Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Looking Back: Our Solo Excursions

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

In our final throwback of the summer, R&L look back at their first solo excursions back in May 2018, where Link travels to the California Badlands and Rhett gets mistaken for a yoga instructor in a class full of women, on this episode of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is mythical. Ramble. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today. Get a Best Buy gift card of up to $200 on select phone activations with major carriers. Visit your nearest Best Buy store today. Terms and conditions apply. Fly. Welcome to this special throwback edition of Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends

talk about life for a long time. I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, you're gonna be hearing a episode that originally aired on May 7th, 2018, where we had just gotten back from our solo trips, which I think this may have been like,

maybe the first sort of like solo excursion for us. Like an extended one. My notes say that my last solo trip was in 1999, which I'll have to listen back to see what I was talking about there. Wow, 1999. But just a reminder, next week we will be back with a fresh contemporary episode.

We'll be talking about our experiences in North Carolina. We're each visiting family and staying there for the longest period of time I've ever gone back and visited, three weeks since moving out to Los Angeles. So we'll be in the present next week. Right, and just one more note about this. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that what I think

is one of the funniest things that's ever happened to me that I've then relayed on Ear Biscuits happens in the episode that you're about to listen to when I went to the yoga class by myself when I was. Yeah, yeah, that was a great one. Yeah, so. And I went to Slab City, which was like a totally off the grid.

Yeah. In the middle of the desert settlement, Airbnb-ed in an abandoned RV. So enjoy the throwback episode and we will see you with a fresh episode next week. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting,

we're gonna be catching up with one another about some recent solo outings that we had, some solo weekends that we've been holding on to these stories for, As we do. Like for a number of days. Oh yeah, and so we're gonna, I'm gonna share my experience of going out into

a weird place in the California Badlands. Badlands. Out in the desert. With just me, I wasn't alone, because I took Jade, but I was. Oh, you did. I was. Didn't know that. I did not take any of my human companions, family members or friends.

And then you're gonna give me the story of you going into where? What Badlands did you go into? I went to the Goodlands. I went to the central coast of California. So maybe there's some contrast in our stories. Yeah, and I think there may be. I didn't take my dog.

You didn't? My dog's a little bit more of a handful. But anyway, we had some experiences there. We don't know any details of what happened to one another, but we know the places that we went, the kinds of things that we did. Right. I actually had to make myself notes

of this one thing that happened to me because when it happened to me, it was so ridiculous. I was like, I have to immediately write this down. So I wrote it down and then I just went back through what I wrote down and made notes for myself so I can give you the details of what happened to me. Okay. That's the kind of thing we've got in store.

Yeah, and just a teaser for me, I feel like there were more than one point when, did that sentence, that wasn't grammatically correct. Typically you would say there was more than one point. There were more than one point. Points. There were multiple points in my experience where I said out loud.

Ear biscuits. For no one to hear, what have I done? I'm just gonna say that. That's a question that you want to be asking yourself quite a bit. Because. It's a sign of things that you're doing something right. And you know, and we decided not to go on a trip together

so we'd have something to talk about on this podcast. No, that's not really the case. I mean, it's so hard to have an opportunity. We've never had an opportunity for solo excursions. But because our plan, I'm gonna tell him. So what? Our plan. Our planned trip to go to India didn't work out.

You know, just full disclosure, we were going to travel to India and do a week's worth of shows to wrap up the season of Good Mythical Morning. And the logistics didn't work out. I mean, it just didn't work out. You gotta get certain paperwork in a certain amount of time and it just didn't come together.

And we were very bummed. But so that was gonna be like a week and a half trip. It wasn't our fault though. I do wanna say that. Yeah, it wasn't our fault. We basically- It really wasn't anybody's fault. We basically weren't let in the country

to do what we wanted to do. We didn't get the- We didn't get the visa that you need to go and make videos in India. We didn't get rejected, it just, we never heard back. Right. In the amount of time that we needed it in order to do it. Because we were trying to do it all in the right way, you know, as opposed to just going over there

and just starting filming. So we do still have a dream of going somewhere outside of the United States in order to produce. Take the show on the road, you know. To produce it like a week's worth of Good Mythical Morning. I mean, it was, I did not anticipate how disappointed I was gonna feel when we knew that it wasn't gonna happen

because it was gonna be a big surprise for, you know, all the mythical beasts. and now it's just something that, I hope you're okay with me saying it. I'm fine with it, it's just all negative, it's just a disappointment to bring it up, makes me wanna cry a little bit. But we'll go somewhere. Just you know we had the intention to travel

with the show at some point, and everything was kinda lighting up and then it fell through. And because we were gonna be gone, we, Christy and Jesse planned a weekend away. And then we had childcare arranged for all of our kids. But I've been planning. Then we were left with this weekend that like when we were gonna be in India

and now it's like, well, my kids are gonna be at home but there's childcare so that means I gotta get out of there, I gotta take advantage. It was more calculated on my part because I've actually been planning a solo trip and I'm planning another week-long solo trip, probably during the summer, just heads up. Just tell me when that week is.

Okay. Maybe not week-long, but we'll talk about what happened to us and then we'll decide whether or not that's a good idea or not. If you need to do it again, yeah. But before we get into that, I just feel like I have to briefly address something. You know, first of all, shout out to RedMC on Twitter.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know this, that I have begun to tweet about Fortnite. Yes, I've become that guy. You can hate me if you want, line up. I think it's actually get in line is what you're supposed to say. Like you're like, is that what you're tweeting about only? No, so let me give you a little background on this.

Of course, my kids play Fortnite because they're children in America and are just children in the world in 2018, right? So they have an Xbox or a PC or whatever you can play it on and they play it and- That makes you feel better about your kid's addiction to Fortnite than that, you can say it that way. My son, Lincoln is also very much-

Your son plays more, I guarantee he's playing more games than my son. Yeah, he's better. I'm sure he is. I'm sure he's better than me too, so- Yeah, he's better. I'm sure he is. I'm sure he's better than me too. So he's pretty obsessed. I did, I'm not a gamer. I've never really been a gamer. The only system that I ever owned was the very first

Nintendo system and Sega at the same time. That was a great, great year. But I fell off of the whole gaming thing and then I've done, like I've talked about on the show, I've done a little bit of mobile gaming, but I see the kids and they're doing the first person shooter games and the way the controller's happening and they're aiming

and every time I've tried to just step into the situation, I feel like someone stepping in, like all of a sudden. So you play, you play. I'm on a ballet stage and I have no training and I'm just an idiot in a leotard. And they're like, look at that guy's bulge. You know, just really just embarrassing situation.

That's how I feel when I'm playing these games. Exposed. And I'm horrible at them, I die instantly. I did a little bit of that Star Wars game when it came out which is also Battlefront and I got killed so much and I hated myself for playing it. But then Fortnite rolls around, everybody's talking about it, Drake is playing it.

Yeah. You know, and I'm like, I just feel like I am at a tipping point, maybe the tipping point is I'm at a decision point in my life as a 40 year old man where I can make a decision to shut it down and just say I am not going to be part, like as you get older you see society moving forward and they're adapting and they're enjoying things

and they're doing things and then at some point you get to an age where you're like that is not going to be for me. Like I'm checking out of that. I'm not going to be into that type of music. I'm not going to seek to understand that type of clothing. You begin checking out. And my theory is, is you begin,

you're already slowly dying basically right after you're born, but you begin to accelerate the process of dying the more you begin checking out from the things the youth are doing. In the brain. That's my theory, yeah. And so I was like, I have to figure out how to play this game in a way that could be

somewhat enjoyable, as opposed to just sitting there dying over and over again. But in my quest to somehow have some success. Because that's what happened. You played the game and you just died repeatedly. Like that Tom Cruise movie. Without killing anyone. I'm sorry, that Emily Blunt movie.

Without killing anyone because dying is kind of the point of Fortnite unless you're the last person to win which that will probably never happen to me. But the thing is that most people who die all the time are also killing other people all the time. And I'm just dying over and over and over and over and over and over and over and again. And so I had died like 25, 30 times in a row

and just thought there was no hope. I thought you just had to build a fort before the storm hit. Like those are the things that I understand. I know that there's shooting involved, but that's just when people are trying to tear down your fort before the storm hits. The storm is an ingenious tactic.

I was joking, I know what it is. To get you to fight in the middle. That's the only way I can connect with my son is to talk about his Fortnite play. Well you should talk about it in a way that makes sense with the youth. I was making a joke. I didn't understand what was funny about it.

Yeah. Okay, so I am in the midst of dying multiple times and then I'm like, I'm gonna tweet about this. I don't tweet a lot, but I was like, I think I got a tweet that might be, you know, some relevancy. I'm gonna hashtag Fortnite. I'm gonna be that guy.

Oh, you did, hashtag Fortnite? And I tweeted, how many times do you have to die in hashtag Fortnite before you're actually dead inside? Ooh. Pretty good tweet, you know. It was about as good as the joke I made earlier you didn't get. Right. And I tweet that, and then the very next day,

I'm back on Twitter and I had learned about this Ninja guy, the Ninja, his name is, his gamer tag is Ninja and he's like the top of the gaming world, you know, he's gaming it up with Drake and famous DJs, et cetera. That's when I heard about him. And I mean, this guy's huge right now. And so I'm like, I see him pop up on Twitter

and I'm like, I know who that guy is with the blue hair. Yeah, yeah, he's the Fortnite guy. Follow him. Oh, he's got blue hair too? They all have a color here. He's done different things with his hair. I followed him. I follow him.

I follow him at like 1130 at night, you know, after like a Fortnite session. Okay, you were grinding? Grinding. On Fortnite, as they say. By that time I'd killed two people. Oh! 52 attempts, killed two people. You're a murderer. And he immediately follows me back

because you can see on the verified, and I'm like, oh, he's got one of those accounts where he just auto follows you back. And then I go to his account And I'm like, oh, he's got one of those accounts where he just auto follows you back. And then I go to his account. I'm like, he's got like almost 2 million followers. He's only following like 800 people. I think this is a legit follow. And then I realized that he has replied to my tweet

about Fortnite. What? Directly to me. So I'm like, whoa. And he says, I can't remember what he said exactly. How old is this guy, by the way? In his 20s, he's married. Oh yeah. But he's in his 20s.

Okay. He said, just one more time. He's not a child. In my answer to my tweet. Yeah, because that's the mentality. What's your tag? What's your tag? First of all, I was like, what is my tag? What does that mean?

That was the first question that I had. You know, that's how much of a noob I am. I hope that wasn't your next tweet. So I don't remember what I said back to him, but something about I'm just, I'm horrible, I'm worse at the game than newborn baby. I actually then tweeted my tag back to him, but then somebody was like, DM next time.

And I was like, oh, DM right now, delete tweet, took my tag off because I don't know anything about what I'm doing. Again, I'm like a man in a leotard just walking around exposing himself. Yeah I remember. And so I retweet it, I tweet back at him. Long story short. Pretty big.

I mean I had been in a DM Twitter conversation with the ninja himself. This is like having a conversation about basketball with LeBron himself. You know what I'm saying? These are the kinds of things that are happening on the Red MC Twitter. Oh wow.

And I am, I'm not gonna tell you what we talked about, okay? I mean, but I will say, in one sense, it's not actually an exaggeration, the analogy you made, because he's that good at this game, according to what Lincoln tells me. It's amazing. The dude is, I mean, he's a professional gamer,

but it's almost an understatement in terms of like. It really is phenomenal to watch. It's like I've never watched Let's Play videos because I haven't played any of the games, but now. When you play the game, then it kind of clicks. I understand the dynamics of the game. It's just like you play a little bit of basketball or you play a little bit of golf and people are like,

why do you enjoy watching golf? Well, because I've played a lot of golf. And so I can. Know how hard it is. It looks like just some lazy fat dudes walking around hitting balls around, but when you understand how difficult it is, you admire it and you wanna watch it. But what is the conversation, the DM conversation?

The DM conversation is about some plans that we're making. What? You know, just planning some things. I don't wanna disclose that, don't know if the plans will come to fruition, but, no, no, just planning some things. I don't wanna disclose that, don't know if the plans will come to fruition, but you know, it's my bud Ninja and I just talking on Twitter like we do, DMing, that's what you do with your friends on Twitter.

Making plans? Making plans. However, let me just say, you're involved in this because I also, I started having Fortnite dreams. Seriously? And I had a dream. First of all, weird stuff started happening.

There's a house that's being constructed in my neighborhood and it's just wood frames right now and I saw it and I thought fort. It's like that's, because it looks like one of the forts. Your brain is turning into kid mush. Yeah, I'm turning into a youth. I believe I've found the fountain of youth.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It ain't making you smarter. When you begin looking at. You look at a house and it becomes a fort. The youth, it's like I've hooked up my. Somebody's building a fort across the street, Dad. It's like I've. That's a house, son. I've hooked up an IV directly to a teenager,

and I'm getting their blood. It is coursing through my veins. It's causing some weird things to happen. What's happening to the teen? The teen is slowly dying. I know, and you don't care because it's a first person shooter, and you know what those are. You lose your conscience.

You're in one of my Fortnite dreams. Oh yeah? For some reason. Am I jumping around trying not to get hit? No, it wasn't in the game of Fortnite. You jump. Yeah, you kinda look a little stupid when you do the jumping.

You're not jumping because you're not in the game. Me and you have assembled a large group of people and we're doing a seminar about Fortnite and you're walking in in the dream, you walk in in the dream and I'm like, Link doesn't know anything about Fortnite. And I whisper to you, I'm like, just make something up. And then we begin, I don't remember the specifics

of what we said but. Yeah I can do that. We had a Fortnite seminar so maybe that's, maybe that's what I'm on the road to. You know, Ninja's my best friend on Twitter, he's DMing me constantly. Constantly? Yeah, once.

He did it once, but maybe he'll do it again. And then I'm playing as I see fit into my schedule, which is not a lot, but not incredibly busy right now, so I'm actually able to do a little bit. And then I'm having dreams about it. Maybe we'll have a seminar. I'm hooked up to the youth, I feel like, I kind of feel like a new man.

I could tell something was different about you. That you've, you kind of like. Got a little flare. Getting a little. Got on my sweatshirt. Pubescent, hormonal awkwardness, voice cracking. You can like smell me when I come in the room. Voice cracking kind of a thing.

I smell like I've been running. Yeah. Teens always smell like they've been running. Facial features kind of out of proportion. Yeah, a little bit of awkwardness. Got zits in weird places. Well in one sense, my journey into solidarity is in stark contrast, maybe both of ours too,

to being in Fortnite, but in some ways, maybe both of ours to being in Fortnite. But in some ways, maybe I had some of the same feelings. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit.

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if my feelings should be hurt. Cause I'm like, well, okay, so that's the nice way of saying I'm not invited. Oh come on. Okay, so then I'm like, I gotta come up with something. But we had talked, you know, we dedicated a chapter of the book to isolate yourself with yourself. Yeah.

It's an aspect of mythicality to, it's an opportunity to rejuvenate potentially, to reflect, to, you might use the term recenter. So my feelings were not hurt. It was, I was like, yes, you're exactly right. I can do anything. I could go anywhere. And.

Reading Rainbow. I'm gonna do that. And, you know, I thought about your experience out in the desert alone and I had not had one of those yet. So I was like, I was immediately thinking. This is your first weekend alone getting married? My desert solo experience. Like going off.

I can't recall a solo trip. Trip, yeah. Since that summer before I got married when I went to Nashville, but I visited our friend Josh. Long time ago. But he worked during the day, so during the day I was solo. Right, okay, so we're talking a long time ago.

Oh yeah, 1999. So I was thinking about the desert, and then I'm like, well, I don't know, after hearing your story about the tent camping thing and you kinda got freaked out, I mean you can read about it in the book, I'm like, well maybe before I go total tent, I'm gonna search Airbnb. Okay, ease in.

They have these things called experiences. It's not just about places to stay now but they can give you stuff to do with like Sherpas, guides type situation. And I thought maybe I won't sign up for those, but I'll use it as like using the map as I can drive for a road trip and come up with something to do

that's inspired by one of the experiences, even though I won't sign up for one. And then lo and behold, I started, I went to the map view and I started dragging it east and kind of towards Joshua Tree, kind of towards where you went. I've been wanting to go back to Joshua Tree. And then the map view was really wide

and there was nothing that popped up except all of a sudden one Airbnb popped up in the middle of nowhere and I zoomed in and I was like, whoa, this is past Joshua Tree, this is past Palm Springs. Oh no, that big body of water, that's the freakin' Salton Sea and it's past that. Oh, past that.

Because we always wanted to visit the Salton Sea because it's like an abandoned getaway community. And that was part of my solo trip the first time, the Salton Sea because it's like an abandoned getaway community. And that was part of my solo trip the first time, the Salton Sea. Oh you did go there? Yeah. I didn't remember that part. Yeah on the way back I drove south,

stayed there for like a couple hours. Okay. Did you end up going there? And then the place that popped up when I zoomed in was just past that and when I zoomed in I was like, oh crap, it's Slab City. I've heard of this place. It's the type of thing that like Vice will send

one of their journalists out to the Slab City. And didn't we talk about it on the episode of GMM? And we did, yes. It was like one of those list episodes back when we used to alternate telling like most isolated places on Earth or something. And it was. The history of Slab City or something.

People tend to write about it in a way and maybe I don't remember how we talked about it on the show honestly but they tend to like sensationalize it as a lawless community that's totally off the grid, meaning off the electrical grid. There's no- Oh, it was Places With No Laws. That was the episode.

I don't know the title of it, but it was places that aren't subject to laws, which is not really true, but claimed to be true by them. So I'm like, hold on, if there's an Airbnb there amongst the slabbers, because what it is is, it is a place in the middle of the desert with no electricity, no running water. It's literally just a World War II military base,

very small, that was abandoned by 1960, 1961. They took everything off but they left the concrete slabs that they had poured to build their like, I'll just say barracks. Just say it. For lack of a better word. And then, because I researched the backstory, in the 60s some people came in to harvest creosote, which I think is, I don't even know what it is.

It's the stuff that you put on light poles in order to preserve them. That's a natural thing that you get out of the earth? I guess so. I thought it was an oil byproduct. And the people who were out there getting it in whatever way they were getting it started camping there on these slabs

and then some people just ended up staying there permanently and squatting on what was and is public land. So it's not technically legal but ever since then, there's been people who've gone out there and just squatted, just lived. I mean you might be tempted to say it's a homeless commune, but I needed to find out for myself. Okay.

So I'm starting reading the reviews and it was like okay this is a super host as certified by Airbnb, maybe I can start to feel a little bit of comfort here in renting out for 30 bucks of comfort here in renting out for 30 bucks, there what appears to me to be, based on the pictures, an abandoned immobile RV. Okay, this sounds great. You know me and RVs.

That is at, that's on a slab at Slab City? Or near Slab City? It turned out it was very near Slab City. It was not in the middle of the Slabbers community. Okay. It was across the street from a huge art installation that is called Salvation Mountain. Yep.

I'm gonna tell you more about Salvation Mountain later, but tourists will come through, they'll see Salvation Mountain, they'll take some pictures in front of this mountain, which is crazy, and then they'll leave. They might drive through Slab City at a rapid pace and then get out of town. Not a tourist destination.

Yeah, not so much. Not typically an Airbnb experience either. But I'm reading on the Airbnb and they're like, okay, people are leaving reviews and they're like, Cherry is so nice, she will make you a vegan meal. Cherry? Cherry. Not Sherry, but Cherry. Cherry and her husband.

She on top? I don't know how to answer that. Okay. She was on top of it, yeah. She's on top of things. According to the reviews, she's on top of things. Got it, that's what I meant. Cherry's on top of things.

And, you know, she'll make you coffee and breakfast. I'm like, okay, so I can go out here, there's no, you're off the grid, but somebody will make me breakfast. What's her husband's name? Abel. Oh, I love it already. Cherry and Abel.

Yeah. And he was very able. And so, okay, I'm like, you know what? I think I'm gonna do this. And so I clicked. I was like, you know what? I would tend to walk away from my phone at that point, be like, I'm gonna think about this for another day

and then I'm gonna find all these reasons not to go to Slab City. I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna click and I'm gonna do it. And then immediately, we were having a conversation and she accepted my request and boom, I'm booked on the edge of Slab City across the street from Salvation Mountain.

$30 you can never get back, you're in now. Oh yeah. The RV was painted red all over it, like even the tires, which were like shredded. You cannot drive this thing away. So then I leave and the three hour drive ended up taking five hours. Coachella, man.

And yeah, because it was the same, that was the second weekend of Coachella. And it definitely didn't help the traffic. So I drive past the north side of the Salton Sea, which that is just crazy because. Did you get out, did you stop? Not on the way in because the sun was setting and I wanted to get to the RV before it got dark.

That part of the state is like an alien landscape. It really is. I mean the Salton Sea is the biggest lake in California. And it was made by accident like a water overflow from the river and then the water is trapped in such a way that like the salt content was so high that it messed up the ecosystem that like certain times

a year there's lots of fish that like just die on the shore and where they thought it would be this like water skiing and like boating community with Sonny Bono. If people just abandoned it. Now there are still people who live there. Yeah. Which when I drove back through, I went on the beach, Jade and I went on the beach and then we drove

through another little town, Bombay Beach, where they have power and running water. That's good. Which at that point in my trip was revolutionary. Yeah. After the two days that I spent outside of Slab City. So anyway, I get to the RV, it's just getting to be dark. Boy, I just, I was nervous.

I was just, you know, and then I pull in. Does your phone work out here? The phone does work. Okay, that makes you feel better. Made me feel a lot better and I did have one of those other like, Lily, I have one of those other like Lily, I took one of Lily's like battery extender things like you can charge that up

and it just gives you a second battery for your phone. So again, between the Airbnb reviews and the battery, I felt a little bit better. And when I pull in, I realized, oh, it's not just one RV, there's three here. And as I pull in, there's these two women. Is one of them Cherry? No. And they're pull in, there's these two women. Is one of them cheering? No.

And they're like waving, they're waving at me like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Like don't drive any further. And I like, ah, and I was like, oh gosh, I'm hearing there's people, there's freaking villagers already. And so I stop and I'm like, ah, roll down the window, I'm like, um, hi.

And they're like, don't, just don't drive any further because the sand, you might get Stuck. Stuck in the sand. I think you're okay where you are. And so then I'm in a conversation. So then I start walking over there and one woman had just arrived from Sweden and had met this other woman in San Diego, I think, and then they both found their way

to this RV to be my neighbor. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm gonna guess for some of you you, that thing is anime. Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show with the best celebrity guests and hot takes galore. So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel.

So Cherry and Abel rent three RVs? Yes. Smart. Why rent one when you can rent three? Yeah. They all painted different colors? Yep. Red? White and then off-white-ish.

Oh gosh. Not much there, Rhett. Red, white, Rhett. Red, white, and blue. The other woman had a sign hanging in front of her RV that said psychic readings, $5. On her RV? On the little fence in front of it. So she's been there for a while.

Turns out she had been there maybe two weeks. But I guess she carries the sign wherever she goes. Yeah, I don't know the order of events there. They were both very friendly. They were drinking wine and eating steak. I could smell the campfire. Sounds like a party. They were very friendly and then I'm like,

well, and it got totally dark by the time I was talking to them for 30 minutes and then I'm like, well, and it got totally dark by the time I was talking to them for 30 minutes and then I'm like, well, I gotta get over here and then I finally get to the RV. And there's no step to get into the RV. But Cherry and Abel are not at the RVs. No, I haven't met them yet. They just give you instructions on how to get in.

I texted her and I said, I'm here. And she was to show up but she wasn't there yet. And then I, I mean I have some pictures I'll show you and for the video version I guess we can throw some of those up there but, the step leading into the RV was a milk crate with a board almost twice as wide as the milk crate strapped on top of the milk crate

and then printed on the sign, printed on the board in like black paint and handwriting it says, be careful. Well, yeah, I mean, you step too far to the left or the right, you're gonna take a tumble. But I couldn't help but wonder, were they also referring to my entire experience? Potentially, and then it says carefully above that.

Yeah, on the, it says careful. And it has two Ls, they misspelled it. Well, that means extra careful. And then when you, so then you go in the RV. I took some pictures. Took some portraits of Jade. Well, the next day, there was a moment of solitude and I got a little bored.

The only piece of artwork inside of the RV was this detailed eyeball, bloodshot, with blood tears coming out of it. And when you look closely you realize, oh great, there's also a hand crawling out from the bottom eyelid. Yeah. That's not disturbing at all when it's pitch black

and there's no light inside of this RV which was basically just, like I said, an abandoned RV that was, it was very well swept, you know? And there was some bedding. But no power. No. Well, they did have an LED, like a solar charged

LED light bulb that you could turn on, which actually made it freakier. So like, and then I get in there and I'm like, okay, these people are nice next door, but okay, Jade, we're in this together. We could just stay in this RV for the next two days and not leave, you know, maybe we'll be okay. I stayed in the RV that night and it got a little scary.

I stayed in the RV that night and it got a little scary. But then Cherry and Abel drove up in their car and they had food for me. They were very friendly and they said, we're going into Slab City tonight because there's some musicians that are gonna be performing. Yeah, they do that. They're like, oh, there's a stage, and then people bring their own chairs.

I've seen this on video. And then, so just people go up and perform with like a solar-powered PA system, which once they started playing, I could hear it. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the sound coming from around the bend from in Slab City. You didn't go? From my RV.

I ended up not going that first night. I was like, I'm gonna eat dinner and then, you know, I just. Getting settled. I was getting settled, you know, I didn't feel like, I don't wanna go into town in the dark. I'd rather see it in the light first. Yeah, first night, yeah.

The next morning, I go to, well, Abel comes in his car and he's like, I will lead you to my house. And so I get in my car and I follow him with just driving off the road into the desert, just driving around. This is to get breakfast, because they provide that.

Yeah. We drive for about a mile, like literally through the desert, and you start to see what at first, through the uneducated eye, looks like piles of trash. Like huge mounds of garbage. And then I was like, oh, we're gonna drive right past this pile of garbage.

And then we get closer and I would realize this is somebody's dwelling. Yeah. And it's, and it's, and it's, it's. Pile of trash home. It's pieced together in such a way as to construct shelter and boundaries, things like this.

On public land or they own this land? Public land. Yeah. And so you realize it's not trash, it's reclaimed scrap that's been used to build a home. And that's what Cherry and Abel live in? And then we round another corner and I see a whole compound of hodgepodge of stuff.

This one has a fence made out of pallets of wood and a couple of different structures, one of which is two stories tall and there's like a parking area with like rocks put down and like you drive up to it and there's a sign that says Camp Freedom. And this is their compound. And then I go through the gate,

Jade and I go through the gate, I close the gate behind me so she didn't run out into the desert and never come back to me. And Abel's super friendly, Cherry's super friendly. How old are these people? Late 20s. What? They're young.

Okay, I've not, this is, okay. I was picturing older people. Yeah, very tan people. Okay. Like very sun-baked. I don't know, they might, you know, she might have been, well, she might have been mid-30s. You know, I tend to think of myself as like 28,

so I tend to think of myself as like 28, so I tend to age everybody else down. So, but definitely not older than us. But he didn't have a toupee, because you can't usually spot a toupee. I definitely can't spot those. He didn't have a toupee. He's toupee blind.

And then I meet their five children. What? Their five kids, ranging in age from 13 to toddler. Well then I would assume they're not in their 20s. Yeah, that's what made me rethink that. Yeah. But they did start early. Yeah.

And the kids were, you know, the younger kids were shy. What kind of names do they have? But the older kids, I can't remember, but it wasn't anything like Cherry and Abel. Rock. No. Stilt. No.

But the oldest daughter was very, you know, very nice and engaging. She homeschools, they homeschool them there. When I walk into like the, what I'll call the corral that is like their front yard, they have like a raised garden that they said the wind blew it over and they were trying to fix it and they're like growing some stuff and they have to haul in all their water.

And then there's a two-story structure made out of wooden pallets with then plywood put over it. They explained this to me. I mean, Cherry said, hey, we've got the only two-story dwelling in Slab City. They had been there for many years, like four. Crazy. And then in front of the two story structure was

like a black mesh that they repurposed as like a sunblock slash fly net, what's it called? Mosquito net type situation. And that was over a queen size bed, which was basically sitting in front of the house. So like their bedroom was just covered in a net in front of where everybody else lived. And you know, they had television because I heard it.

And they have- A generator? They have solar power. Solar power. Solar power. And then she had taken and made like a pony wall around the side and so they had this little courtyard area made out of adobe mud with like old glass bottles

stuck in it and then it was just a wall that then they had a table and I sat down there and ate my pancakes and I drank my coffee and talked to them and just got their story. But Sweden and San Diego weren't there? They were not there. Again, super nice. Obviously, I explained to them what I was interested in and how I was just fascinated and I was just,

so I kind of got into a conversation with her. And she said that, yeah, they've been here for a while and they just made the decision that they wanted to live off the grid and homeschool their kids and it's a place where you can freely be yourself. Now, Cherry had a hint of an accent, like a British accent. And I said, where you from?

And she said, Oregon. Yeah. And I sensed that I shouldn't ask any follow up questions because she had already said that like, you can be anybody you want. There's people who walk around town and they like. And she wants to be slightly British. That's what she wants.

I could be wrong, maybe she. Lindsay Lohan did that for a while. Maybe she did that, maybe she, I didn't ask her. Maybe she grew up in Oregon then she went to England or wherever she got her accent. Time in the desert might do that to you, I don't know. Give you a little, give you a little flare. It's not like I wanted to press her, you know?

It's just like okay, because that was the whole point. It's like we're out here, we can be who we wanna be. There's people in town who they get up every morning and she stands up and she starts doing the motions of, I'm gonna put a bandana here, I'm gonna put a bandana here, I'm gonna paint this side of my face, and I'm gonna put these bracelets here,

and I'm gonna walk around town this way and you're gonna call me Trog. You know, there's people like that in Slab City who just. And every day it's different bandanas in different places and different names? She said it was the same, like that was who he was. Trog. Yeah.

She said that the land is owned by three different entities, one of which is the California Teachers Association so that retired teachers can go there and snowbird. Have you heard the term? Snowbird? Snowbird. It's when you go out into, I mean, I'm being overly specific, go out to the desert

in the winter for the winter months in your RV in order to like, but in the summer they get out of there. And she said, we can't leave during the summer because someone will come and take over our compound. And that's the law of the land. You know, it's like. Because nobody owns it. Yeah, she said we want to buy our land.

A couple of people have bought their land, like Salvation Mountain was bought and then now is being maintained. So they stay through the summer? Yes. With these kids? She said, there's what we call 90 days of hell where it's 120 degrees every day.

And she said the kids have a pool, and I'm like looking around and I don't see a pool. So I think they had like a reclaimed, it was either hidden or it was reclaimed or maybe it was made out of adobe. I'll tell you one thing, those kids are tough. They seem totally like normal kids. If those kids make it through 90 days of hell,

because humans are actually much more capable of environmental extremes as we've been talking about than we give ourselves credit for, so I don't know, these kids will probably turn out better than our kids. After talking to Cherry, I felt like I knew someone on the inside who was a pillar of the community. She was talking to me about the community and about how everybody knows everybody

and it became much less scary when I connected with Cherry. Their family. You know. It's scary when you connect with Cherry. And Trog, I'm interested when he comes into play. And then I never met him so non-spoiler alert. There's not something worth spoiling on that.

I'd like to skip to your story but I'll just say we can come back to my experience leaving their house with a little more confidence and then I went and saw some of the sites and then had an interesting second night. Okay, well, you know, interestingly, I will say that I think that there is a theme that is emerging here because the theme of my trip in one sense was you can't remember something

that you don't do, you know? And I've been kind of instilling that in my kids. We talk about this in the book of mythicality a little bit, like I don't remember exactly the words that we use, but essentially you can't tell a story about something that never happened, you know? Well you can, but it would be fiction. Yeah, and you find yourself in different situations

and when you were sitting there trying to make the decision to either go stay in this weird RV or not, most people, and this is why it costs $30, most people make the decision to not do that. But having made the decision, you've got this experience and you've got this story, it's made your life richer, I assume, and that is kind of similar to what happened to me.

Now, I didn't stay in an RV. So I wanted to go to a place where I could have access to hot springs because that is one of my favorite things. And originally, I was gonna go up all the way to almost Mammoth, yeah, Mammoth, north of Bishop, like five hours away, up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to a place that piped in hot springs

into like individual campsites, but it was all taken up and I do wanna do that at some place, but at some point. But I had a long list that a friend recommended, like these are places that I've been that are cool. And one of the places, the place that I chose was this, the Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort and Spa in Avila Beach, which is just north of Pismo. I think I'm saying Avila right, I'm not sure.

Is there an H at the beginning? It's A-V-I-L-A. Okay. And first of all, I just swallowed a part of my mustache. First of all, the drive up there. What did it taste like? Nothing, if you take the five

through the middle of the state, it's boring. That's tough. But if you get on the west side of the state and you take the one and then there's another highway and through, once you get to Santa Barbara, something cosmic happens. Cosmic? I honestly believe, well I don't honestly believe it

because I'm not really into that kind of thing, but I honestly believe. I conveniently currently believe it for the sake of this story. There is a feeling that the of thing, but like, I honestly believe. I conveniently currently believe it for the sake of this story. There is a feeling that the energy changes, which may or may not be a thing. Okay. Like, it's probably just the way

that I'm interacting with my environment and the way that things change, but like, Santa Barbara is beautiful. And then you get north of Santa Barbara and you go up this mountain road and you drive through this wine country, through these little towns and it looks like a Bob Ross painting.

It's these. That's great, so it wasn't burned because of the fires. I saw quite a bit of burned areas but I think I missed the vast majority because thousands and thousands of acres, hundreds of thousands of acres were burned. So I didn't see that. So Santa Barbara looked great all around it.

Okay. And then north of it was these amazing rolling hills with these oak trees, kind of sparse oak trees. You know there's this thing that like, it looks like it's just a grass-covered mountain. Yes. And then there's just a few trees on it. There's just something about that state of nature

that is exactly what I want. You know what I'm saying? I wanna put a house on there. You wanna sit under that tree. Right, I wanna deface the mountain with a house and sit up there at night and enjoy my mountain. I know a guy who can make you one out of pallets. Good.

So I continue, but I don't stop there. I don't get out and build a house. I go up to this resort. And this is not like a super nice place. This is, I said resort and spa, but this is a little bit of a like, you're getting up there closer to Big Sur and you're kind of in a different way,

not the desert sort of hippie. You're kind of getting into like. NorCal? Yeah, that's part of the state and you're getting into, it's a hippie sort of situation. Like to give you an example, there's no room numbers at this place. Okay, and what you are seeing things like cosmic energy.

Yeah, like I stayed in a room called Virtue. Oh. You know what I'm saying? Listen, as long as you can laugh a little bit at it, when you stop laughing a little bit, then I start to get concerned. They also had different sweets and the sweets next to mine were the Mythical Sweets.

What? I didn't stay in the Mythical Sweets. That would have been serendipitous, but I didn't. I stayed in some other ones and Virtue was my room. And it's not a super nice place, like I said. I mean, it's not like you're staying at the Ritz Carlton or anything. It's like kind of cheesy decorations inside

and you know, but it's got a good energy. You know what I'm saying? And they have pumped the water from the mineral springs, the natural hot mineral springs there into all these hot tubs that are on the hillside that you can come and like rent by the hour. But then they've also put the water into hot tubs on the balconies, not balconies, but like the deck, the back deck of the room.

You had your own individual jacuzzi? But it was like a jacuzzi that you might get from like Craigslist is kinda what it looked like. Like a above ground. It wasn't like it was made to look like it was natural, it was just like there's a plastic tub in the back that's got the water that we use in there. It smells a little bit like sulfur,

but that's because it's got the minerals in it. Anyway, I immediately got into it naked, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were naked before you drove up, right? I assume. Under my clothes. And I- That's pretty cool. I mean, could you see the actual springs where they were being piped from?

No. Okay. Couldn't, and I didn't seek that out. Okay, because you don't want to know, you may not want to know the truth, right? There's a lot of PVC pipe around the property. I didn't want to follow the PVC. I usually make a, it's a rule, a personal rule, don't follow the PVC.

But I was very happy, I was very pleased. I was like, this is gonna be a nice time. I'm trying to discover some things about myself. But just a quick word, a quick word about the beach area there. So it's this amazing community that was this, according to the history of the town, was this very small like podunk biker town

is the way that it's described in like when you read about the history of it. And there was some oil pumping that was happening that was leaching into the soil and they didn't know about it, but when they discovered it, Exxon discovered that they were screwing up the environment. They were sued or whatever.

Really? And then they had to end up completely raising the town and digging down like 15, 20 feet to get rid of all this oil slick. What do you completely raising the town and digging down like 15, 20 feet to get rid of all this oil slick. What do you mean raising the town? Because it had leached into the soil. You mean wiping the town away? Getting rid of everything except a few structures.

Bulldozing the town. And then raising with a Z. Digging up the dirt. Oh, raising with a Z. And then building it back up. And now it's like a cool beach town that is just these pristine cliffs on both sides, and there's like piers that go out,

and there's all these sailboats. I mean, it was like one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Oh, wow. Now, these cool beaches are all up and down the coast, but like Pismo Beach is like more populated, and this one was just like special, you know? I like hiked up onto the hill one day and kinda looked down over the beach,

thought I could have my house here, but that's not allowed. Anyway, the really interesting thing happened to me, the thing that happened to me that was like, I'm gonna make a decision to do this. I wanted to just stay in my room. They had a restaurant on site that would do room service, so I was kinda just staying in my room

and eating things that were being brought to me. Felt like a king. Only clothes when someone came to my room. Oh. You know, I'm just like a naked king. I think most kings are naked most of the time except when they have to do business. I don't.

So I go to the yoga dome because on Saturday morning they had a yoga class, like a hatha yoga, I don't know what the word is. Do you need to drink some water? A what? Hatha. Hatha, I don't know, it's a type of yoga. Okay. I'm just familiar with yoga's a type of yoga. Okay.

I'm just familiar with yoga general, not yoga specific. They had a dome? It was a dome and I walked up. As I'm walking up to the yoga class in the yoga dome, a man about my age is coming down and he's like, "'It's packed, man." And I'm like, at that moment, I was like,

I was right on time, I was like, I'm gonna walk into a yoga class, it's hard to find a spot, I know I'm gonna be one that moment, I was like, I was right on time, I was like, I'm gonna walk into a yoga class, it's hard to find a spot, I know I'm gonna be one of the few males in there, that's just how yoga works. And he was leaving. He was like, I left my girlfriend in there, it's kind of her thing.

Oh, he's shaming you. And I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go in there, I'm a big man, I'm kind of hard to hide. And I go in there and I look and it's just a sea of women and there looks to be no spots, but they've spotted me at this point. They see me and I'm like, committed. You froze like a deer in headlights?

I'm so glad that I went in, that's what you're about to learn. Oh wow. The only space where no one has put a mat yet, I mean we're talking like 30 to 40 women. Is there a stage? Is the front. Oh no.

So I'm like screw it, I'm here, there's one other guy, an old guy. He looks to be alone. The girls seem to be in groups of types of groups, you know? Yes, yes. What are you wearing? I'm wearing, you know, just a skin tight spandex yoga suit. No, I'm wearing a t-shirt and dry fit shorts.

Okay. You could pick up basketball type scenario. I'm ready for several different activities. Okay. Now they're all wearing their girl yoga stuff. Tight pants, that kind of thing. So I go to the front. Because I didn't know if this was like hippie flowy yoga people attire.

Interesting, the instructor talked about that. I'll say that in a second. Okay. I set up my mat in the front. At this point I realize these women think I'm the instructor. You shoot, really? Okay, all right.

And now they probably know I don't look like the instructor and the look I had on my face when I walked in, the look of confidence draining probably didn't say teacher, but he went to the teacher's spot. Confidence draining. He went to the teacher's spot. Oh no. So then, after I kinda, I think I make it clear

that I'm not the teacher when I don't say anything for like a 30 second period. Did you face them or something? No, I faced the same direction they're facing, but they're all facing my back that I'm not the teacher when I don't say anything for like a 30 second period. Did you face them or something? No, I faced the same direction they're facing, but they're all facing my back and I'm like, can I sit in there and probably my face is getting a little red, I don't know. I'm embarrassed easily.

Yeah, yeah, you see it. Ha ha! So then an older woman. You could just feel their eyeballs burning into your back like when's he gonna turn around and instruct us? An older woman comes in. Oh, she wasn't even in the room.

The instructor. She comes in, she has on she wasn't even in the room. The instructor. She comes in, she has on a little bit of a flowy thing. Yes. And like it's tight underneath but then it's kind of flowy. I mean she's got like kind of wily white hair. She is a seasoned yoga instructor. You could totally see what she looked like in the 70s.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And she looks at me and she looked like in the 70s, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And she looks at me and she's like, is this the advanced class? What? She looked at- She thought that I was the instructor for a different class because she knew that she was supposed to be there

but she was confused that maybe because I was in the instructor's class. Are you kidding? You were officially in the- Yeah, but I was off the instructor's spot. Are you kidding? You were officially in the... Yeah, but I was off center. I didn't center myself. I quit, but it's a dome, it's a circle. So like, they left a spot and I went as far into the circle

as I could, but I was committed at that point. That was, okay, so that was her, I'm gonna believe the best about this man. And instead of saying, sir, you're in my spot, she was like... This man in a V-neck and dry fit shorts and footie socks must be the instructor for the advanced class. Yeah, there's no way.

I was like, no. That she actually believed that. I was like, no, because I knew she was thinking about me. And she was like, oh, I thought maybe I come into the wrong class, but okay, it's just very crowded or whatever. Okay, let's get started.

This woman was a character and a half. That she was like if you need to cast somebody to be a yoga instructor in like a movie. You know what I'm saying? So we start and she's like, everybody say home, but she's kind of dancing a little bit and she's like, everybody say, home. But she's kinda dancing a little bit and she's like, shake your hips.

Like she's really, she's trying to get us all to loosen up. She's doing these sort of sexy moves and getting all the ladies to do these sexy moves and I'm very glad that I'm in the front because if I'm in the back, I'm like. Because that way everybody can see you. I'm the creep looking at all the booties moving and you don't wanna be that guy in the back, I'm like, Cause that way everybody can see you. I'm the creep looking at all the booties moving and you don't want to be that guy in the yoga class.

But in the front, I'm like the six foot seven guy who's obviously has no idea what he's doing, is not comfortable and I'm like doing the things, I'm like, gosh, why am I here? You were doing them? So then she starts asking people like, who is this, who are you guys together? Like, what groups are these?

Turns out it was two big groups of women who were bachelorette, maybe three groups that were like bachelorette weekends, okay? Oh gosh. So like girls who are like really making each other laugh, happy to be together, you know the way that goes. We gotta put a sash on your head and take you around to the bars.

Right, but this is a different kind of weekend. And then the old dude who, I don't know who he was with, he could just be a creep. But did she ask you? You tall one. No, somebody was like, it's bachelorette party or whatever and I was like, please don't ask me and I was like thinking about what I was gonna say

and I was gonna be like, I'm alone, I just didn't know. Weekend of solitude, I didn't have any words that sounded right. I'm trying to find myself. So far, it ain't going great. I've just been naked this whole time until right now. You know, there's nothing that I could say at that moment that would have gone over well in the room. Thankfully, she didn't ask.

It was a middle school, please don't call on me teacher kind of situation. Yeah, okay. Now, she begins to do these chants and things and I'm participating and of course my voice is sticking out like a sore thumb because it's an octave lower than everyone's. I cannot imagine you participating in this environment.

And then she begins to talk, she's got a lot of ideas that I find questionable, you know, metaphysically speaking about the energies and manifesting flames on top of our heads. Oh. We began to caress a flame on top of our heads. I'm literally in a group of women caressing an invisible flame on top of my head like trying to get the thing to light.

I don't know what we were trying to do, but I did it. I was there for that. Then she breaks out a picture of the Mona Lisa. Not making any of this up. She's gonna do prop work? She's like, what do you notice about this woman? This doesn't sound like yoga at all. It was though, man.

And I was so happy by the end, I gotta tell you. And so she holds up a picture of the Mona Lisa and she's like, what do you notice about this? And people are like answering in the class or whatever. But she's like, the smile. You see that? Some people might call it a smirk. I don't like to use the word smirk.

It's a very gentle smile. You can do a lot with that smile. For this next exercise, I want us all to make this expression. I once saw a man stand on his head without his hands for five minutes simply making this smile. Headstand? She would make, not make up, she would tell

of these stories of the things that had happened, the supernatural things that had happened because of the smile. The following things were also said by this woman during the yoga class. I used to spend time with tigers three times a day. I wrote all this down because I wanted to remember. Were you taking notes during the yoga class?

No, as soon as I got back. You were scrambling for a pen. As soon as I got back to my room, I got naked, then I started journaling. I used to spend time with tigers three times a day. Did she allow, I hope there's a time opening the floor for questions, because once you start dropping tigers,

I got a few follow-up questions. Okay, it gets better. What? I used to ride an elephant and the elephant was happy. Turns out she was in the circus, guys. She was in the circus, but she has an apologetic for the circus that makes it okay that what they did to the animals. I once saw a man put a tiger, a horse, and an elephant

in the same cage because he understood their energy. At what point did you piece together, oh, she's a carny. Well, she's not a carny. I don't know what she did at the circus. I think she rode an elephant. Well, it was happy, I'm sure. But she, and then the favorite one of mine,

she said, I was a mime for a while. I thought once you go mime, you stay sublime. I don't know how it goes. No, I think you become a yoga instructor once it wears off. I was a mime for, were these like non sequiturs, her spouting off statements? She would say things like, I was a mime for a while

and I find it helpful to do this with this move and then she starts doing like a mime thing. I love this woman, by the way. I wish I knew her name, I can't remember it. I can probably go on the website and figure out she's one of the instructors, but. I love this woman, by the way. I wish I knew her name, I can't remember it. I can probably go on the website and figure out she's one of the instructors. But I actually love this woman. But let me just continue because then,

at this point, I'm growing more comfortable with what's happening. But then she says, now we're going to do some partner work. You didn't bring a partner. And so I'm like, what the crap, what do we, You about to crap your pants at this point? What does she mean by this? And then she says okay, find a partner

and I immediately make eye contact with the old man because I'm like well surely he's my partner otherwise I'm gonna be, go with the old man. He zeroed in on a woman. Of course he did. He's already partnered go with the old man. He zeroed in on a woman. Of course he did. He's already partnered up with a woman before. It's one of those things where everyone's getting into their thing and I'm like, oh crap, and I turn around.

This is another middle school experience. And the girl right next to me. Okay. She has looked around trying to get away from having to be partnered with me. She understands what's going on. Turns out this girl is the bride. Nobody wanted to partner with the own bride?

I got partnered with the bride from the bachelorette party. Why did all of her bachelorettes abandon her? I think they thought, you know what? She got one last chance. Oh shoot. Bearded advanced yoga instructors in here, let her have her fun before she gets married. Gosh, okay.

And what we did was not exactly fun. So she begins, the instructor begins to demonstrate what we're about to do. And it involved, this is what you do with your partner. You stand against, back to back, facing away from each other. Okay. And then you bend over and your butts touch.

And then you reach through and grab each other's arms and pull. I put my butt up against this bride's butt. Well how tall was she? Because your butt is high in the air. I had to squat a little bit, but there wasn't exactly great butt to butt contact. up against this bride's butt. Well how tall was she? Cause your butt is high in the air. I had to squat a little bit, but there wasn't exactly great butt to butt contact.

She was getting a little bit low, if you know what I mean. It was, you know, I had to watch myself. So I was trying to. She's making it hard for you. Yeah, probably not the correct. She's making it difficult for you to go butt to butt. Right, and so we're butt to butt, we lean down and I'm grabbing the girl.

Reaching between your own legs and grabbing her forearms? Yeah, forearms and then pulling. And you know, to her credit, she really took it like a champ and wasn't, like I'm trying to say things. Maybe she was a mime once. I'm like trying to take the edge off of the awkwardness a little bit. But she's just going for it.

What do you mean going for it? I mean she's just like pulling. Was there conversation? I was saying things like, where you from? I don't know why, she was like, we're from Sacramento, I don't know where they're from. San Jose? You were both looking through your legs at each other? Like, we would do that and then we would get up

and I'd say something because I felt like I needed to break the tension a little bit. Yeah, yeah. And then she was like, I was like, who's getting married? She was like, me. I was like, great. Congratulations. And then, so then we had to interlock arms

like swing dancers and dance around in a circle. And I don't know what- This, yoga is not. You got, once the yoga frees your body, then you could do these kinds of things. So now we're going around in a circle, and I'm like, I don't know why I said this, but I was like, you're having quite a weekend.

I just, you know, because it- That's a bit self-aggrandizing. Because it struck me that she's gonna tell this story. This moment you're having with me right now is making your weekend. And then, but then she just said, I'm really hungover. So I think they'd had a good time the night before. So she was about to vomit on you.

But you know, it was a beautiful experience. But the class closed with, she brought out this ball and she was like, I want you to hold this ball and we're going to dance by ourselves. And we're gonna dance like these figures in this painting right here, another painting. I think she's just picking random paintings in the room and just coming up with stuff potentially.

But she was like, you see how this person is jumping up and kicking their legs out, I want us to do that. And she's like, the music I'm going to play is a CD called Yoga Chants for Women. So as if I hadn't been made to feel a little bit out of place, it was like, we're gonna close this class by dancing to a CD called Yoga Chance for Women. She did look at me and say, I'm sorry,

I don't have anything for men. I was like, I'm okay. Was that a joke? She was kind of, you know, whatever. Yoga Chance the Rapper for women? Nope, Chance the Rapper was not involved. By the end of this class, I am jumping up with joy, kicking my legs out, I might have hit the bride,

I don't know, all I know is that at one point the instructor said, he's got the hang of it, she used me as an example. Also, I was probably very difficult to not look at, so you might as well draw more attention to it. And I gotta say though, as soon as I quit dancing and she said class was over, I rolled my mat up and got out of there.

I didn't wanna have any conversations with anybody. Just a beeline for the exit. Yeah. Left the yoga dome, went back to my room, stripped off the clothes and began to journal and wrote this story. So that's where the phrase winning dome comes from. Yep, exactly.

You just go with it. But you know what, I'm so glad it happened to me and I actually went back. I am so emotionally exhausted having heard that crazy story. I actually went back to the yoga dome the next day for meditation and apparently they were doing gentle yoga leading into meditation and I came in

right when they're starting meditation and I like interrupted the gentle yoga were doing gentle yoga leading into meditation and I came in right when they're starting meditation and I like interrupted the gentle yoga class, which gentle yoga not as popular as the yoga because nobody was there, it was like three people. But I didn't, as I walked in, they were all being very gentle and like wrapping up their class and she's like giving them aromatherapy and stuff.

My ankles crack a lot, you know, and I walk and I'm like setting my stuff up and like my ankles are cracking, I'm very self-conscious, but I did eventually settle into a position and you know, remained in silence for half an hour. My time in the yoga dome. Was that guided? That was guided.

My time in the yoga dome was so worth it, not just. Did you take any pictures? I kinda wanna know what the yoga dome looks like. You're like frolicking and then pulling out your phone and snapping and snapping. I didn't take a picture of the yoga dome. Yeah. You can see one online. I didn't take a picture of Cherry's house

because I didn't think that was appropriate. Yeah, gawking. Right. But, when I came back, after I wrote this story, I wrote some commentary, just about how I was feeling about how, you know, obviously I made this decision to do this and my intention in going into the yoga class

was to, as part of my weekend, I'm trying to unwind, I'm trying to learn more about myself, but it wasn't really to go and have the story to tell. I'm glad that I've got the story to tell. It helps with the podcast, which is great. But I was like, I don't, as much as I am a very purpose-driven kind of guy and I kind of have goals and that kind of thing,

I still don't, I don't like to make decisions to put myself in situations where I don't feel in control and I don't know what to do. But I need to do more of that. That's why, even after my experience, that's why I went back to the yoga dome the next day. I was like, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna, who knows what's gonna happen,

but I'm gonna kinda embrace this. The one thing that I didn't do that I had talked about potentially doing is going to the restaurant and eating in the restaurant by myself versus just having it brought to my room. Mostly I didn't wanna put my clothes on, but also I was like, I don't know if I'm ready

for that level of exposure. In a similar way, I, on the second night, I'm skipping ahead, did not decide to go into town even though after having dinner with Cherry, Abel, all five of their kids, and my neighbor Liz, but not the Swedish woman, she was gone, they were eventually going into town and I said I might see you there.

And I thought there was a chance that I would go but then I didn't. But I did take many huge steps, like you're saying, to just put yourself out there and say, you know what, I'm gonna physically leave my comfort zone and try to be open to self-reflection and, I mean, it sounds cheesy, but it is really what I think we're both trying to do,

which is like a level of self-discovery. You know, I was reading about how your personality, or at least aspects of your personality are, and this was me reading while I was there during that day, my first full day there. After breakfast, I went back to the, well, I saw some sites which I can tell you about but at one point I went back to the RV

and I was reading about how, one way to understand personality is that when you're young, it's a way to, you build your personality in order to protect yourself and survive. Right. And then as you get older, and you may not need these certain protective layers

and techniques for how you engage with the world in order to convince yourself that you're gonna be able to develop and make it physically. There's certain aspects of your personality that you've built that then are not arguably necessary and become a shell and a protective layer that you don't need anymore that you could live your life without.

That's just one way to look at aspects of your personality which may have negative impacts on you that you can begin to dismantle, right? So I was thinking about these things and that was kind of something that I was reflecting on and trying to put myself in a position to say, okay, I've got time, I've got silence where I can think about my true self

and what am I adding? In what ways is fear, in a general sense, driving the way that I act and the decisions I make and the decisions, the things that I don't do, you know? So as an example, like you not going to the restaurant or me not going into town might for us have represented being fearful or the things that we did do like you going into the dome

even though the guy said turn back while you still have a chance. Right, he almost got me to not go. You know, making a decision, you know what? I'm gonna learn something from this experience and not run from it even though I may fear embarrassment by putting on a Mona Lisa smile and a Jack and Jill frolic or whatever she was getting you to emulate.

I would say that was a theme of my self-reflection and I'll come back to that. But so the next morning when I left the Camp Freedom compound, I drove back around to Salvation Mountain which in the 70s, there was a guy who had, like he found Jesus, okay? And then he got so excited that he decided to go out to this very spot in the desert on this like big sand berm

and start painting it. Like with adobe cement and ultimately a crap ton of latex paint. And this guy lived out of his truck, squatting in the desert around Slab City where there was a community. And he started painting like God loves you, Bible verses, all this stuff on Salvation Mountain

that you may have seen in like a Coldplay video or a Kesha video. Right. Among others. And it's, my RV was just across the street from it. So there are people driving in and parking and seeing this thing. There's no admission.

Can you walk on it? And you can walk on it. And it's, the only places that they say to walk on it is there's like a yellow brick road that goes around the, that goes across the whole thing and I can show you a picture here so you can look at it. It's three stories tall. My selfie game is a little off if you go to the,

here you can flip that. So you see it says God is love at the top of the mountain. It's basically three stories tall and you can meander and I'm taking Jade on her leash and we're meandering and you feel like you're gonna fall off at any moment. But it's like slick, undulating, latex paint, like layers and layers and layers of it. And it's absolute, it looks like the craziest

putt-putt course installation that you would ever see without the putt-putt part. And you can climb all the way to the top of it and it's just crazy. So like I did that, I'm not talking to anybody even though there's people around. And then like next to it, there's this thing called the Hogan which might be a Native American term.

It's also the last name of an awesome wrestler. But this other hill over here that looks like another painted latex hill, you can see that it has windows in it. Well, this is not, he didn't paint the hill. He built a huge dome made out of hay bales and adobe. And there's like, when you walk inside of it, it's held up by these trees, it's crazy.

Like this is the back of it here, it's just, it was like I was walking around in another world, which just felt awesome, but it's weird because there's this constant self-consciousness of like, I don't belong here. There's people who live here and they know I'm just kinda walking through. I feel like I'm stepping on their toes and like, who's this hipster guy walking around, you know?

So there's this constant self-awareness that I had to continue to check in order to, on one hand, enjoy myself and on the other hand, to like, I don't know, to feel like kind of break through and like have a legitimate experience. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah. And then I drive into Slab City to the other side of town

and there's an area called East Jesus, which actually has no religious connotation at all. Is it just east of Salvation Mountain? Is that what it is? Well, in reading the Wikipedia, East Jesus just means it's like two clicks left of nowhere is basically what it means. It's like a way of saying the middle of nowhere.

Like people say, oh, it's in East Jesus. It's like, you'll never find it. It might even seem anti-Jesus or something, I don't know. Is it where the origin of the scene? But when you get there, there's like a Cessna that's turned on its side that's now become a, it's just like an art piece. And there's all this reclaimed crap like cars and stuff

that are turned into sculptures. Oh yeah. And you walk around in the courtyard and it's like freaky, like freaky baby dolls and I mean I'll show you the pictures but it's an interesting feeling to be walking around in such a creepy place, baking in the desert all by yourself.

You know, when you're not talking to anybody except your dog. There were two dads with their kids that were there for a little bit of it and I kinda wanted them to leave because it was screwing with my experience. Kids. And then there was like a cordoned off area

on the edge of it where, and there was like all of these old abandoned RVs and like a tour bus that was half buried and coming out of the desert and people would live there but I think they had all left because it was too hot but they come back. It was getting too hot. It was getting really hot. It got so hot that after that I drove through Slab City

and there's like, it's a grid of what looks to be RVs, a few new but most all of them look abandoned and to the point where people put signs out and say do not enter because people think they can just take over but people are actually living in them. There's people walking around, I didn't really talk to anybody, I just kinda cruised through. You walked or you drove through? I drove through.

Subsea. With my AC pumping. It was like really hot to me, like 96 degrees. Does anybody else drive through? Not really. There's a few people who drive around, they'll go to East Jesus and then leave, but I was like driving up and down the rows

and like looking at people. Some people would wave and they've just chosen as a way of life to live here off the grid. It's like a simple life. They bring in huge containers of water and then they'll make runs an hour away to the Walmart or something once a month. And then they just live out there.

People riding around on bikes. Is anybody selling anything? Are they making any money? Are they just live out there. People riding around on bikes. Is anybody selling anything? Are they making any money? Are they just living off of? There was one guy who had just set up shop out of his van, like selling trinkets. But I think that's more for tourists, like closer to Salvation Mountain.

So not really a lot of that. Like The Range is the name of that outdoor bar area, but they don't sell drinks. You have to bring your own drinks if you go there. Did you end up going there? I did not, I went back to the RV and it got so hot I couldn't be out and I didn't wanna have Jade out

in the heat, I didn't think she was used to it. But when you're in the RV you're just in shade. I'm in shade and there's a little breeze and that was all I could ask for. And then that night I went to eat dinner with Cherry and Abel and the family and then that was great. And then on the way back, on the way to my RV,

I took a little detour to the hot springs that is out there. And this hot springs was like the most legit hot springs the way you imagine it. Like it was literally a water hole in the middle of the desert. And it was. Were palm trees around it? No, some smaller brush trees.

And it was, I'd say about 30 feet across and it was cloudy water and just like mud walls and it was bubbling up in the middle and there were two old naked men putting on their clothes and saying, all right, I'll see you down at the range later. You just missed it. Just missed them. So then nobody was there.

The sun was going down. Oh no. I got naked and I walked down a wooden ladder into it. And it was, it could have, 96 to 98 degrees. I mean, it was hot. Well, so cooler than your hot tub. That's how much I would put mine on for. But like 104 is like this hot as you can get your hot tub.

Yeah, yeah. It wasn't that hot. It was almost that hot. I was surprised with how hot it was. Because sometimes the hot springs will be hotter than the regulations. I didn't know that, but I knew that the guys had gotten out and they said get in it so. Yeah there are some that are hotter than like,

there's some you can't get in. Like one there's one that's like 170 degrees. Oh gosh yeah. You can't get in where that comes out, you can get in down straight when it's cooled down. But it was over my head. Like and I was alone, I wasn't, I think you might would have done it,

but I did not swim down to try to touch the bottom at where it was bubbling up. I didn't wanna do that. Yeah. Jade was on the banks and she was looking at me like, what the heck, why are you getting naked and what are you doing, jumping in this water? She thought I was nuts.

But that was like a surreal moment. I took like a mental picture, because I'm like, once you walked over, the slope starts to come up and you can be in the water, like up to your waist and ultimately your ankles and you can get out another way. But like I'm standing there and the sun's setting, it's like across the desert and there's nobody there.

It's how you imagine you wanna do like a, the most rustic hot spring. I can't believe that nobody was there. At that point, yeah. It was crazy. I mean, no one would be there during the day because it's so freaking hot. Then I went back to the RV and I was, you know,

and I just hung out by myself, did some reading. And then I ended up talking to the neighbor. Like she was outside on her phone and she was like, I couldn't see her because she was around the corner. She was like, Link? And I was like, yeah. She was like, if I'm talking too loud, just let me know. I'm like, no, it's fine.

Then she got off the phone and I ended up going over there and sitting down with her and just hanging out instead of going into town. And like we were having a conversation. And I'd forgotten that about the psychic sign. Oh, she had the psychic sign. Yes, she was the one with the psychic sign. And so we were looking at Salvation Mountain

and I was like, and she, I had heard her on the phone talking about how she had used tarot cards to determine where she was going to live. And I said, and I was like, you know, I was sparking conversation, I was like, do you think that that guy who, on a mission from God, painted that hill over there, and the universe, as you refer to it,

the speaking to you through these cards to tell you where to live, you think it's the same thing? And like she started, you know, my point is not to get into her answer or the philosophy of it all, but just to say that that's the nature of the conversation. And I think I might have inadvertently

had a condescending tone when talking about her tarot cards. Cause I'm like, I'm asking detailed questions like, well if you use the cards to tell where you were gonna live, did you, and you ended up in San Diego, well did you say anywhere on earth the cards please tell me or did you say San Diego, cause I kinda to go there

and a couple other places. And this is in retrospect because graciously, I mean, she was very kind, friendly person, but at one point the conversation turned and she was like, I don't know if I should say this, but I feel, and so I'm taking a risk and it's dark and we're not sitting next to each other, she's like sitting eight feet away from me

and I can't see her face because of the way that the moonlight and the shadows of her trailer, I felt like I was in the light of the moonlight but she was in the shadow so it was like, it was kinda creepy. I couldn't see her face at all. I could see her silhouette. And then she's like, she starts as,

she said, you know, maybe it could be, and I don't remember exactly what she said, but she kind of described what she, what might be someone's mental, where someone might be coming from from a place of fear when having the type of conversation that I was having with her. And it was like weird.

It's like it kind of freaked me out. And I was like, did you just like give me a reading or something? And she was like, I'm sorry, I shouldn't do that. And it was like she had described, it was just weird because it freaked me out a little bit when she was talking about when people, you know, I think you're speaking from a place of fear when you're having this conversation

with me about these things that my practice is in these place. How did you respond to that? And I was like, the way I responded was did you just like give me a reading or something? And then I made a joke about how I didn't have $5. So I deflected. Which, you know, she ended up saying,

well I'm an empath, I can tell. And I legitimately felt like that she did have, she had insight into how, like the psychology of how I was feeling. But to clarify, I didn't think it was spiritual or I didn't think it was negative in nature or even spiritual in nature. My interpretation of it, looking back on it,

was that in the way that you would have a conversation with a therapist who would have insight into like, okay, you're kinda hiding behind your fear here in the way that you're asking me these type of questions. Does that make sense? That's ultimately how I felt like she was talking to me. She could tell that you were speculative in the nature of your questions.

Yeah, not speculative, that's not the right word. The right word is suspicious. Yeah. Yeah. But it was kind of a weird moment and I think she, you know, we kept talking and I think she was like, she wasn't gonna offer to like give me a palm reading or whatever it is she had her sign up for, but she gave me the opportunity to ask for that,

but in the moonlight and in the, you know, I had reached, I had reached my level of comfort. I'd reached the limit of that and I was like, you know what, I think I'm gonna turn in. I'm going to bed. So it kinda had this, it didn't end abruptly but I kinda had this, I don't know, it was kind of a weird vibe kind of a moment

that's like, I didn't know. Did you see her the next day? I saw her the next day and I was like, I was packing my stuff up and I was leaving and I was like, you know, I appreciated our conversation last night and I wanted to apologize if I felt condescending. If anything I said seemed condescending.

And she was like, no, I think whenever people speak from a place of fear, it's always, if you understand it, it's always understandable. It's like, if I were to understand what it is you're afraid of, I would not hold it against you. It's just we didn't discuss it, is kind of what she meant. Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess.

I guess somebody who's out in the desert with a sign and finding themselves, they can talk like, they can say these type of things. And you're like, huh. I know the mode that you go into with those kinds of questions, so I could see how she would take offense at it. I didn't mean to, well.

But I could like what was underneath your, it was like this is bullshit, right? So let me ask you some questions about it. Without even meaning to say it. But also there was this level of fear that I had about being in the whole place. It's like what am I, like I said audibly a a few times I was like, what am I doing here? Like after the conversation with her,

I went back and I went to bed and I'm like in the bed and I'm like trying to go to sleep and I'm like, I heard, I could hear her footsteps. She's sneaking. And I just felt like they were coming around my trailer. Gonna kill you because you doubted her. There was a little scratchy scratch on the door. And Jade like perked up in the bed, but Jade didn't bark.

So I'm like, I'm just gonna lay here really quiet. I don't know what I'm doing here, but if I make it through the night, I'm getting out of here. And then in the morning I felt, I talked to her and I felt fine and I don't think she was creeping around my trailer. Anything else significant happen?

No, that's it. Well, I, but so in conclusion, I just felt like, I don't know. It's not like there's, it's like you spend quality time with yourself. You isolate yourself with yourself and you learn a little bit. Well.

I can't say exactly what I learned, but. It's funny, because the stuff you talked about, the personality stuff is stuff that I'm kind of exploring within myself. And I think that, I don't mean to cut you off again, that's the part I left out is that, I think that's why it kind of freaked cut you off again, that's the part I left out is I think that's why it kind of freaked me out was because she talked

about fears. And that was one of the things. And that was the thing that I had been thinking about and that I'd kind of walked around, I was uneasy being there so there were a couple of different levels of fear that I had that I think anyone, not anyone could pick up on, but someone who, you know, it doesn't have to be creepy

in order to pick up on it. But it freaked me out a little bit. I'm processing some of the same stuff. That was one of the reasons that I went away. Now, I also kinda knew that a couple of days is not enough time to actually make any real progress. Just people that I know that have done like, Right.

The time alone that you got, you need a few days before you like have some kind of breakthrough. I mean, the main thing I learned, besides how to have an awesome yoga class with a lot of bachelorette women, is I'm not very good at being alone. Like as much as I want to be alone

and I'm an introvert through and through and I say things like I need my alone time. I find when I am finally in that place where I'm alone, I'm kind of like, I'm not that good at this. And there is this slightly complicating factor of somebody might know who I am. It's like, you know, I went to the spa,

I got a massage and then went into the hot, I was like interacting with this girl and like she was like, this is where you can go, there's another hot tub like on the hillside that I went to for like 30 minutes because it comes with the massage or whatever. And then I like come back down the hill and I'm like paying and she's like,

by the way, I'm a big fan of your show. And because that happens pretty regularly, thankfully, great, that means people are watching. That's why I didn't go to the restaurant by myself, right? Because I mean, there's self-consciousness, there's this like, ooh, Rhett's eating alone. He's weird. I'm gonna go tell my friends, you know the guy

from the show, the Mythical Morning thing, he eats alone at restaurants, he's a creep. Even though I know that's not actually what that means, I have fears associated with that and so there's a lot of self-consciousness as I'm kind of going about my alone weekend. That's why ideally I would just go to the desert where I'm completely alone and I actually don't have

to interact with people and I'm forced to kind of confront things within myself, which is what I hope to do later. All that to say, I end up doing things like, I'm not gonna watch any TV, but then I watch TV. I'm not gonna watch a movie, but I bring up a movie on my, you know what I'm saying? It's like I don't actually completely disconnect.

I kind of feel like, the lesson I learned is I need to set boundaries and rules going in and actually follow through with them. But even getting, I mean if getting in touch with yourself is first getting in touch with your self-consciousness, you know, I think that is an element of what, it sounds like we both did a little bit. But I confronted it head on in that yoga class. And I was dancing. Or butt.

I was dancing at the end, you know. Okay, well, this has been a fun catch up conversation. This has been quite a weekend for you, huh? Quite a weekend, huh? For you. You're gonna tell this story, right? You're telling this story right now about the big guy that you touched his butt with your butt

right before you got married. You'll tell your husband about it, right? Oh, that was crazy. All right, shout out to all my slabbers in Slab City. And we'll talk at you next week with another one. Yeah. Thanks for hanging out.