Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Rhett's Worst Vacation Ever | Ear Biscuits Ep. 343

Episode Date: August 1, 2022

While Link was having the time of his life climbing a volcano, Rhett was dealing inadequately-sized airbnbs, delayed flights, and some good ol’ fashion Covid. In this episode, you hear all about Rhett’s time off and the events that led him to utter the words “I hate this f’ing vacation”. You’ll also learn how a couple blue whales changed Rhett's life forever. Be sure to follow Dispatches From Myrtle Beach, Link's new podcast with his dad! Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Get your tickets to Good Mythical Evening at GoodMythicalEvening.com for an uncensored night of fun! Presented by Moment House. More info here: https://mythic.al/EBGME 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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on September 1st. This is the R-rated version of Good Mythical Morning. If you are an adult and you feel like you're ready for it, it could be a lot of fun if you're into that type of thing. You know, it gets a little explicit, it gets a little off the rails. Goodmythicalevening.com is exclusively on Moment House, live streaming ticketed event.

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, we're going on a verbal vacation. Ah. And to hear you talk about it, the way I set it up last time. Teasing it last week, it sucked.

But you know what? It's better to have a good story than a good time. And you know, as I've gone through all the experiences that I have had and then tried to figure out how I'm gonna talk about them, I have realized that it was all worth it just for this moment. You know, like whatever I went through- All right, don't put too much pressure on yourself.

And then I'm just saying that like, I just feel like, I don't know how entertaining it's gonna be, but I think it's gonna be very cathartic for me just to get it all out there. Again, man, whenever something goes shitty and sideways, it's great to have a podcast where you know, it's like, well, now I know what I can talk about.

I tried to keep that in mind the whole time. You did? I do think it helps. That's good, it's good to not be in the moment, but to be kind of like in performance mode. And I'll just go ahead and get started, why not? Right? Yeah. I mean, but I will say last night, Lily asked me, I mean, I guess she was prompted by observing me.

Like she can't- She was just watching you? Like Christy and I were in bed and she comes upstairs. Cause you know, she's got a job. I heard about this. She's got a summer job. She's a barista. So she comes home, she's got her uniform on. I'm so proud of her. She comes in the room, we're asking her about everything.

And then like, I was like totally tucked into bed. And then she's like, is that how you sleep, Dad? I'm glad that she's turning out to be normal. And I'm like, I'm just thankful for that. I'm like, yeah, and I was like, you just use that pillow? I was like, you haven't heard about my physical therapy pillow? Yes, this little log is the only thing I use.

And she's like, so you sleep like this? And it was just like a smooshed frog on a highway, like on its back. And I was like, yeah, and she was like, why are you so weird? Yeah, Lily's got her head on straight. And I'm like, for your entertainment, Lily. She was like, really?

I was like, yeah, yeah, I live to entertain you. I gotta hang out with Lily for reasons that we'll get into in a little bit. Right. Me and Jessie and Lily and her friend actually got to go out with Lily for reasons that we'll get into in a little bit. Right. Me and Jessie and Lily and her friend actually got to go to a concert together. Yeah, I'm not happy about it. And I was like-

But I'm, okay, I'm happy for you. Lily is, she's got her head on straight. She understands that her dad is weird. The thing that is important is if you have a weird dad, you can get lost in the weirdness and lose perspective, or you can understand the weirdness and just maintain some groundedness, and I think that's what she's done.

So I'm proud of her. She loves me for it. She's gonna keep me around for a long time. Okay, I'll get started, because there's multiple steps to this. It wasn't just one trip to one place. There was multiple things that happened. So we were planning on going to North Carolina as like the main part of this vacation.

It's like go back to North Carolina, see family. Also, Jesse is working on this vacation place slash Airbnb. We don't know exactly what it's gonna be, the vacation home that we've bought there. And so she's like doing her design thing on it. And so we're like, okay, we're gonna make the most of the time there and stay near the cabin.

But we've got a little bit of time in this two week window where we can also just do like a little family vacation. Let's just do something simple, like drive to Santa Barbara, beautiful place that's only like 90 minutes away from us. And it would just be me and Shepherd, I mean, me and Jesse and Shepherd, I don't know if I put Shepherd second.

Jesse and I, and then our son Shepherd. And Locke may or may not show up because he's hanging out with his friend and they're doing things, and I don't know exactly how it's gonna go. So Jesse's been very busy, I've been very busy. So we did not do as much of, let's just say, like vetting and research on this particular Airbnb

that we were gonna stay at. All we knew is that it was an incredible location, like right on the beach. One of those situations where you've got waves literally at high tide crashing into the structure that you were sleeping in at night. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you can't go wrong with that

unless the house falls into the ocean. But that's not my problem unless I'm in the house at the time. Sounds like you could be. That's a wonderful thing about renting. Of course, the whole time I was there, I was thinking, man, what would it be like to own this place? I'd be constantly worried about it falling into the ocean.

Right. So, all right, there's a couple of things that lead up to the vacation where I, you know, we had some pictures, some old pictures that we were getting down from storage to go through and scan some for a James and the shame related thing that we're doing. Now it turns out we're not even using these particular photos at this point.

You'll understand weeks from now what I'm talking about. But so I'm carrying big things, not just this big thing of pictures and getting all this crap down, but I'm also getting the suitcases and carrying them down the stairs. I carry Jesse's suitcase. Whenever I do this kind of thing,

often before a vacation, I end up unintentionally stressing out my lower back. I always thought that I was hurting my lower back before I went on vacation because it was like a transition and I was trying to relax and that may be part of it. But I think it's because I'm just carrying a lot of shit right before you go on vacation.

So when we arrive at the place, I'm kind of like, I'm already in a little bit of a bad mood because I'm like, man, my back is hurting me and I know it's gonna take 48 hours before I can paddleboard which is the thing I'm excited about is just being right there on the beach and being able to go out there and catch some waves, man. You know what I'm saying?

Or at least just paddle around like an old guy. Sure. But we arrive at the Airbnb and we walk in and the first thing that we all notice, not just the tall guy, is that the ceilings are low. Now I will say in the Airbnb description, it did say this is like the base, it's the bottom floor of like a two unit thing.

And it's an old place and the ceilings are a little bit low in places. It's kind of, there's some beams or something. We didn't read it closely enough. Okay. What I'm saying is that if you were over 5'9". Wow. You would have had to duck to miss these beams

that are all throughout the house. Also, the bathroom seemed like it was made for hobbits. And all this was taken with like wide angle lenses on the Airbnb listing. So we had really no idea it was as extreme as it was. But then I just started walking around. They didn't have like a Rhett stick for reference, which like they have here in the GMM studio,

a six foot seven tall stick that stands in for you. We need to ship the Rhett stick ahead of time and have somebody go around and take pictures with it. But Jessie begins taking pictures of me. My wife is a bit of a, she knows what she's doing on the social media. If you follow her, you know this. And so she was like, I've got to make this into a post.

And she was like, let me just take some pictures of you. And the only thing she said in her tweet was, just arrived at our Airbnb with like three or four pictures of me standing there with my head completely gone. Like behind a beam. Behind a beam. And I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of likes her tweet has at this point,

but it is the most viral tweet I've ever been in like, personal proximity to. I mean, I've been on Twitter since, I don't know, well over a decade. Yeah, we have a lot of professional tweets. And I am a relatively internet famous person. Never had a viral tweet. My wife just farts one out.

Of course, as I told her, I was in it. Of course, you couldn't see my face. Your bottom half. She did not tag me. So anyway, while she got a viral tweet out of it, which was pretty awesome, we immediately began to, I had taken all this stuff down these stairs.

Like, you had to come downstairs to get to the unit where you could go in the side and then go around and get in there. And I'm like settled in and she's like mad. She's happy about the tweet, but she's mad about the situation. And she says, I just think we should,

we should just go somewhere else. Like we're not gonna be able to, you're not gonna be able to enjoy yourself. You're gonna be ducking around this thing. And you know, and also it's only one bathroom. This is something that was in the listing that we just didn't really look at. And it's technically, it's got like four bunk beds

that are outside in the living room area, kind of. So Shepherd was gonna be sleeping in this bunk bed that's kind of out in the open and then sharing a bathroom with us. And 13 year old needs privacy, if you know what I mean. You know what I'm saying? And so you can kinda tell that he's a little bit antsy, and then Jessie's like,

well, let's just try to find a hotel. We can get our money back for the, and I'm like, we've already moved all our stuff in. I'm the tall one. I'm the one who should be complaining, and I'm not. Let's just try to enjoy ourselves. Not a great way to start a vacation. Yeah.

Yelling at each other about how you need to try to enjoy yourself. And she couldn't think of other ways to like continue to make more viral tweets. I mean, it's kind of like. You go into that, you dig that well one time. Yep. You know what I'm saying? So, but I was like, there's a lot to love about this.

The location is beautiful. There's a fricking hot tub on the deck out there overlooking the beach. And I immediately got into it. There you go. By myself, no one got in there with me. No low beams over it? Well.

You're seated. But I will say the deck from the upper part is like over you so there's no like no sun. That was another thing that wasn't great. It would have been nice to be on the top. Wow, you're, you guys are, you know, if you care this much, you kind of need

to read the description. Yeah, well, lesson learned. Everything you're complaining about, you immediately say, it was in the description. I'm just gonna point that out. It wasn't, you know how they don't, they're not gonna like- That's the art to Airbnb.

They make it all positive. They make the negative positive. You've gotta interpret everything as a worst case scenario. I mean- If they mention it in any way and it can be interpreted as negative, then the reality is it's very negative.

You have to be committed to reading all the reviews. And here's the thing I look for in reviews. I made another mistake about that. There was only two reviews. Yeah, two reviews. One of the things I've learned to look for in Airbnb reviews is somebody, at least one person, saying something good about the mattresses.

Because that's a big thing for me. It's like, if you don't have a good mattress, that can suck. Of course, I bring my own pillow. And a square pillow, right? No, I bring my own pillow. Small enough for pillow, right? No, I bring my own pillow. Small enough for me to pack. Right, well, I'll get it for you. You know that.

That's a little tip. The bed was okay. The bed wasn't bad. Okay. But anyway, so things were slightly charged, you might say. A couple of days in, Shepard is already, he's like kind of bored because he can't get into a personal space, you know what I mean? And I was like, yeah, I hate that for him.

Cause he likes to get on and like, you know, talk to his boys and play games and stuff. So he's getting a little bit amped up. The TV, like we wanted, the first night we wanted, because we were all caught up, we wanted to watch the Stranger Things finale, but the TV remote didn't work. Oh.

You're doing that thing where you're trying to find a button on the back of the television, just turn it on. And also, can I use my phone for this? We couldn't connect to the Sonos sound system. So it was like, there was a lot of things that were kind of falling apart and making it stressful and making it difficult to enjoy. Now these are very- Meanwhile, remember-

Privilege problems. I was in Hawaii. Remember how good of a time I had? You had a great time. Best vacation ever, potentially. Best vacation ever. Now, so we have some good experiences, had a few good meals.

I did eventually get out on the water. But then, I'd say four nights, it's not like a five night thing to get kind of before we went to North Carolina. Fourth night, I'm like, Jesse, we have to go through these pictures. You brought the pictures. And so I said, I have a system in mind

for how I like to go. Again, what I'm thinking when I approach this is we have a bunch of pictures from the past before we had digital cameras. So this is lots of from college, from after college, from early marriage. And I'm like, I want to be able to enjoy these photos and look through them.

So my idea is if we scan the ones that we want to scan, then we can enjoy them. Jessie's expectation that she brought to this process was, we're gonna enjoy this right now. Why can't we just enjoy it right now? We're looking at these pictures. Let's enjoy it right now. Yeah.

And we clashed. Oh. Again, tension's already high, but we clash in this situation. And it ended up getting, like we got into a pretty big argument about it because I was unrelenting and she was unrelenting because I was like, I'm gonna keep doing my system

because I want to get done with this. I don't want to do this tomorrow night. You're making a scan pile. And she's making a memory. Yeah. I wanna make the memory in the future and she's like, oh, look at us when there's so and so. So it's like a romantic opportunity.

I'm like, yeah, but that's later. That's later, right now is the system. Yeah. And let me also add two other factors that are going into the stress level being high. As you know, we rarely take an actual vacation. So I'm on vacation, but I'm taking meetings, I'm joining meetings, I'm doing Zoom meetings,

I'm doing emails. We're continuing to be bosses to some degree for some meetings that we couldn't miss. There's some, as always, ebbs and flows, but we were kind of in a season that week, especially where it's just like some uncertainty about some things, developing projects and stuff that are just kind of like,

you can't get out of your mind. Lurking. Like unresolved things that were kind of stressing me out. And then of course, I'm trying to get ready to announce this James and the Shane project. And also I'm doing a lot of it on my own, getting ready for this launch and doing a lot of the technical backend

and even the design of some of the stuff. And so there's just a lot, right? So it's like tensions are high and everything is adding to the tension. So we kind of snapped and went to bed angry. Oh. Okay? We wake up in the morning and I'm like, hey, let's take a walk on the beach.

Let's try to hit the reset button. Clean slate. We are in a beautiful location, especially if we're not in the house that way. That's a good idea. If we get outside, we forget about the low beams. You know, we forget about the one bathroom. Forget about our son.

I hope this worked. It didn't. We get out on the beach, beautiful. We're walking and then we begin talking and we kind of pick up right where we left off. But the pictures? I don't know how it started, but I thought this is an opportunity to clear this stuff up

and I tried to kind of come into the conversation with someone, I was like, I feel like we brought different expectations into this process, but we didn't really get to talk about that because we kind of just ended up restating exactly what our positions were the night before. And at that point- Nobody budged.

We went from a couple walking on the beach to just two people walking on the beach. In a line. In a line that grew. She was in front, I bet. She was in front. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at one point, I would just say-

Her leg must have been moving fast to stay in front of you. Two people on a beach, or like a man following a woman on a beach. Not sure what's gonna happen there, but like she was a good 50 yards is what we kind of settled. You know, she's like two people walking on the beach. I was like, eventually we're gonna get to a place

where we can't go any further because that's what happens on California beaches. And it's on her to turn around. She's gotta turn around at some point. So she does, at which point we meet and then we start walking together. And then it was a good opportunity to have that space. We began talking in a calm demeanor and we actually got to-

At least she didn't turn around and like- Slap me? You were like 50 yards, you see her, she's like picking up speed, picking up speed. And just runs past me. She just like tackles you. Oh, well, I'm a big man. So we ended up getting to a good place

and talking about how when we collaborate on things like that, we have to state what our expectations and intentions are. And if we are bringing very different expectations and intentions to something, then we need to make some adjustments. It was really the, everything accumulating. You know, as with most big fights that are about nothing,

it's really everything else, which you've outlined. True. You know. But this was also the day that we were going to go whale watching. Whale watching. And I'm gonna tell you all about- Is it the right time of year for that?

Oh, it's the right time, buddy. Let me tell you how right it is. I'm gonna tell you all about- Is it the right time of year for that? Oh, it's the right time, buddy. Let me tell you how right it is. I'm gonna tell you all about whale watching, how that may be the thing that completely redeemed the entire vacation in a second. But first, don't you have a podcast? Yeah, I'm doing it, man. I'm just listening to you.

No, but you have another podcast. I have another one. I've got a couple. Yeah. I've got like three or four in the works. No, I just have another podcast. I have another one. I've got a couple. I've got like three or four in the works. No, I don't want any more podcasts. Dispatches from Myrtle Beach is going good. If you haven't checked it out, check it out. I know people are asking for a video version.

The time's not right for that, but we will keep it in mind. So if you only listen, if you can watch, I would just ask for you to give it in mind. So if you'll only listen, if you can watch, I would just ask for you to give it a shot. Listen. Just go over there to wherever you get your podcasts and just listen for 30 minutes. Listen to episode one. If you don't like that, you won't like any of the other ones, but...

I think it's one of the funniest things that... I think you're gonna like it. ...that Mythical has ever made. Thank you. And I end up finding myself... I can't take credit for it. That Mythical has ever made. Thank you. And I end up finding myself. I can't take credit for it. It's mostly your dad.

So I end up, even the other night when we were at a party at my house and you were there, I ended up just playing, I just held up my phone and played a clip from Mythical Pods for everybody. Because I just want people, I'm just like, you have to understand. You gotta understand what's going on here. Like you need to check this out.

Like this is entertainment, pure entertainment. So go listen to it. There's a lot of levels to it. You know, there's, I feel like it's, people describe it as raunchy at times, people describe it as wholesome. And usually they describe those things at the same time. Where else can you get that?

Yeah, right. Well, there's a certain part of Hallmark stores. Oh, really? Yeah, right. Yeah, that's kind of what Dispatches from Myrtle Beach is. Wherever you get your podcast, all right? Listen to it. 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. Okay, well watching. Okay, so we had set this up ahead of time. We knew that we were supposed to, it's on, you know, thankfully I have people in my life like Kara in this situation who put this on my calendar and tell me where I need to be and when I need to be there. 10 a.m. Because you get on a boat.

It's what it said. And so I'm like, well, you know, 10 a.m. Because you get on a boat. It's what it said. And so I'm like, well, 10 a.m. is probably when you're supposed to arrive and they start telling you what you need to be ready for or whatever, wrong. We go through the harbor gate there in the Santa Barbara Harbor at 9.59. And you have to get a ticket

and there's a woman at the gate. And I didn't know where I was supposed to go, so I was just like, we're going whale watching. She's like, well, you better hurry because they leave at 10 o'clock sharp. Oh. So at that point, I'm like, oh crap. We go, first of all, all the tensions that had been built

Are back. Are back. And we're trying to find a parking space in this giant lot, and I'm supposed to be on this far end of the thing to get on the boat. And that was when I hit the steering wheel and said, I hate this fucking vacation! Wow. Yep. It's definitely the vacation's fault.

Yep. My wife and my son, thankfully only one of my children was with me at the time, will forever remember that, I'm sure. Uh-huh. So I said, I'm gonna drop you guys off, you run to the boat, you tell them I'm parking, and tell them to wait. So drop Shepherd and Jessie off,

they're running towards the boat. I'm trying to find, I can't find a spot in the lot that I'm at next to the boat, so I have to go out into another lot. I park, I'm in flip flops, y'all. Jessie calls me. She says, the captain said you need to run. The captain is now giving me messages.

Yeah. You tell the captain I'm in flip flops. Well, I listened to the captain. And first of all, have you just noticed that like, as you get older and then you have to run for a reason and you're like, damn, running ain't easy. Yeah, you got- Like jogging, okay. Six minute stretch beforehand at least.

Sprinting? Sprinting in like good running shoes would be difficult. Yeah. For more than a couple, like 10 to 20 yards. But running 300 yards in flip flops, I was making so much noise. Flipity flopity flipity flopity flipity flopity. It was like,

people probably thought there's fireworks going off pre-4th of July. I ended up making it. Literally, the guy, not the captain, but one of the crew was like, well, all right, you're lucky. Basically, as I go up the little stairs that they had set there, and he immediately removes them as I get on the boat. Was everybody on the boat looking at you?

Yeah. I made quite an entrance. They heard on the boat looking at you? Yeah. I mean, quite an entrance. They heard me coming from at least 200 yards away. Choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo. What is that? It's a tall man running in flip flops. So the first thing I noticed as we settled in is that everyone else has a lot more clothes on.

Nobody else is wearing flip flops and shorts. They're bundled up. I'm talking pants and like those puffy jackets. Oh gosh. With hoods. Yeah. I'm like, oh, I should have read about this. Now I do have a hoodie on. Cause I was like, oh, we're going out on a boat.

It was like 80 degrees in Santa Barbara, which is pretty warm for Santa Barbara. I was like, it can't, we're going out on a boat. It was like 80 degrees in Santa Barbara, which is pretty warm for Santa Barbara. I was like, it can't be that much cooler out on a boat. It was. Really? The wind chill, but also just the sea air. Where did the boat go out to? Channel Island.

So right in between Santa Cruz and whatever the other island is right next to it. Not Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, Santa Cruz Island. So off the coast of Santa Barbara and off the coast of this whole part of California, there is the Channel Islands, which technically Catalina is part of that island chain. It's just further south.

I'm gonna go scuba diving out there. Yeah, it's a beautiful place. And there's an incredible history about the islands and pretty sad history about the native people who were out there and how they were like moved to the shore to build the mission. When the Christians showed up, they made them all leave and go work on the mainland.

It was pretty horrible. But it's a beautiful place and the reason that it is- Well, it's a small price for you to think you're saving their souls. Don't say you, but you mean them. Yeah, I know what you mean. So the cool thing about this place is that there's a lot of whale traffic.

I mean, this is what whale watching is all about. You go to where the whales are. On the inside of the islands or on the outside of the island? Especially in between the two islands. Something about what's happening with the wildlife at that place. Oh. Influencing, basically makes it like a feeding ground.

Now he said, we should, you know, we'll probably see some humpbacks. I've never seen a whale. Never seen a whale. For some reason I thought it had to be like winter, January, I didn't think it could be July. The season is most of the year, there's different whale types, species that will be there

is what it looked like. But like May to sometime in the fall is probably the best time, not only for the weather, but also because this time of year is when the blue whales show up. Largest animal on the planet. Really? Largest animal on the planet. Really? Largest animal on the planet. Right there?

Now, he said as we were going out, he said, we might see a blue whale, I will say, it's not common. There's only 15,000 blue whales in the world at this point, which just, that's less than, like that's less than you would see at a basketball game. You know what I'm saying? Like this is all- I've never seen a see at a basketball game. You know what I'm saying? Like this is all- I've never seen a whale at a basketball game.

All, exactly. All of the whales in the world, the blue whales in the world, wouldn't be able to fit inside like the crypto dome just because of whatever they call it, because they're bigger than people. But just to give you an idea of how many people. Yeah, yeah, it's sad.

So we, it took us a while to get out there, like it's miles off of the coast and you're going pretty fast on a big, more than an hour, I think, maybe 90 minutes to get out to the location. One of the things that we did see on the way out there, when we would venture out onto the deck and freeze our asses off,

because there was like an inside area where you could sit and close and there's like a snack bar, pretty cool. Dolphin pods. Now we've seen dolphins, you've seen dolphins. We've surfed with dolphins. But when you get a couple of miles out from shore, the dolphin pods are enormous. I'm talking hundreds of dolphins, hundreds.

It's overwhelming. Beside the boat. And then they see the boat and they come swim with it and they jump up, you know, they're smart. They know so much that we don't know that they know. And they're like showing off for us and stuff. And I'm like, this is pretty cool. Okay, this horrible vacation's getting a little bit better.

What if we just see a whale? And at that point, we get closer, we're on our way out there and the guy comes, the captain comes on the loud speaker and says, okay, we've spotted a whale, looks like we've got a juvenile humpback. They don't use terms like port and stern and stuff because we're all idiots.

And he just says, on the left front side of the boat, he just uses things that everybody can understand. It's still a ways off. And I was kind of amazed at how when I go out there and I see this blowhole from what felt like several hundred yards, and this guy somehow knows this is a humpback, a juvenile humpback. He's probably got binoculars, but also-

Maybe a radar. He's seen quite a lot of whales. And sure enough, we get out there and I see, and I made a commitment- Put on your flip flops, we're gonna run to the whale. I made a commitment that I was not going to use my camera because I was like, I wanna be in the moment. And what's, I mean, if people wanna see a video of a whale,

they can get one that like National Geographic made, not Rhett, you know what I mean? Yeah. So I'm like, I wanna see this, I wanna be in the moment. So right now, as you're talking about this for the video version, we're gonna cut to like some really amazing whale footage.

Hold your horses because I get to a video. Hold your whales. So we get up there and we see this humpback and it was a juvenile. So, I mean, I don't know, this thing was probably 20 feet long. It's still, it's a large animal. It's like the largest animal I've been close to.

Next to the boat, like a dolphin would be? No, no, no. The whales don't come up, and maybe they do at times, but these whales were not like, hey, we're gonna come show off for you. They're more just like, I'm doing my thing. I'm not scared of you. And so they get the boat, they move the boat kind of close. They turn the boat and they move close to the whale once you spot it. And what happens is these whales come up and they do their thing,

they stay near their surface and they're doing their blowhole thing. And then they take a deep dive and their tail comes up, just like the commercials. And they go down and then he's like, okay, we're going to wait seven to nine minutes now. Because once they do the tail thing, they're going deep. They don't always do the tail thing, but if they do the tail thing- Seven to nine minutes. Seven minutes exactly later, the guy says,

okay, it's been seven minutes, keep an eye out. And then as he's finishing the sentence, here it comes again. Because they're predictable. They go down seven in nine minutes. And this one apparently was a sevener. It comes up in the same spot? No. And he's like, oh, it's on the right side of the boat.

And so everybody goes to the right side of the boat and then we see it do its thing. So we saw two humpbacks. We ended up seeing like a mother and a juvenile. It was really cool. Huh. Then he says, all right, we're gonna keep going because we need to get to the area between the two islands,

which is where, if we're gonna see a blue whale, this is where we would see it. So we start getting close to this spot and the guy comes on, the loudspeaker's like, okay, well, we've seen a whale. It's pretty far off. We're not exactly sure what species it is. We're going to keep moving.

Just keep your eyes out on the left front side of the boat. So we start going, and then we get to, again, kind of like from 100 yards away, you see this thing come up, and you see this blowhole, and he says, it's a juvenile blue whale. What? And I'm like, oh brother, we're seeing a blue whale. We get up close to it, boom, boom, it's doing the same thing that the humpback's doing,

like coming up, blowing, breathing, and then he says, before this happens, he says, now it's really, first of all he says, you can kinda, he's got some energy in his voice because this is a big moment for him. He's like, we don't always see blue whales. He's trying to let these people, just our normies on the boat,

understand what they're experiencing. Like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And he says, and usually, he says, this thing's gonna dive in a second. They usually don't do the, he had a technical term for it, they don't show the tail, that's what I say. Show the tail in the same way every time. It's less common for blue whales to do that.

At that moment, the thing comes up, shows its tail. Yes. And goes down. And I'm just like, I'm totally dadding out. I'm grabbing Shepard, I'm saying, it showed its tail, son, just for you. What? Yeah. How long was this juvenile? The juvenile, I would say 30 feet or so.

It's a big ass thing, right? But then at that point he says, we've spotted an adult blue whale. What? No. But also when the thing goes down, he's like, okay, the blue will be down from 10 to 12 minutes. 10 to 12.

Okay, so I got to see, and I was pretty close relatively to this thing, to the juvenile, but then the adult comes up and it's within 50 yards, 40 yards of the boat. Wow. And at that point I was like, I've of the boat. Wow. And at that point I was like, I've already seen a blue whale. I've seen a blue whale do the tail thing.

I think I'm gonna film this thing. Cause now I can say I was there and I enjoyed this. And let me just show you right now what I ended up getting. This is a- Of course we know this is gonna be National Geographic footage. We all understand that, but we're gonna let Rhett have his moment.

This is an adult. He's zooming in here. Wow. Look, look, he's going, he's going, he's going, and look, also does the tail hook. So slow. Can you believe that? I mean, I know that, again.

I don't have a sense of scale. National Geographic would have like a, you know, you'd have a sense of scale. They get to 90 feet long, okay? I've been obsessed with these. I don't think I've ever explained just my, I was really into whales, especially as a kid. I had whale stuffed animals and stuff.

And anytime I went to like a natural history museum, there'd be, oh, this is the blue whale skeleton that's hanging in this room or whatever. I was just like, I can't believe that this thing exists. Their heart is the size of a Volkswagen bus. Pumps one time a minute. Ha. Ha.

It sends that blood all over. We're going to wait 60 seconds. For the heart to beat again. And his heart's going to beat again. And like the dude on the loudspeaker is just losing it. He's like, you saw two blue whales. They both did the tail thing. Again, he's using the technical term.

I don't recall. The tip bucket is at the starboard bow. Yeah, he did, and I tipped well. And like, I go back, I'm like grabbing my wife and my child and I'm just like, we just experienced this. They don't seem as into it as me. This is kind of a- The largest living animal.

Yeah. Yeah, just right there, just blowing for us. We go back inside. At this point, the guy's like, all right, now we need to turn around and get back home. Go back inside, we sit back down. I look my wife and my child in the face and I said, I fucking love this vacation.

Turn it around for me. Yeah, you're a... It was that easy. You're like a ship without a moor. It's like you're, what's it called, you know? A ship without an anchor. You're just floundering in the seas at sea of vacation, man.

I was in a fragile state, but... We're gonna die! This is the best day ever! I mean, seeing a blue whale and seeing a blue whale do that thing with his tail like that. Redemption. It made it all worth it. And as my vacation progresses and things only get worse,

as we're about to learn, I kept holding onto that blue whale. Just stuck my hand, I just put my whole body right in its blow hole, up to my waist and just grabbed on and said, this is the thing that I am gonna hold on to. Yeah. So that was the next to last day.

We go home the next morning, high on blue whale fumes. Me and you have to take a little trip together. Yep, that's when I just, I got back from Hawaii. And then the very next morning, we have to meet up and get on a plane. Right, Link, going to Aspen, Colorado. 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. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout?

Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. Never been to Aspen.

I was pretty excited about this. This was a YouTube panel at the Aspen Ideas Fest. We were invited to share our perspective. It was live streamed, you might've caught it. It was quite a little trip, you might've caught it. It was quite a little trip, you know, like we got there that night, we got up the next day, we saw a little bit of Aspen, stayed and did our panel, slept that night, got up next morning

and then flew our separate ways so you could continue your vacation and I could go back home. But yes, just, I knew that Colorado was a beautiful place. I had been before, been to Vail, but I had been during the winter. I'd never really been to like a ski town in the summertime. And I'd heard that like, oh, you gotta go to Aspen in the summertime.

And you know, this is- You just have to see Aspen. This is like the ultimate rich bitch place. You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, the real estate is just insultingly expensive. And we were, but it's so incredible. Like it's just this incredible spot. We walked around.

Well, the airport is in the valley and then like you drive around the valley and you're in Aspen proper within like, I don't know, seven minutes. The thing that struck me was that, I mean, you've got these like very aggressively sloped mountains on every side. And of course you can see the ski slopes, even though they're green, just right there,

and they come right down to the base of the mountain, and it's the town of Aspen. You can ski right into it. And the town of Aspen was established there well before there were ski resorts there. And it's not just one road. There's like a grid of streets with all types of long established buildings.

Like man, that bank looks like it was there in the frontier times. Yeah, it's a- Kind of a vibe. It's pretty old. So it's like, it's a pretty expansive old town that still has this kind of vibe of like, I've been here since, I don't know, when it, whenever it was established.

Well- It's been there since it was established. I can tell you that for sure. And one of the highlights for us was we rented electric bikes. We were told, you know, by Robert Kinsell, big man at YouTube who was on our panel, who we've gotten to know,

he was like, you need to ride bikes down the Rio Grande, which I couldn't have told you that the Rio Grande flew. Flew right through there. Right through Aspen. No blue whales. So we did that and boy, I mean, there's a couple of places I've been in the world where I felt like I was in a fairy tale,

you know what I mean? Where it's just, this is like this weirdly curated part of the matrix that's a little too nice. Very pristine. I mean, right when we got on the bike path, we stopped and we were like, oh, look at those mansions right there next to the creek that leads right here to the river.

And I looked at this, it was this mansion built on the side of this slope. And then right next to the house, there was a waterfall. Like a creek that became a waterfall flowing like pretty vertically. Like right next to this person's house. Backyard waterfall. I mean, this is next level stuff.

And it had been curated by a landscaper, but it had not been created by a landscaper. Right. It was like, no, I'm gonna build my house next to this little waterfall. Good gracious. I think it was. It was so beautiful that it was disturbing. It was, it was almost a little unsettling.

Yeah. There's no grit, couldn't find any grit. But we did go to, several people had told us that we needed to go to a store called Kimo Sabe, which was this like, you know, wearing the like cowboy hat and the like Stetson hat is a thing that's kind of associated

with Western ski towns. And this place, we were into like, this place makes these incredible hats. Not, I wasn't planning on buying a hat, I didn't, but they like hats, boots, et cetera. And they'll, if you're willing to pay, like, I don't know, it might be $1,000 or more for a hat. Yeah, these are nice hats.

They'll like, they'll put it on your head and perfectly size it. They'll like steam it to like fit your noggin. No matter how wonky your head is. Right. They can put a hat around it. But we noticed when we walked in that like five women in their late 20s,

who all had hats on, sort of- Very glammed up. They kind of descend upon you when you enter the store and begin asking you to need help, following you around as you go to the different things. And I was very intrigued with the knife section. Yeah, they had this like total glass case full of knives. And there's a craftsman, I think-

I asked her first, I was like, what's the deal with these knives? Well, and it's a craftsman from Georgia who makes these knives. And she brings one, she starts small, literally like a small knife, she brings it out and it's like got this cutting board that you put this cheese knife that's about this long,

about three inches long, about three inches long, she puts it on this little magnet to kind of make it suspend itself above the cutting board. And she's like, the handle of this one is made from mammoth tooth or something like that. Yeah. And it is $2,900. Okay.

We're going to cut some cheese with a $3,000 knife. And she kept going, because apparently we look like we can maybe get knives like this. Yeah. I don't know, is it the twinkle in her eye? She moves on and let me just, I'll cut to the chase. Eventually she brings us to a knife that was this long.

Yeah, it's like a three and a half foot knife. That the handle for the knife was the jaw of an extinct fossilized cave bear. I'm talking about the huge cave bears that were on the North American plains back in the day. And this knife was $20,000? Yes. It's a knife.

I don't, I don't, did she let us touch it? I don't remember actually touching it. No, she didn't take that one out. I think by that point she saw the Buies Creek was really coming out in her eyes. I'm like, God, wait, look. Oh my goodness. Look at the jaw on that knife. She's like, I'm not gonna get this one out

for these fools. They're obviously not gonna buy anything, they're just gonna look at stuff. We strolled out of there, I mean, you almost bought a wallet. I thought, well, a pair of gloves. Oh yeah, a pair of gloves, a pair of leather gloves. After being shown all this,

So much leather in there. I was like, oh, there's a $65 pair of really nice leather gloves. We walked out of there with nothing. We did. Except this story. But we had a great time in Aspen. Now, you were gonna go back to Los Angeles, which I assume that just happened, a breeze.

You probably just got on a plane and just went straight to Los Angeles, right? No, I had to fly through Denver. Okay, but no complications. No complications. I, on the other hand. Red carpet, man. I continued with my troubles. Oh, but I wanna give a quick interjection reminder,

Good Mythical Evening, the second one is happening September 1st, exclusively on Moment House. It's a live ticketed event, R-rated version of GMM. If you're an adult, grab yourself a ticket at goodmythicalevening.com, all right? 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 I was supposed to fly from Aspen to Denver. You had no troubles when you were with me. You need to note that. Denver to Raleigh.

Cause you can't fly from Aspen to Raleigh. So we get on the runway in Aspen and then the pilot comes over the loudspeaker. A lot of people talking to me over loudspeakers on this vacation now that I'm thinking about it. We've got a juvenile. Yeah, I was having trouble deciphering between the pilot and the captain,

which I guess is the same person in some ways. Yep. The pilot comes on the loudspeaker and says, we've got a problem, we're too heavy. We're gonna remove the tallest guy with the biggest hair. Everyone start doing cardio right now. He said, basically there was a mix up and this plane was a plane that was supposed to fly

to a different location, but there was a mix up because the night before, a rich person in their private plane went off of the edge of the runway and they had to shut the airport down. Because the Aspen airport is notorious for accidents because it's like this, the wind and the short runway and all this stuff. It's a small airport.

So he said, we can take off, but we have to be at a certain weight to land. And I have three options. I can ask some of you to leave, which I don't want to do. I can have somebody come and take fuel directly out of the plane, but that takes a very long time for some reason. Or we can sit on the runway and burn fuel.

This is a great time to just burn jet fuel in the economy. You know what I'm saying? Let's just burn it for the hell of it. Oh God. And so he comes to that conclusion that that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna sit on the runway. Did everybody vote?

Like what? Didn't appear to be a democracy. There's three options. Did not appear to be a democracy. We sit on the runway for 30 minutes burning fuel and then he has to add an additional 15 minutes to our route to Denver, which would have only been half an hour.

He was gonna make it 45 minutes in order to get to the right weight to land. Cause that's when weight's really an issue is when you're trying to land. I mean, he should just keep going up, keep gaining altitude. Icarus that bitch. But what ended up happening was I missed my connection

because of all this, at which point I ended up getting on another plane from Denver. I was gonna go from Denver to Houston, Houston to Raleigh. While we're in the air going to Houston, the pilot comes over the intercom and says, we have a problem. Houston, we have, Houston has a problem. The Houston airport has been closed.

Closed. Due to weather. So we are diverting to Dallas. Okay. So we are diverting to Dallas. Okay. So we land in Dallas. We land in Dallas and the pilot says, "'Okay, we don't have enough fuel to make it to Houston.'" I know where you could have got some. Yeah, exactly. The first plane.

Right, yeah, I could have brought it in my carry-on. So we had to wait for them to fuel. All this stuff takes forever. Now, I'm thankful that we live in a country which is pretty well regulated, and so there are things like lots of paperwork and stuff that has to be done to make sure that, that's why people don't die in commercial airline crashes,

because of the regulations. That's why you die in private plane crashes a lot, if you're gonna die in a plane crash. Because of all this logistics and stuff they have to do. But when you're really wanting to just get to Raleigh, you're just like, why can't you just fill the damn plane up and shut the door? I didn't say that.

Everyone remained remarkably calm. But I was like, this day, this flight, trying to get to Raleigh is becoming like an analogy for the way my life feels right now. You know what I'm saying? Like there was just a lot of, again, I'm thinking a lot about the album coming out too, because I was like, I'm gonna announce the album

the following week, and I don't know how people are gonna think about this, and they're gonna think I'm dumb for doing this. Like I'm thinking all these things, and I'm more stressed out about that than I realize the business stuff that we continue to talk about, you know, just like, there's just a lot of stress in this

and then I'm having this crazy day. We end up flying, okay, so yeah, so we go from Dallas, but he's like, now we're gonna just fly to Houston. So we fly from Dallas to Houston. Okay. And then we're gonna fly from Houston to Raleigh and the flight to Raleigh gets delayed. But actually I'm thankful it got delayed

because I may not have made it if it didn't get delayed. So anyway, I woke up at 5.30 a.m. that day, was on four different planes and my wife picked me up from the airport in Raleigh at like midnight. Wow. It's a long day. Very happy to see my wife. And you know when you're really happy to see your wife

when that, and you're going to a hotel room, just the two of you, you know what that leads to. Oh yeah. Missionary sex. Okay. Shout out to Trevor on that one. Yeah. From the Smosh funeral, if you don't know. And one of the things that,

and you'll understand why I'm explaining this in detail. One of the things that happens when you're having missionary sex is your faces. Even though I'm much taller than my wife, I do have a way of getting my face close to her face during missionary sex. Okay, okay. And I was able to do that.

It takes a little flexibility and some arching of the back, but I was able to do that. And you know, we really had a great reunion. The reason I'm giving you these details is because I did not know at the time, but my wife had COVID. Oh. Now she told me that- Did that missionary evangelize the COVID?

Oh, she shared it with me, all right. She had told me that she had a sore throat. Now, my wife has told me she's had a sore throat like a hundred times over the past couple of years. Yeah. And every time she thinks she has COVID and every time she hasn't. And so I'm like, you just got to North Carolina,

it's allergies, man. Mm-hmm. Whatever. Like, I've never seen a positive COVID test. Allergies hate COVID, boy. They're really getting a bad rep with all this COVID. Yeah. So, but she wakes up the next day and feels worse.

Mm-hmm. Ends up taking a test, positive. I'm like, dang it. We had missionary sex, we slept in the same bed. So I'm basically like, man, I've totally been exposed because you are really, really infectious in the early stages of COVID especially, right before symptoms hit and as symptoms are hitting,

at least with these latest varieties is what I was gonna say. What is the term? I still have COVID brain. Strains. Because I got it. Strains? Isn't it?

Variants. Yeah, I'm forgetting very simple words, which we'll talk about in a second. But I'm like, I'm supposed to play golf with my brother and my dad the next day, okay? And this was a special golf trip for a number of reasons, mainly because we were gonna play Keith Hill's Country Club, which is the country club I grew up next to.

My neighborhood was outside the gate. I didn't grow up in a country club, but I could walk to the course. You act like it. And the course, there's an original 18 holes that is so weird how I played that course so many times growing up that it's so imprinted in my mind,

unlike any other physical space that large, where multiple times throughout my life, a lot of times when I'm having trouble sleeping, what I'll do is I'll play an entire round of golf on this 18 holes in my head, because I remember every hole, I could draw every hole for you. That's cool.

Almost to the point of every sand trap. Like if you were imprisoned and they threw you in a hole, this is how you could- Play golf in my head. Cling to reality. I would shoot so many great scores in my head. But one of the things that this has done for me is it's given me this incredible desire

to play the course again. It's been probably 15 years since I've played the course. Okay. And over the past 10 years since we've been in LA, multiple times I've tried to set up my dad and my brother and I playing Keith Hills and something has always come up. The last time it was like the trip got changed because of COVID or something. So I'm looking at the weather,

I'm thinking about the fact that I just got exposed by my wife, but I'm also thinking, you know, maybe I'm looking at the weather. I'm thinking about the fact that I just got exposed by my wife, but I'm also thinking, you know, maybe I'm immune to it. And also I'm gonna be outside the whole day. So, and I, of course I told my brother and my dad, I was like, I still wanna play golf. Jesse's got COVID. We had missionary sex last night.

I didn't tell him that, but I was like, I'm pretty sure I've been exposed. And they're both like, we don't care, whatever, we're gonna be playing golf, not a big deal. Okay. And the weather's getting bad, like it looks like it's gonna maybe rain us out. I'm like, of course, of course,

of course I'm gonna get rained out. I'm gonna get COVID, I'm gonna not be able to play the course. You're in a bad headspace, man. But the weather gods, who may or may not be just God, decided to smile upon us and it did not rain at all. And I played, I know no one cares about this, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because I care about it. I played so well.

Like, the thing is, is that you know if you know, playing golf can be so frustrating, but when it's not frustrating, it's almost as good as missionary sex. And it is, I mean, it was just like, I could not believe how well I was hitting it. Like, you know, I was just hitting these drives. In fact, there was a guy who was out there trying to get his,

he's getting ready to do a qualifying thing to become not a tour pro, but like a pro shop pro. You know, every pro shop has a pro, a person who is a professional golfer, who's not necessarily playing on the tour, but is a pro golfer. And he was like, we let him play through because he was like, I got a qualifying round tomorrow

and I'm kind of getting in some practice. He saw my drive and he said, nice piece. Piece. Nice piece. And we had never heard a golf shot referred to as a piece. I don't like that. But I'm beginning to do it more often now. I don't like that. Because a pro, potential pro is doing it.

Anyway, I had an incredible time. And I also was like, I don't even think I'm gonna get COVID, man. I mean, can a guy who just recently got COVID hit the ball like this? I don't think so. Or maybe that's the only reason you could. Yeah.

I go to sleep that night and I wake up. I wake up in chills, fever, headache, regret. I take a COVID test, of course, it's positive. Of course. I mean, you didn't really make a responsible decision, but I'm just gonna go on record and say that. What part of it? The golf part.

What, playing outside? The exposing your dad. First of all, you know as well as I know, COVID behaves completely differently in North Carolina. They don't think about it in the same way. In fact, when the California people are like, hey, I think I might have COVID, they're like, we don't think about it in the same way. In fact, when the California people are like, hey, I think I might have COVID. They're like, we don't care.

Like, it's just a completely different perspective there. So, and neither one of them got it. I will say my brother and my dad did not get COVID. Okay. My brother had already had it. My dad hasn't had it. Maybe he is immune. Yep, and that's the statement that makes people get it.

Like that's how I mysticize this thing. The moment you start saying, I haven't gotten it, I kinda think I'm not gonna get it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. That's when you get it. Well, but here's the really interesting thing. Now, the entire time that we're in North Carolina, everything has shifted.

We're like, we were planning on being in this hotel for a little bit while Jessie is working on the house, and then we were going to drive to the beach to spend Fourth of July with her family down at the beach, and then come back to LA. And of course now it's like, well, we're COVID buddies, gonna be in this hotel room for who knows how long. The thing I failed to mention up to this point

is the nature of the hotel we're staying in. We're staying in a hotel. For ceilings? No, the ceilings are plenty high, but we're staying in a hotel on Franklin Street called The Graduate, which you know about The Graduate. Have I? We stayed there.

I've stayed at The Graduate. I haven't stayed there. I've stayed at the graduate in Nashville, the graduate in Providence, Rhode Island. It's like a really cool hotel chain that like takes the themes of wherever it is and incorporates it into a trendy sort of hipstery situation. In this particular case,

it themes it around Carolina basketball. Ooh, gross. Which is almost as bad as COVID. So I had COVID, but I'm also stuck- Carolina blue walls. Oh, just in my room, there are side tables with rams on them. There are pictures of Michael Jordan and Dean Smith that I cannot not look at.

Just outside the room, there is a giant courtyard inside that is a literal replica of the Carolina court with two basketball goals. And then like the front desk has like a scoreboard with the final score from the 1982 national championship, whichever one they won. This is not the place for you. And I thought I was gonna be there for a couple of days

and I was like, my wife's a Carolina grad. I do, let me just say, I have matured around this issue over the past few years. I think it's just being in California where no one cares about the rivalry. But, and also NC State is doesn't, Carolina doesn't really consider state a rival. I love that you threw everybody who like,

is really into this rivalry, like you just threw them all under the bus as being immature. No, okay, what I'm saying is that as I have gotten older, my belief that I, or my willingness to let NC State's performance against Carolina or anyone else determine my happiness from afar has seemed to be foolish. I mean, that's more of a statement about NC State athletics than it is about your maturity.

Well, but tying your personal wellbeing to the performance of a group of 20 year olds that you can't control does seem immature. But listen, I can't help it, it's in my blood. I still care about sports. I'm not gonna stop caring, but I care a little bit less than I used to. So I was able to somewhat enjoy being,

because first of all, before I knew I had COVID, I did like walk around on Franklin Street a little bit. And I was like, this is a cool spot. I gotta admit, it's a cool spot. You know, this is a cool college town. It's a cool campus, whatever. I just don't like them for a lot of other reasons. But once we knew we had COVID,

we did not leave the hotel room. We told the front desk that we had COVID. So we said, we're gonna need stuff brought to us. Like we're gonna be doing, they didn't have room service, but we're gonna be doing like DoorDash, et cetera. And we need somebody to bring that to our door, knock, walk away. So we were taking it very seriously.

Stuck in this hotel room. Let me just say, and I think this is probably a pretty good time for you to, because I'm gonna start talking about what my experience was. I had a great time in Hawaii. Let's go back to that. You ended up getting COVID as well. Not from me.

It was so strange. Like you and I got it like almost at the same time being totally separate. Like after all of this time of us avoiding it, we both got it independently of one another. But so did everyone, everyone did. I got it, my wife got it, you got it, your wife got it. Locke ended up getting it, Jenna ended up getting it.

Jenna, you got it independent of both of us. Like we spent so much time together. Everybody I know who made it until this point without getting it, got, I know very few people who didn't get it. Christy came, yeah, it's like, you know, we got back from Hawaii. I got back from Aspen. And then that week, my nieces came in from out of town.

First time I was hanging out with them for three days. We went to Universal Studios, took them there for the day and night, had a blast. Next day they flew back. That night, Christy starts feeling bad. And I think went ahead and tested positive. My nieces never ended up getting it, but I think we picked it up.

I mean, you know, I'm guessing it was at Universal, but- But she started feeling bad that night after Universal? Yeah. That can't happen that quickly. Maybe it was earlier than that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Like she had these flu-like symptoms, body aches, headache, fever,

like just being totally just grounded in the bed, you know, just couldn't do anything. My throat was scratchy, never had a fever, but like, I think it was a couple of days after that I tested positive. Around the time when I was gonna come back to work. So that's when things started getting really frustrating because like-

We had been gone on vacation, kind of a staggered vacation, and then you get COVID a little bit after me and you're waiting to test negative so we can actually work again. It's really, you know, when you have so much had piled up and was like ready to go, it was, I really experienced flashbacks

to the beginning of the pandemic and just remembering how difficult it was to have so much that you felt like you needed to do, but I could do so little. So you got better before me. Well, but we haven't talked about how bad it did get. It did, yeah, it was like- For me. You have this attitude of like,

well, I'm fully vaccinated, boosted, I'm just gonna go ahead and get it. You know, let's just get this thing over with because it won't be that big of a deal anyway. I mean, when Lando got it, actually before our Hawaii vacation, he didn't feel great for like a day and a half. And then even though- He was 12.

Yeah, he was 12. I mean, he was, it was not a big deal beyond one day. But yeah, it was freaking tough, man. For a lot of people, the original Omicron wave, which happened around Christmas, was very mild for everyone I knew who got it. But this, I'm pretty sure we both, all of us probably got BA.4 or BA. BA5, which is the new variant, right?

Yeah. I would not characterize this as mild. I mean, obviously I was not anywhere close to going to the hospital or anything, but I just haven't gotten sick in a long time. There weren't any breathing issues with anybody, but it was more of down with Christy and with you. It was flu symptoms.

Well, for me, I had a 103 point something fever, which is like, that's like, whoa, you weren't getting up there, you might need to go to the emergency room. I wasn't gonna do that, but like that was what my fever was. Chills were incredible, like the headache was really intense and there was probably like a 48 hour period in which I would, at nighttime nighttime it would get like that and then I would kind of be okay during the day.

I recovered pretty quickly after that. We spent about five days in this hotel together. Anyway, I'll just say that it's not just a cold. It might be that for a lot of people and I hope it is for most people, but it's not just a cold. It might be that for a lot of people, and I hope it is for most people, but it's not just a cold. And now it's also, I mean, obviously the thing that, since we've learned more about this,

that is the worrisome thing is this long COVID, which is affecting a reasonably high percentage of people who are having these symptoms, some debilitating symptoms for an extended period of time. That's why this, it's just a cold, forget about it. It's just, at worst, a flu. It's just a bullshit, ignorant way to think about this thing because it's just not consistent with the truth about this,

which is, this thing is gonna keep infecting people and we don't know about these long-term symptoms and this is not like a small deal. You can't, oh, it's just gonna become endemic and it's gonna be fine. Hopefully that will happen eventually. But both of us have been talking about, and I was kind of, is this in my head?

But over the past few weeks, it has become an inescapable fact that I, something happened to my brain. Like I got the COVID brain. Forgetting very simple things that I obviously knew, thinking about something, losing my train of thought in the middle of something. Hopefully these are temporary symptoms that will go away,

but I'm gonna tell you right now, it's a real thing and it's a big freaking deal on a global scale that we will be figuring out and reckoning with. Think the globe's gonna get a little dumber. If we all get equally dumber, then maybe it's not that bad, but it'll be more difficult to solve problems as a species. I don't know what it says about me,

but I haven't had the fidelity of being able to ascertain whether my brain fog is just a way of life or if it's... I mean, I don't know, man. I just think that- Cause I have name fright. I can't remember people's names. Like, we were talking about my therapy with my family the other day and yeah,

Lily was like, what's your therapist name? And I was like, I got this deer in the headlights look and I couldn't remember my own therapist name. That kind of stuff has been happening to me and I'm like, it was sudden and it was totally tied to that experience. And again, I'm trying not to like- Do you know his name by the way?

Because I still can't remember it. Your original therapist? No, I remember his name. Yeah, I do. My new therapist. No, I don't. I'm joking, I do remember his name now. You want me to say it?

Don't say it. So anyway, I mean, not to get on the soapbox there, but yeah, it's like, you know, it ain't over. It ain't over. I do feel, having gotten it and it not being fun at all and not a breeze at all, like I do feel differently about it. Well, and also it's just like, you know, I don't want people to be going around super scared

and I understand all the negative consequences to just like living a life of fear and I don't wanna do that and I haven't been doing that. But it just kinda sucks that the reality is we can't just move on like everything's normal. That's why we still take these precautions at Mythical. You know, we get tested every week and people wear masks and it's not gonna completely protect you but-

And I think when you- You gotta do something. When you do get it, just giving yourself permission to recover. Give yourself time. You know? Instead of trying to push through, which there actually- That's my, I think that's good advice,

that's safe advice, I think I'll leave it at that. And it's sound advice because trying to push through physically or even mentally can prolong your recovery. Okay, so we eventually get to a place where we, now we're still testing positive, but Jesse's family are like, "'Y'all come down to the daggum beach." And we're like, well, we're gonna,

of course, we're not gonna get close to you and we're gonna wear masks the whole time. And of course, again, North Carolina, they're like, "'Okay, whatever you wanna do. We don't care. So we go down there and I didn't, thankfully I didn't have the fatigue. And so I was able, I kind of felt like I'm kind of back.

Fatigue was a big part of it for me. Head cold, congestion and fatigue. Those were my big things. So we were kind of like staying away from everybody as well as we possibly could. Thankfully, none of them ended up getting it. But you know, on July, so we had July 4th, little celebration get together,

and then July 5th was the day that I announced the James and the Shane project. I was like, hey, this is something I've been working on. Here's a little Instagram post. So on July 4th, during the day, Jessie and I were like, hey, we haven't really been outside to take a walk on the beach, because we've been trying to really take it easy

and fully recover, but we both felt like we could go out on the beach and take a walk. And so we go out. We're kind of feeling like you'd walk together this time. Yeah, and we're like walking side by side, not in a 50 yard line. Cause things were great with us. And we are walking down the beach

and literally the first, it's so, I love the North Carolina coast. I mean, I'm just gonna be honest with you. When you go in July and you get in that water, Oh yeah. You start thinking, man, like this is better. This is, I'm sorry, the with you, when you go in July and you get in that water, you start thinking, man, like this is better. Sorry, the beach is better here. The beach is better than California beaches.

Let's just be honest. It may not be as pretty or as pristine because it doesn't have the mountains and the cliffs and stuff, but there's nobody there. You start feeling like you might be too close to another family when they're a hundred feet away. You know what I'm saying? Like there's just so much room.

You don't have to tell me, I talk to my dad every week. Yeah, right. But the first little family group that we come to recognizes me. They're like, oh, Rhett. Hey, can we get a picture? And I said, yeah, I do want to let you know, and I didn't have my mask on

because I'm walking outside. I'm like, I'm recovering from COVID, so I don't want you to get too close. Okay. I was like, I didn't want to be like, don't get too close to me without telling them. And I didn't want to let them get close to me because I'm trying to be respectful.

So we ended up getting a picture I didn't wanna let him get close to me because I'm trying to be respectful. So we ended up getting a picture and this guy and this girl were kind of on like- I tell some fans I have herpes sometimes. Yeah, just don't touch my lips. There's probably like two people, you know, it's a weird picture, I'm sure. I didn't see it, but I'm sure it's a weird picture probably taken in landscape,

given the fact that they're this far from me. It's like your photo bombing there. I thought nothing of it. Photo? You know, it was a slightly weird interaction because I'm like, don't touch me, don't get close to me because I'm recovering from COVID. And then the reason I said that the next day

I share on Instagram about James and the shame is because I got this comment on my Instagram post. I'm not gonna say who it's from. I actually met this dude on the beach yesterday and he seemed annoyed that I recognized him. Don't meet your heroes, I guess. Seemed annoyed. Dude, I told you that I was recovering from COVID.

I mean, I almost responded to this comment, but then I was like, I'm gonna wait and we're gonna talk about COVID on the podcast. But I told you that I had COVID, and that's why I didn't, you think I made that up? Let me read it, not so I can say the person's name out loud, but I'm going to. Let me read it, not so I can say the person's name out loud,

but I'm going to... You don't have to say the person's name out loud. I actually met this dude. And also... It doesn't sound like a fan. Well... Weird. It had to have been. He was the only person I met on the beach the day before.

So he wasn't like the significant other of the family? He was the one who said Rhett. Oh. So anyway, thanks a lot for that, dude. Should've just given him COVID. Don't meet your heroes. They might have COVID and tell you to not get close to them. Don't be so annoyed about it.

The assholes. What? Don't be so annoyed. Him, he shouldn't be so annoyed about it. The assholes. What? Don't be so annoyed. Him, he shouldn't be so annoyed about it. Is that what you mean? No, you, man. Why are you so annoyed? Well, you know, it's like, because-

I actually had a conversation with this dude about what you're commenting about. He seemed annoyed then too. Well, I think the reason that it gets on my nerves so much- I know why it gets on your nerves. No, it's because like all it takes is one little story like that for people to be like, oh, you know, that guy's actually an asshole in person.

You know, and so I'm not just nice to people because I have a reputation to maintain. I'm nice to people because I am nice to people. And I also appreciate if people want to come up and if they're fans of the show, like I really appreciate that. That day on the four plane day, where I'm in these airports and I'm rushing around

wondering if I'm gonna get, lots of people came up to me that day. And I was like, I'm having a really shitty day, but I'm not going to let them know it. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, put on having a really shitty day, but I'm not going to let them know it. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, put on a smile and had a good interaction. I just thought that was especially- That's a tough one, man.

Part for the course with the life you're living now. But it was kind of sort of the proper way to wrap up the vacation because that was the kind of thing that it just characterizes the whole experience. proper way to wrap up the vacation because that's the kind of thing that, it just characterizes the whole experience. But I will say that coming back, fully recovering except for some brain fog and some forgetfulness, whatever's happening,

and then like, you know, it's really nice when you can get back home and be happy, A, to be in your own home, and be like, I really like the home that we have. I like the home that we have built, not just the home itself, the house itself. I love my toilet. But the people in my home.

And then to have a job that you wanna come back to, there's a lot to be thankful for. When your vacation sucks, yeah. Yeah, well, it does put that into perspective because I think that there's plenty of people who are like, "'Man, I hate my job, "'so all I do is look forward to a vacation. "'And then when I'm on vacation,

"'all I do is dread the fact "'that I'm gonna have to go back to work.'" It's nice to be like, you know, I'm ready. I'm ready to get back at it. It has been tough coming back though, after everything being delayed because of our, especially me being sick, it delayed our whole production schedule.

It's been tough to try to, cause we had to cram everything in. I wasn't, you know, it's like jumping into the deep end. Yeah, everything has been stacked on itself. Which is why we're going on another vacation. We're going on like a long weekend vacation. We're about to go back to Colorado. We're gonna meet our college friends.

Yeah. And we're gonna go whitewater rafting. Yeah, if we survive, this will make another great podcast. Yeah, if this is the last podcast, it's because, I don't know, either one of our college friends killed us or something bad happened whitewater rafting. Well, I have said on our group thread

that this is like the perfect setup for like a horror movie, you know, or a thriller. Because it's like you get together with your college friends that you haven't really hung out with in this fashion in 20 years. When any of my boys start getting topless, then that's when you know something bad's about to happen. Somebody's gonna die.

Yep. So yeah, we might have an incredible story to tell next time. All right, but in the meantime, you got a wreck? Yeah, go whale watching. I never thought I wanted to go whale watching because yeah, just think about everything but seeing a whale assuming that you won't see one.

But man, even in the worst vacation ever, you saw all those whales. Now I've set the standard, I saw two blue whales and they did the tail thing. Go whale watching, huh? So I can't guarantee that you'll have that kind of experience, but I will say you should dress warmly,

definitely take anti-nausea medicine. I took Dramamine. Still got a little, I started to feel a little bit seasick on the way out, but I was like, I was gonna breathe deeply and get through this, and I did, it was fine. All right, solid rec. That would be my only concern for the Neal family,

where there might be some sickness that you might encounter. Maybe I'll see one when I'm going scuba diving. That'd be crazy. Yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah, go whale watching. All right, we'll speak at you next week. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. And of course, you can always call and let us know

what your reaction is to listening to the latest episode. 1-877, what is it? Is it 888? Yeah. 1-888-EAR-POD-1. COVID brain. Hey Rhett and Link, this is Jake from Albuquerque, just listening to Link recall his family vacation in Maui

and it was very fitting because I was there around this time last year where I proposed to my girlfriend at the top of Haleakala and now we are set to be married and we're actually flying out to Greece this week for that marriage so I don't know Link if you're just following me around maybe you need to go to Greece next year I can tell you all about that trip when I get back. Thanks for all the content that you put out there. Everything's great. Love Dispatches from Myrtle Beach. Can't wait to recognize your dad.

Hi, Rhett and Link. It's Haley. I just wanted to come on and say that I am just so excited for Rhett's solo music project. I'm just so excited that you guys are being able to do separate things. You know, I also love Link's podcast with his dad, and it's just been awesome to see you guys branch out and do separate things, but also stay together and do your funny stuff. Hey, Rhett and Link. So I have a friend named Kiefer, as is not why I'm calling. I'm calling because I have a bottle of Kiefer in front of me for the very first time, which I have just tried. And it's all because of you, because I've never heard of this in my entire life.

First opinions, I got the blueberry. I think it tastes pretty good. It just reminds me really of liquefied yogurt, which is fine. And I'll let you know if it starts making me happy.