Big Blend Radio

Big Blend Radio 18th Year Anniversary Party

Big Blend Radio is celebrating 18 Years of Podcasting! Starting with this Party, join us for three days of shows celebrating this birthday milestone with mother-daughter hosts Nancy J. Reid and Lisa D. Smith who travel full-time on their Love your Parks Tour while hosting the shows and publishing the digital series of Big Blend Magazines. Hear where and what our guests were up to when they were 18 years old...and, what music they were listening to.

WHAT MUSIC WERE YOU LISTENING TO AT 18? Let us know in the comments, and we'll add it to our special (and growing) playlist on Spotify which you can listen to here: https://tinyurl.com/bdc3d99d

FEATURED PARTY GUESTS:

- JOHNNY SCHAEFER - Award-winning singer-songwriter and cohost of our Big Daily Blend podcast every 1st Sunday. More @hearjohnny and https://hearjohnny.com/

- EVA ELDRIDGE - Travel and fiction writer, editor, and publishing expert. More: https://evaeldridge.com/

- JON DURANT - Acclaimed guitarist, composer, and producer. More: https://www.jondurant.com/

- BARBARA REDDING - Award-winning travel writer and photographer. More: https://barbararedding.com/

- SHARON K. KURTZ - Award-winning travel writer, photographer and podcaster. More: https://sharonkkurtz.com/

- JAMES BYFIELD - Singer/songwriter, roots musician and founder of the San Francisco blues-based band Blind Lemon Pledge. More: https://blindlemon-pledge.com/

- JO CLARK - Travel writer, photographer and podcaster. More: https://haveglasswilltravel.com/ and https://recipestravelculture.com/

- KATHLEEN WALLS - Travel writer and author of fiction and non-fiction. More: https://americanroads.net/ and https://katywalls.com/

- CHUCK & MIKELYN WUSTMAN - Owners and innkeepers of The Bird & Butterfly Inn in Jasper, Texas. More: https://thebirdandbutterflyinn.com/

- VICTORIA CHICK - Contemporary Figurative Artist and Founder of the Southwest Regional Museum of Art & Art Center. More at https://victoriachick.com/ and https://www.southwest-art-museum.org/

SPECIAL MESSAGES FROM

- GLYNN BURROWS - Owner of Norfolk Tours in England. More: https://norfolk-tours.co.uk/

- JULIE SUMAN - Travel writer and photographer. More: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/julie-dee-suman-travel-writer-and-photographer/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 1h 49m
Broadcast on:: 05 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

Welcome to Big Blend Radio where we celebrate variety and how it adds spice to quality of life. Welcome, everyone. I think we need to have that champagne pop cork open pop cork cork popped what popped the cork? That's how you start a champagne sunday show. I'm just saying 18 years ago today, Nancy and I hear a big blend radio started big blend radio. It wasn't even big blend radio then, we were still southwest blend magazine online, we had stopped printing our magazine for about a year or two, our printed magazine, and we're completely online, then we started this show, which grew into being big blend and big blend magazines being national and international because we could go digital and we could talk to people across the country and around the world and who wants borders when we can go everywhere we want. So that's what started was started as the champagne Sunday show because Nancy isn't that our tradition champagne on Sundays and make a toast to what is good in the world. Of course, there's always a lot of bad, especially if you turn on the paper, go on social media times, some things, but it was really about, you know, if we're going to do this, let's have a sip of champagne could be anything tea, you know, and look at what's good and have fun conversations. That was 18 years ago, I cannot believe it, that is our anniversary and we have some amazing guests joining us on today's party and we also have some messages at the end and individual podcasts. So we're going to be doing this all day long because when you turn 18, it's a big deal plus our company started in 1997. So we are 28 years old as a big blend magazine. So not bad, Nancy, we look, I'm still in my 20s and exactly. How do you feel? How do you feel? You feeling good? You feeling good? So I just want to start with a champagne toast to everyone that has been part of our shows over the years. I want to give everyone a champagne toast and also thank everyone for being here and a toast to 2025. It sounds like a good number and Nancy, what do you want to toast to? Well, I'm going to, you know, you're going to ask about a musician and what song I like best and then it has something to do with my toast. Oh, OK, well, I'll get to it later then. All right. OK, well, but yeah, we'll get into the music section of this conversation a little bit, but it toasted everyone who has been part of our journey from day one starting back in 1997 and 1997 and also back in South Africa when Nancy had her magazine over there. When I was 18 years old, we were all working for her and it wasn't that fun. Yes, it was. It was fun. So today's show. Of course, we've got Johnny Schafer, who is here on the big Daily Blint as our guest co-host every first Sunday. He's an amazing singer, songwriter award winning and you can go to his website here Johnny.com. So welcome back, Johnny. How are you? Happy New Year. I'm great. Hello, Lisa and Nancy and congratulations. I'm here ready to raise a glass to you and to toast to your vision and your generosity. And your curiosity and all the wonderful ways that you support creators across the spectrum and it's very exciting to celebrate this milestone with you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad you're doing our shows with us and I'm thinking back to when you first came on a show was actually around Christmas time. And I believe we were in Florida somewhere. I think we were in the panhandle taking care of little Millie, the sausage dog. Yeah. And she's a sweetie. Talk to you about that. And I don't know. We had a really good conversation and we've been doing that ever since. But it's been about three, four years, four years, I think four years. Yeah, at least, yeah, because it was when I released the NANDIA bus together, which was off and over, which they didn't look for it really well. And I think that was four or five years ago. Yeah. So, yeah, correct. And we all look five years old. That looks great. That's great. I want to bring our next guest on is artist Victoria Chick. I encourage you to go to her website, Victoria Chick.com. And I believe Victoria has been with us for these 18 years of podcasting and actually known her before the podcasting back when we were based out of Southern California and she was based in Southern California. Then she moved to Silver City, New Mexico, a thriving art community and called us and said, Nancy, you need to come visit. I'll never come talk to you again if you don't come visit cover our town. And luckily, Nancy and I actually just got to see her, which was amazing. And that was a gift to see her and her husband, Mike, we see them every few years. Any chance we can see them? We do. But welcome back, Victoria. How are you? Well, Lisa, thank you. I'm so happy to be here and part of this celebration today. And I feel like I have known you for ages when you were paper. And I'm happy to have been with you so long. Thank you. We went on paper for me. Well, you were a paper dog, sorry, but you were working women. But you've done so much for, I know probably for all of us, but you've really helped me with my museum project. And for that, I will be forever grateful and I hope everybody in New Mexico will be grateful too. Well, this is amazing because you're working with a group that you've said, come on, everyone, you're going to help me do this because Silver City is a wonderful art community. But to be an art destination that is, and it is a destination, truly, they're home to the Hila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Hila Wilderness Area, the first wilderness area, Hila National Forest. It's a destination. Great food, great shopping. I mean, it's just beautiful. But to really add that cherry to the top and really to fulfill everything. And when you go to New Mexico, you've got Santa Fe and Tosses, art destinations, Albuquerque is also very up and coming, especially with its public art. I think they have over 900 pieces of public art in Albuquerque. Silver City has had a wonderful mural program, but we definitely need to have a museum there, a fine art museum, and that's what your work is. Awesome. Just fantastic to see. So Victoria, glad to have you be part of our big blend ship for so many years. Next, I want to bring Barbara Redding on the show. Barbara Redding is an awesome travel writer and photographer. She's traveled the world. She's a former journalist, but she's still a journalist because she's still writing. And you can go to her website, Barbara Redding.com. We met her a few years ago through the shows that we do with the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association. And she first came on. I think it was Morocco that you first came on with, right, Barbara? Welcome back. Yes, yes. Thank you. Yes. I haven't been here as long as you have, but I've enjoyed getting to know you and learning about your site and sharing some of my travels with you and with your audience. I know it's great to have you be part of the big blend family. And I just want to ask you're in Port-O-Rensis right now, right? Well, I should leave in the morning. So I'm packing tonight. It's not too far from Austin, just about a three and a half hour drive. So I don't have to take too much in the weather. It looks like it's going to be gorgeous, 70 beach weather. It's a fun, fun time to go to the beach, much, much better than when it's 110 in Texas. Yeah, no, no. And it's beautiful. That's the timeframe of whooping cranes. And Nancy and I went there and Sharon's also on the show. Yeah, last year, yeah, 2024 in February, March, we all went there. And we didn't get to see each other then. And we were all hoping to see each other at the end of last year, but that didn't work. But moving on, sticking to Texas, we've got Chuck and Michael and Westman joining us. They are in keepers and owners of the bird and butterfly in in Jasper. They're in East Texas. Beautiful up in the Piney Woods region. And you can go to thebirdandbutterflyin.com. And we met them doing a show about in keepers that were baking for the military. It's a wonderful program that our friends, Steven, Karen, Wilson, from the line and the Rose Bennett breakfast introduced us to. And we've been talking to them ever since. So welcome back. How are you both? We're doing great. Thank you. And congratulations on 18 years. Well, thank you. Thank you, Nancy and I are still teenagers and we have acne. No, I'm kidding. Are you old enough to be drinking that champagne? Yeah, you know, in South Africa, it was legal. So that I'm sticking with that. It's also this word called "Sneak." Yes, "Sneak." And the mother's here. It's a mother-daughter thing, so what could go wrong, you know? Now, you both have been doing, you're right on the river. So what river is that for people to know where you are right now? We are. We have a beautiful river deck that we built when we bought the property about two and a half years ago. And we are literally sitting overlooking the beautiful Angelina River. Ooh, it looks lovely. It's a, we can't wait. Yeah, the Angelina River is the river that forms Lake Sam Rayburn, which is the largest lake in Texas. Oh, well, everything's big. And if you've got to have a claim to the biggest, you know, you have to. Absolutely. And as we record this, Nancy and I are in Lubbock, Texas. So we're not too far from all your Texans here. So, you know, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. But hopefully we'll see you on our drives back and forth across the country that we continue to do. We definitely hope we definitely hope to catch you all this year. Yeah, yeah. One of the wine dinners, you know, that's a goal too. You guys and your wine dinners. Absolutely. You've been busy. You've been busy. Very cool. I want to bring our next guest is Eva Eldridge. And we've known her for a number of years too. I'm thinking about 15 years. Maybe Eva is a writer, editor, publishing expert. She gets our mail. She has the most awesome dog, Poppy, wonderful husband, Jeff. And you can go to evaldridge.com, especially if you're looking at publishing a book. And welcome back. Eva. How are you? I'm good. How are you today? Doing good. How is your son? Is it nice and sunny? It is. It's a little cooler, which is kind of nice because it's supposed to be winter. Yeah. Well, you know, that's what happens. You're out in the south, southwest desert. It's, but it's pretty out there. It was good to see you both this beautiful copy. That was a. I can't complain because the garden is still doing fabulous. Yeah. It's awesome. All about that. That garden, what Eva produces in that garden is pretty amazing. It's awesome. It's awesome. It's a green. She does. She does. We're going to head over to, I believe we're going to go to the Portland area of Oregon, or we might be going to Boston and shipping out there. But John Durant is here. He is a guitarist, composer. He's been on our show five, six, seven years. I don't know. I was just thinking about that. Actually, I think it's been seven years now. Seven? Yeah. Oh, we might just turn seven. Wow. Yeah, you came on a happy hour show for 30 minutes that lasted two hours. We'd start to know to happen. Food, wine, and rivers. Yep. Rivers. Yes. And everyone, John Durant is, the website is J-O-N. He plays what's known as cloudless guitar. Is that right? Yeah. Cloud guitar. Cloud guitar. Cloud guitar. But I was going to say fretless. It's fretless. But I play fretless guitar too, yes. Yeah, I know. But sometimes you want to get away from the lines. You know, it's not going to happen. I have to, listen, I blur the lines all the time. You know that. Well, you know, yeah. You've got to bend the notes. Suntied. So I'm just blurring everything anyway. It's the way we roll. It is. It is. We've got Sharon Kurtz here. Sharon is an amazing travel writer as well as a photographer. Oh my gosh. She goes around the world. We have a podcast with her. And it is called "Wandering the World with Sharon." And she takes us there every first Wednesday of the month. And you can go to SharonKKurtz.com. That's with Kay. So welcome back, Sharon. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. I'm happy to be here celebrating your 18 year milestone. Wow. Yeah. You know, I'm thinking about you too. And you first came on. I think you came on a panel discussion with the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association first, right? Yes. About travel writing. And then you talked about Egypt because she went to Egypt during COVID because she could. Why? No, why not? Why not? Yeah. Why not? Do you get an opportunity? Take it. Another awesome travel writer and photographer is Joe Clark. She is based out of the Myrtle Beach area in South Carolina. So we're going all over the place. She has a podcast with us every second Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern time. I've got to get that straight with her. And you can go to her website and have glass will travel. She likes wine like we do. So welcome back, Joe. Thank you, Lisa. I'm raising my glass to big blend. Happy birthday and happy new year. Thank you, Joe. Look at the number of candles. It's coming before you blow them out. No, I know. I know it's good to have you back on the show. I'm just moving quickly here because we do have guests that have to move on and we'll get into everything soon. We got Katie Walls. Kathleen Walls is a travel writer, photographer also met her through the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association. She writes novels, historical fiction, mysteries, ghosts, travel guides and guides to ghosts to say and crime, all kinds of good stuff. And also, of course, traveling the country and writing, especially in the South in the Southeast States. You can go to americanroads.net. So welcome back, Katie. How are you? I'm doing well and I want to wish you and Nancy both happy anniversary. It seems like I've been doing business with you guys for about eight or nine years, isn't it? It seems like that long. It's been a while. It seems like it. And I love the way you promote creative people, the arts, writing. We, editors, writers, artists, musicians, usually don't get the kind of recognition that you try to help us get. And that's a piece we love it. Well, we appreciate what you all do. That's what makes the world go around is creativity. Exactly. And we've lost so much of it. And Lisa and Nancy help promote it. And that's great. We love doing that. And especially, you know, supporting independence and art is independent. It should just did an interview a few minutes ago talking about the importance of being independent and not being conformed to a template because there's no such a way you're going to have real creativity in a template in a box being told what to do. See, did I say that? Well, it's true. Victoria will tell you all about that integrity partner. We talked about that a lot on the show. Also, we have a musician, singer, songwriter, James Bifield here. I do believe so. He's known as Blind Lemon Pledge. And he is an amazing Americana roots artist based in the Bay area. And you can go to blindlimmond-pledge.com. So welcome back. James. How are you? Thank you. Good. Happy anniversary. I was pretty excited. It's a long time to last. Yeah. Well, you know, we feel a little pickled, but that's why we drink the champagne, right? But I was going to say, yeah, we've known you for a long time, too. Yeah, I sure remember. Well, it's probably been like since 2011, I was guessing, right around in there. Wow. Wow. This is amazing. I'm feeling younger by the second. Yeah, I know, right? It's kind of wild. But I want to go back up. I know Victoria and Barbara are on a time crunch. Victoria, I wanted to ask you where you were when you were 18. Yeah. Well, I was in Liberty, Liberty, Missouri. And I was dating my present husband at that time. And although we didn't get married until 26 years later. Oh, there's another 18. I realized what we were sitting here is that I moved here to Silver City with like 18 years ago. Wow. And you came along with me. You and Nancy. Oh, he's been my pals. So, yeah, I appreciate you guys. We appreciate you too. I remember that we had taken over the Chamber of Commerce and Nicole Robbins at the time and she's married and everything's changed. I don't even know if she's living in this country, but she was awesome. She was trying to really get things rolling for Silver City coming together as a destination. But check this out. Anybody remember the TV show Fear Factor? Yeah. When Joe Rogan used to run this, you know, yeah, you do crazy things. And the person who's the craziest wins. She won. And she won by eating a rat in a blender. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's going to be a real horrible. I don't suppose it was a cooked rat. No, no, but she did get us after telling us that story, get us to buy or another drink at the Twisted Oak. Was it the Twisted Vine or Twisted Oak, but was there back in the day? Twisted Vine, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So your music for when you were 18, what would be like your go-to music when you were 18? Oh, my gosh. Well, it was, it was 60s, 60s rock. I mean... Absolutely. What else could it be? So, so longer than 60s, I still listen to it on the radio. Right on. Now, do you have a toast for the New Year? Your museum? Well, I guess it would have to toast that because we're starting our capital campaign. And I would, I tried to raise a million two hundred thousand dollars this year. So wish me luck, all of you, please. Absolutely. That's a huge, that is a huge, huge goal. And because what they're trying to do is get a building for this museum. And that's going to be the main, that's so important to get, right, is to get the actual building. Yeah. We're buying, we are buying a used building. We're hoping for a round of half a million dollars and the rest of the money will go to rest, to restore, not restoring it, but to make it a true, a true, elegant art museum. And a destination. We already have the artwork for it. So, yes. So, anyway, that's my project. For those who want to support this, I just had to do a PSA. You can go to Southwest-Art-Museum.org and the link is in the episode notes. Everyone's website links are in the episode notes, so you can just click through easily. But thank you. It's so good to have you be part of our celebration, Victoria. Next time we see you and Mike, we want the story about these years that were in between. I know there's something interesting in that. I know there's something fun to be heard about, so thank you so much. Thank you guys. And I'm sorry I have to leave because I know you all have really good stories. There's always good stories here. It starts to meet you again. Thank you. Thank you Victoria. Bye-bye. I want to also go over to Barbara because, you know, she's packing up to go see those whooping cranes. And Porta Ransas. But oh, the whooping cranes. Oh, they'll woo you. They're so beautiful. Barbara, I wanted to ask you, what was the music for you when you were 18, that was a go-to for you? Well, I think I've mentioned to you that it was Tony Mitchell. I think I was just kind of discovering women musicians after, you know, so many years of being a Beatles fan. And it was refreshing to, I think, finally see women getting some recognition in the rock and roll world. And of course, Tony Mitchell is just pretty unique individual in terms of what she had to say and how she said it. So she would be my artist of that particular time. And where were you when you were 18? Well, I was in college, you know, I'm dating myself, but yeah, in college. And so living on my own, it was the early 70s and, you know, the war was still going on. The protests were underway at my university and I was just starting to get into journalism, working at my college newspaper, so covering the protests and the musicians. And one of my first assignments, which was interesting looking back on was to interview Johnny Cash when he came through town. No, wait. So where was this? This was, I went to college at Indiana University in Bloomington. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, we have other big blend radio family from there and went to college there. So we'll have to do another show on that, you know, but that's awesome. Great college, Johnny Cash. We just watched him on an old, what's the mystery guy Nancy, the detective, Colombo movie. Oh, he was on the Colombo? Yeah. He was about a gospel fan. Isn't that a combination? Yeah, he was on there. We couldn't believe it, but yeah, he was on there, but that's cool. And I was listening to Willie Nelson's, you know, they had his 90th birthday party and Roseanne Cash was singing with Chris Kristofferson before he died. And if you haven't had a chance to see that show on PBS, it's pretty spectacular. You don't have to watch Nancy. Nancy's heart, Chris Kristofferson. She got to meet him. She got to meet him back in the day. I did. And he just, I was shopping mall with a two foot fence around me with six lion cubs who kept getting out. Hey, little lady, you need some help with those kids. Sounds like his voice, actually. He did a good imitation. Thank you. She's been, she's been, you know, reciting that for years. This is, you know, that was a special moment in life. It was her celebrity meeting, celebrity meeting. I know. They leave an impression, don't they? Oh, yeah. Well, if it's Chris Kristofferson for Nancy, she's met other ones that she didn't get an impression on. That one has stuck with her forever. She just needs to still meet Eric Burton and she'll be happy. I met him. He was in Austin for the, um, uh, South by Southwest music festival. Oh, there you go. Playing in the street. It was great. He's wonderful. Oh, my gosh. So there you go, Nancy. Lots of heaven. Yeah. Oh, she might, she might not like you anymore, Barbara. Oops. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. So what is your toast? What are you toasting to for 2025? Oh, you know, I thought about lots of possibilities. I think one of the, the places that I would like to toast to a trip to New Zealand, if I can pull that off in 2020. Of course you can. Yeah. Have you been there before? No, it's been on my list. I've been to Australia, but, um, it's, it's, it's one of those places where I'm like, I need to go. So I'm like, I need to go sooner rather than later, if you know what I mean. For the glaciers. Yeah. Well, that, yes, that too. And, um, penguins. Uh huh. And just actually making the long, the long flights, you know, get harder, the older you get. So, so that's on my list for 2025. So I'd like to toast to the Kiwis. And going tramping. Yes. I'm going tramping. Yeah, but I know that tramping is a whole other world in another place. Well, Barbara's going tramping. I can't wait to do that interview when you do this. I'm just, you will just call it Barbara went tramping. Okay, I'll be happy to share what I learn if I, if I make it. Oh, you will. You will. Well, listen, thanks for being part of our journey to and have fun and Porter and sis. Okay, I will talk to you soon. You guys. Good luck. And congratulations again on your birthday. This is pretty, pretty amazing. It's a birthday. It's a fruit. That would be a good song for you to choose, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's a birthday. It's a birthday. Thank you. All right. Good luck and have fun tonight guys. Thank you. Thank you. Johnny, Johnny, I wanted to ask you, what are you toasting to for the New Year? And you, I mean, thank you for toasting our shows and things, but what are you toasting to because Johnny has an amazing Facebook group called the Gratitude Club. And I'm just going to tell you, I promise pinky, pinky promise. Like, this is for real. I promised to post every single day. Mmm. That could be. 2025 every single day. That's the goal. All you do is you post five things you're grateful for every day. So, this is my champ. I'm drinking champagne, though, right now, huh? So, you know, my tongue gets together with the bubbles, but I will, I will do that. So, you've got my solemn promise to do that because I think it really doesn't make a big difference. So, yeah, what are you grateful for? What are you looking forward to this year? Well, you know, yes, Gratitude practice changed my life. I mean, just, you know, when you focus on the things in your life, that, you know, that it helps you to see, even when you're down, that there's so much, you know, that you can be grateful for and that is going right in your life. And, you know, we're really blessed to live here in Pasadena. So, I want to toast to my fellow Pasadena kids every year they put on this massive show called the Rose Parade. And it's seen all over the world. And it's a big undertaking by thousands of people. And they start, as soon as one ends, they start planning for the next year. And we live, you can actually see the parade route from our bedroom window. And so there are bleachers up all over along Colorado Boulevard, and there's going to be a big band festival, marching band festival right at Pasadena City College, which is right down the street. And so, you know, I love the excitement and the creative spirit that goes into creating something big like that. And it's a really nice way to start the year out every year as well. So, I want to toast to everyone with the Rose Parade. It's a lot of volunteer hours in that man, a ton, a ton. Petal pushers, petal pushers, petals, like flower petal pushers that put the flowers on the on the floor. Ah, I think Eva should give some of her flowers to the Rose Parade. She'll sell it. No, I'm keeping them in my garden. I would go over to Chuck and Michael because I know that they have guests coming over to make sure we get them on with their toast. So each of you, what is your toast for 2025. Our toast for 2025 is to continue our celebration of our wine pairing dinners. It kind of fits because we get to toast with the wine from these great vineyards that come to our bed and breakfast. And it's a way to celebrate your anniversary and in all anniversaries. Well, I'll need them when we get them. Yeah, I know. But you're also connecting the winemakers and wines with people. And I think we should toast to winemakers everywhere because it's such hard work, like in keeping is hard work too. I think it's just good for people to understand what goes into it behind the scenes and the farming practice of it all. So I love what you guys are doing over there. So, Chuck, let's talk about music for you when you're 18. What were you listening to? Well, I'm finding as I go back and think about it that the radio stations that I listened to when I was 18 are now listed and registered as classic rock. So, I'm really feeling my age. But of course, you know, Led Zeppelin and those kind of groups were real popular and I still love their music today. I'm just surprised that I'm a classic. Yeah, you know what, I was, you know, growing up in the 80s too. Now they're saying 80s is classic rock. Like what? When you hear it in the elevator, that's bad. It is. It is. It is. Or the grocery store. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's just wrong. It's, you know, but I think we should stop labeling anyway. Okay. So, Michael, what about you? What are you toasting to and what's your music? Well, I am also toasting to the wine dinners. We've had, we've had such good success with those and we've met so many interesting people, including master some of your days and winemakers. We're having Tom Parmesan, who is actually a Sonoma County winemaker, but he has a tasting room and dripping springs, which is right outside of Fredericksburg. He will be back with us. He's our first repeat. He'll be back with us on Wednesday, January 22nd and then a new winemaker to us. Whisper past sellers will be out with us on Friday, March 14th. So we're just excited about continuing and expanding those relationships. I think Sharon, you need to go a little north of Austin. Yes. Do you know, I live like five minutes from dripping springs and I'm closer to Austin than Fredericksburg. You have got to go see Tom. His wine is exceptional. What is his last name? His name is Parmesan. So like Parmesan cheese except this Parmesan S-O-N. Okay, got it. I will go see him. He's great. Yeah, he's terrific and his wine is just so good. And then after music, I was trying to remember what our class song was back in the late 80s and our class song was Don't Look Back by Boston. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's right. I remember that song and it still plays. Yeah. Still going. All the classics too. For sure. For sure. It is. I mean, the music thing is really cool. So where were you at 18 years old? I was in North Houston, Texas. I had just graduated from 118 over Christmas break. And I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. And I thought this was going to be it. So well, obviously we're a little late on your happy birthday. So happy birthday for your recent day. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah, we're going to celebrate everything. We're going to celebrate all the birthdays. All birthdays. Anything we can get our hands on to celebrate and raise a glass, we should. But I was going to say, so you're in Houston. So Chuck was Chuck also, were you in Houston too? No, Chuck, that's in Michigan. Yeah, I was in Washington, Michigan then, but I got to Texas as fast as I could. Oh, you knew that, you know, Mike Lynn was down there and you had to go rescue her from, you know, Boston. I'm from the heat of the summer. She needs to see this hot guy from Michigan. I apologize for him. I'm so sorry. That's funny. That was funny. So did either one of you ever think that you would be running a bed and breakfast? Chuck is going to say yes. I'm going to say no. I'm a definite chef. I'm a bed breakfast and all the traveling I have done. And when we had the opportunity to buy this beautiful place and we did, it was kind of a dream come true, but for Mike Lynn, it's not quite that exciting. Until the wine dinner comes. When the wine dinner comes, she's like, who do you think is cooking for this wine dinner? It's not that exciting. It's just a heck of a lot of work, but it's fun once you get to have the wine. Isn't it afterwards when you get to have wine after the wine party? It's like the after part. Typically, so we do a five course dinner. We usually serve six wines. I'm usually not a part. I'm in the kitchen cooking. I don't come out until the last wine goes out. Then I get to sit down and say hi to everybody and relax and all that kind of stuff. That's that's what it's like. Isn't it the lot of work on the five course dinner? Well, chef's decisions are the ones who sit down at the end of the night when everyone goes home and whatever they talk about stays there and needs to. But we want the gossip, but I want to say John is John, you do your Friday night meals and he makes this whole drool on Facebook and he loves his wine. He loves his beer. What do you think about these wine dinners? Do you ever see yourself doing this? I love the idea because the pairing of food and wine is crucial. And when you have a winemaker coming into a place and they can work with the chef to coordinate how their wines are going to be properly featured alongside the food, it's vital. It is when we got all of us like wine here and then Eva, Eva did all this cooking recently. We got all this food from Melissa's produce. We got wine from those sellers, those till sellers. And from LDV winery, you know, Peggy Feendock was on our show every first Wednesday and oh my gosh, that wine is their wines are spectacular. Oh, and Eva made a fresh pineapple outside dum cake. Sharon, we were just talking about that. Fresh pineapple, a young cake with a pink pineapple and we paired it with a gurnosh from LDV winery and Eva, that was good. That was, I'm still thinking about that cake. It was very good and you plied me with enough wine that week that I'm still enjoying that. Well, you know, it was so funny is like the next morning, you could see everybody had been nibbling at the cake. It was, it was, you know, if you start, if you start sipping our wine in the middle of the night, you're going to have to go through me. But the cake, the cake, everybody was picking at the cake. The cake was came out, the cake came out wonderful. It was delicious. It was really awesome. I didn't know, I mean, because normally the pineapple is canned and this was fresh pink pineapple. It's called the pink glow pineapple and it's for people that don't like the acid and pineapple. It's, it's like an alkaline pineapple and it's so delicious. It still has the puckery pineapple and it's a little sweet too. They have a ruby red pineapple that sells for $400, a special edition pineapple. In the meantime, Sharon just came back from pineapple land, you know. Now we have delicious pineapples. Did you have pineapple cocktails while you were in Maui? I mostly just had big old fresh chunks any time I wanted. Mmm. This is fresh. It's like, I'll have that pineapple. Give it to me with some spam. We want that spam. We want that. I love it. I love it. So, no, no. So, you know, I just want to, in case you guys have to go, Chuck and Michael and thank you. Stay on the show as long as you can. Thanks for being here and the bird and butterfly in.com. Everyone check them out on East Texas and the Piney Woods on the Angelina River. That is super cool. I want to go over Eva music for you when you were 18 and where were you at 3 a.m.? I was between Florence, Colorado, Athens, Ohio, and Pierre, South Dakota in my 18th year. So, somebody mentioned about having their senior class song. We've printed "Cat Stevens Morning is Broken" in our yearbook that year, which we had the first color yearbook that year. And as for me, I think I bought my first album, which was Paul McCartney and Wings during that year. So, of course, I listened to that a zillion times. And always a favorite was Crosby Stills, "Nastion Young." Any song on Deja vu. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no. No, that's a good album. That's a good album. I remember Nancy, remember Paul Butler? Yes. We're an amazing songwriter and singer, and we rest in peace. Well, him and his wife, Erna, they grew up listening to them and they had abandoned. Their kids were like, we were all like a family and all kinds of shenanigans and crazy stuff happened. This is in South Africa, but he would get everybody, because he could, I mean, he really had the "Cat Stevens" a little deeper voice. He had that. And he would start singing in a pub, "Morning is Broken," and he'd do the whole, like, the beginning, you know, the piano, like, you know, the keys, because he was a great keyboardist. I mean, so everybody's like, he'd get everything, not everyone, quiet, quiet. We're going to do this really special song. You'd start playing it. And it'd go, "Morning is Broken," sing, "Morning is Broken," and then smash a teacup. And that was that. That was the end of the song. [LAUGHTER] Remember that, Nancy? Like, wow, smash. Oh, no, he was crazy. He was crazy. He was crazy. He had a question for you. Yeah, yeah. He had a question for you. Who played piano on "Morning is Broken"? Oh, my gosh. Oh, I know. Leon. Leon. Nope. Nope. Wait. Wait, wait. Don't tell me. [LAUGHTER] No. Katie? No? That's a different show. I'm only going to guess at the old old stop. I don't know that one. Rick Wakeman. Oh, well, yeah. Oh, I didn't know. Man, and he's still going, man. He's still kicking. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I did not know that. In fact, his early days as a session player before he joined, yes. Yeah. I did not know that. Well, this, you know, this is it. You would expect John to do this. He's going right into happy hour tradition. [LAUGHTER] He is. He's slipping right in. Slipping right in. So, you know, even what are you toasting to for the 2025 year? Your garden? If you're still going for your garden or do you want-- That's a constant. I think for 25, I'm going to toast to balance. I like that. Well, we need it. We need it. And interesting people. That's a good toast. I like that. I like that. Now, Johnny, where were you at 18? Were you in portables still? No, I was in my freshman year of college. I started college when I was 17 because I-- The way my birthday fell, I started school early. And so, I was actually a freshman in college at California Luther in college in Thousand Oaks. My freshman year, I was there and then I transferred to Cal State Fullerton. So, I was just giving my footing and I was a big Kenny Loggens fan. And he and Michael McDonald helped them out on "This is it." And that song kind of just resonated with me, you know, with the spirit of "Okay. It's time to start being an adult and exploring the world and, you know, coming from a small town." It was a lot of adjustments and so that's really kind of inspired me and I've listened to it a lot. Well, and you ended up working with him a little bit, didn't you? I did, yeah. Cool. Yeah, I was going to say this is an interesting thing with you because Melissa Manchester ties into your childhood Kenny Loggens and you've worked with both of them now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really blessed that way and, you know, it's a tribute to never giving up on your dreams. It took me decades, but it finally happened and... Awesome. Yeah, it's, yeah. Awesome. I love that. I love that. Yeah. No, no, I love that. I love that. John, where were you when you were 18? Well, so I was living in cohesive Massachusetts, up in Boston. Funnily enough, I still live there, but in a different house, of course. But it's probably the town is on the coast and it's a beautiful little town and it's best known for being the town where they filmed the witches of Eastwick. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, we were famous for a week and I mean, you know, and then, of course, that was turned 18 in the summer and headed off to Berkley College of Music in the fall and hated every minute of it that I was there. But Berkley had gone from being a place in the 70s where individuality was really crucial, you know, in developing yourself as a musician. By the time I got there, that was out the door and there was the book and this was how you were taught to play guitar and everybody was taught the same thing the same way. And as you've figured out by now, over the years, that doesn't work for me. Yeah, indeed. That's amazing. So do you knew the music path? Johnny, did you think this was going to happen for you? You're going to do the music path when you were a kid? Well, I majored in music. I got my degree in music and it's what I always wanted and I kind of took a detour because in my 20s, a couple of times people were going to supposedly help me get a record deal and then it fell through and I turned a lot of money and got real discouraged. And so I kind of got into the financial services industry for a long time. But I kept doing the music all along and then finally, about seven or eight years ago, I finally said, okay, I'm up at this corporate world. I'm going to go for it and it's worked out pretty well. Good. Eva, what about you? You're traveling around the Dakotas, all these different places. Did you think you would end up in the world of publishing? Because I know at one point I was writing and you're still right, but did you think you'd end up in the world of publishing? No, not at all. I worked for the phone company for 46 years and there was nothing real. You know, I have cooking has always been in interest, but I don't want to own a restaurant. I don't want to do that. I knew how much work that was. But, you know, I read a lot and I thought, oh gee, I can write. Well, I learned how to write, but I'm not the best storyteller. So, I love having my hand in that business. I love the business. I love the creativity. I like what people can come up with, but I like actually doing the background work and I never would have thought that was going to happen in 40 years. I mean, that's my mind. But that's so essential. Writers really need that. Exactly. They do. It's such a crazy world, especially as you're independent now, you know, to be able to make it all happen. It's an important thing. Lisa, sorry to interrupt. I've got to take off. I'm not taking off. I'm just leaving the room for a second, so don't call me for a few minutes. I won't call you. I won't call you either. No, I won't. I won't. No, I won't call you out. Be right back. Okay. Okay. No, I want to go over to Sharon. Okay. So, where were you when you were 18? Well, when I was 18, I was in Greenville, Ohio, a little town close to Dayton. And I was a dancer and I was part of a drill team. And I dreamed of becoming a Kilgore College Ranger in Texas because they are the best. So after graduation, I packed my leotards and flew to Texas and I've been here ever since. Wow. Big packing job. So what was the music for you? Oh, Carly Simon. That's right. You're so vain. The album was no secrets. And I had a turntable in the living room and I wore that album out. Wow. That's amazing. You know, I was just saying T-Bear was just on our show and he toured with her. And it was really difficult, you know, because Carly Simon is notorious for being stage, you know, shed stage fright, I believe, to get her up on stage. And he's a keyboardist. Amazing. God, he's played with everyone. Like, you know, just crazy, crazy. I don't know. John, have you heard of him? T-Bear? No. He's just really, he tours with Walter Trout. And yeah, he's really good, but he took a hiatus for a few decades, a necessary hiatus that can come from touring life. If you get what I'm saying, yeah, there's moments where touring just didn't kill people. And so anyway, he, but he's fabulous. He's fabulous. But yeah, it was really hard, but she, that song, I used to cover that song. And there's a lot of, I like to sing that to people too. So, you know, if there's certain people that need to get that. But did you think you're going to end up as a travel writer? No, I'm kind of a creative sort. And so through my adult life, I've always had creative jobs and things. And then that's what I think travel writing is. So in 2015, when my kids flew the coop and I didn't have any responsibilities at home, I was out of there for traveling everywhere I could and that led to travel writing. So I'm right where I should be, I think. I think this is an amazing thing. Sorry, Internet. Where are you now in Texas? I am in Austin, Southwest Austin. Okay. Yeah, you guys have to connect. We're going to connect y'all. That's what happened. As far as the family, you got it. We're like the family. It's not the mafia style, but if you don't give us a bottle, I'm just saying. Lisa's going to make you an offer. You can't refuse. But if you give me wine, I'll do anything. I'm like Elaine on Seinfeld. Don't give me the hard stuff because I'll tell everything to everyone. But you know, so Joe, what about you speaking of travel writing? Joe, did you ever think that you were going to be a travel writer? I'm not until I was in my 40s. Yeah, that was, I thought I might want to write, but travel writing wasn't even on the horizon. Yeah, for women too. You know, there's very few women in travel writing. You know, that's true too. Yeah. So was there never a trip that you went on that made you go, I'm going to write about this and this is going to be my career? No, not until I was, like I say, in my 40s, I went to an island nearby and there was an old house on the island, and I wanted to do some research and learn about it. And when I tried, I couldn't find anything out about the house and I called a regional magazine and said, you know, I want to know more about this place and the island and what do you have on it? And they said, well, nothing. We need to have something about it. You want to write it? Cool. I didn't know any better. I said, well, sure. Well, toast to you. That's cool. But that's awesome. That's a toast to you, for sure, for following food. That's something about, like, not to follow through on things and to give you, when things and opportunities come, no matter what it is, well, you know, this is the mafia company. When it knocks on the door, you've got it. Just curiosity can lead to such amazing places. And I love that story about you, Joe, because it's just like, oh, okay, I'll go, right? Why not? Let me go do something because you never know what something can lead to, you know? And I think in 18, our minds were open, you know, far more than when we're adults. Obviously when you're 40, like Joe, you know, anything can happen. Yeah, I just wanted to have a farm and raise horses and dogs. And cool. I'll come back with you. Yeah, you know, goats. Yeah, goats. I want some goats, like goats are my friend, like, y'all, seriously. It's a serious thing. You know, so I didn't ask Sharon what her toast for 2025 is. Oh, I have a good one. Here's a toast to you, New Year. May it bring us adventures. Here's that thrill. Stories that fill. And nights we might not fully remember, but certainly we'll never forget. That is good. Oh, no, I like that. I like that. I'm not going to know a language. I know. Now, John, I don't think I got your quote. I'm going to quote toast. I'm having a big campaign, see? I'm going to toast to health. Yes. And may we all be healthy? Yes. I have a couple surgeries coming up beginning in January. We're sending you stuff. Good stuff. Send me some good cheer. Joo-joo. Joo-joo is good for you. Good joo-joo. Joo-joo-beez. Yes. Joo-joo from the bubbly stuff. Yes, indeed. Joo-joo from Tom Petty. He's like, there's a Joo-joo-beez song. Anyway, sorry, but it's true. Joo-joo-joo's song. He does have the Joo-joo-beez song. Yeah, in the cabin down below. Anyway, so that's a whole other thing. But the Joo-joo is good. You know, positivity really goes a long way, you know, for things. So I think that's the focus, positive Joo-joo, for John. I like that. Okay, so Nancy, I know if I don't let her do her toast, she's going to freak out and we won't have a 19th year. What's up? Okay, so I'm saving myself. This is going towards good health, because I might be killed in an hour. Yeah, right. So my toast is to Eric Burton, because he sang Skypilot, my favorite song, because it asked at a time when I needed to be asked, how can you fly? And the way he sings it is like almost a challenge. And I was in a place where I thought I couldn't get out and couldn't do anything. And then I'm like, oh, no, you know what, I'm going to fly. And I did. So I think that music, and I want to say this about art and music, you never know when something creative is going to spark somebody and somewhere that you have never meant, don't know them. And it means the world. That's what the arts mean to me. It means the world, because it changes people's lives. And I've seen it more than once. So I have to just say thank you to all the artists in the world. And I'd like to say how high can you fly, just to see what you can do. Yeah, and it's a tough time for anybody in the creative world, including what we do. And in travel writers, same boat, it's not what it was. And it's changing all the time and you have to change with it and get ahead of it so that when it starts to catch up to you, you have to start again. It's always, you know, hurry up and wait and catch up and then run, then hurry up and wait and catch up and run. So it's one of those weird things in the world and it's like, it's almost like once you know that that's that, that's how it is, then you can play the game better. But it's always about staying in power and being honest and true to the craft. I think everybody on the show is that, you know, everybody on our shows, you know, if they're not, then it doesn't get aired. The craft, being in integrity to what any of us do, you know, Chuck and Michael in with a bed and breakfast, you know, serving wine, you're doing the craft of food in the craft of wine and giving people that experience and some calmness so that they can't create. It's a whole mentality. Oh my gosh, you have to deal with people. You guys need some wine y'all over there. Send them some wine. We're covered. I think this is the first telephone call I ever got a contact from. You know, I'm not saying what we got over here. I'm just saying. I'm just kidding. We're being good in Lubbock. We're being very, very good. You know, so Joe, you sent me the big list of music. So 18, you wanted to be on a farm. Were you in Virginia when you were 18? I was. I was in Martinsville, Virginia. I had just lost my father and I didn't see college in my future, but I wanted to get out on my own. And that was, I guess being a writer was a glimmer in my imagination. Or maybe that was just the temptation singing in the background. But I did live on a farm. I did have horses. I raised Dalmatians and I got my master's college. College was way down the road, but I got there. You go girl. We had a Dalmatian photo. And I grew up with Dalmatians and we named them Hebbles and Spots and all sorts of old babies. My first one was Bridget Bardot. And of course I had Reese's Pieces and polka dot. It's the sweetest songs. They are. Oh my god. Splend. Yeah. Wow. Wow. They're so cool. Like if you're going to think of one song or one band like that for the 18th, you know, we're making this big monster 18. It's a monster list in that it's massive. We have so many interviews coming on after this and people dedicating songs for this music playlist. It's huge. And we're going to take some of the music of today from John, Johnny and Nikki Chris, other musicians, James. It will all be part of this, so it's like an 18 then and now and including that in there to represent the musicians that we do hang out with on these shows because they're badass. Am I allowed to say it? We're allowed to say that word. Yeah. Well, we won't talk about the time someone said the F word for the first time on the live broadcast back in the day. I'm not going to give his name out, but somebody said the F word and Nancy turned around and told them how to remove themselves because if anyone's going to say the F word on the show, it would be her. And let them all know that you will not be the first person. So kindly, you know. Exactly. It was really funny. It was so funny. She goes, how dare you goes. Oh, I didn't mean to say it. She goes, no, I'm the first one to say it on this show. Remember that, Nancy? Yes. Yes. Yep. It was fun. I'm not going to have her thunder be stolen, you know, no way, no way Jose, but yeah, you know, this is so fascinating. So, Katie, I want to go. You were talking a lot about writing and you write all kinds of things. Everything from, you know, crime and real estate crime and ghosts and travel guides and nature guides and all kinds of things. Did you think that writing was in your future when you were 18? Strangely. No. My first thing, even before that, when I was young, when I went to college, I was 16, I wanted to be a nuclear physicist because I was all into science fiction. And nobody told me that you have to be good at math, and that is my worst subject to doubt. So when I went back to college a second time, I got a little smarter than did anthropology and sociology, which is helped with writing. But one of my professors even told me, she said, you don't just give the facts, you get two, your stories are the most interesting. So I should have learned his switch to journalism, but I didn't. But I was like, Joe, I was about 40 in my 40s when I first started travel writing. And it was because I was RVing and camping. And I discovered this beautiful campground. And it would nobody knew about it. And I felt like I had to send off to trailer life or motocos and one of those would all magazines and sold my first story. And from then on, I was hit. Wow. And the books, the books grew out of the trap. Well, they just get in my head and won't leave me alone. So I had to write them. And I'm walking places in her head. I just wish I could sell them as well as I write. Right. People write us understand this. Other people don't. But, and I guess musicians understand it too, because probably the song gets in your head. Because American music, I had songs played in my head all night long, couldn't sleep. I have to get it right. Now, the real estate was what I was doing to earn a living. And during COVID, that's when I started switching. When it mixed in the real estate and the travel writing in my relative books, my real to mystery books. So it's a little bit of a little bit of real estate, a lot of mystery and murder and got to have murder. I mean, it's no fun if there's no murder. Oh, nice. This is what I was. When I was 18, I'm done with that. I miss there. You know, it's just a different world. I'm reading a book right now that was written by a lady who said she had this, she calls it a fetish and I'm like, dude, you're sick. She would see people in the supermarket, only men, not women, that she'd like, I feel like I should kill you. And then she'd go home and she started a book based on people, men, only in the supermarket that she put herself in the book and she would later build them. So I'm reading this book and I'm like, I don't know. So this is what happened. She goes into the grocery, the vegetable department and it starts raining and she's like, it's raining, but it's a bloodbath. And so she gets them to come over to her house, she feeds them dinner and she gives them sleeping pills and she ties them up. And now it's sick. It's crazy. You know, it's just like, so the only reason I keep reading it is that at the end, I want to figure out what it is about the particular man. Like, is it something her dad did to her or uncle did or something and they kind of look like them. Santa Claus on the grocery store. Santa Claus on the grocery store. She said on Santa on the grocery store. I know, but now when we go to the store, I'm like starting to look at men in the grocery store. She doesn't go. This is the thing. Nancy never goes on grocery stores. You can't, Nancy has not been in a grocery store for at least 10 years. No, no, Nancy hates it. No, she likes to sit in the car so she can people watch. That's all. No, the parking lot is the most interesting place ever because people come out and they, especially if it's a couple, they argue about who bought one and why. And here's just something I've noticed. So I think it's hysterical. If the bags go in the trunk of the car, the man will rearrange. However, the woman puts the back. Yeah, it's like the dishwasher. No, in the grocery, the grocery packing is the same as dishwasher packing. There's household arguments over grocery packing and dishwasher packing, but that's great. And it, but that's our thing. That's our hobby is people watching. Katie, I wanted to ask you, what is your toast for 2025. And if you say getting Nancy in a grocery store, some guys going to die. That was very interesting. I'd love to watch Nancy in a grocery store for the first time. No, because no, because you'll look at someone and look at me and loudly say, what is that about? You know, whatever's going on. She will, you know, don't take her to a Walmart. Oh boy. Oh, no, that's best, please. Game on. Game on. And John, aren't you about to drive across country? I'm flying across the country. Oh, you're flying. Oh, well, if you were driving. Yeah, my best areas to stop and people. Oh, absolutely. No, no, because because our dear Luna is no longer with us. I don't have to do the driving thing anymore. So, yeah, but it is fun. It is fun. Well, but Katie, what is your toast? Go ahead. Oh, I was just saying I'm going back for, you know, the surgery. So I'm under a time constraint. Yeah, but you've got airport people watching and that's also fun because people argue there too. Oh, yeah. People argue everywhere. Well, people arguing is funny. You know, it's a staricle. I mean, it's not nice to say, but it's true. It's funny. It's like, you know, because with people get uptight. And really that whole saying about getting your knickers and the twist is true. Like it, you can literally see someone hopping up and down with their knickers. You can, you can. It's over something really who cares. Yeah, which way the groceries are in the trunk of the car. I mean, this is what Nancy tells me. It's insane that people would argue over something so not important mundane. Okay, Katie, what are you toasting to 2025? Well, to come finish my this book that I'm working on right now. Get a little bit better at publishing and promoting, which is my weak point and do some traveling. And of course, what's your book about? I'm pushing you now. What's your goal? Well, I'm dancing the thing with people. I have a very nasty neighbor who told away one of my cats and I know he did it, but I can't prove it. And I'm kind of putting him in the book. He's going to be a drug dealer and a illegal bear part smuggler. And he's going to get caught up. Yeah, well, you are in Florida. So this stuff could be real. This guy owns a tire shop in the book. It's going to be an order of truck repair, a tire shop in Jacksonville. One in the keys and one in my family. And that's a perfect route for drug runners. And we're struggling in the tire, right? In the tires, putting them in the spare tires. And, you know, I have suspicions that maybe he does anyway. No, okay. It's a lot going on. But of course, I'm changing names. So he can't sue me, but I'm going to use these same initials. And they do do it in tires. And they do it on the inside because when we used to live in Mexico, come over the border and we watched, they used to, you could see they would, it would be on fire. And we spoke and you'd be parked there and you're getting high in the border. And then it happened in, there's a rest area in Orlando where Rambo, rest area Rambo dwells. He's a former truck driver and he greases his hair back just like he wants to be Rambo. He's a security agent for the rest area in a rest area. And the only we go to rest areas all the time. And he is the first and only one who had the nerve to write the day and time because he thought we're going to live there or something and we weren't. But we're leaving towers later. He put his hand inside the car next to Lisa's face. And if it had been me, I probably would have broken his arm, but he put his hand inside the car. And that is totally number one against the law. He gave me a sticky note. And I have to be a sticker on the inside of the windshield. And I don't like Katie, you need to put him in the, in the book. And his name is, and his name is rest area Rambo. But he was on duty, a guy with the van, these two guys, the van started smoking on the inside walls and that had to do with drugs. And it was the same thing we used to see in Mexico, no offense to Mexico. I mean, stuff was happening though. The walls were smoking. And I know we were talking, we've seen all kinds of drug deals go down on the road. And both times we were on the phone with one friend and they're like, "Get out, get out." And we're like, "No, no." "This is better than a CD, are you kidding?" "You got a GV, it's a real life thing." And I-95 from Key West is where they pick him up in the little boat, which he has, and he has a shop right down there on Marathon. So you get out of the water, you pick up the drugs, you load them into the tires and your tire shop, you haul them right down I-95 to the Jacksonville where you can dump some of them. There's a tremendous drug problem in Jacksonville, a bird that's going on all the way up to New York. I mean I-95 is a drug carada, no two inches. Yeah, it is. It is. Well, I'm going to send you some links to podcasts we did with the mafia, actually. No, wait, John, you were in Boston area? Remember Whitey Bolger? Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, we did an interview, the guy who worked for him in the bus, he was in the Boston Hall Gang. That was crazy. This was, I mean, ten- Wow, that was crazy. Twelve years ago, and his name was Margaret Martin. And he fed me a LinkedIn, he's gone, and I said, "Well, he wasn't quite in the mafia because he wasn't Italian." And he was like, "He was in between." And I was like, "Well, what do you do now?" And this was right before Whitey got blocked up. And we've been doing a lot of, we were doing a lot of crime shows at that time with awkward rooms. It was, we weren't doing the things that I was interviewing. But the guy goes, I said to him, "Well, what do you do now that you're out of the so-called mafia?" He goes, "I'm a delivery person." I'm like, "Really?" You don't push at any further. I know. I know. Call us for a solo area, and my best friend was Italian, and her mother had a ball, or had a different ball. So, I know a lot about mafia stuff. Anyway, this show is getting red. I want to go see, if James is back, James, are you there? I am back, I am back. All right. Well, you know, we've been talking about mafia stuff. Hey, before you go to James, Lisa, I have to go. All right. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for being with you, and congratulations to you both. This is so cool. I can't believe it's been-- Thank you for being part of the journey. Yeah, it wasn't. It was so much fun. It's been fun to tell everybody the album that people should go get now. The latest one. The new album is the second practical sextet album. It's called Sky Full of Hope, and it is a magical, magical return. Everyone, John Durant.com. Thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure, and we've got you and our Juju, our Good Juju. Thank you. Thank you. We'll talk soon. Okay. We will. All right. So, James, going over to you. All right. What is your toast for 2025? Well, my band has a new album that's coming out in '25, and so it's a live album. Awesome. So, I'm toasting them because they did it so well. So, I'm really proud of them. Are they the blind lemons or the pledge? Well, we just call the band Blind Lemon Pledge too. Okay. That's the band. Yeah. Very cool. That's exciting. Well, you know, you're going to have to come back, you know. Oh, yeah. I know. I know. And I enjoy it. Yeah, I'm real excited about our last album. It was a good album did just incredibly well this year. And so, it's been a good musical year. That's exciting. I love that you keep Ruik's music alive. I mean, because you can hear every part of America listening to the album. You really can. And, you know, you know, I love that. I mean, we have listened to you out in the Appalachian area and the Smokies. And it fits right in. So, it's beautiful to hear. And then we need to come back to San Francisco, obviously. Where were you at 18 years old? Well, I was in San Francisco. Like a cop. It was 1967 and I was living in San Francisco. And it was the summer of love. So, I was a hippie. And I was fortunate enough. I had just written under the auspices of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The first rock mass that was ever written. And so, I spent the summer touring with that and made my living doing music. And I only had to do it about once every couple of weeks, which is great. And the rest of the time I lived the hippie life. And it was a good time. Good time to be alive. And then you did graphic design too, the between, right? Well, after I got out of college, yeah, that became my career. Although, I actually worked in the mental health field for a long time before that. So, I made a major career. When you were coming on our shows, you tried to fix it. I'm like, here we are. We're here. Hello. I'm just kidding. No, I'm just kidding. But that's it. So, when you were 18, did you think music will always be part of your life? It had to be since you're already doing it. Yeah, I always knew it would be a part of my life. I never thought, well, I never really during my career worked at it. You know, I played in a few bands and stuff, but I never made a living at it. But after I retired, I was able to put my time into it. And although I don't make much money at it, I have a lot of success with chart play and that kind of thing. The last album is going to be named on the acoustic blues charts at number three for the year. So, I'm pretty proud of that. Oh, that's fantastic. That's cool. James, that's awesome. That's really awesome. I love to hear that. I mean, and it's well-designed, you know. So, 18, you're like, I'm going to do music. It's still creative. And then, you know, mental health is a very important part of life, right? And, you know, I think music plays into that. I think, Johnny, we've talked about that on shows how important, you know, music is for mental health. And so, I think obviously held those two in hand because where would we be without music? Where would we be without wine? I'm just saying. I'm just saying, you know. There's your toast for the year. Yeah, really. I'm glad you've got another album coming out. So, what about who are you listening to when you were 18? Well, I was listening to a combination of the popular music at the time. What they're everybody calls classic rock now. And, of course, I always listen to Ruth's music. So, a lot of old blues and folk music and stuff like that. So, I've always had very eclectic taste. And, oh, and actually, that was the first year I got into Chinese music. So, I was listening to some of that, too. Wow. See, you never know, man. Well, when I was 18, there was -- Def Leopard was dominating the charts. Guns N' Roses was -- November rain was on the top 100. And we had a lot of, you know, some of the hip hop and rap was coming up. And it was a lot lighter. Well, no, not really. Now that I think of it, it just was -- it was different. But Queen had we -- Bohemian Rhapsody was when I was 18. That's pretty cool. That's a big -- That's a monster hit song. That was awesome. Never goes away. Bohemian Rhapsody and what they did, how they orchestrated and the vocals, the harmonies. I mean, every time I go to sing that, I'm like, who are you going to be now? Which one? How they did that is huge. You know, Johnny, as a singer, that's a big song to sing, harmony-wise. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's awesome. It's massive. So it's interesting looking at the charts and, you know, Nancy, were you still slipping out into, you know, the hood, I was going to say, you're out in LA when you were 18? You were still going out on the Sunset Strip at that point? Yeah, you know, my brother and I used to sneak out the window and walk a mile or two down to the Strip. Yeah. The doorman got to know us and they would actually save food for us. Yeah. No, it was cool. And they liked, you know, that we were peeking our heads in at all the actors and actresses and singers that were on the Strip. And then there were other things to see on the Strip that were interesting. Yeah. It was interesting. And one time Glenn Campbell gave us a ride home. That was interesting. There's more to that, another story with Nancy and Glenn Campbell, but we'll leave it there. Yeah. I'm just saying. It was an interesting thing and we were just, you know, kids from the ghetto. Brinestone Cowboys. Yeah. Okay. So now listen, Katie loves her country music. She gave a good list too. She's like, Joe, like we're not sticking in one. So we got a lot. But let's go, let's go back to everyone in closing. Thank you all so much for being here. It's, it's, this is going to be a long day of podcasting of interviews and conversations. But one thing I would do want to know is what was the naughty thing you were doing when you were 18? Come on. I know each of you did something you weren't supposed to do. So, um, I want to go see if Chuck and Michael and are you still with us over in Texas? Are in keepers? Are they still there? I think. No, they're checking people out or in checking them in. Um, but let's, let's go to you, Johnny. You're the co host. What did you do that was naughty when you were 18 ish timeframe that you can remember that you got busted for maybe didn't get busted, but you know that you took it. You took that little leap of I'm doing something naughty. Uh, I guess I would have to say, um, I was just, I was fighting with being gay and, uh, you know, I, I was starting to explore what that meant. And so I went to some gay club and that was, uh, exciting and scary and taboo and everything all at once, especially back in, you know, right at right around 1980. So, um, I would say it was that. Yeah, just kind of, uh, finally starting to, you know, explore that and figure out who I was and, and kind of the terms with that. That's hard. You know, when, when it's not accepted, that's going against the grain. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. That's not, that's not really naughty. That is just society being stupid. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's true. Yeah. It was, it would have been perceived as naughty. And at the time I, you know, I felt like I was being naughty. Yeah. But you know, hey, you know, Eva, what about you? I wouldn't know. Eva was naughty. If she was a naughty girl. Yeah, Eva. Is it anything naughty, Eva? Um, I did my first pot. I smoked my first pot when I was 18. You could go home. That was quite a while ago. And I want to say as far as toast and gratitude, Lisa and Nancy, I have to give you credit for pushing me into writing my first travel article and publishing it. That's really, we pushed her to the computer. I'm kidding. You're, you two pushed me kicking and screaming into that world. And now I'm very grateful for it. Well, thank you. It's our pleasure. It's our pleasure. Yeah. And smoking. We need to be good at it. At 18 in South Dakota was a hoot. I haven't done that. I don't know. I'll find out. Maybe when we get there, we haven't been to the Dakotas yet. So we might, I don't know, but you know, it's fun. I don't know, but, but I don't travel writing in pot smoking. Who knows? You can write about the restaurants really well. We were, we were in a car. We got stopped. We got stopped. We were driving around the big damn Lake Oahu in Pierce, South Dakota. We got stopped by the cops and rolled down the window. And that cop had to have gotten a contact tie from that smoke coming out of that car. But this is back in '74 or '55, probably '75. And I, it wasn't the big deal then. It was pretty, it was pretty funny though. Cause you know, you think back on it in hindsight and it's like, if it had been today, they would have had us out on the ground. Yeah. I know. But at that time, it was pretty funny when we, when we rolled up it and drove away. It was pretty funny. So you know, one time my dad took, he worked in the butcher shop with my grandfather and I'm pretty sure he took money out of the till that he wasn't supposed to take. And he gave it to me and said, put it under the car seat. Okay. And he drove in, but the money was under my seat. And then when we got home, he said, take it and put it down your blouse and take it into the bathroom and put it, take the lid off the, the tank lid off the toilet and put the money in the toilet thingy. The bubble. So I did. Okay. And the next thing I know, the toilet overflowed cause my brother went in and used it. And my dad, I'm like, I don't think he was that sharp. Because most of the money were dollar bills. Oh, so then it was my fault because I put it in there, but he told me to. And if he didn't do what you're told, you got in trouble. So then I had to take all the dollar bills and spend them out all over the furniture. And to let them dry and not be torn. And then the cops came because my grandfather turned my father in and the cops came. And they came in and they saw dollar bills. So Nancy gets busted for a crime that she didn't commit. No, I was too young to get busted. I was too young, really. They just looked at, yeah. But they just went, this is crazy. Well, yeah. Yeah. You know, Erin Young was on our shows and she would be here. She's, she's not feeling one in a couple of other people. There's a whole thing. I mean, everyone gets together on the holidays, you know. And things start flying around. But she's doing our genealogy and all I can say is, uh-oh. Next time we do our family history show, I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know about this, man. I'm telling you. Okay. So I want to go. Sharon, what was your naughty thing? Well, I might have been a little younger than 18, but it was under age drinking. My girlfriend and I on a Sunday night in Dayton 30 miles away had, oh, this is dating me. Can you believe it? They had drink and drowned at night. So you drink as much as you want. And so we were underage, snuck into this place. We all got so drunk that I should not even smell beer to this day. So it kind of did a good thing. It kept me from drinking for all these years. But yes, we hid from our mothers, one of the mothers, you know, this and so that was naughty. Wow. Yeah. So I'm going to go back on Eva's pot thing. And there was, and this was, I think, a little older than 18. And because it was here in this country, it was very young and dumb. And one in South Africa, we did everywhere, man. Anyway, all I can tell you is Eva, you did the cops, which to me is to scare it. That's, that would talk about paranoia, man. That ruins your trip. I, all I know is we, there was a drive through fast food thing. And back in the day when we had newspapers and you get the newspaper thing at the fast food where you put a quarter in and you get your newspaper kind of thing, I thought that's where you ordered. That's all I'm saying. And I did place my order and no food came out. I remember that. And I drove up to the window expecting the fruit and there was no food. So funny. So anyway, that was my, my, my dabbling in, in, in that. Joe, what is your naughty thing? Well, I guess the naughtiest thing at that age would be me and a girlfriend driving across the state line, which was only 20 some miles away. Drove, drove to North Carolina. I don't know why unless maybe you could buy like wine and stuff in grocery stores in North Carolina and you couldn't in Virginia. Although we were a dry county for a long time. So that could have been why, but we make it up for it now. I know. Really. And this is where I got my start. I suspect because we would go and we could always find somebody old enough to go in and buy it for us. No way. We're drinking. Hell, we were drinking. We had a farm strawberry. Probably where I got my start. And I have, I have not done, I have not done my toast. So there's, so you have to keep me on track here, you know. Sorry. Here's to everyone's good health and he'll link it and lots of trips to new spots around the globe in 2025. I love that. I like that. We're going to see you. See, this is our goal is to actually meet everybody that we haven't met in person yet. Exactly. Looks like we have quite a list. Eva got to see us and we got to see her and Poppy and Jeff. That was so cool. Just a month ago. So that was awesome. And so the rest of you were coming. We're coming for you. And I promise I won't order you fast through through a newspaper vending machine. And I'll have something better to share than Ben's farm wiki. Yeah. There we go. I don't know what, what, you know, yeah, this, you know, everybody's got a little something somewhere. I want to go over to Katie. Katie. What was your naughty at 18ish? I think my worst. It was between the underage drinking because I was old enough. But at that point I was able to drink legally. Well, the worst thing was my hot riding. I had a 53 Ford eight cylinder big old police engine read so the cops could know it. I mean, they spot me a minute. And all somebody ever had to do was pull up next to me and read their engine and we were off and hot ride. How do I survive? I don't know. I don't probably like that anymore. I still do a little fast, but I think your 10 miles over the limit is supposed to be legal. I did that. And I did it. And one, one contest going as a train was coming and going right as it was coming down to that one. Yeah. No, but I was sorry. I don't think you know about that. I was too late. It was a great night. I'm telling you. It was, you know, but you know, there's just some, you have to do things when you're a kid. I mean, play in the dirt. Go out and climb the tree. You're not supposed to climb. Jump off the roof. You've got to do stuff, you know, you know, now I don't think there's as much. And how rotten was the thing, then? I mean, I don't know. It was fun, man. Come on. You know, and my car was big and I had all the power. Now I've got a Ford cylinder kia. But then you, when you think you told not to do, it's a game for breaking. And my dad always drove like he drove. He was a bus driver and he drove like four miles under the limit. Always. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then we had a cop in New Orleans. And at the time, I just figured he hated teenagers. But I think it was trying to keep us alive. And I was going one day out towards the lakefront in Gentelli, along Alicia Fields, and of course, speeding. And of course, you had to have a hot rod sounding engine. So my muffler was making a lot of noise. So funny. And I'm wearing this blue chiffon fluffy dress and he pulls me over. Oh. Yum, lady. Do you know you have an illegal muffler? And it's like, I mean, you really want me to crawl. I'm not saying that. He didn't make me crawl under there, but he scared the daylights out of me. No. You could have said, you know, you could have said, how dare you talk about my muffler? Exactly. Don't you think? I'll root of you. No, Nancy, Nancy. In New Orleans, you did not argue with police officers. No, you don't. Yes, sir. Well, Nancy got pulled over. Remember, there was the cop asked you where the fire was? No. Remember? That was your son. I was speeding. So I told him it was three miles back. And he went. And he went. He went. He went. And I got the giggles so bad. I'm like, I've got to start the car and get out of here. But I don't think you could get away with anything anymore. So like for 18 year olds, like today, I'm sorry. I mean, I know you got like weird drug stuff. That's not fun. That's not cool stuff. Like a little bit of weed or whatever. Like even the weed back in the day was like, go to your backyard and pull up some grass. A little bit more. But I mean, really, it's what's happening now. I'm like, there is this crazy now. We used to be able to do prank calls. I used to play all the time. I said that meetings with people pretending I knew them from high school and they would go there. And they would see they went. And I'm like, Oh my God. Lisa. Lisa, remember? Remember Colleen and I won't say the person's name. Colleen, people have been saying, would you like lasagna or some casual sex? No, I don't know what is wrong with this. But you know, and we used to do it on our podcast back in the day. Remember, Eva, when we had the telephone, the live thing and Eva saw how we would run our own system. We looked like, you know, the PBS, you know, call center for fundraising and our shows. Everybody had an old school telephone and I hooked them all together. And even the phone lady comes in and goes, no, this is not how you do it. Because one phone would go out all the time. One would go out. One would go out. We'd do live shows in different places. And he would go, no. And then she made us our own switchboard. Remember that? Yeah. You did. You made us a switchboard. And because we ran everything off of phones and the Internet and, you know, it's changed already in podcasting. But we used to call people back then. And we called the White House. I called them on. Yeah, we did. That was funny. Did everything like that. And now we can't get away with anything. It sucks. We called the White House one time. And this person answered and said, what you want. It was a Chinese lady answered. And we couldn't. We were trying to explain. I couldn't believe it. But we were trying to explain people what to do to call and vote and how to vote and how to say call and say what you want to happen in the country. But it was interesting. But I want to go to James James. What did you do that was bad when you were 18? Come on. Tell the truth. Well, luckily the statute of limitations is right. I was a student at 18 and, you know, you're really poor when you're a freshman. So I regularly stole all my books from college. They were so expensive. And what started me doing it was my first semester there. I had to buy this book that was, I don't know, it was like 50 bucks or something. It was really expensive. And we read two articles out of it. And I was so pissed. And I said, okay, that's it. So I developed this way of getting books out of the school bookstore quite effectively. And I did that for a little while. Oh, my God. Did you resell them afterwards? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. Yeah. That was a good cap or was I could then go back to and resell them. That was the other thing about the $50 three article book was you couldn't. They wouldn't buy it back. And I was like, that's disgusting though. Honestly. Yeah. Think about it. That's really bad. And they should be like new used like, you know, like going to a pal's bookstore in Oregon is like awesome. It's new. You can bring them in. Tucson has that place even where you can bring books in and then, you know, but bookstores do that. Yeah. What's the call? Bookman's. Bookman's. You bring your books in. You get other ones. You can get all kinds of things. And it's like you can't do you can't do school books. They don't take school techs there. Well, you're out of luck there, James. For that. I did. I did my bit. Well, that's funny. That is funny. That is. Well, you know, like, I'm sorry. I, I, but we shouldn't be penalizing kids for education that way. Like I really am a big believer and personally, you know, okay, it costs something maybe because that's also a good lesson. Right. But not like 50 bucks for three articles. No, not. No. No. But yeah, on the, on the good side, I was in the California system. And back then, the school fees were $50 a year if you completed it. No way. Really? Yeah. Yeah. School itself was very cheap, but I was still poor. So I, I stole my books. I'll admit it. Hey, I mean, no, no, skinny dipping drug smoking. He's healing books to be educated. Like that's not the end of the world, you know, but it is. You still have to be crafty, you know, you have to be crafty and not get caught. Well, thank you all for having a shenanigans time with us. I'm telling your, your stories of fevery, smokeery, drinkery, and more and clubbing, Johnny. Like you, as we used to say back in the day, you naughty, new, new. Does anybody remember that? Yeah. Thank you all so much. Everyone, the links to everyone on the podcast today are in the episode notes. We want to thank all of you listeners too for being part of our journey. It's been amazing. 18 years, we are 18. Nancy and I are wearing pink and having a birthday cake. No, we're not. Actually, Nancy is wearing pink. She wears pink a lot. I don't. I wear black because I'm still a tough child. No, listen, the cure was big when I was, you know, in high school. So anyway, no, everyone, no, really. Thank you, everyone. It's been a journey to do this and to think this podcast came from doing a road trip tape and asking everybody why they love wood as we went on a road trip, walked into liquor stores, restaurants, bars, and walked up to people and recorded why everybody loves wood. Why do you love wood? We did a two part tape. Oh, no, it's brilliant. It's very cool. It's not necessarily about it until the end. We asked an Australian dude as well. They wake up in the morning with a witty. And that was the end. A whole road trip to from California to Colorado and back asking it was so funny. Multiple stories. He learned in Pagosa Springs, there's a Billy Goat Saloon. How this Billy Goat Saloon was built. And we met the guy who actually built it. Here we are, sitting in a bar, like being, you know, stupid. And the guy starts telling us about the wood and where they got the wood and what is the main thing. Yeah. I mean, this is a Billy Goat Saloon. It was named after the Billy Goat that went to some famous baseball game. This guy wanted to take his goat in and they went against it. The red socks. He's a mascot for the red socks. And he took the goat in. And so it's called the Billy Goat Saloon after the story. And so Nancy and I are going, this is so much fun. Who knew? We had people talking about their skunks eating wood. And then we went around recording people on hand held recorders like that one. It went from tape. And that's a tape in our storage unit. And the others were MP3's. We graduated to MP3's. And MP3's were created by a guy in Encinitas, California. And our band played for his wedding or something or some anniversary event or something. And he's like, "Yo, I made MP3's." I'm like, "I heard it does, but I don't know what they are." And he's like, "This is what they do." And we're like, "Holy cow, we can put this on our website." That's how big blend radio started. And then we went around interviewing people and betting podcasts on our site and then got in trouble because we kept putting too much stuff on our site, which we're in trouble for again. But that is how it started. And then blog talk radio was born. Nancy was interviewed about her time working for Joy Adamson of Elsa the Lion and Born Tree. Google that. And then we went, "Someone's just talking on a phone and using the Internet. We can do that." And there it is. Rest is history. And we're continuing on. And we love you all for being part of this journey. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. go finish that bottle of champagne, but I don't think we're gonna bury it in the yard 'cause our friend will get mad. But if he did upside down, it looks cool. - No, she might be fine with it, I'll ask her. But thank you all so much. Take care and we'll talk to you soon. You know, you'll all be back on soon. Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Bye. - Mm. (gentle music) (gentle music) - Well, hello, Nancy. And hello, Lisa. And hello, Johnny. And everybody else is listening. This 18th birthday thing. I mean, thinking about what was going on when I was 18. That's a long while ago, you know. 1977 it was and it was the Silver Jubilee year in England. So the queen had been our queen for 25 years. And I remember that in our village, there was nobody willing to do anything. So I actually said I'd do it. So I organized the village Silver Jubilee party and everything else that went on that year. So I, yeah, 18 year old doing all of that stuff. What else did we do? Oh, yes, music. Well, I've just had a look through what were the number ones at the time. And I remember all of them. But when I was 18 in February, 1977, number one in England was When I Need You by Leo Saya. Although I remember it, that's not the record that I really, really remember when I was about that age. Because the one that really gets it for me is Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. She had her number one with Wuthering Heights, actually in the early part of 1978. But I was still 18 then. I weren't 19 until February. So I'm sure that'll be allowed. What else did you ask? Oh, yes. My career was, well, when I was 18, I was working as a chef in a local pub called the Jolly sailors at Brankerster Stave. So that is what I was doing. And then the year after that, I went to France to work. So that was great. I'd just finished college in '77. And the first job was that the Jolly sailors at Brankerster Stave, which I enjoyed. What I'm doing now, you all know, is I arrange holidays or vacations for people in England, taking them where they want to go. So, and funnily enough, I was already researching my family history when I was 18. And I'd been doing it for a little while before that as well. So, yeah, that does mean that I've been doing that for a long while as well. So the next thing is a toast. Well, as we always say, now as to the next 18. Raise a glass to 2025. And I look forward to working with you all again in the future. Hopefully I'll see some of you in England. Cheers. - Thank you, Glen, everybody. That was Glen Burrows from Norfolk Tours in England. You can keep up with him at Norfolk-Tours.co.uk. He's on big blend radio every third Saturday. Next up, travel writer and photographer Julie Suman, who loves nature just as much as Nancy and I. - Hi, Nancy and Lisa, this is Julie, wishing you a very happy anniversary for a big blend radio. And the last year I've been pleased to join you guys on the podcast for Happy Hours and talking about my travel writing photography. We certainly have talked about our love, shared love of the Maryland Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay. I've gotten to feature ospreys and water lilies with you guys over the years. And I'm looking forward to catching up with you on more adventures in 2025. This year, I am looking forward to taking a trip to Egypt and knocking off my seventh continent with a trip to Australia. And I've gotten a new birding guidebook for Christmas. And so I'll definitely be out there looking to improve those birding skills. Cheers to you guys. - Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio. Keep up with our shows at bigblendradio.com. (upbeat music)