I've seen things where people tried to ride them. They're they're pretty cool that'd be fun to have one running around. Especially the little hatched a little chip. Make ostrich omeless it'd be fun to have ostrich farm I wonder if it's good like I have not really tried other like eggs. I mean I think I don't even think I've had I feel like I've bought like duck eggs or like quail eggs but they weren't like actually just like eggs they're like stuff that was already like hard boiled or something. Was it duck eggs? There was some like it's like some Chinese thing or I don't know some Asian country thing with that at Costco and I thought it'd be good but like these things I guess are apparently only for like a condiment of stuff if you make sauces with them. And I tried to uh just eat it raw and it was like something where it's been like salted the hell out of a marinated in it and it's not that tasty and I felt like I needed to like drink like a gallon of water per hour just to like quench my thirst and it still wouldn't go away. So that was be careful of those they looked a little bit foul too it's I don't know it was weird. It was not what I was I was hoping it'd just be like a different type of hard boiled egg but I don't know what they did to it but that thing was uh extremely salty it's like it was like kind of like solidified soy sauce I should in terms of saltiness not at all in flavor I don't really know why I said that but that was interesting. Anywho went to the zoo that was fun oh yeah the baby elephants were adorable they're like playing running around like chasing each other hiding behind their mom tripping up they're still clumsy I think like I think I've seen stuff where like baby elephants it's like they gotta be a few years old before they figure out how to like learn how to use their trunk or develop the muscles and they like the first few years it just really flops around and they don't know how to use that as like a limb yet so it's kind of fun to watch them and they just trip up and eat shit but they're adorable I want a baby elephant or like an elephant reserve you know I want them to have some homies too. But that'd be fun if you like seeing those videos of them like doing some rescue elephants where they got the baby elephant inside or like the single I think the same guy with like a buffalo there's I think there's one thing too where this guy had this buffalo he like modded out his car to have his buffalo just ride in it. I think there's something where they had like he's getting in trouble by like you know the popo or someone like I mean I guess probably reasonably like the safety of your car when you got a convertible drop top you know maybe bag no roof because you got the damn buffalo just in the passenger sheet it's probably you know a little hazardous driving but it's kind of sick I will say but from there hung out I think we just got dinner and then my mom did go back home and I spent another night in the hotel. And that night wait actually no it was the night before it was the first night I got to um wait was it the first night? Yes no it was it was the first night the night after I left Colorado when I first got to Oma before I went to the zoo I was like I still got this cigar I should try to smoke a cigar you know I've said now I don't got shit to do for the night um I'm gonna try to smoke this and then I was like went out to the parking lot to do it. Uh and luckily for me it happened to be like the Nebraska Little League or the World Series for Little League happened to be in Nebraska that year so there's less people at the hotel for that and I was like just sitting in the parking lot trying to spark up this cigar and this guy's like you want this free folding chair and he's like we're not gonna use it we just got it for the games I'm like all right it's fixed. So I was just sitting by myself in this empty Nebraska hotel parking lot smoking my first cigar and it was interesting nothing too much. I mean it was pretty nice for some stars but pretty quickly I was just dry heaving in this parking lot um and it's like what the hell is going on? And I was like googling it and I guess yeah if there's like a lot of nicotine in it especially if you've never had any nicotine where you should probably have something like sugary with it or something you can easily you know I mean I don't know if it's not really like poisoning but like you just it was it I don't know it hurt because like you're just I didn't actually throw up but like I was trying to like I was just like dry heaving like like I couldn't help it. I'm just like just laying on the ground just parking like and like I'm like what the fuck is going on with the this cigar just laying on the ground next to me is probably pretty sad looking. Luckily no one was hopefully no one was gonna watch it there probably could have been people in their hotel rooms looking down like what the fuck is wrong with this dude but or maybe they knew maybe they knew I was just the absolute cigar noob and that I was going through it and I was like no more of this. I think I did try a little bit more and then get was like keeping some more and then I just called and I'm like that's a wrap. Dug up uh one of my leftover cucumber lime gander Gatorades, one of the signatures and drank the item I think eventually felt better but that's kind of what has happened with just taking that goddamn zin. I was like sitting there and it's like pretty quickly it's like oh get in the real head rush and I'm like okay this is too much breaks I'm gonna yik and it was like trying to hang on they're like okay I gotta split this out at this point. I don't really want to be just you know gagging in my damn living room on the couch. So had to hit eject unfortunately haven't built up for that um but after that night or the next day it was this by the time after the zoo like my throat had still been a little sore and I was still figuring it was the uh um just the hiking at altitude up to Pike's peak and down and I didn't think too much of it and the cigar that probably wasn't that great on a sore throat and the next day I don't I think it felt fine during the day although I think it just had like the taste of the smoke that felt like it was like stained in my mouth and in my throat and it just didn't feel that great great especially by the evening when I was like back alone in the hotel room I was like I feel like my throat is just like stained with that and it hurts even worse. But also like I felt like I kind of wanted like to smoke again so I was like that's just kind of scary although luckily I've not had similar nicotine cravings of that I don't know if that's what that was but I felt like I kind of wanted more and I was like I feel like shit and the fact that I want more is kind of scary um but nothing nothing really more developed that night I just didn't feel that great and I went to bed I was gonna get up early have some hotel breakfast and try to get on the road so I'd get back home finally at a decent hour. But I think it's the alarm for 11 no no no no like 6 a.m and I woke up at like 11 a.m and I felt like horrible I maybe woke up for the 6 a.m alarm and it's like like kind of rolled over and like hit snooze and then I woke up at like 11 because the hotel like the front desk was calling and asked me when you're gonna check out because I don't know if I was late but I think it was close or there's something maybe it was late and I just like felt like a train had hit me and I I was not feeling good. I was like just felt horrible I didn't I didn't know what was going on and I like just finally jumped out of bed felt like I could fall back asleep and got everything packed up packed up I was bringing some plants I had to do also the turtle eggs my my clothes and stuff packed up the car checked out and started going the last leg of the road got back in the interstate but then like after five minutes I had to like pull over the first rest stop because like I was actually starting to fall asleep at the wheel like I could feel it I was like wanting to close my eyes and I was like I feel like I could it's like when you're in class you know you start like going like that. That's kind of like what I felt like was going on behind the wheels but I just pulled over at some rest stop and just got I think maybe a Gatorade and maybe some soda and drank that and like closed my eyes for a little bit. But I it did help another I don't know how long I was there I could have been there an hour. I don't think so I think it was more like probably 10-20 minutes and try to like slap myself silly but I think what eventually ended up happening was I just I I don't know what I felt. Normally when I'm like tired in the car I'll blast like the cold air I like blast the cold air and turn on the sea heater on my back but like have cold air hitting my face that's a little bit more comfortable keeps you awake pro tip although I have lots of other stuff I normally normally what I do is I'm gonna have caffeine pills in the car. I also have this like run gum caffeine gum because I feel like when it soaks through your mouth it hits you quicker if I'm like not feeling like super alert I'm like I'll pop some caffeine gum. I've now also since added some uh nicotine gum because that does kind of also perk you up a little bit but at this point I was just I don't know what to do like when you're not feeling good your temperature feels like all over the place like you feel hot when you're cold and cold when you're hot I think I was probably hot and I was like bundled up in a hoodie but I was feeling cold and like blasting the warm air in the car and I was just like trying to I think I got to I don't know several just random gas stations in the middle of like the nowhere in the Midwest. There's one was like I couldn't figure out how to pump gas I don't even know if I could but all the other ones that I had actual gas stations I would like get a monster and like chug it every like two hours which is probably not great for me in this state and but yeah this one gas station pulled in the middle of nowhere it was just like pumps in the middle of this cornfield like right next to it like a lot and like there was like I couldn't figure out the display on this like pump thing I don't know if it's a legit pump that you could use. It had it turned up on like Google it's like a station but I couldn't figure out I was like sussed out I was like I don't know where I am I'm just in the middle of I'm like tweaking out it's like a 90 degrees and I'm like bundled up in like hoodies and sweats like shivering even though I'm probably like a hundred degrees trying to like look at this pump that I was like so bizarre because there was like no one there. There's just like these pumps but no like station and I didn't know I couldn't figure out like it was not at all like there was like an easy like credit card display thing and I was probably just like a little bit delirious too to add all that to boot and eventually just skirted out of there and found another one later down the road. But eventually got home and I was like yeah Ma I don't feel so good and then she gave me a COVID test. Sure enough I had it so then I got exiled to the bedroom and just locked in there. I I felt a little bit bad I didn't even like cross my mind I had COVID till I like she brought the test. I think I was just like so out of it getting there and it was like just trying to like get somewhere and it's like the morning I was just like scrambling oh shit I'm like not really thinking through how sick I was feeling or even driving. I was trying to like get home and then she like freaked out I mean naturally I mean I think this is the point where like COVID was still a little bit spooky and she's worried about getting it or my dad getting it. So then I was just you know locked in the the room and they were all wearing masks and who drop food outside my door but luckily no one got it. I was just locked in the room for like two weeks um it was a vibe. Although the girl seen that I was pissed because I hadn't seen her in a while and I kinda I was going this little trip and then I just got home but I had COVID so I think she wanted to see me that that was a vibe kill so I it was kind of unfortunate but made the most of it I got bored just sitting in the room for like 10 days or whatever that was I think they made me go um in between trying to eat food that I couldn't taste. Luckily didn't have like the bad COVID I think especially the people that got it like you know the real one of the the OG drops of COVID were like actually like really fucked up like your your taste bud nerves and like I don't I think there's some people that I heard like a few years after like COVID first drop that got it and like still hadn't gotten their taste and that sounds awful like if you just like years without not being able to taste your food. I guess you know be good for getting ready for the runway if food doesn't even taste good. But that would just suck like not being able to enjoy your food. But part of that time I was um ended up tree shopping I mean I kind of got into keeping care taking care of trees during the the pandemic when I was taking care of turtles too and just ordering exotic plants and trees and planting them watching them grow. But I don't really know how that started this this next inspiration I just ended up ordering like a shit ton of trees and plotting where I was going to plant them in the yard like looking out the window trying to like be like there's a spot I can put a tree in most these things for like an Etsy. I don't know by so much stuff I Etsy seemed to have a good tree supply uh at least for a variety and eventually trees just started showing up and I was finally got out of the the bedroom they finally cracked the seal let me go roam free then I just went got the shovel ran outside started digging holes and planting the trees and totally filled up the yard. I guess I also planted the the trees I harvested from Pike's Peak. That was fun. And totally got a variety of trees in the yard so we got kind of like an arboretum. I think the first few years they were kind of I don't know I don't know if they were they weren't pissed but I don't know if they're super jazzed because like I was totally the yard looked a little bit red and I because I like put a bunch of like fence around all these like sapling trees and buckets so you could like fill them up and they just like slowly trickle because that waters them a little bit better than if you just dump a bunch of water at once for whatever reason I think it just maybe it's more slowly absorbed and the tree can get more. And then you do need to put the fence because we got so many deer in the yard that just totally mow down stuff if you don't like it's good luck to anything surviving if you don't. And there's even stuff they're not theoretically don't eat they're just like curious munchers that are grazing on anything. Like there were some maples that we planted a few years before and it did survive but my grandpa's like yeah they want they'll leave it alone and then like within a week it was like already like all the branches were just chewed off so I there's like two little leaves and I like it put a fence around it and there's like those two little leaves hung around but nothing else grew so I was not that optimistic but it's it's kicking still so it survived it endured getting just totally mowed down by these these hungry deer but totally you know transferred them to the yard filled it with all sorts of stuff researched all the sorts of trees and learned like which things were like we're just like trying to figure out I guess it ended up being more of a project than I thought like it wasn't just totally willy-nilly picking trees I kind of you know did some research I mean I had nothing else to do at that time I mean it was like I was kind of in between school and grad school and like nothing really to do and just locking the room I didn't even have like the Xbox in that room like no TV so it was kind of it was unfortunate. Maybe I couldn't have done that like had the TV brought up or something to pass the time. But um I tried to figure out like first of all like which one's gonna survive these Midwest winters. That's tough. Not everything does there's lots of cool stuff that doesn't and then like finding like is there one like shade or sun more and kind of eventually you know trying to find I didn't I kind of want to just you know not a bunch of the same stuff so they're all kind of like unique trees. Like the stuff that's there is all pretty like uniform. I mean there's a variety of like evergreens and maples but just kind of that maybe some like crab apples that kind of bloom that are fun. But I was like I want some you know I want that shit that ain't even on the menu for trees around here. And so I got some um this is like a ginkgo some there is some magnolia's are very pretty but most of them are like in warmer weather stuff or like fairer fair weather more mild climates there are some that I found that survive a harsh winter a variety of some other like evergreens like birch and some different weeping willows that was fun to find and one thing I would really like is like Japanese maples but they don't really make it in good like real winters. But there are Korean maples that do but they're like kind of uglier they're not as pretty as a Japanese maple they're kind of like more like a shrub with like maple looking leaves but I I figured out there's a thing called actually I don't know I think I just call them I don't think they're called like Japorean or Koranese Koranese. That sounds more like Islamic but it's like a hybrid between the two where it looks a little bit more pretty like a Japanese but it's got the the cold hardiness from the the Korean and they throw in the winter so I found one of those to plant. The craziest thing though they planted I guess I planted it the year before I've been growing these Dawn Redwoods which it's like one of the three redwoods because there's like the the sequoia trees then there's the coast redwood which are like even taller but skinny they're not as gritty and I think there's then these the Dawn Redwood which they maybe thought was only a fossil tree for a while because they saw it in the record but then they like rediscovered like live ones in like Asia and they kind of spread from there since but they're pretty cool. They get like get really huge and the thing is they're like one of like a few um deciduous conifers I think is what the term is something like needly that drops his needles. The other one is like a bald cypress which I think is more in the south and there's also maybe like I feel like I've heard about like some in the PNW like larches is that a word something that turns yellow and drops the needles but I got a few of these done redwoods and be growing in the basement and eventually just put one outside because it was getting kind of big and not maybe just I don't know I didn't really know I was just kind of I like to put stuff outside and see when it can grow big if it can survive in the climate because it was kind of more fun to watch it really take off. And I found like a nice spot in the air that seems sunny and kind of in the middle and I don't know the the spot must have been like perfect in there for like sun and water and whatnot. Maybe it's a low spot so extra water gets there but this thing is like totally taken off in a few years. It's like in like five years like like 20 feet tall and like thick just from something that was like knee height. So it's pretty cool and it's fun to watch it like every year see how much bigger it's gotten and all that and especially all the other trees they're all pretty like just little teeny cute little saplings on the plant with them that have kind of gotten more mature looking the ginkgo too is cool. They got kind of unique leaves although they're a little bit more common I feel like they're kind of all around and I think they're like a common city tree. But they got kind of like unique leaves um I think they're the tree that they say that they smell like cum or something I've definitely run past some trees I remember in California and just like some areas I'm like that's does that smell what I think it smells like that's a very distinct smell to be just prominently in the air but then I think it makes sense. I think I looked this came across came to this like uh conclusion though because I gave my grandma one of these trees and she was like reading about it. I've kind of given her some plant stuff and she's kind of also gotten into it. I guess I've shared some random hobbies with some of my family gotten admitted some random things. My mom's gotten pretty into the turtles thanks to me or at least I hope so I hope she has a hate but she smells it good and she's got a career in Hollywood if she doesn't like them. So I guess that's a one also but then my grandma's reading about them and I don't know if it's the males or the females at some time of year when they're trying to bloom they smell horrible that smells like rotten bodies and vomit or something she was saying. I was kind of Googling it and saw that too and maybe some smell like cum or something I don't know. I haven't had that experience yet with these ones are still pretty little but like a cool like I think they're called maidenhair trees I really don't know why. And they said because of the shape of the leaves. It's kind of like a kind of like clovery, but just like uh one petal of a clover. If that makes sense. I don't know if that's super accurate. It's got a little bit more of like a curve to it though. Like an arc. But I don't think other stuff has that leaf. I mean, there's probably something though. When I'm looking at trees, I feel like that's definitely a giveaway. If I were like an arborist, that'd be kind of fun. I would like to know, like be a pro at like telling what kind of tree is what. That's kind of fun. I mean, I can know I know a variety of things, but by no means professional. Would like to know just though, even like the general things, how you know like a tree's healthier what to trim up on a thing to keep it thriving so it can really, you know, get real tall and grow for years. I don't think yeah, I don't know which ones of those ginkgos are really starting to stink at what point, but we'll see. Hopefully. Hopefully it's a while, and hopefully it's not too bad. But they're pretty cool because I think they turn like bright yellow in the in the fall. I think I've seen videos or like pictures of this somewhere in China or Asia, like some big temple built around this giant ginkgo that like in the fall turns like super like gorgeous gold and like raining, just like yellow leaves everywhere. It's like that'd be sick. I kind of want to I'll I'll be down to live in a ginkgo temple like that, where you got like some big beautiful tree that just you know changes colors at the right time of year. But that's kind of been the the development of the uh Arboretum in the yard and things mostly I've been kicking, I think a few. Most of the trees that I uh brought over from Colorado didn't make it, except this one that was the biggest one. And I thought that maybe it'd be less likely because it's kind of harder to get those up nicely. And might once they get established, they maybe need a little bit more to keep going. But I I think I did a good enough job on extracting that one where it sustained itself, and it seems to still be kicking. I think there's maybe a few things that needed to replace. But we'll see. It's been it's fun to check back every year when I visit and see how things have grown and really filled in. It's now it was pretty cool. I mean, the yard was pretty before, but now it's even more got even more variety and diversity. You know, we've got that DER yard, it's pretty fun. There's all sorts of different colors, and I think as the they grow and then in the spring and fall will be really colorful when you have like all these extra varieties of colors and flowers. So I'm kind of hype for that. Although I actually have no idea. That could still be like 10 years from now. So hopefully, I don't know. Hopefully it's all still held together by then. It's all intact, nothing peters out. I mean, I don't even know. Who knows what climate change is going to happen? Maybe it's gonna turn to inferno there, or maybe it'll like all of a sudden go 180 and we'll have like uh absolute zero ice age and things will just totally freeze off. Tough to say. I think it's like the past few winters have kind of been back and forth. There's one where it's like hardly a winter, then a normal one. But I feel like before that it's like an extra cold one. So I don't know. What's the farmer's almond X say this year? What the hell even is a farmer's almond act? Like who what is it just like a is it like a horoscope for for weather? Or is it like actually a scientific thing? Like, how does that come about? Like, is it I feel like the impression I got as a kid is like some like historical book where it just like written the future of weather and what it'll be, but is it just like is it like a forecast for the year based on like recent ones? Like do they like is it like actively updated for the year and then they put it out? Or how's that work? I don't know. That's a good question. Because I know like I'd hear about that when I was a kid or something, like they'd be talking about on the radio, like the farmer's almanac predicts this. But I was like, is that like is that I've in my head it was something like the Aztec calendar, like something like totally like vague and out there, but is it something that's got some more truth to it? I don't know. But it'll be interesting to see whether it keeps getting spicy. Not really in a good way. At least I don't know. Maybe it's El Niño or La Niña, I don't know. I forget what that each one means. Although I think it means different things everywhere. Like you might be in your really getting that whap somewhere, but you get extra dry somewhere else. So I don't even think it's like a universal rule. Like it's not like La Niña always got that whap for everyone. Sometimes it's El Niño. So weather's crazy. It'd be kind of cool to know, be a weatherman, know all of that. Lots of stuff that'd be cool. Honestly. Just knowing everything, that'd be kind of sick. But we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. Maybe it'll get warmer and I can I mean I don't think there's anything that's like I don't think many trees are like stuff where it's can't be like too warm. Unlike, okay, lots of stuff could be too warm, but I mean like not warm like too warm of a winner, I guess more what I'm saying. Because I don't think it's gonna be turned into like Arizona or Cali Desert in the Midwest soon, at least hopefully not. Maybe it'd be the Dust Bowl again. What was the Dust Bowl? What made that like what stopped the Dust Bowl? Like who who stopped that title run? Is that like was it was was it like uh just like a few time thing, or is it like did we I don't know how did we stop that or why was that like you just see these like whole big you know dust booms just and like the history books in high school? But I don't I don't know what the hell like where'd that come from? Was there like I met was it just like a crazy year where the dust went crazy off, or was it like a a sustained thing? Was it was it something we did? Did we mess up? Did we piss off nature? And I don't know. Was it like a drought period that made it really dusty and something? Is it? I don't know. I ain't been I mean maybe I've been to Dust Bowl area. I don't know where that happened. I got so many questions now about almanacs and dust bowls and all that. So wow, now I'm gonna know all this stuff. What happened to the dust bowls? Where did they go? I've seen dust dust devils that we call them. That's always kind of like fun. I mean, I think those is there big ones. I know they're like, I feel like at baseball games like kids used to see little mini dust tornadoes and stuff like that. But I feel like I've seen bigger ones. I saw one recently when I was driving somewhere in like North Dakota. I feel like I saw a bunch of them. This is the first time that I've driven like in like I-94 in North Dakota. And I didn't realize I had so many like oil fields or like oil oil pumps. I'm like, dang, I feel like I'm in Texas. That's kind of fun to see. And there's some of the Badlands there. Is that where there's like Teddy Roosevelt Park? Is that what's in North Dakota? I don't know. I feel like we drove through South Dakota and it's pretty boring. You see like a snippet of the Badlands, I'm like, oh, it looks pretty cool. But on an I-90 down there, you only see like a tiny bit. You just get like a sneak peek, you know, really blue balls. You gotta see more of it. And on I-94 and North Dakota, that was cool. But yeah, we've we've covered a lot of ground today. I don't know. It's fun though to get out there, see all that's out there in the US. You gotta say, not to glaze the states too much, but it is fun to drive really across the US. There's like a whole wide variety of pretty things to see and like all different sorts of shit that I feel like you know, you don't necessarily realize you don't got it can be you know uncultured as the Europeans or whatever like to say. You don't gotta even leave the damn country to see so much different shit, which is pretty cool. I feel like it's lucky to have all that. But gotta get out there and see it, you know, enjoy the world, seize the day, carpe diem. Do carpe sees stuff, is that what they call them? Or carp carp fish? It fucks me up that goldfish are carp. And same with koi. Like, how are these pretty things? But that's a story for another day. But wait, like it doesn't even make sense. They got like a million dollar one, and then the rest of them are just like ugly and invasive. Like it'd be kind of sick if the invasive ones were just like the the pretty gold ones, you know? Like if koi fish were invasive, I'd like I'd be cooler than just like the ugly brown carp that just take over everything, are kind of gross looking. But why couldn't it be the pretty ones? Like, come on. Pretty privilege, or but that's like reverse. They don't let the I don't know. I don't quite know how that meant out. But it's kind of interesting they're related. We'll talk about that, yeah, at a different time because we're we're running out of time. But it's been a solid episode. Thank you all for tuning in and hanging out with your boy. We've definitely hatched out some important topics. I've been enjoying it, and hope you are too. Hope you've been blessed by these convos again and again, and hope you continue to keep coming back for our more, which there'll be many of gotta stay focused, stay locked in on the grind, keep, you know, keep this yep going, get better at it. It's been fun. I'm sure it's been ass. Hopefully, you know, look look back on this like this is some absolute horse shit. But because I got got real nice with it, we'll see, we'll see. Time will tell. But until then, we will catch you next time. And yeah. Stay frosty or whatever. Trying to think of a cool, cool thing to say. That wasn't it. But for now, peace peace.