Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Rhett’s Father-Son Cross-Country Road Trip | Ear Biscuits Ep.319

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

From North Carolina to LA, listen to Rhett recount his adventures from an epic road trip across the country with his son Locke in 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

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, Rhett's taking me on a cross country road trip.

Vroom, vroom. I've been waiting to hear about this road trip. I mean, well, the moment I heard, you know, when I was back here in LA, you were still in North Carolina, your trip to Mexico was disintegrating right before your eyes, and I was feeling sorry for you.

And then all of a sudden, Christy's like, cause she's reading the thread and I'm not, cause I'm in full vacation mode. Right. She's like, Rett and Locker, they're gonna drive back to LA. Yeah. They're doing like a cross country road trip. Best idea ever.

I gotta admit. Jealous. Yeah, it's like immediate jealousy, like this sinking inside, it's like, Yeah. Well, why didn't they invite me? Well, you just wait until you, not that, why didn't you?

Just wait until you hear the whole story. If you invited me, that's not how cross country trips work. I was on the other coast already. That's why you didn't invite me. I could have picked you up and taken you to my house in the last half mile or so. No, but like,

the whole week after Christmas that we were all on break, I was like, let's do something, guys. You know, I could always rent a van again and we can do a couple of nights camping. It was, there was like torrential- It was raining like crazy here. Pouring of rain here. It was like depressing, didn't want to go out,

but it was relaxing. But I, you know, I wanted to do something and they wanted to just chill out. I respected that, but I was a little frustrated. And then on top of that, it's like, man, you got this like father, son thing. Bonding. Seeing places.

I've only done one cross country trip and it wasn't with my son. It was with me. Yeah, it was. Similar route that I took. It was special. I'll tell you about. So I wanna hear all about it.

You've been saving it. Yeah. Tell me on this podcast. And even a couple of times, I wanna hear all about it, you've been saving it. Yeah. Tell me on this podcast. Even a couple of times, we've been amongst friends who wanted to hear about the trip and you've been there and I had to say, I can't talk about it because Link's here.

People are like, these guys are so weird that I can't tell you about my trip because I have to wait until now. I mean, they understood. They laughed because I was like, listen, I don't want to have to act not bored hearing it a second time on my podcast. That's more important than us talking about it now. Hopefully you're the kind of Ear Biscuit-eer

slash Mythical Beast who listens to every episode of Ear Biscuit so you already know that COVID changed my plans to go to Mexico and then I decided to go on a road trip. I'm not gonna tell any more than that. But I wanted it, why was it me and Locke? Like why was it me and my 17-year-old son and not my 13-year-old son?

Well, my 13-year-old son very likely got COVID over the break and that's why we just didn't go to Mexico. And so Locke and I have been planning on taking a trip together, maybe during, we've been trying to go- Which, can we close that loop? He's fine. Yeah, yeah, Shepard's totally fine.

Shepard's experienced. Shepard, he was double vaccinated so he experienced essentially a cold. He was down for a couple of days and he's back. We never confirmed that that's what he had because all we had was those at-home tests. And so we're just assuming that's what he had. But if it's me, and I'm not gonna put these thoughts

or words in your mouth, and I don't wanna throw you under your family bus here, but if it were me and I was in your situation, at that point I would have been like, this presents a unique opportunity for me and Lincoln to travel across the country without the other siblings. I mean, doing a cross country road trip as a family is a totally different thing than just doing it with one son.

We actually- It's a different concept. We actually considered- Right? It was on the table for us to all go because actually by the time we left, Shepherd was essentially recovered. But Locke and I specifically have been trying to plan a trip together. You know, we were gonna go to Japan

and then we were gonna go to, I don't know, somewhere else. And COVID has changed our plans multiple times. And so this is a trip that's been in the making and he's about, you know, he's gonna graduate high school this year. So it's important. So it's not about avoiding spending time with your whole family in one car, but that I had to think that was a little bit

of a fringe benefit. Well, all it took as Jessie and I discussed it for about 15 seconds, as I was like, you know how our family is so intense that there's a chance that all four of us in a car could disintegrate really quickly. I mean, there was a chance that me and Locke in a car could disintegrate very quickly,

but the chances were lower. Now, interestingly, I've talked a little bit about Locke and his tendency to be, you know, he's an Enneagram eight, he's a challenger. And so one of the things that I have found to be consistently true is when you have an idea, even if it's a great idea, like a cross country road trip, his initial reaction to it will be one of doubt

and skepticism, right? And so- It's almost instinctive. Oh yeah, and I knew that was gonna happen. And lo and behold, when I pitched the idea of, hey man, day after Christmas, let's just drive back to Los Angeles. It wasn't an immediate, like, this is a great idea. It was like, how many hours is that gonna be in the car?

Like these were the questions, right? I don't wanna- That's a legit question. I don't wanna spend too much time on this point because obviously we ended up going, but the way that I kinda went into a dad pitch and Jesse was involved and we did a little bit of good cop, actually good cop, good cop.

But I just said, listen, it's very difficult for the future Locke to understand what is being proposed right now. And that is cross country trips of any kind. Well, future Locke is not here, he's in the future. Right, you know what I mean. It is very difficult for your future self to look, you can't look back and appreciate

what you are about to experience in a cross country trip. And also, as someone who has lived an adult life for some time, I know how hard it is to come by a cross country trip. These aren't things that just present themselves, but I've never met someone who was like, I regret my cross country trip. I really regret it.

Now, I'm sure there are people who do, but most people are like, when I think about some of the formative experiences, when I think about some of the things that I remember in my life, oh, that cross country trip, like these are formative experiences and memories and I was like, you're not gonna regret going on this. You will regret saying no potentially.

So you sold the experience and your future self will thank you. Yeah, I've had to do that a number of times. I mean, did you say, and you know what? We're gonna be announcing our location and meeting with fans of mine at rest stops off the interstate. Nope. All across America.

All I did was relate- It'll severely slow down our progress. As we stopped at multiple rest stops, during the first rest stop stop, I did say, you know, there was a point in time about a decade ago where Link and I did a cross country trip and stopped and announced to our fans that we were stopping at various rest stops.

And instead of thinking it was weird, he was like, that's cool, man. It was cool. It was. If you're interested in that, you can just Google Mythical Road Trip. The videos are spread across two different channels. Of course, this is pre-GMM, so across the GMM channel and the main channel.

So you do some work to piece it together for yourself. Maybe there's a playlist. I am going to be, I took a lot of video, took a lot of pictures, including, we took a couple of those disposable film cameras that apparently take a week to develop, that's why they're not developed here. Oh, like a wedding.

Yeah, but between all of that visual media, if you're just listening to the podcast, just know that the YouTube version of this is going to have a lot of that visual stuff. I'll show you some if it's needed for context as we go. I'll watch the video. Or you can just watch later. I'll watch the YouTube version.

But I don't wanna spend a lot of time on my phone. So. How much planning did you have? I mean, was this, I mean, so he, you sold him. Let's, where did you pick up where you left off here? So it was like. He was like, I'll do it, Dad. We're gonna leave on the 26th.

Did he have any stipulations? Was he like? Well, one of the things that he had to do is he had two, he has two things to do. He's taking a, like a German course that's outside of his school. Because before he transferred high schools a long time ago, he was in the German curriculum,

and so he needs to finish to get to, I think he's doing AP German, I don't know what it is. Car manufacturing, what was it? It was just the language of German. Oh, just the language. And so he needed to do that because he's gotta finish it by mid-January, so he needed to spend some time doing homework.

He's also currently applying to more colleges than the ones he's already applied to. So we needed to do some like essays and stuff like that. And I was like, listen, we've got this giant SUV that's way too big for us, it's super comfortable. It's like a mobile classroom. It's like one of those families that has a school bus that just takes their kids around

doing homework all the time. So there'll be plenty of opportunity for homework because I'm gonna drive, it's a rental car. You're not allowed to drive this thing. So you're gonna be able to do a lot of homework. He was like, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, all right. But this is like the 23rd or so, 22nd, 23rd, when we made the call to cancel the Mexico trip

and decided to do this. So in terms of preparation, actually, I let Jenna know that I was doing this cross-country road trip and she was like, well, you should check out the website, roadtrippers.com. And I did, and that was actually, thank you for that, Jenna, that was very helpful because what you end up doing is you basically go on there and you set your destination,

your origin and your destination, and then it has, it creates a corridor around the route, like a 30 mile wide corridor, which in my case was on 40, because I was gonna take 40, because I didn't wanna just go, I wanted to get home, but I wanted to be able to experience some stuff as well,

but I didn't wanna do one of these things where you're like going up north. Also, winter weather was happening and I'll talk a little bit more about that. We actually had to divert our route because of that, but I wanted to stay 40 or south. I didn't want to go too far to the north. And this, I mean, it's a cool site where you just,

you see things organized by category and you click on them and you can just add them to your trip. And of course you can, then it's like, it automatically sends that navigation to your navigation app on your phone. So you've got the mobile app, you've got the computer and with the information and like people's reviews of these different places and things to do.

Do you have to buy a subscription for this? Here's how they get you. So I'm sitting there planning my trip and I'm about like four or five destinations in or four or five destinations in, or four or five stops in, and then it was like, to add a seventh destination, or for unlimited destination adding, please sign up for our subscription service.

And I was like, boy, I've spent an hour so far doing this. And so there was a genius system. And so I ended up paying like the yearly fee to basically subscribe to the thing. But I don't regret it. Even though the chances of using it again, they know are very low, it wasn't for you. Yeah, well, I'm going to not pay again

or I'll probably forget and pay again. Exactly. This is how they make their money and I have no regrets. Right. And so all we knew is that we wanted to get to LA by like New Year's Eve. So if you go from the 26th to New Year's Eve, that's a total of six days.

Me and you went pretty aggressively when we went with our U-Haul and I think we did five days or so. I think it was either four or five. It was not six. I'm 100% sure of that. How did we do that? Well, it's not that hard as you're about to find out. Even when you take multiple stops,

more stops than me and you did. The only stop we took for ourselves was the Grand Canyon. All the other ones were just to meet Mythical Beasts. Yeah, so the Grand Canyon was on the itinerary. Didn't happen for reasons I'll explain in a second. Now at Joe Fresh, get 20% off children's active wear only until Wednesday, August 14th. Shop smart with one cart

and check everything off your back to school list all in one place. Now that's some smart shopping. Conditions apply. See in store or joefresh.com for details. Okay, so based on the amount of hours that we needed to be on the road, I had an estimation of like,

we need to kind of hit like an eight hours of driving per day or so to kind of keep the pace up. Woo! Now. That's a lot. I don't think, I think for a leisurely pace, you don't wanna go much more than five, if you're me. I disagree, and that's what I thought going in.

Your vehicle makes all the difference in the world. You know when I took my solo trip and I took my FJ, like my 2007 FJ that's got big tires on it, makes all kinds of noise and it's just not a great car for going long distances, it's a great car for getting over rocks and stuff. Yeah. I was absolutely mesmerized at the size of the country

and all I did was go into like Nevada and then come back down to California. I was in a, this is not an ad for a Ford Expedition, but I was in like a new Ford Expedition and something about how smooth the ride was made both Locke and I come to the conclusion that the United States isn't that big. That's actually how we, we would drive and we'd be like.

But sitting for eight hours is a long time. It wasn't that bad, I mean, and I'll talk to you about some of the ways that we kill time. Does it have a standing driving? Yeah, it's a standing desk situation. The top goes up and you just sort of like stand. That would be awesome. I mean, those sprinter vans should have that.

But then it's really hard to like control the gas and brake pedal while standing. Right, that's probably why that's illegal. But no, it didn't seem like, I was thinking, Well, UPS drivers are kind of standing. I told Locke, I was like, dude, mom and Shepard get back on the second, you go back to school on the third,

as long as we're back before the second. I set really, really low expectations for how much we needed to move. And he was on board with that. But we did have a place that we wanted to get on night two, which I'll explain in a second. So first off, we wanted to go and stop and stay the night in Nashville,

which is about seven and a half, eight hours from Fuquay Varina, which was our point of origin. Which would you have thought that? All the way to Nashville, Tennessee, just like seven or eight hours? It's pretty close. I would have said yes, that's pretty far. Okay.

Yeah, I don't need to be asking. I wasn't in an Yeah, I don't need to be asking. I wasn't in an expedition. I don't need to be asking you like how long things feel and mileage and time though, because things kind of break down pretty quickly. All I knew is that I wanted to stop. We wanted to get out on the road very early. So the night before, Locke wasn't staying with us.

He was staying with his cousins and I was staying with Jessie's parents and I was like, bro, you just bring your stuff over, get your clothes washed. Telling the 17 year old the things that 17 year olds need to know before they leave and I was just like, be ready. He basically wasn't ready until very late that night.

He went and hung out with his cousins, but he was ready. We woke up, well no, that right before, sorry, right before we went to bed. I forgive you. I'm going, I'm asleep. It's 1130. I'm gonna get up at like 630 and we're gonna get on the road at 7am. That's the plan. He knocks on the door, wakes me up, he's like, Dad, I broke my crown. So Locke has a crown on his front, one of his front teeth right here on the, whatever that middle tooth, the incisor.

Okay. And it had cracked right across the front. Now, thankfully, my father-in-law is a dentist and we were staying at his home and he was still up. And then, so he was like, okay, I can fix it tomorrow. And then he was like, oh no, tomorrow's Sunday, I won't have any assistance. And then he's like, let me look at it.

He looks at it, he's like, ah, you're fine until you go to California. At that point, I thought we were gonna be delayed. It was a crack, but it didn't break off. The facing of it had cracked off, but it wasn't exposing the tooth, the root or anything like that, or the nerve. So right off the bat, I was-

Little intrigued. I was a little tense, like. But we did end up leaving at 7 a.m. First stop was gonna be in Asheville because if you're going to Nashville, you should stop at a town that rhymes with it before you get there. That's a rule of thumb.

The app told you that? Yeah, and I knew definitively that I wanted to eat at Biscuit Head for lunch. Biscuit Head is a restaurant in Asheville. There's actually three locations. I didn't know that. This is a place that, you know, specializes in biscuits. Oh, my mouth is watering.

And those big, tall, stacked, fluffy buttermilk biscuits with like bacon, egg, and cheese inside. I'm gonna tell you exactly what we ordered. Now, so I was in large part building the trip around food. You know, that's what I think about most of the time. So I was like, we're not going to have a bad meal on this trip. We did, which I'll get to in a second.

But the plan was to not have a bad meal on this trip. It was about the destinations and the sightseeing, but it was also about the food, and we wanted to get started on the right foot. Now, I didn't know this, but the whole biscuit head of it all, apparently there's something called a cat head biscuit, which is a Southern vernacular for,

essentially biscuits and gravy, like when you take a biscuit and you put stuff over the top of it. I don't know, they said something like that on the menu. I was like, oh, I didn't know this. I've been to this place several times. But we got the Filthy Animal, which is a buttermilk biscuit with fried chicken

on top of it, pimento cheese, bacon, scrambled eggs, all smothered in gravy. If you go there, this is their specialty. You gotta eat it with a fork.. You gotta eat it with a fork. You definitely gotta eat it with a fork. Can't be driving. This is what I recommend, that you get the Filthy Animal.

Everything's good though. So, Lux. Keep the change. Already having a great time, you know. We're spending a lot of time listening to music. I'll talk a little bit about some artists that I helped him discover along the way. But we're having a good time and we were just very,

sort of like, man, we got here real fast. It feels like we just got to Asheville real fast. We eat, but we wanna get to Nashville. Because I'm like, not only are we going to Nashville to get some hot chicken, but I wanna show him downtown Nashville and show him the honky tonks and all this stuff. So on to Nashville, which we end up arriving in Nashville

at like 3.30 p.m. or so. We got there with plenty of time to spare. Now, you probably already know this if you live outside of some major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles. But COVID does not exist in Nashville, Tennessee. Apparently has not made it there, which is news to me. I think they completely eradicated it mentally. Yeah, exactly.

It turns out that most of the country has eradicated COVID mentally. Yeah. It does not exist in any of the states after Nashville until I got to like Phoenix. And again, as I kind of outlined a couple of podcasts ago, as someone who's double vaxxed and boosted, we were both double vaxxed and boosted, I was kind of like, listen,

I kind of got to just go along with the flow of America here on this trip or else I'm gonna drive myself crazy. So that's essentially what we did. But we were gonna do, the main thing I wanted to do in Nashville was to get hot chicken. So we took a little tour of downtown, stepped inside a honky tonk where, you know, I like to, I go into the places where, first of all,

it's a little bit mind blowing for even if you've never been there for like Locke, it was really mind blowing to just walk up and down this street and literally every single restaurant has got a person, a band playing music, right? Yeah, including Taco Bell. Now, a lot of it is very bad. I would say the majority of the music that I heard coming out of those places is very bad. I would say the majority of the music

that I heard coming out of those places is pretty bad. I'm not a huge fan of modern country. It gets better the later you stay. But you go to a place where there's guys, somebody's got gray hair, you're like, that's a good sign. There's a dude who's playing a pedal steel who looks like this may be his last time ever playing the pedal steel,

and he may die while on stage. Yeah. You know you're in, and also there's hardly anybody in there watching except some other old people. I saw that place and I was like, this is where we need to go. We go inside.

Over the course of like five songs, they played three Merle Haggard songs. Do you remember which one it was? I can't remember the place that was our favorite from when we played at the Ryman. I don't remember the name of the place, honestly. It was a woman's name. But it was towards the river and pretty close

to the Glen Campbell Museum and a little road to go off to get to the Johnny Cash Museum, which I didn't go into, we just kinda took a picture for Shepard, because Shepard's a huge Glen Campbell fan. And they would lock in there, underage? Dude, there's no rules, man. Okay. In fact, the waitress offered him a beer.

I mean, he doesn't look 17, he looked. No. And I was like, ah, let's not do that. So we did that, but then it was all about the hot chicken. Now- Yeah, I'm curious, where did you go? So my experience, the first time I ever had authentic Nashville hot chicken,

which a lot of people are like, you talk about spicy chicken? Hopefully if you've watched Good Mythical Morning, you know that hot chicken is not spicy chicken. It is its own category. It's not like the spicy chicken sandwich you get at McDonald's, okay? This is a very specific recipe and it's very good.

And it's one of my favorite things. The breading is very red. Yeah, it has a lot of spice mixed into the breading and then it's got like a coating of like dry but also a little bit wet, you gotta just have it. So the best I've ever had is Hattie B's in Nashville. But I had even heard that Hattie B's was not the originator of hot chicken.

We were told when we went there that Bolton's chicken and fish, hot chicken and fish was the originator. And we went there and it was very, very good. Very down home. But it turns out that that's also not true. Bolton's is not the first person to do it. The first place to do it is Prince's Hot Chicken.

I never even heard of Prince's Hot Chicken, but I'm telling- I told you about Prince's Hot Chicken. I thought you told me about Bolton's. No, no, no, when we went to, when I took the kids to the wedding in Nashville last year, we went to Prince's. Did you go to the one in Assembly Hall?

Or did you go to the original location? It was on a, I think the original location after the fire. Okay. Not the original, original. It was in a strip mall. I have. We waited way too long for it. Well, I blocked that out of my mind

and I probably about to tell you something that you already know, but just let me tell you. So Assembly Hall is like a sort of like a food court on steroids, a mall. Near downtown? Right across the street from the Ryman. Yeah. That's where you went.

There's a Prince's there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a Hattie B's there. It's new, there wasn't when I went. There wasn't when I went. Okay. Okay. All right, so. But I went to the Hattie B's there,

which it must be right in the same place. Prince's is upstairs in the food court area, Hattie B's is down in the outdoor mall area. So you went for Princess. Okay, Locke and I got into this discussion and I was like, listen, I'm gonna tell you right now, I've never had better hot chicken than Hattie B's. But I've also never had Princess

and everyone is saying that Princess is the original place. And then we go online and we're looking at all these lists of the places that you should have hot chicken and like list after list is like go to Prince's for the original. It's everyone is just trying to imitate that. It's true. So I was like, well, okay.

I mean, it's not gonna be a disappointing experience. I mean, it may not be as good as Hattie B's, you know, side by side comparison or whatever. But the thing that Locke said, he was like, dad, but there's a lot of people in line at Hattie B's and there's not a lot of people in line at Prince's. And I was like, well, that's just because it's upstairs in this place and Hattie B's is a better location.

But I was also like, okay, you just tell me which one you wanna do. And he was like, I think we should go to the place that has more people at it. And I was like, but what about the original? I take full responsibility for this because I talked him into going to Prince's. I can't believe I did the same thing.

But you got to rectify it. Yeah, I went to Hattie B's the next day. Well, I wasn't able to do that because I had to leave. Let me just tell you right now, and once I got up there and we put our order in, and by the way, we also got t-shirts that said Princess Hot Chicken because we're getting t-shirts. You were ready for it.

I got a hat at Biscuit Head. We're getting memorabilia all over the place. Oh, we have wardrobe. That's what a road trip's all about. That's a good idea. So we order a couple of like medium hot chicken sandwiches which typically medium is like super hot if you have any experience with hot chicken, you never get that.

The hot's like hotter than anyone can handle and there's two levels above that and it's just kind of like comical to even think about, right, typically. So I noticed that there's a lot of people in line. There's a lot of people waiting, not a lot of people in line but a lot of people waiting and then at that point is when I go to the specific Yelp reviews,

not for Prince's but for this Prince's location, which is like not the original location, it's like the mall location for lack of a better word. Yeah, it's the tourist trap downtown. And I begin to get a sinking feeling because people are like, this place is so poorly managed. It's not gonna be representative of hot chicken. It's just a piece of chicken

with some sauce kind of dolloped on it. And then I'm just thinking, these people, there's no way it's that bad. There's no way a place that has this reputation is letting this happen. I mean, it's not gonna be bad. I mean, at the worst, it's just gonna be a good fried chicken sandwich.

It was the most disappointing culinary experience I've ever had in my entire life. Man, I wish you would have gone just downstairs to the Hattie B's right afterwards. Well, the line to Hattie B's- Or remember what I told you because it was so good. I wasn't sure that you said Prince's. It's touristy.

I mean, everything in that area is for tourists, but like Hattie B's, they've made, they've optimized the tourist experience with some of the things that they offer. Well, but it's also, it's just good. I mean, it's good and it's consistent. And I should, and so lesson learned for me, first of all, I had to apologize profusely to Locke.

We ended up getting like some Jenny's ice cream after. I almost was like, let's just go and get, write it back in line and just get Hattie B's. But that line was probably an hour long and we kind of were tired and wanted to go to bed. But I can't speak for the original Prince's location, but if the Prince's Enterprise is allowing any location to be as horrible as the one in Assembly Hall,

then I'm never going. I will never go. You lost your opportunity to gain me as a fan. Hattie B's is amazing. I didn't have a good experience either. And Bolton's is really good, but Hattie B's is the standard. You shouldn't go to the place that created it,

you should go to the place that perfected it, and they have perfected it. At least for tourists, I totally agree. By the way, there's a hip hop themed pizza restaurant right across the way from it in that same thoroughfare, and I recommend that place too. Well, if I had to spend multiple days, next time I come through, I know what I'm doing.

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We stayed at the Graduate Hotel on Music Row. I don't know if you know about this place, but it's basically a country music themed hotel that has some awesome decor and like pictures of Dolly Parton in the lobby. Oh, that's cool. And your key, your cards for getting in and out of your room are like student IDs.

I had like Waylon Jennings' student ID and Johnny Cash's student ID is like what you have as your key to open your door. Student ID. This made up, it's not a real thing. I don't think they ever had student IDs. Emmylou Harris, a portrait of her was over my bed. Oh.

I can't remember who was over Locke's bed. I've got pictures, you're probably seeing them at this point, but that was a fun experience. Also shout out to the front desk, their mythical beast at the graduate, at least those that I interacted with that night. But we got up the next morning. You get a chocolate on your pillow, a night chocolate.

They don't do that. It's not a country music thing. I mean, for you. So next day we're up and the goal is to get to Chester, Arkansas. Never heard of it. No reason to have heard of it until today. Hopefully I'm gonna give you a reason to hear about it.

But we were gonna go through Memphis. So we knew we were gonna stop in Memphis. And again, I'm thinking about two things. I'm thinking about- Ribs and ribs. I'm thinking about stopping at Central Barbecue, which has the best ribs we've ever had. If you remember the- I'm crying, man. Our Memphis trip where we decided on what the best ribs we've ever had. If you remember the- I'm crying, man.

Our Memphis trip where we decided on what the best ribs were and it was clearly Central Barbecue, wanted to stop there. But the downtown location is directly across the street from the Civil Rights Museum, which is at the Lorraine Hotel, which is where MLK was shot and killed. And I've never been in there and I was like, this will be a cool thing for a father and son to do.

We get to have this incredible meal. And then we get some, essentially some sobering US history in the middle of our trip. But turns out that the Central Barbecue location was closed at that for some reason, it was closed. And I was like, well, I've got my heart set on this. So I had to drive 15 minutes to the original Central Barbecue location,

which is on Central Avenue. I didn't know about this. So now I've seen the other one. It's a lot like the second one. So you were at the MLK Museum, but since Central Barbecue was closed, you didn't go in the museum. Well, it was lunchtime.

We were super hungry. You had to get to Central Barbecue. I mean, we wanted to spend a couple of hours at the museum. I wasn't about to go in there. We were also, we weren't eating breakfast. We were like getting a coffee when we woke up and it was like, we're gonna, then we eat lunch. You were famished.

I've been doing like an intermittent fasting thing and lock is amenable to pretty much anything. So that's what we decided to do. It was also, you can kind of get on the road and just go. So go to the original Central Barbecue location. I gotta say, I love Central Barbecue, but for me, the thing that shines is the ribs and everything else is kind of just like good barbecue,

but not great barbecue. I don't remember if that was your experience, if you remember. We were already so full when we got the spread from Central Barbecue when we went there. We were on a rib mission, so did the ribs hold true? The ribs are so good! The ribs, but I got ribs, pulled pork,

and I ordered chicken, I thought I was ordering the smoked chicken, but they gave me the shredded chicken, like the pulled chicken. This is a little dry. And again, I think I said that the Rendezvous beans were better, I got beans and they're not bad, but it's really, just get the ribs. If you're a rib person, get the ribs.

But going back to the Civil Rights Museum, which again- So you did go back to the Civil Rights Museum. Oh yeah, I wasn't gonna not go. That's what I was asking, you seemed like you were just like, I have to make a choice and it's gonna be for the ribs. No, no, no, no. I'm saying that we wanted to eat at Central Barbecue then we were gonna go back to the Civil Rights Museum. Oh, I didn't know you went back. I mean, it's still be for the- No, no, no, no, I'm saying that we wanted to eat at Central Barbecue, then we were gonna go back

to the Civil Rights Museum. Oh, I didn't know you went back. I mean, it's still in the same town. I'm driving across the country, 15 minutes isn't gonna be that big of a deal. You're on an expedition. So we go to the museum. Everything seems so quick. And I mean, listen, I mean, you can imagine

the sort of intensity of the experience of the Civil Rights Museum, but I can't really say anything to communicate that. I just gonna tell you, if you're in Memphis, you should go to it, right? And I think that the story of the hotel and how after he was killed there on the balcony, the story of the thing falling into disrepair and then like local leaders coming together

and saying we wanna save this hotel and then they literally built the museum around it and inside of it but kept the two rooms right there, the one that he stayed in and the one that I think they had a meeting in or one that he was shot in front of, they kept them intact and then they've added some like things of like this is what would have been on the table and here's like the ashtray with cigarettes

that they had been smoking and stuff. It's just a really well done museum that has so much information. I actually felt bad because there's so much information to read and to digest. And there's so many cool things to watch and experience as you go through. But when you're on a road trip and you're kind of like,

we have to get to Chester for reasons I'll get to in a second, so we actually only did like two thirds of the museum, there's a whole other side which kinda goes underground and I think goes up to the place where the shot was fired or gets close to it, I didn't go in so I'm not sure, I'm speculating, but definitely recommend that and it was very, just seeing the spot,

seeing the, like hearing the story and then like standing up there right next to where he was shot is just like a, it's a sobering experience for anyone. Okay. But then on to Chester, Arkansas. So that was what was kind of driving us to get to Nashville, then to Memphis, then to Chester to Arkansas. So that was what was kind of driving us to get to Nashville, then to Memphis,

then to Chester to spend the night. So we talked a lot about Lance and Lacey of Beard and Lady, some really good friends of mine and of ours, who Beard and Lady makes all the, you know, the Mythical Grooming products, and also helped us kind of come up with the idea originally for beard oil and lip balm and all that stuff. Well, Lacey is from this area of Arkansas,

which is right off of 40 as you're coming through because most of our trip was on 40. I mean, they're like literally like 15 minutes from 40. So as soon as I'm mapping through, I'm like, hold on, this goes right through Arkansas. And then I was like, this is like right next to where they got this hotel. So they have bought this historic,

like 100 year old hotel in Chester, which is a very teeny tiny town. And they have- Build a museum around it. No, it's not like the museum. They have restored it and it's called the Bearden Lady Inn and it has three components. Number one, it's a hotel with 11 rooms.

So it's kind of like a boutique hotel. I'll tell you about the rooms in a second. It also has a restaurant that serves like local Arkansas, wild game and stuff. By the time this goes out and you're listening to this, it will be basically they're opening up the restaurant like as we speak. All this information is at beardandladyn.com,

but there's also a mercantile, so like a store where they sell Mythical products, but also a bunch of other stuff from local vendors. If you're like a Northwest Arkansas person and you've got something cool to sell, like there's so much room in this incredible facility they've set up that you can, you know, and they're doing all kinds of stuff there.

I mean, I highly recommend it if you're coming through because it's just like, it's definitely the coolest place that we stayed, even cooler than Graduate, just because of the history of this place. And also it's haunted. Is it? Yeah. So it has a reputation.

In fact, as they were, you know, they bought this thing a couple years ago and then they slowly restored it and they said that like locals would come by and be like, you seen a ghost yet? You know, like basically this place is notorious for being haunted. So I think it'll also be a destination

for like paranormal seeking people. Doesn't that play into the theme? I see. Yeah, so. You remember you Yeah. So the theme of the rooms is there, it's either fear of something or it's just a general theme about a life experience. And so, but it's kind of funny in that, like I stayed in the fear of commitment room, right? And so Lacey's family history goes way, way back

in that area and her grandparents were like incredible collectors or archivers of their family history and pictures and stuff. And so they've got these pictures in that room that I stayed in, there's all these pictures of her grandparents and relatives and their like wedding portraits and pictures of them together throughout the years, all this old like,

like 10 type, old school black and white photography. And everything's- Basically tells the story of commitment. Yeah, so it's like, okay, if you've got fear of commitment, let's see all these people around you that are committed to one another. Interestingly, one of the rooms,

which I think is fear, it might be fear of death. You can go on the website and see all the rooms, but her grandparents, her great grandparents, are the only people known on record, at least on record at the time, to request a dual coffin. What? They died within hours of each other, and a dual coffin was made for them,

and there's pictures of them in the coffin in the room. What? It's incredible. So is it, okay, first of all, how did they die so closely? Because I guess the first thing I thought was, okay, one of them dies, you bury them, then you gotta dig it up and throw the other person in there?

Yeah, I think it was. They were counting on dying at the same time? I think that the circumstances led to, she died or he, one of them died first and the other one knew that they were about to die, I don't know if the same, I can't remember the story of the same disease or whatever. Throw us in the same coffin.

I think it was like a last minute request like that and they totally did it. It was crazy. Was it a wider coffin? Yeah, like a square. It's like a square coffin. What? Yeah, there's and they totally did it. It's crazy. Was it a wider coffin? Yeah, it's like a square. It's like a square coffin. What? Yeah, there's pictures of them in it. Dead bodies in it.

Yeah, well see, but you don't have to stay in that room. It's all about your level of comfort and there's one room that is known as the haunted room. I didn't stay in, first of all, the whole place is potentially haunted, right? But there's one room that is right above the place where a guy once like froze to death in like this little, I think this like saloon that was attached to it.

Again, all these stories in more detail are on the website. But I didn't stay in that room, but we walked, they're just opening and so there was one other couple that was staying there that night and then it was me and Locke and we stayed in adjoining rooms. You know, Lansing Lacy's history of like traveling multiple times to the Middle East

over their 20s and 30s. And so there's, and they've got all these like artifacts and like a camel saddle and all this stuff. That was connected to my room. So the Middle East room, which is not a fear of anything, it's just a Middle East theme room. And then I was in the fear of commitment room, and then there's a bathroom attached to that,

and so we kind of had adjoining rooms. Okay. But it's really hard for me to convey how cool and unusual of a space it is and the thing that they're trying to do, because it's on the railroad, and they're currently basically lobbying to get it added as a stop,

so you can be in one of the major city centers that's close by north and south. Take a train to it. And you can take a train and it'll let you off. And they've also bought a church, like this hundred year old church in a nearby place that the whole idea is that people, and I think this is already,

they've had a couple of wedding parties because it's a really cool thing to run out of the whole hotel and have an event. And they bought this church and the idea is that in the future people will get married at this venue. And then die in the hotel. And then go to the hotel. And again, if you're into paranormal stuff, it's great.

If you're not, there's plenty of options and plenty of rooms to stay in that are not, but it was one of the coolest stops that we made. And then they kind of took us on a tour of the family land and some other stuff the next morning. And we got to see some of Northwest Arkansas, which is a special place. Special place.

Special place, huh? Hilly? Yeah, actually it's pretty mountainous. I would say, I would call it, it feels like you're in the North Carolina mountains. And I mean, essentially, I think it's a different mountain range, right? Because it's like the Ozarks.

Okay. But it has that feel of like very wooded mountains that you just feel like you get lost in, lots of lakes and stuff, lots of streams and rivers. That's cool. But I didn't see- That would be night two. Yeah, I didn't see anything. No ghosts. I didn't see any ghosts

and I was very open to it and I was like standing in there at night, sort of staring into the mirror waiting for things to happen. Oh. I was embracing it. I was like, if something's gonna happen, I wanna be here for it, but the ghosts left me alone. 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. Again, beardandladyin.com. That's not my rec, but it is a rec. You should go and check it out. Next stop, Oklahoma City.

Already in Oklahoma. Mm-hmm. Cow country. I mean, you drive for two days and you're in Oklahoma, basically. See, the country's not that big, Link. Oklahoma City. I don't think I've ever been there.

I have been to Oklahoma City. Well, you have because you went through on 40 with me. Well, we went through it, but I don't think we stopped ever been there. I have been to Oklahoma City. Well, you have because you went through on 40 with me. Well, we went through it, but I don't think we stopped. We may have just stopped. I think you've been as a basketball player. Yeah, the AAU National Championship in 1996 was in Oklahoma City and my team went to play in the National Championship.

Did you lose? We didn't win. Okay, you forfeited. What other option is it? Well, no, we placed like 12th in the national championship. Did you lose? We didn't win. Okay. You forfeited. What other option is it? Well, no, we placed like 12th in the country. It wasn't like you don't. You weren't personally in the national championship. It was all the best AAU teams in the nation.

You were in the tournament, but not in the final. It's like almost top 10, we're pretty good. Okay, you're in the top 10. Only thing I remember when you came back was, I think that's when you told me that you were sleeping in bunk beds and that your roommates, your teammates and roommates would bring back girls to sleep in there

or do something besides sleep in their bunk beds. It wasn't bunk beds, it was like a split level condominium. And so we were all sleeping in like pull out, there was bedrooms, but there was also pull out couches. And me and a guy were sleeping in a pull out bed together upstairs in the loft. But then there were two of our other teammates who were downstairs in another bed

in the middle of the living room and they were bringing girls into that bed and proceeding to make love to them. And there was lots of open, it was the first time I'd actually like been in a room with someone else making love. There were four of them in one bed? No, I think that one guy would be like,

I'm gonna go do something else while you bring your girl in here and make love and then we'll switch. Okay, some coordination. I heard two different female sounds at different times. Yeah, but you stayed put. I wasn't really planning on talking about this,

but thanks for bringing it up. Yes, that is my previous Oklahoma City story. Okay, top that. But of course, what I'm interested in, the first thing I'm interested in is food. I got what I came for. The first thing I'm interested in is food, and we actually didn't quite get there

at the right time for a meal, but the place that I wanted to eat- At your age, yeah, much more interested in food than- Well, there's two things. The first thing was food. Sex. Talking about sex. Okay, there's two things. The first thing was food. Talking about sex. Okay, there's a restaurant that I think is called 39, which is at the First Nations Museum.

So there's this incredible Native American museum that's going up in Oklahoma. Of course, that was a lot of the Native American territory and reservations and stuff. And COVID has severely dampened the schedule for this thing, but you can see it as you're going by on 40, this incredible structure that's going up, but it just wasn't open yet.

It's not open yet, okay. But there's a restaurant that's gonna be there that it made it seem like it was open. It's called 39 because there's like 39 tribes that are local to that, to the state or to the region. And there was gonna be food from each one of those tribes on the menu. And I was like, this would be super cool,

but it wasn't clear that it wasn't open yet. I think it opened sometime this year. And the way I figured out some of this is through Atlas Obscura. Not all of this was on roadtrippers.com. So I had the roadtrippers.com up, but then I would like pull up Oklahoma City on Atlas Obscura, which is like a weird-

A website that shows interesting- Weird stuff. Stuff to- And weird things to do, weird things to see, weird things that exist that you can't have access to, but also weird things to eat, like weird restaurants. Huh, you gotta pay for that? No, that's all free.

Oh, that's free, I like that. But there was this thing called the Oklahoma City Underground, which they made seem cool. Okay. And this is essentially, like, okay, I love underground stuff. I've established this. I read a whole book about it

and I've always been obsessed with like the underneath cities kind of thing. And so I was thinking that this was gonna be something like the Parisian catacombs or something, you know, like, but it's Oklahoma City. I should have, you know, changed my expectations. Yeah, maybe there's a subway and like a- All it is- A hardware store.

Is the downtown Oklahoma City has been connected via pathways that are underneath the ground. Let's call those tunnels. Tunnels. Let's call them underground walkways because you Let's call those tunnels. Tunnels. Let's call them underground walkways because you get too excited about tunnels. They feel like hallways though. Oh.

And there's like, oh, it's home to art galleries. What they mean by that is that there's a few places where all of a sudden there'll be pictures on the wall and there'll be like purple lighting or red lighting or yellow lighting, like it's all lit. But then there's these signs that say like progress energy building, so and so government building. It's just like buildings that I'm not interested in going to

and probably wouldn't have access to connected via underground. You know what, it reminds me of like the suspended walkways in Minneapolis. It's the same exact principle. It was like above ground tunnels so that you didn't have to be out in the weather. Yeah, it's similar to that.

Maybe it's because it's so hot. But it seemed like a maze and it wasn't really a cool place because it kinda cramped. It's exactly the same thing. And I actually think there are some skywalks that are part of it once you get to some of the buildings that are close together.

All I can say is it's not very cool. I think we did take a dump in one of the bathrooms there the buildings that are close together. All I can say is it's not very cool. Okay. I think we did take a dump in one of the bathrooms there. Skip that one, man. It seemed super isolated and there was nobody around. You were picturing like catacombs. I'm sorry, man. Well, I wasn't picturing catacombs.

I was picturing that this was something that existed in the past and had been commandeered for these purposes versus something that was built relatively recently is the way that it feels. It feels too sterile and just not cool enough so we kinda walked probably like half a mile and realized it was all the same and walked back out and that was it, that was Oklahoma City for us.

Oklahoma City proved to be a disappointment. My first trip back when I listened to people have sex was definitely a better trip. So you didn't top it. But let's just move on. Onto Amarillo. And of course, By Morning. When you're going into Amarillo,

this is the perfect opportunity to introduce your son to the music of George Strait. Oh yeah. Famously known for Amarillo by Morning. And I think more number one country hits than any country artist. That sounds right to me. Were you coming up from San Antone?

No, we were coming from the east of Oklahoma City. Was everything that you got just what you got on? No, we had a whole truck full of things. Yeah. You didn't have a dime, but what you had was mine. None of the song applied to us. In fact, we weren't trying to get there by morning. We were trying to get there to sleep.

What a good song though. Did you play it? Oh, we played't trying to get there by morning, we were trying to get there to sleep. What a good song though. Did you play it? Oh, we played that and then proceeded to play, basically you just go to Spotify and you just play the most popular stuff from George Strait and you just remember like, oh yeah, that one and that one. And it's not like my favorite country music of all time, but you immediately understand

why he had so many number one hits because first of all, he had great songwriters and he was a great, great deliverer, deliverer of- Baby blues. I mean, he was just so good. Did you hear that one? He was such a, yeah, we went through a bunch of them. Yeah, Christie got me the George Strait CD box set

when we were dating and that, I mean, that was special. There's a lot of romance in there. Yeah, his most popular songs are the love songs. Like even the whole string through the 90s, like Check Yes or No and all that stuff, which just gets a little cheesy. When I go back and listen to it now. And the 80s is my sweet spot.

I wasn't able to differentiate as a youngin. I wasn't able to differentiate, as a youngin', I wasn't able to differentiate between how good like Amarillo by morning was compared to Check Yes or No. You know what I mean? Like I'm sure that Check Yes or No was preferred in the 90s, but yeah, I liked that old sound. The chair, you played the chair for him? Oh yeah, yeah.

You didn't tell him ahead of time? I had, the chair I had played for him before, but not really as an introduction to George Strait and all his music. It was more just like, hey, this is one of the classic country songs. Was he into it? He loved it.

He loved it. And then he would do things like, he would take a picture of us and put it on his Instagram and then Amarillo La Morning would be like, on his story would be like the music that was playing. Okay, okay. Locke was having the time of his life being introduced to some,

he knows pretty much all the music that I've listened to, but I was digging a little bit deeper on this trip. Yeah. Dig a little deeper, that's Diamond Rio. That's a different. Well, hang on for Diamond Rio. Oh. So one of the things that Locke wanted to do,

I was like, okay, we're gonna get to Amarillo and we're gonna spend the night. And then there's something we're gonna see in the morning in Amarillo. But he was like, okay, we're coming into Texas. Like this is like Friday night lights, Dad. We gotta go to an ice cream place. Oh, that's what- He wanted to do like,

sit down at an ice cream place like they do on Friday Night Lights, right? Okay. So we go to this burger place. Tasty freeze time? Yeah, we go to this burger place and that's when he's like, and first of all, I can't remember the name of the place,

but it's the number one rated restaurant in Amarillo according to Yelp and it's like a hole in the wall burger place that also does ribeyes and it wasn't great. It just wasn't great. It just wasn't great. I've had a lot of really good burgers and it was, and people on Yelp were like, this is the best burger I ever had. Well, I feel sorry for you

because there's much better burgers. But then we saw this place pretty close by called Brahms. I don't know if you've ever, this is a chain in Texas that, yeah, Kiko's- B-R-A-H-M? B-R-A-U-M apostrophe S, and it has like an ice cream cone on it. So I was like, oh, an ice cream place, it's open.

We go in there, it's not just an ice cream place, it is a place that serves like burgers and stuff like that, milkshakes, but it also has ice cream, so it's got a bunch of places to sit, and it is a convenience store, all open together, it's like a dairy-themed convenience store, all open together, it's like a dairy themed convenience store with like milk and yogurt and stuff.

And gas station? Not a gas station. Okay. It is a restaurant. I've never been in a place like this in my life where you've got the restaurant over here and the convenience store over here and it's all open, there's no dividers and there's like a cashier up there with a menu and the ice cream.

Sounds like a truck stop to me. It was unlike anything ever, it was not any of those things you're saying. And this is a chain. Yes, it is a chain, very popular chain. And shout out to the staff of the Brahms and Amarillo, many of whom are Mythical Beasts. Did they give you a chocolate?

Well, I ordered my food, I'm not looking for freebies. No perks, man. Gotta get those perks. Locke wanted a banana split. Again, he was in this Friday night lights. He's like, I could get a banana. So he got a banana split. And first of all, I was not hungry at all, but I got a sundae and ate the whole thing.

Of course you did. That was, I came to regret that the next day. But then, at this point, we're staying in, we're using hotel hotel tonight and like staying at the Holiday Inn that's available. You know, I'm last minute, cause I wasn't as like sure where we would make it. So we're not doing like,

that night was not a destination hotel, right? But we wake up in the morning and I don't know if you remember this, we stopped there before, but right outside of Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch, which again is basically a farmer who decided that he was going to just plant Cadillacs. I guess he was trying to grow Cadillac trees.

Oh, I've not been there, but I've seen podo. So we didn't- I've seen podos. You've seen podos? I don't know why I said podos. It's weird that we didn't stop there because we literally drove past it. It's like if I read the word podos and had never heard it before. How you said pohotos?

So we stopped and got some podos at the Cadillac Ranch. It was so cold that morning, but literally all it is is like a cornfield or the crops were not currently planted. And just Cadillacs that, and of course. No entry fee. No entry fee and you can paint on them. Oh, you can?

There's a bunch of spray paint bottles and people are constantly tagging them to the point that like, there's the way that the paint is dripping off of them. It's created a whole new entity of a painted Cadillac. Very cool, great photo op or poto op. We did that. But the next thing we were trying to get to that day

was Albuquerque. Gotta get to New Mexico. Albuquerque. Now- Gotta get to New Mexico. Again, I always have like a food thing in mind and then I've got like a sightseeing thing in mind. The food thing that I had in mind was getting some of that New Mexican, like green chili type food,

which we stopped at a place, I can't remember the name of it, but it was good. We got like the authentic New Mexican cuisine, which is different than just regular Mexican food. There's an emphasis on the green chili sauce. But of course, Albuquerque is known as the place where Breaking Bad was filmed, which is one of my favorite shows of all time

and one of Locke's favorite shows of all time. We didn't watch it concurrently because I watched it a long time ago, then he watched it on his own like two years ago. So there are multiple- Which they didn't film it there. They filmed it, they filmed any exterior scene in Breaking Bad is in Albuquerque.

The car wash, Walter White's house, Jesse's house. Yeah, I remember the house. I knew, I guess the house was just like, I didn't know if it was a cheat. They shot there a lot, I guess. Lots of outside shots, places where they got in fights on the road, so I think they either shot, they shot a lot of it in Albuquerque, like a lot, I guess. Lots of outside shots, places where they got in fights on the road. So I think they either shot, they shot a lot of it in Albuquerque, like a lot of it.

Not just exterior locations. There's lots of things going on there. So were you gonna do like a driving tour? Yeah, so there's multiple sites that have put together the different stops. And like, okay, this part of town, you can see these things. This part of town, you can see these things. Of course, the thing that we were most excited about

was Walter and Skylar's house, the main house. Yeah. Now, I had kind of heard that, because none of this is official and this is just somebody's private residence, that the people who live there are not exactly thrilled about this. And in fact, in the thing that I looked up,

it said the people who live here are not happy about the fact that they own this historic house and they kind of want you to take your pictures from across the street and get out of there. So I was like, oh, okay, that's fine. I'll just take my picture from across the street and get out of there. Just annoy the neighbors

by being in front of their house. Well, I mean, how annoying is it for somebody to stop for a second? If it's a constant stream, I get it. Well, let me tell you, saying that they're not pleased with it or they don't think it is ideal is the understatement of the year, okay? We pull up to the house.

The first thing I notice- It's in a neighborhood, right? It's in a neighborhood. It's in just like a suburb. There is a fence that has been erected around the house, okay, that completely changes the look of it and changes the view somewhat. Chain link fence?

Uh, I've gotta, there's a picture, actually, I can't remember, it's not a chain link, I don't think, but you can kinda see through it, if I could, but it doesn't look the same. And then there's multiple signs on the fence and on the house that says, this is a private residence, take your pictures from across the street and move on,

or something like that. Oh wow. So we park across the street and then we get out and then I see that there is an older lady who comes out of the front door. Of the house? Of the house. And she just looks at me, and this woman looks mad. And she just stands there looking at me like this, crosses her arms, sets up and just makes eye contact

with me and just, and I'm thinking like, okay, and I'm like, I gotta say something. I'm like, hey, how you doing? You mind if we get a picture? And she said, I do mind. This is a private residence. It has always been a private residence and it will always be a private residence.

What, all these years later, the owner is having a face-to-face interaction with you about it and is this heated after all of this time? Her, I don't know when she bought the house. Oh my gosh. Pre or post. But the thing is, listen, at that point, I felt so sorry for her and the level of bitterness that is consuming her and her life that I was like, okay, no problem.

And instead of being an asshole and taking a picture or talking back to her, which I'm sure a lot of people do, I was just like, okay, and we got back in the car and just like, Locke was like, Dad, I told you that they didn't like it. I was like, you didn't tell me that it was this serious of a thing. He was like, no, no, Micah, my't like it. I was like, you didn't tell me that it was this serious of a thing. He was like, no, no, Micah, my nephew and his cousin,

Micah said she really hates it. It was like, you didn't tell me that. Your nephews had visited it? No, they just knew because Locke said that we were gonna do it and they were talking, looked it up online. And I was just like, man, I just, I couldn't wrap my mind around the like,

did this woman buy this house and then let them film there for a fee and never expecting that it would become this huge cultural phenomenon and now she just doesn't sell the house or did she buy the house after the fact and didn't fully know how popular it was? I mean, all these years later,

I mean, I'm sure every year that passes, less and less people visit. Sure, but. But as we were leaving, there was another person coming in. There was? Oh yeah. It is a constant stream of traffic. So I can only imagine how the neighbors feel.

I don't feel great about the fact that we did it, but you know, I also don't, we weren't, we were not intrusive and if she hadn't said anything, we would just gotten out of the car in the middle of the road taking a picture and just gone on. An annoyance, yes? So I don't really know what the way, if you're gonna be annoyed by it,

I think you have to sell the house to someone who would think it was cool. Or like Vince Gilligan should just buy the house from this woman and let people take all the pictures they want, I don't know what the solution is. Yeah, you've ruined this person's life unintentionally. Well. And then they can't sell it at a price

because of what it is that they would need to sell it for. Well that's the thing is that Lot was like, wouldn't the value go up? I was like, no, think about it. Whenever the number of people who are interested in a place goes down, which less people, more people would be turned off by the idea of buying a landmark that people would come to.

So if you lower the amount of people who are demanding the house, then the price of the house goes down, ironically, right? So. Lance and Lacey should buy it. And then turn it into a. To a hotel. Yeah.

So I don't know what the answer is. An Airbnb. But I felt bad about it. But like the rest of the neighborhood probably won't let them turn it into an Airbnb, but that's what should have happened. That's. Should be a freaking.

Yeah. Put Lance and Lacey on it. Well, but that was just the beginning of the tour's, yeah. Should be a freaking, put Lance and Lacey on it. But that was just the beginning of the tour because the next stop was the car wash, which I can't remember the name of the car wash in the show, but this is where the car wash that Walt buys to launder the money. And it is still intact and still functioning as a car wash.

And it's just very iconic shape. So we pull up to the car wash and there's a giant open parking lot right next to it, which makes it easy to kind of stop and just get a picture. And like the guys washing the cars kind of look at you like, yeah, this happens all day, every day. But it's the place of business. Yeah, it's not a big deal.

They don't care probably. There's a group of people who have just taken pictures in front of the car wash, who are also on the self-guided tour. They're getting back into their car and then Locke and I take a picture and take a little video out there and then we see them get back out of the car

and there's a girl who has this look on her face. I'm like, she must be a giant Breaking Bad fan because she's coming back for more. Turns out that she was a huge mythical beast. And it was just, you know, it was crazy. She's- Did you tell her, don't go to Walt's house? She's, I did, I said,

we just had an interaction with a lady, but, cause they had not been there yet, which was their next stop. I don't know if they went, but yeah. So I can't remember your name. You tweeted at me after the fact and I can't, I'm sorry I can't remember your name, but you know who you are.

We got some pictures out in front of the car wash. And then we continued on to- Did she give you a chocolate? Jesse Pinkman's house, which apparently they're not too keen on it, but they weren't there and there's no signs. And again, as we stopped to take a picture, another father and son in another car

were stopping right as we left. Like it's a constant stream because Breaking Bad is such an iconic show and so many points of reference for it. I mean, we've been to the Brady Bunch house in Toluca Lake. Well, in LA there's houses all over the place that you can go.

Like the Jamie Lee Curtis' Halloween house. Halloween house in Pasadena. Britain took me there and they have a little sign that says take your picture but keep your distance. Yeah. Actually they had candy on their porch and they were like feel free to take some candy, take a picture and thank you for being nice about this.

Yeah, to me it's, the main difference is like, if you live in New York City and you live in the city, well, there's all kinds of stuff going on right outside your front door constantly. It's a different lifestyle than what you would get in suburban Albuquerque. Yeah. But that would be my way of dealing with it,

would be like, hey, listen, people are gonna be constantly coming to our house and taking pictures. Just make sure they can't see in the windows and then if they come by, we can greet them. It's tough, it's listen, people are gonna be constantly coming to our house and taking pictures. Just make sure they can't see in the windows. And then if they come by, we can greet them. It's tough, it's tough, man. But I didn't sign up for it. I didn't let them film there and I didn't buy the house.

Okay, so that was Albuquerque. The next stop was supposed to be, we were gonna keep going west and then go up north to the Grand Canyon. We were actually gonna go to Monument Valley, that very famous drive in, I guess it's Arizona, New Mexico or Arizona, but it's like, you've seen it a million times,

one of the most iconic drives in all of America. Then there was a Horseshoe Bend, which is that crazy horseshoe you've seen on Instagram a thousand times, and then the Grand Canyon. But the winter weather was really rolling in to the tune of, it was going to be a high of like 18 degrees at the Grand Canyon and snowing. Oh.

And I'm in a expedition, it's not four wheel drive. Oh, it's not, okay. So I was like, the idea of getting up there and trying to drive through this snow and also it being so cold, I just said, we gotta pull an audible, we gotta go south. We're gonna miss the Grand Canyon, this is gonna be another time and place,

another time, same place, that we will see the Grand Canyon and all this other stuff. So I was scrambling that night, it was actually the night we stayed in Amarillo, I was trying to figure out like, well okay, after we stop in Albuquerque, where are we going? Phoenix? Well, what I determined was,

is that there were two really cool things that I wanted to see if we were to go south towards Tucson and yes, and then into Phoenix. Okay. The first, if you head south of Albuquerque, you can, if you're heading towards Tucson, you can kind of divert off and kind of go through some crazy wilderness and see something called

the Very Large Array. Now, I don't know if you remember, but like when we made the SETI song and we had like stock pictures of these satellites that are just all giant satellites like pointing towards the sky, that's the Very Large Array. It's the largest array of radio telescopes,

I think in definitely North America, maybe the world. I said it's 22 miles across and Locke thought I meant one satellite that was 22 miles across. So he was a little bit disappointed when we showed up there. It's just 22 miles across a field essentially of these giant, like once you get right up next to them, these giant telescopes that are making

all these incredible discoveries of- You can drive through them? Well, COVID had closed down the visitor center, which also includes a self-guided tour where you can like walk directly up to one without trespassing. We did walk pretty much up to one with a very minor trespassing

because it's just this middle of this field. Literally there's cows all around them. I mean, it's like cattle grazing out there. That drive out there is so incredible. That part of the country is just beautiful and desolate. And I mean, you drive and drive and drive and drive and you finally, oh, there's giant satellites on these like basically railroad tracks

is how they kind of like move them around or like do maintenance on them because there's just railroad tracks that go next to them. It's all operable. They're still listening for aliens. Okay, so I thought that the whole purpose of the thing was listening for aliens, but no, it's a government program where,

well, it might be private. The government is involved, NASA's involved, because they're using radio telescopes to discover black holes and all this information about the galaxy, so they're constantly scanning the skies using radio frequencies to essentially, that's how radio telescopes work, mapping and getting pictures of things

using radio frequencies. And they're incredibly sensitive and there's a bunch of them. But SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial, whatever, that thing, the people who are listening for extraterrestrial life out in the cosmos, they've partnered with them. So they basically have access to the stream of data

that all these satellites are gathering. But it's pretty crazy. I wish we could have gone in to the gift shop and gotten some souvenirs, but we just got some cool pictures. That's pretty much all we got. But the goal was to get to a place called Globe, Arizona, which is in the mountains, basically.

Arizona has quite a landscape. I don't know, I never heard of Globe. You would, there's no reason to, it was just a spot that kind of made sense for us to get to to then be able to go to our next stop the next day. But the problem with this is, even though I had, I was so thankful that we had gone south, but going through the mountains,

the elevation got up to like five or 6,000 feet. And we went through like blizzard like conditions. Really? Multiple times at night, trying to get to globe. And I was like blizzard-like conditions. Really? Multiple times at night trying to get to Globe. And I was like, we stopped in eight in this middle of nowhere town. And then I'm like looking at the elevation of where we're at and the elevation of where we need to get

and it's down. So I'm like, okay, well, it's not gonna get any worse than it is right now. I didn't know that it was gonna require me going up higher. And then, so there was like multiple times where I kind kinda got to snow just like blinding snow down the side of a mountain and I'm like, I'm freaking out, right?

And Locke's like, Dad, just relax. I'm like, I don't wanna get stuck. Are there other cars driving in this? Very few. That just kept scaring me too. There's just very few other people who have made a decision to be on the road and so I'm going pretty slow.

It took us a while. We finally get low enough where we start seeing some cactus and we're outside of the, it's all dark and I can kinda see them with my headlights. But we stop and spend the night in Globe again, just like we're just going with whatever's open at that point, just some hotel. You're just ramblers at this point.

Yeah. It's all blurring together. But we were headed for Biosphere 2. I got the t-shirt to prove it. Biosphere 2. I've watched a documentary all about Biosphere 2. And we talked about it pretty extensively on GMM a couple of years ago as well. Oh, I didn't, okay,

because I watched this much more recently. It's been years since we talked about it on GMM a couple years ago as well. Oh, I didn't, okay, because I watched this much more recently. It's been years since we talked about it on GMM. Because it started in the 70s, maybe earlier. No, it was in the 90s. It was the 90s? It was the, well. No. It was the, maybe the late 80s, early 90s.

Definitely they were wearing like 80s clothes. I thought it was 70s, but. Okay, maybe, well. Definitely 80s. It was definitely the 80s. It wasn't any earlier than that. I mean, they may have started research earlier than that. But I remember this from when I was a kid.

It's a private funded biosphere, self-contained human experiment of, well, an experiment of sending these humans into this, a team, it's kind of like astronauts, but they're going into this biosphere. And completely self-contained, so. And certifying that nothing's gonna go in or out. Including the air, just so,

so this was basically an experiment to see if human life can be sustained in one of these things and the applications could be on another planet or at the end of the world, that kind of thing. So the atmosphere was completely self-contained. The water that they used, completely self-contained. All they grew their own food, nothing for two years, nothing could come in or out.

Except for the breaches. Yeah. That then the press jumped all over, which is part of the, the documentary's pretty decent. I watched it on a plane. The thing that I was, so knowing a little bit about the history. For a plane ride, it was pretty decent.

Knowing a little bit about the history, I was like, who owns, okay, oh, the University of Arizona owns it now. I'm like, I wonder if they've completely covered, it says they're using it actively for research now. So I was just like, is this gonna be a place that is embarrassed by the history of biosphere? Because it was kind of a big embarrassment in a lot of ways

and a failure in a lot of ways. Are they gonna be embarrassed by it? And like, or are they still like, associated with the same people? And so they're like glossing over and trying to make it seem like it was better than it was. No, they fully embrace exactly what happened. And they've left a lot of it intact,

including like, this is an apartment where one of the people lived and you can look inside and see this is the kitchen, exactly how it was. So you took a tour inside? Yes, I went in every part of it. Oh, how long does that take? It took us about an hour and a half and we were going, we were moving pretty fast.

Okay, that's pretty cool. So in the heyday. But there's like a rainforest. You would be, you could go outside and you could spectate like you did the Breaking Bad house and like look through the glass. Because it was glass. And see the scientists working and stuff but of course you couldn't go inside because there were no breaches.

But this was one of the highlights of the trip. That's cool to see, because it's huge, right? So. It looks huge. It's a. Like a huge greenhouse. Inside is four acres, which if you can imagine a house that's four acres, that's a giant house. You know, people don't really- It's smaller than I thought though.

Well, but if you, but like think about most lots, if you have an acre of land in Los Angeles, that's like 10 times bigger than everybody else's house. Oh, sure. And then if the whole thing is covered with a house and you do that times four, it's massive once you get inside. And it's all still working and all still functional.

Like they have an indoor ocean, which at the time they had gone and collected coral and stuff and created an active coral reef in there. The coral reef has died because at some point, another Columbia University owned it before University of Arizona, and they kind of let the coral reef die for whatever reason, but it's still, they're actively studying some things

and they're actually gonna try to make it a coral reef again. There's just a number of like scientific elements of like the way that the energy was self-contained and then there was these giant, if you see the picture of biosphere, there's these giant domes. You can't go inside those, but those are basically giant diaphragms,

they're called lungs, to allow when the pressure, air pressure increases because of temperature changes, it expands and it's like a bubble that fills up to allow the pressure of the air to not bust the windows out. Oh, wow. Because it's unusual to have something that's so self-contained.

You gotta have some way to let the pressure come and go. And I do remember from the documentary that the inhabitants started getting really sick because the oxygen levels were so low. The oxygen levels went- And that's the first thing where they had to get some outside help for oxygen. Yeah, the oxygen level ended up going from like 21 to like 14 which makes you a little bit crazy

and it's also dangerous. Yeah, so it didn't quite work out, but highly recommend, this is right outside of Tucson, highly recommend a stop if you find yourself in that area. And they have a cool T-shirt. I would like to do that. Now, we're coming, the trip is about to come to a close. Yeah, you're getting close to home.

This is the 30th. And like the thought was, okay. Is now the time to like do the retrospective montage. No, you've seen quite a bit by this point. But we got to go through Phoenix. And the idea was, okay, let's just stop in Phoenix and then hang out in Phoenix and see what we can get into and then we'll stay in Phoenix.

But that was also when we looked and saw that Phoenix is only five and a half hours from LA. The classic, should we just get home conversation. Well, it wasn't we weren't gonna stop in Phoenix. It was like, do we need to stay in Phoenix? Let's just get home late and just sleep in our own beds. So we kind of determined to do that. But there's a couple of things about Phoenix.

I don't think I've ever actually been to Phoenix. I've been around it. They got a big belt line. Maybe we stopped there for a tour or something. I don't remember everywhere we've been, but like fifth largest city in America. Did you know that? Could not have told you that.

Behind like LA, New York, Chicago, and I guess Boston? You talking about square footage? People. People. Yes, and it's also, cause it includes like Scottsdale and some other places that you like have heard of as a city, but it's also really just Phoenix. Fifth largest.

It's giant. The thing I noticed about Phoenix is nothing against any of the other places that I visited, but Phoenix is the first place where I was like, just began to recognize, like. You're searching for the diplomatic way to say this. What is it?

I'll just say hipsters. Okay. You know, I was gonna say cool people. But I started to feel there was approximately- A hipster contingent heretofore not experienced after Nashville. Nashville has a hipster component, but when you go to the downtown area of Nashville,

you're in the, it's like go to the downtown area of Nashville, it's like going to Hollywood, California. It's like Hollywood Boulevard. No one's from here. Hollywood, California, yeah. No one's from there, except maybe- So you found that in Phoenix? Yeah.

Some too good for their own good coffee shops? Yeah, we're talking coffee shops, breweries. We ate at this place called, I think it was the Wilderness Brewery, and there was a bunch of hipsters there, and felt very at home. So you might be eyeing Phoenix, huh? Well, the thing is, it was Roosevelt Row,

which is kinda like their arts district, and it was really cool. And then I started, I was like, oh, Phoenix is like a cool place that we could come on for like a weekend, because it's like, it's the same distance just driving to San Francisco, it's not that bad. But then I started looking at the average daily temperature

throughout the year and there's like six or seven months where it's like above 100. It's a hot place, you know, so I don't know how they deal with that exactly besides just going inside, but it seems like there's some good times to visit. It's a dry heat though, right? There's some good times to visit Phoenix.

But one of the things I skipped over in terms of music is somewhere at this part of the trip is when I'm beginning to think like, I gotta introduce Lott to some other stuff. And that was when I was like, oh, you know what? I think he'll like Diamond Rio. Oh, after George Strait, yeah. And, cause I was like, speaking in 90s country,

I was like, there was these guys that Link and I were really, really into, and they were, you know, they kinda, I'm not gonna call them a flash in the pan, they're still together and they're still making music, but the 90s, they peaked pretty hard in the 90s. They had three really solid albums. I don't know, well, I would say four had some really good hits.

I don't know if they were number ones, they probably were because they had some incredible songs, right? Bluegrass infused 90s country, lots of harmony. The vocal approach is the thing that is so notable about them and I would say that yes to the bluegrass niche of it all, but it doesn't have that

it doesn't get into bluegrass sort of chord structure and tempo. It's like kind of country, rocky with this singing. And I could just look on Locke's face as we were listening to Love a Little Stronger and then One More Day, which didn't you have One More Day played at your wedding? One more day!

No, that's talking about if somebody's dead, died, Rhett. No, it's I Know How the River Feels, died, Rhett. No, it's, I know how the river feels. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But One More Day, man. When you meet your soulmate. One more. And they're still living. Okay, well, we'll play One More Day at your funeral. One More Day is a great song.

And so Locke is- There's so many great songs. So from that point in the trip, so this is like the last two days, he just kept wanting to go back to those four or five really amazing Diamond Rio songs. And then he's like texting me recently, he's like, dad, we gotta go to a Diamond Rio concert. So he's all in on Diamond Rio.

They're great, yeah. Definitely top five country artists. I think I might have to put them in definitely top five country artists. I think I might have to put them in my top five of artists, not just, I mean, definitely groups and definitely nineties. But this is okay, so we're on day five and we have driven quite a bit, but we're also kind of saying let's sleep in our own beds and we just go ahead and we make the trip.

Power through. We get back to LA at like 10.30 at night. And let me just say that Locke and I are very similar in a lot of ways. We, which is a recipe for fights, right? And we did not get into, and of course he's 17. Like when we're at home in our normal everyday lives, where there's things like you didn't take the trash out.

There's these lots of little things that could then turn into an argument. But we got through this trip without any sort of friction. We were having an incredible time together, listening to music, seeing this stuff. We talk about pretty much everything, philosophy, everything, and we were listening to one of my favorite books, Siddhartha,

which I listened to on my solo trip and it was something that he had been wanting to listen to, which is a short audio book, it's really easy to listen to. So we're having this incredible time. And then like 20 minutes from home is when we like got into our first like argument. And it was like, it escalated really quickly. I don't even remember what it was about.

And then I was like, listen, this can't, we can't, like there's no reason for us to fight right now. Let's just get home. Let's just get home and just forget about this. And we did. No, but I'm, first of all, multiple times throughout the trip, he was like, I'm so glad forget about this. And we did. No, but first of all, multiple times throughout the trip, he was like, I'm so glad I did this.

I was wrong. I'm glad you talked me into this. Like he's telling everybody about it and how good of a time he had. It is the kind of thing that he's gonna remember forever. And I think it actually is more likely to now lead to us doing another trip together, maybe for a spring break. We don't know exactly what we're gonna do.

But it was a success, a father-son success. And so there wasn't a point where like, okay, well, what did you learn, son? What are you gonna remember forever? Well, one of the things that I've come to grips with is, every dad has, most dads, I think have a tendency to dadify things and to try to find the lesson or the moral in something. And like my kids have become-

To codify something to feel, there is an impulse to like, let's actually, let's land this plane and I am doing a good job as a dad, right? It's a question that you seek to answer I think that drives that. Well, the thing that has come very clear to me is that that is for me only, that's not for a lot.

Yeah, right. That exercise is 100% for my own ego. And so in own sense of security or what, and I'm using ego broadly. So, and I actually made the decision, there's no lecturing, there's no trying to get him to see something a certain way on this trip. Now, what I found is that he actually is very interested

in what I think about things. He's very interested in my opinion. And when I don't use every conversation as a jumping off point for some lesson or for giving him some perspective, he just naturally asks me or runs things by me in a way that it's very clear that what he's after is what I think about this.

Now I have to be really careful once I start talking about those things to not turn it into a lecture and to make it more, well, I mean, one way to see that is this, or here's one thing that I would think about. But it was, you know, we had, like we really had some really great conversations about a lot of things that we kind of talk about

from time to time, but in the setting of this, well, there's no place to go, we gotta kill time. It really, it lent itself to those kinds of conversations and he was very much all for it. I mean, it was great for our relationship. And you know, now that we're back in the swing of just regular life, yes, there's been some arguments again but I think that there's a connection that was really,

that was already there of course but it was just strengthened and enhanced through this. So highly recommended if you have the opportunity to take a trip. That's my trip. With Red Sun. My rec is one other, is the album that we listened to more than any album that we both just fell in love with.

I think I have told you about this guy, but I don't know how much you've listened to him. Brent Cobb. Yeah. He's got a song that's really popular, like keep them on their toes or something like that. Yeah. And like any artist, there are some albums

or some songs that don't really resonate, but he's got an album from a few years back called Shine on a Rainy Day. And this is the one that we just centered in on. And I like his most recent album as well, but he's a South Georgia boy. He was born very close to where I was born. He's got a song about, I think called South of Atlanta,

which is about going back to his hometown. And I think he now lives, he was in Nashville for a while, but now he lives down there in South Georgia. Is it laid back, this album? Yeah, that's the thing is that he's, you know, he's got a, he'll go a little bit rock in some places where, which is why I don't like as much. On this album, it's almost exclusively just like thoughtful,

sort of soulful, good country. And again, this isn't the kind of country you're gonna hear on country radio. This is way better than that. Yeah, yeah. And it's just so amazing to me that they don't play this music on the radio, but Brent Cobb, Georgia boy, huge fan,

Shine on a Rainy Day just starts off with a song about sitting on a porch and solving the problems of the world and it just goes on from there. So that's my rec. Well I'll have to check that one out. Great road trip music but also just great music in general. I'm glad he had it, I'm glad he made it. Yeah.

Relationship not only intact but you know, you got some memories that will last his lifetime. Of course, you know, you're gonna pass on at some point and then you'll live on, a little bit of that will live on in his memory. That's true, and in video form, for those of you who watched the video, there's a lot to see that Link didn't even get to see.

You're gonna have to watch this one. You're gonna have to watch this one. All right, we'll talk at you next week. Hashtag your biscuits, weigh in.