Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - Larry Meyers, ChickenPox, & Missed Connections: Listener Episode #24

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Josh is joined by a very special guest for this month’s listener episode of Family Trips with the Myers Brothers...his dad, Larry Meyers! The two chat about Larry’s recent cruise through Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, a stressful lost-passport situation in Porto, podcasting’s shift toward video, and of course, the family’s beloved Old English Sheepdog, Albert VI. They also hear some incredible listener stories, including one listener hitchhiking from the Netherlands to Paris for New Year’s Eve in the late ’90s, another recalling a childhood trip to Canobie Lake Park while covered in chickenpox, and a chaotic family return home from Mexico involving missed connections, separated relatives, forgotten car keys, and airline scheming. Plus, Larry reflects on coaching Josh and Seth’s Little League teams, umpiring for years, and answers listener questions about Pittsburgh restaurants and Steelers food traditions. Want to submit your family trips story for our next listener episode? Or send a question in to Seth and Josh? Submit your voicemail to speakpipe.com/familytripspod! Watch more Family Trips episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlqYOfxU_jQem4_NRJPM8_wLBrEEQ17B6 ------------------------- 00:00 Introduction with Josh and Larry 01:10 Showers and Sufi 05:39 Bedtime Bites and Bugs 08:46 Morocco to Portugal Cruise 13:06 Listener Tales Hitchhikes and Chickenpox 33:38 Shingles And Aging 34:26 Mexico Trip Travel Chaos 38:25 Lost Keys And Tile Rescue 40:57 Passport Panic In Porto 46:08 Listener Q and A 56:39 Blue Jays Song And Farewell ------------------------- Support our sponsors: CashApp Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/4aafc4yf #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct deposit and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Yahoo Stress less with Planner from Yahoo mail ------------------------- Family Trips is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Theme song written and performed by Jeff Tweedy. ------------------------- About the Show: Lifelong brothers Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers ask guests to relive childhood memories, unforgettable family trips, and other disasters! New Episodes of Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers are available every Tuesday. ------------------------- Executive Producers: Rob Holysz, Jeph Porter, Natalie Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Coordinating Producer: Derek Johnson Video Editor: Josh Windisch Mix & Master: Josh Windisch Episode Artwork: Analise Jorgensen #familytrips #sethmeyers #joshmeyers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, trips, brothers. Hey, you tripsters, Pashi here. This is another very special listener episode because once again, we find ourselves without Sufi. So my mom, hurry, joined us for a listener episode. And now, just to make things even and things come out right, I know him as D-Money, the counterfeit trader, the Sultan of Style. You know him as Larry or Yerry, Myers. Daddy boy, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. We just saw each other. I was just in New Hampshire for a couple days. It was so nice to see you. Yeah, it was great. We had really great weather

when you were here. We had to play some golf. And then as soon as you left, it was 95 degrees for the last two days. And it's about 50 today. So welcome to New England. Yeah. Real quick, you'll read articles about the podcast industry, and you'll sort of send Sufi and I little things that we might be interested in. And you sent us a clip from something, I think from the Wall Street Journal this morning, just talking about how video is becoming

a real big driver of sort of the success of podcasts. And I'm wondering if you think that Sufi reading that will make him be more or more likely to take showers before we record these episodes. It certainly should, but it certainly won't. Because, you know, Sufi, in addition to this and whatever else he's doing, and, you know, the other podcasts that he does and the show and the kids and whatever, he just squeezes it in whatever he can. And there's no prep, you know, or anything like that. As long as the technology

works, that's good enough for him. Yeah. I mean, I was, you know, I was just home and I have become a very, because of McKenzie, McKenzie, like, insists on showering before bed. So I get up in the morning and kind of one of the first things I want to do, unless I'm going to work out is I want to get clean just to start the day off, right? So I'll always do that show. And then I do a shower before bed. And hurry was talking about, she's like, you're such a clean boy. And your brother's just not. That's just the way it is, I guess.

When you were kids, I used to call you filth cutlets. And somehow, Suf has retained that. But, you know, he's got the show. So I figure he showers like Monday, right? Yeah. He showers before his show, which is not before this show. Yeah, but he did, you know, it's even, you know, if he has to shower somewhere else, that's still good. It counts.

I mean, I don't shower at home very often because I go to the gym all the time. So that's usually where I, although I did shower for this. I did. Yeah, very good. Yeah. And you also, you know, I heard it when I was home, but we have, you know, we have a sheep dog. We have Albert, the sixth. and I had a couple friends, Matt Coburn and Randy Suazo come over and you were telling them about how you and Albert play soccer in your bathroom and you keep a tennis ball in there that while you're brushing your teeth, you will try to kick a ball past him and his reactions are so lightning fast that he's like the best World Cup goalie you've ever seen.

Yeah, if he was two feet away and you kicked a ball as hard. as hard as you could, he would catch it. He has amazing reflexes. Amazing. It's just one of the many amazing things. But today, speaking of showers and stuff, I did take a shower at home. And he was outside because mom was going someplace and he likes to chase the cars when you go. He won't leave the property because we have an invisible fence.

So there's no concern about that. So while he was chasing her, I got the opportunity to take a shower and brush my teeth and shave without him, which is, in a way, it's a treat because it takes so much less time. So much. Yeah. Yeah, we took Albert on a bunch of walks when I was home. We always go to this park and have one of those chuckets and throw him the balls. And, man, he just, he loves it so much. But he also lets you know when he's too tired.

You know, he has been, he's got his short summertime haircut because the weather has gotten hotter. But he'll chase that ball and chase that ball. And then at some point he just lays down and you're like, oh, well, that's it. Yeah, you think that's it. He's just tired because he's been running wind sprints. And then you go and you pick the ball up and he's ready to go again. But he won't, he can't go as long as he went before. But he'll never quit.

He's a dog. He's not good. He also, you know, he always sleeps in the hallway or in your room. But when I'm home, me and Albert, we have a pretty good relationship. And he's always very happy to see me. And so he will come into my room and get onto my bed and maybe sleep for part of the night there. But the first night I was home, he jumps up into my bed. And first he does this thing where he will like nip at the blankets,

where my legs are underneath the blankets with the front of his teeth, which are very sharp. This is a big dog. What does he weigh? About 80 pounds. Yeah, 80 pounds. And it's like he's just trying to pinch my legs with these little nips. And it is certainly a show of affection, but it doesn't feel like it. And then when I try to like, if I pet him, he'll growl at me and like nip it my hands, like sort of like clap his teeth.

closed at my hands and it is such an aggressive form of love, but he clearly loves me. But it just doesn't feel like it. You were actually home when we got him. I don't remember why. Because he remembers you as a puppy, a very young puppy. Yeah, well, I have those pictures of him with his fat tire. He has this fat tire toy that he plays with every morning. And when we first got him, it would fit over sort of his muzzle. and we have great pictures of him just as a tiny, tiny puppy. Yeah, he, he sleeps all over the place and normally,

he sleeps in your bed a lot when you're not there, and then you'll find him on the floor in our bedroom. But ultimately in the morning, he always asks if, Bo, you'll start hearing him push the covers on the side of the bed, and I invite him up for the last, about half hour, and he puts his head on my pillow and goes to sleep until I roll over. And then I get about a thousand kisses. It's a great way to start today.

Great way to start today. Yeah. My first night there also, you know, he's in bed and he's trying to bite my legs. But then I looked and there were like 15 bugs, like little beetles. Like, I don't know if they were beetles, but they were little creepy black bugs that were crawling around on my bedspread. and I killed them all. I was very tired because we stayed up late to watch one of these NBA games

that I can't believe how late they start on the East Coast. And so I kill all these bugs, and then I look at his paws, and there are bugs on his paws, and clearly the bugs were on him. I couldn't give him a bath at that hour, and I just had to kick him out into the hallway, and I felt so bad because I was only home for two nights,

and he tried to nose his way back in. But I was like, I'm sorry, man, I can't have you in bed with these bugs. And then the next day the bugs were gone. Yeah, because it's never happened before or since. Only that was the only time. So if it was going to happen, best that it happened the night you were here. Absolutely.

Yes. You, I mean, it's a, you know, it's a family trips podcast. You and mom just took an amazing trip. Yes. You got back just before I got up to New Hampshire. but tell the listeners where you went. So over the last few years, we've been going on these small boat cruises, about 200 people or less. And it looks like an ocean liner until you're next to one.

And it's all through different college alumni associations is how they market these trips. And they all have some sort of a theme. And so we've done a few with them. And this one we just did. We flew from Boston to Casablanca. And then we saw a bit of Casablanca. And then the boat left. And we went to Rabat in Morocco and Tangier in Morocco.

And then up to Spain. And I think it's Malaga. I may have that wrong. Then we were there. You went to see the Alhambra. and down to Gibraltar, St. Ville, Lagos in Portugal,

and then sailed up and finished in Puerto in Portugal. So it was, yeah, very all place we've never been before. Yeah, it was really, really a lot of fun. And then you guys sent us a video from Rick's Cafe in Casablanco, which is, you know, I'm sure it came after the movie. Yeah. And mom said it's like it's very touristy, but also it's great. Like it sort of gives you that vibe.

Actually, it came before the movie. It was the inspiration for Rick's F.A. in the movie. It doesn't look anything like the movie. Oh, I thought it would. It doesn't have, it's not as big with a big bandstand or anything like that. that. In fact, it's three stories high, all open to the sky with balconies all around. And so there's three levels. And there is a piano and a drums. And we were there at lunch and said they weren't playing any music. But a fancy old bar, guys wear fizzes, you know, they look sort of

like you would imagine from the movie. But it was the inspiration. It was the inspiration for the director. Gotcha. And then, so there was no music, so you didn't hear as time goes by while you were there? I whistled a couple bars, but your mother didn't recognize it. Well, yeah, I think it's awesome that you guys do those trips. Every time I tell McKenzie about them, I say, she says we should do one as well. But I'm like, I think these are pretty much exclusively retirees trips.

Well, they're alumni, first of all. And yes, they're mostly people that are retired. that have the time to travel. That's one of the benefits of being retired is that you have time to travel. And so, yeah, so I would say it's very rare that you would see younger people. And in fact, one young woman, I didn't have a chance to talk to her too much. And she couldn't have been more than 40, which made her like a baby on this trip. But she turns out she was with a group of people from Smith College alumni.

And she was kind of being the sort of host of them. And what happens with professors and stuff, when they have a good cohort, like six or seven, eight, ten people from one school, they'll bring a faculty member and give them a trip just to act as a host. And that's what she was. late. Yeah. Great. Well, they, yeah, they do sound like amazing trips. And every time you guys tell me about them, I'm jealous. So, bravo to you. But this is a listener episode. So we've got some stories. We're joined by our producer Jeff today. Sam is on the road. So Jeff, you got a story for us?

Hi, Sufi. Hi, hi, Pashi. My name is Michael and I'm in Colorado. This family trip dates back to the holiday time in 1998 and 99, when I was on my study abroad program in the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands. As a quick side note, when our program started that August, we had student guides take us to Amsterdam for a weekend trip, and one of the attractions we saw was Boom, Chicago. I do recall the audience being asked for a celebrity suggestion, and I shouted, Cindy Crawford! And it was used in the final sketch of the night.

Anyway, back to Maastricht at the end of the year. Instead of going home for the Christmas holiday, my older sister flew out to join me, and we made a plan to spend New Year's in Paris. This being the 90s, and my sister having already spent her own time during a study abroad traveling Europe cheaply, she had the notion that the best way to get to Paris would be to hitchhike. So we packed a daypack each and headed out to the border between the Netherlands and Belgium on our way to Paris. I remember it being relatively easy to get a ride to Paris, and after roughly three, four

hours traveling in a car. We were dropped somewhere in the middle of the bustling city. We spent a few fun-filled days seeing museums, eating craps, and New Year's Eve was spent under the Eiffel Tower. Afterwards, we planned to visit one of my sister's friends in a small town outside of Paris. Again, we hitchhiked, only this time it was pouring rain. We were soaking wet, and it proved much more difficult to find a ride and a place to stay. We walked on the side of the road in the small town while it was getting dark, and we were very lucky to be picked up by a nice young man who did not speak any English, nor did we speak any French, but managed to communicate that he would take us to our destination in the morning. He generously took us to his house where

his wife, unaware of our arrival until we walked in, fed us and gave us a place to sleep for the night. And the next morning, she shuttled us to our destination. After visiting my sister's friend for a day, he had to work, and we were left in his quiet little apartment figuring out the rest of our trip. Now, having spent about 10 straight days with my sister and traveling in unusual and stressful situations, we had the downtime needed to do what sisters do best, and we had a huge blowout fight. The details of the fight escaped me, partly because of instead of staying, to work it out, I grabbed my bag, with a small amount of French francs I had and headed out the door. I remember being very determined to show my sister that I didn't need her to get home, and instead, I started the

process of hitchhiking back to my dorm by myself. I was helped out by several different car and truck drivers, and remember walking alongside the highway, waiting for the next driver for many excruciating kilometers. Along the way, I made some very questionable decisions out of stubbornness and determination to get back home. While much kindness was shown to me by a truck driver that bought me snacks and a coke at a gas station, I was equally met with much luck, that I made it home safely after getting into the back seat of a two-door coop that already had four men in the car. The passenger seat occupied by a man with a fully casted broken arm. But in the end, I did make it home safely.

I spent very little money, and a few days later, my sister rejoined me back in my dorm, and we repaired our relationship for the duration of her trip. Love your podcast. Hello to the Pankas and Quaid Army. I forget what you're supposed to say when someone says Quaid Army. That's a it's a lonely island thing. Righteous kill. Righteous kill.

Okay. Ponchieri, have you been, have you ever hitchhiked? I probably, oh yes. I know in high school there was an area between where different people lived. And one area was way up on top of a hill. And after school, the people. people that lived up there, there was a bus, but not a school bus, but a city bus. Everybody would go to this one corner and you would hitchhike. That's how you would go home. And everybody,

you know, if there was anybody that, you know, lived up there, a parent or, you know, that knew you, you always got a ride. Or sometimes if you had, you know, a buddy that had a car and you could go out to get a hit. So nobody ever, ever probably in history paid to get up a car. And somebody ever, to get up on top of that hill. So if you were going up there to hang out after school, I think that's when I would hitchhike. But I think that's probably the only time. And I think one of the most interesting thing about that story is she

understated, badly understated the word lucky. Yes. Yeah, to me it's a terrifying proposal. with someone else and certainly alone. And yeah, not a sexist judgment, but I just think as a woman, as a woman alone, that is not advisable.

Not advisable for a man alone, but for a woman, it's a good piece of sexist judgment. You know, you don't know how that guy got it, his arm on the cast. That could be a fake cast. That could be,

She had him a knife in there. Yeah. Good for, I'm glad she made it. Glad she made it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think that also, I mean, the 90s is a little late. I feel like you in high school and Pittsburgh is a different time.

I think there's always been a certain danger. There's a certain danger. You think the 60s are different? I don't know why you thought. Yeah. You know, back in the day, there is this romantic notion about it. But, yeah, a few after-school specials and horror stories and it changes tune. But I do think Europe, it was probably, it might still be more acceptable or, I don't know.

A quick non-hitchhike story. It should have been a hitchhack story. When I and my high school buddies while we were in college, we went to, Europe as young folks do. And we arrived in the resort town in what was then Yugoslavia and now Slovenia of Apatia, because we had a exchange student from our high school that would live at this resort for the summer with her family. And we were in such dire economic. economic straits that spending a few days with this girl was critical to the whole project.

And when we arrived on a boat from Ancona, Italy, it's a resort right on the water, right in the Adriatic. And there's hotels and so forth. And we go in this hotel and we have her address. And let's, I don't remember, let's say her address is 300, O'Shea. drive. Sure. And Serbian, whatever that is. And we go, we show this guy who's like the night clerk in this hotel, that that's what we want to go.

And he takes us out on the street. He points up the street. He shows us his address at a hotel, which is like 12. And we're looking for 300. And this is before. Doesn't seem like it's too far. It's just. what we thought. That's what we thought.

And this is, this is in about 1968, 69. And it's amazing that from the dawn of time until some time in the 70s, 1970s, from cavemen to in 1970s, nobody thought to put wheels on the suitcase. No. That is amazing. Never thought of it. So we have suitcases. And it's hot.

It's summer. It's hot. So we go from the 10, whatever the address was, and we go a few more, and it goes to, like, I don't know, 16. Then it goes to. Moving in the right direction? Yeah. And it goes to 18. 20.

Anyway, long story short, we schlep these suitcases in this heat what seemed like five miles until we end up. And we find the place. And we're organizing things with our classmate. And while we're talking, a car pulls up. You know who it is? It's a dude from the hotel. He was coming home. from he was the night clerk and his shift was over and instead of saying you know point to sit down

I'll give you I'll take you no yeah walk up there and he comes up how you doing glad you find the place that was it so that would have been one time that hitchhiking would have been the best result yeah yeah well Michael I'm glad you made it out of there Mastricht we've been to Mastricht we've been to Mastricht we love Mostricht in the south of Holland, a beautiful place. Yeah, very nice. And, yeah. I do love just being in a fight, just grabbing your bag and hitchhiking away from your sister.

It's such a, such a rash move. But it all worked out. But by the way, that's the kind of thing you would have done. Yeah, no, that's 100%. 100%. That's 100%. Seth wouldn't do it because it was too much trouble. but you

Right. You would have Why did you, I think, picked up your bags and went from Northwestern to back where we lived in Michigan because you had some tumult like that. Yeah.

So that was, I broke up with a girlfriend and I wanted to go to the last place I remembered being happy, which was like a four-hour drive away. Yeah, that's your move right there. That girl, you and her have a lot in common

except you didn't hitchhike. You had a car. Yeah, which Seth thought I stole because I didn't tell him. Yes, in fact, he called that morning, he called that morning and say, Bad news, the car stolen. And then. Yeah, no, I took it. I took it, Sufi, to drive back to.

But then he called back and said, good news, the car's still fine, but your brother's and your son's an idiot. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. support comes from Cash App. What's one money lesson you wish you learned earlier and how are you trying to pass that down to your kids? For all the parents out there with teenagers, we know you're already trying to keep a million different things under control.

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direct deposit and promotions provided by Cash app, a Block Incorporated brand. Visit cash.app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. Planning family trips can get chaotic, but my Apple Card makes things way easier. I applied right for my iPhone in as little as a minute, and now I use it for everything travel-related.

I saw it in action when you picked up dinner last time I was in L.A. for your birthday. Well, you didn't have your wallet or your phone. Oh, my phone is in my pocket. But you love your Apple Card, right? Yes, because with Apple Card, I can spend, track my purchases, and earn up to 3% daily cashback when I use Apple Card with Apple Pay. No fuss. And that titanium card? Always a conversation starter.

It's sleek, smart, and seriously useful. With the titanium card, I still earn daily cashback wherever Apple Pay. isn't accepted. You know, for when I'm on the roads less traveled. Applying the wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA, Salt Lake City Branch, terms, and more at applecard.com. All right. What's our next story, Jeff? Hi, Josh and Seth. This is Joanne from Wakefield, Rhode Island. I have many family vacation stories from trips with my core four family, my mother, father, sister, and me, which I could Tell. Stories ranging from melted crans destroying a rental car somewhere in the Arizona

Desert to my heart of hearing father absolutely losing his mind at my sister in Disney because he thought she was swearing when in reality she was just singing zippity-dudaw. But those stories will have to wait because today I bring you a story starring my grandmother, Nana Betty. The story takes place in your home state at a place I'm positive you both visited growing up. Probably on an end-of-year school field trip. or as the classic New England family day trip destination, Canopy Lake Park. This was the mid-1970s. Nana Betty lived in Massachusetts near the New Hampshire border.

And one summer, when I was maybe five or six, my parents sent me to spend the week with her. Now, Nana Betty was one of those grandmothers who truly believed any problem in life could be solved with chocolate, sunshine, or a trip somewhere fun. So one day, she and my uncle decided to take me to Canaby Lake Park. At first, I was thrilled. We pulled into the parking lot and I was ready for the best day ever. But then, something changed. I went on exactly one ride.

And after that, I refused to go on anything else. Every ride suggestion was met with me digging my heels in like a cat being forced into a bath. The roller coaster? No. Ferris wheel? Absolutely not. Kitty rides? Hard pass.

My nana tried everything. Encouragement, bribery, negotiation, cotton candy? Nope. Ice cream? No thank you. And then she tried the nuclear option. She bought me one of those enormous amusement park balloons that on any normal day would have made me lose my little mind with excitement. Nothing. I just stood there holding this giant balloon with the energy of a kid waiting outside the principal's office. Now my grandmother had raised six children. Six. Very little rattled her. But even at five years old, I could tell my lack of enjoyment was getting her annoyed. She had paid for the tickets, bought the treats, purchased the balloon, and meanwhile, I was acting like she had taken me to a tax seminar instead of an amusement park. Eventually, we gave up and left early, all three of us sitting in the car silently with matching frowns. On the drive home, Nana Betty finally started giving me the disappointed grandmother speech. You know, I spent a lot of money trying to give you a nice day. I just don't understand why you didn't want to have any fun.

At that point, my uncle turned around from the front seat to say something to me, but instead, stopped mid-sentence and looked at my grandmother. Ma, what are those spots all over her face? Turns out, I had chicken pox. And within hours, the spots that started on my face had spread everywhere. This explained why I suddenly didn't want to ride spinning carnival rides or eat dairy products in 90-degree. For years afterward, my nana would tell that story and talk about how bad she felt for getting frustrated with me. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure the bigger issue was that she unknowingly brought a child with active chicken pox to an amusement park packed wall-to-wall with kids in the 70s.

basically the public health equivalent of releasing a raccoon into a buffet. Thankfully, Nanna Betty didn't let one unfortunate case of amusement park chicken pox stop her from continuing to travel with me. In fact, years later, when I was 15, she took me to Australia, where we visited the Great Barrier Reef. While snorkeling, the boat crew accidentally started throwing the lunch scraps into the water before realizing I was still out there swimming. There's truly no sound quite like that of hearing tens of thousands of fish rushing towards you because it's feeding time. I got out of the water very quickly and thankfully before any bigger fish decided to join the buffet. Looking back now, traveling with Nana Betty always meant something memorable was going to happen. And honestly, I wouldn't trade a second of it.

I was incredibly lucky to have her in my life for so long. Nana Betty lived to almost 101 years old and I still still. miss her and our adventures every single day. Thanks for the great podcast. It always gives me a laugh and somehow manages to bring back memories of family trips I haven't thought about in years. Oh, thank you, Joanne. And yeah, big applause to Nana Betty for being there for you all those years. I think Nana Betty was so disappointed.

and when she wanted to do something else, you know, she said, well, let's, we're in New Hampshire, and we're at, you know, Canby Lake amusement park. Let's do something that she'll like. So she skipped the whole United States, including Disneyland, and let's go to Australia next. Yeah, she wasn't taking any chances, no chance. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I would love to see the Great Barrier Reef, and I bet the reef was in better shape when Joanne got there. But Canopy Lake Park, have you been there? Not since you guys were kids. I think about it. If Seth would bring the kids up here in the summer season, it would be one of my first thoughts. Because I think it's far more than I remember. Yeah. I thought Joanne was going to. say that the first ride she went on, which at five, they wouldn't have let her on, the Turkish

twist. But the Turkish twist was a ride where you would get into this circular room, and it would just start spinning. And you would get pressed against the wall from the centrifugal force, and the floor drops out. And you could sort of reposition yourself on the wall, but you're looking across at other people. And boy, oh, boy, I think I did that once and had to, the floor would be lay down on a park bench afterwards and was nauseous and just got too dizzy. It's the only ride I can remember from Canterby Lake Park, but we went there definitely every year there was a field trip there. Yeah, I think there was school trips. I think he went there more, you know, with the school than with us, but what her story reminds me of, you know, when you take kids to something you think

they're going to really like. And yeah. And they don't, you know, fully invest. And when when mom was a teacher, we would, in like February, April vacation, there's two in New Hampshire, we went to, we would go typically, no, it had to be April. We would go to somewhere warm. And I remember going to the Bahamas one year. And, and it's beautiful. And there's beaches. There's all kind of stuff. But it was always the week of the NFL draft.

and it wasn't the draft like it is now, which is three days and four TV stations and everything. It was on maybe ESPN, just all the ESPN. And Seth would be inside watching the draft, wait to see who the Staliers would draft, and then he'd come out and tell us, and then he'd go back inside, so he didn't miss the next other 30-run team. so he didn't miss the next draft choice. And we'd be out playing in the sand and swimming and everything. But if he didn't want to miss the draft, that was a whole weekend. I still, I didn't understand then and I don't understand now.

That didn't make any sense then. Yeah. Your best friend, Denny, will like text a text chain with, you know, me, you, mom, Seth, during the draft and be like, I love this pick. And I'm like, I'm outliving my life. I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I'll find out later. I'll find out when they're playing football if they're good.

But that was, yeah, that was his thing. We'll go to the Bahamas. I'm going to go watch ESPN. Yeah. I don't recall, did we, did we have chicken pox? Yeah, I think so. But yes, yes. Seth has one pockmark, I think, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah. Yeah. I think you think they're sick. I don't remember anything else about it. Yeah. I don't, I just have no knowledge of like, oh, yeah, you would never, you feel terrible and you wouldn't want to be going on rides because of chickenpox. But I'm going to take Joanne's word for it, that it's maybe not the best combo. No, it's not.

But as you get older, because you're my age, okay, chickenpox is not, it all has to do if people have shingles. You have to know if you had, when you were a kid, Did you hear about people? The shingles is terrible. I mean, you get a shot for it. So you don't get it. But that's,

as you get older, this thing goes away. And now you start thinking about it in another context. Just another thing about aging. You can look forward to it. Yeah, no, I just actually got a text from CVS or whatever saying I'm now eligible for the shingles vaccine.

Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. All right, I think we've got another story, Jeff. Hey, Seth and Josh. This is Megan from Longmont, Colorado.

I wanted to share one of our more stressful yet hilarious family trip adventures. My family of four go to a resort in Mexico every year for spring break, because by the time spring break rolls around, we are just done and need to go somewhere where we don't have to do squat. So after a week of rest and recharging and relaxation, we woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning on our departure day. because our transfer service insisted on an insanely early pickup time. We always fly direct, but this time we had to connect.

No big deal, we have plenty of time to make the connection. So after sitting in the Cancun Airport for hours, we fly our tired selves to Houston and go through customs. But because they were massively understaffed for the number of international flights coming in, it took over two hours to get through, so we missed our connecting flight to Denver. We rebook flights and try to go on standby for a direct Houston to Denver flight home. We wait at the gate with fingers crossed, and just as they're about to let us on the plane, two latecomer ticketed passengers come jogging up to the gate, so all four of us can't go. We decide my 11-year-old son and I will go, and my husband, Alan, and our 8-year-old daughter

will hopefully get on the next direct flight, or at the very least, a connecting flight through San Antonio for which they have confirmed seats. I take all the things I'll need to get home. Parking lot card, location of the car, phone chargers, credit card. Get on the plane, get in the air, and I get a text for my husband that I don't have car keys. Great. But he's contacted his friend Ryan, who will go to our house, grab the spare set, and meet me at the airport. God bless Ryan.

Great plan, except Alan gave Ryan the wrong code to the home alarm, which goes haywire when he tries to get into the house. He gets that taken care of. I then get another text from Allen that the next direct flight to Denver is oversold, and they gave away their seats on the San Antonio flight, because for some reason they recounted as being on my flight. He gets that fixed. Now all he has to do is get to San Antonio and make the flight to Denver. Well, the Houston to San Antonio flight is now delayed because they changed aircraft at the last minute to a bigger one with full fuel, too much fuel for a short flight, which would make the landing really bad. So they had to de-gass the plane.

My husband and daughter finally get to San Antonio and make the Denver connection with minutes to spare. When they told the flight attendant all that had gone on, she gave him a free drink and my daughter a snack box saying, you earn this. So they arrive in Denver, and I head back out to the airport to pick them up. And that's when I learned there was even more to the saga. When he realized I didn't have car keys, Alan ran back to the gate yelling, Stop the plane! Stop the plane! Hoping they could run the key on board to me. But it was too late for them to go down the jetway.

The gate crew thought the ground crew could use a lift and hand the keys through the cockpit window. Sadly, the plane was too much in motion. So the next plan was for the crew of the next flight to Denver to take the keys, and I would wait at the Denver airport for them and meet up. up with them for a handoff. Mind you, all these schemes were the ideas of the United Airlines staff, not us. But the next crew said no, they didn't want the responsibility. So that's why the Ryan home alarm plan went into action. No wonder the flight attendant gave him a drink. So my kids got a big fat lesson in rolling with it and the importance of flying direct. Always fly direct. So thanks,

guys, absolutely love the pod. And the family I would want to vacation with, without doubt, is the Myers family. I just want to sit in a corner with one of your mom's G&Ts and listen to you all. Oh, man. That just sounds like a nightmare. Absolutely. Yeah. You've got some experience leaving things behind.

I am on the U.S. Olympic loser team. of not that I'm a loser but the I lose stuff all the time and um recently I was coming home from Florida and I had a carry bag that I don't often use and skipping a few details my car keys fell out and I realized that when I got home there was no way to get into my car keys. car. And so, you know, your mom had to pick me up. I have spare keys and went and got the car the next day. But I have this thing called a tile. It's a product. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to tell you a story now. Tile. You might want to sponsor after why you give you some props here because I bought you those tiles as a gift. Yes, you did. And I have a flat tile that is in my,

a wallet and it looks just like a credit card and I have a fub like on my keychain. And I couldn't imagine where I locked this. I go to the file app and I'm looking at the map of the East Coast from Florida all the way to Boston where I was flying. And there's all these places where the tile was hitting all the way to Florida. So I opened the Floridian side of it, and it's Orlando, and I open it, and it gets bigger, and it's the Orlando airport, and I get open it a little bigger, and it shows it's the Avis car return at the Orlando airport. Okay, that's where it is. So I call, I go online, actually, Avis, you fill out a form. the next day

Avis calls me, we got your keys. Yeah. And there you go. These electronic keys that people have today, they're very expensive. I think that Avis sent it to me

for 30 bucks, well worth, and it was great. And that's, you know, that's one. But no, that's nothing.

That's nothing. We just came home on the train. you referred to. We're in Porto, Portugal. And we are helping these other people that we traveled with get, they had these storage, electronic storage facilities that you could leave your bags and go into town and then come back and get them.

And we're helping this guy and his wife drags so much luggage. We have one roller each. out everything learned your lesson from when you were in Yugoslavia absolutely if it don't roll i don't take it and they we go back help this guy they've got a big you know cart with all this luggage we're just rolling up we go up to the um tap counter yeah the airline the portuguese airline reach in my pocket come up with one passport Your mother's. No passport for me.

Not. Not for you. No. No passport for there. And I say to the girl, let's have what happens. This must have happened before. And she said,

well, you called the embassy, which is in Lisbon. And I called the house. Which is how far away from Porto? Probably a two-hour train ride. And I talked to somebody in the embassy. You come up here,

come tomorrow. I had to stay over another day. You have to different flights. We'll get you a temporary. fast court, blah, blah, blah,

blah, and it sounds bad. So I said, he'll go home. I'll figure it out. She was already on the way to go on home, by the way.

I wasn't, it was no goading. Her he's not going to wait. She wasn't goading. She said, I'm going to go to ginatonic. I'm going to go to a lounge. Forget this thing.

Yeah, of course. She knows what to do. The tap lady said, why don't you go talk to the airport police? Because we were trying, to get we thought it might have been a new uber and the lady the uber driver wouldn't answer the phone she would answer but she says i'm busy and hang up she says maybe if the police call and they say this is

the police she'll look in the car for my passport okay so i go over to the police station and i say hey this is what happened and the lady and there were three women police officers and I says, I lost my passport. And the one woman police officer does this. Are you Larry? Just pulls it out? Yeah. Some good-hearted person,

when I was taking all that luggage out, it fell out of my pocket. Somebody picked it up in an airport. And took it over to the police, and I got it back in no hassle. Well, until the, until on the plane, I lost it again in the seat. And they had to pull the seat up because it was on the floor.

I'm sure mom didn't give you a hard time about that. Yeah, you don't hear or see her anywhere, do you? I haven't seen her since we got home. She did say that anytime we travel now, she will carry the passports in something that has a zipper. Yeah, that's good. I pointed out that my pants have a zipper. and that's where they were in my pocket,

evidently not good enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The zipper's got to be closed, I think. But part of the technology that wasn't clear to me at the time. I had a very similar thing recently. I went to McKenzie and I went to an event and you had to valet your car.

And I like, when I'm getting out of the car, I want to give the keys to the valet and I had to get my wallet and get my glasses and all these things. And then I get handed at, ticket and when we left, I couldn't find a ticket. And I went up to the little valet stand. And I was like, I don't know where my ticket is. And they were like, do you have tan shoes on? And I was like, yeah. And the woman just like held up my ticket. She's like, I took a note. I saw tan shoes walking

away from this ticket the second someone gave it to them. Yeah. Lots of eye rolls for McKenzie. But it all works out. Because there's so many people that know people like us and are all always on the lookout for lost stuff. I think it's like a Peter Pan thing, the lost boys. There's something somewhere, people were so attentive to that. And it's great that they're kind enough to not just say, ah, forget about it. Yeah.

That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to, you got to help to pay that, that car. You got to pay it forward. Pay it forward. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

Well, Megan, I'm glad you guys all finally made it home. I really subscribe to that flying direct. Oh, yeah. I just don't like a layover. It's only in the most dire of circumstances. Do I do those only when you have to? But made it home. So all's well that ends well.

Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Yahoo Mail. Now with Planner. Hey, Bajie. Hey, Sufi. Oh, man, I need to get my life organized. You know, you host a podcast. We're in my case two podcasts or in your case two podcasts, and it's easy to get them all mixed up.

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By surfacing important tasks and events at the right time, Planner helps you stay organized, reduce, mental load, and keep life moving without things slipping through the cracks. Don't miss important tasks or events in your inbox. Stress Less with Planner from Yahoo Mail. I think we have a few questions, Jeff, correct? That is correct. I got a few questions.

All right. These might be for me and Seth, classically, Daddy Boy, but, you know, feel free. These are actually all for you and Larry. Oh. Good, because otherwise I was leaving. All right, Jeff, what do we got? From Spelk 8 on Instagram, they say, Larry, what's your favorite restaurant in PGH?

Oh, that's Pittsburgh. Well, okay, I didn't know. Yeah, okay, well, my favorite restaurant is, it's not a restaurant per se, but it was a hot dog place called the original. And it had been around for like 50 or 60 years. And it didn't survive the COVID problems. And it closed. And that was always the first stop every time that we went to Pittsburgh. There is a place right now, a small Italian place in Shadyside called Girisole.

Oh, yeah. Very, very intimate. very, they don't take reservations. People wait to get in. Not very big, but very good Italian food. And so I would put that high on the list right now. And we, we ate there last year, the last two times we've been in Pittsburgh. And the owner's, like brother you went to school with, the owners?

Yeah, the owner's brother was a few years older than me, but went to my high school, Peabody High School. His brother was a very good athlete, as I recall. And so we kind of got over, come hello, how you doing, da-da-da-da-da. So it's a very, very Pittsburgh thing, very good food, very good. Yeah, it's just off Walnut Street, right? Yeah, I can't remember the name of the street, but just off of Walnut Street, yeah. Yeah, that's a great spot.

What else we got? Okay, these are two questions for both of you from Abby L. first question what do you think would be a good name for seth's eventual book i bet he's got the name already he's working on a book um that's that's a that's a that's a pretty good question um wow well we have uh we talk we have this mire's lexicon that you know yeah they know You know what the words. And maybe like the word novers, novers. You know, we always, you know, we point to something who would say this and they started

when the kids were little and they would say, do you want another? And they would say, I want another. Or then it got to be, give me that nover. So somehow getting that in. But I do remember, no, you'll remember just, we ran into a guy. in Amsterdam years ago, and you guys were boom Chicago, and he would always come. And the first thing he would say is,

oh, bad news, guys. And then he'd say whatever he was going to say. And Seth said that if he ever wrote a book, it would be called Bad News and Other Stories. Oh, that would have been really good. But I would have to, he'd have to work. That was Tom Kilty, yeah. The Tom Kilty, yeah.

And he'd have to work some, something with the lexicon or the word Albert would be good for me. Yeah. Don't know. You got any ideas? You thought he? Well, staying in the same world, Fiffy good, Sufi, I feel like, would be. Fiffy good would be good.

Fiffy good. Yeah, Fiffy good means very good. And but yeah, I think he's probably going to go. I don't know. He's not going to call it. No, he's not going to call it any of these. I don't know what he's going to call it. It better be clever, though,

Sufi. Otherwise, we're not going to get some books, we've got a dull cover. We're not going to bother reading. Abby had a second question. Her question was, what is your favorite go-to-concession food for Steelers games?

Hmm. Well, as a vegan, and I'm pretty limited, I got to say. There's usually, there's some, there's some, like, vegetable, what is it? There's like a vegetable sushi roll that I might have, but that's, you don't want that. You don't want that, Abiel. No.

Look, if you're just, you know, like, you know, in the concessions in, you know, at the stadium, and you're in Pittsburgh, you might as well go with Promonti, right? Permandi brothers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's, you know, that's very hometown. And that's a good, you know, aren't going to go wrong there. Yeah.

And that's a big sandwich with French fries on the sandwich. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I would go with something like that. Yeah. It's a classic. Yeah.

By the way, I think Bruce Springsteen was just in the Berg last night, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Getting a Permanti Brothers sandwich? Yeah, he was on, yeah, he was on. stage singing and playing a guitar and eating a permianthe at the same time he's the boss nobody nobody but nobody better uh larry you mentioned albert a second ago so we've got an albert question actually from erika from norway uh she asked have you had alberts that behaved in similar ways

absolutely they they uh they're six dogs from different breeders. I think maybe two of them from the same breeder, but very different breeders. The current Albert is from Colorado, I think. We got them during the pandemic. But they're amazing, common characteristics, personalities. I think it's just endemic to old English sheepdogs. Yeah, they're hurting dogs. So they're very loyal and then they want to keep their family around. And yeah, and they're just, they like dogs. They like people.

They're really, really friendly, very affectionate. So, yeah, I just think more it's endemic of the breed. And although the one I've got right now, the best, absolutely. And I can't, I can't keep them straight. to tell you the truth anymore. But then I can't keep, I don't know where my wallet is or my passport. So the fact that I can't keep them straight, don't read too much into that. Yeah, we used to have, as well, Great Pyrenees.

We had three Great Pyrenees along the line of these six Old English sheepdogs. And the Great Pyrenees are also hurting dogs, but they... They're guard dogs, right. And I've, like, seen a lot of active... of Great Pyrenees guard dogs, like overseeing a herd of goats or, you know, one of McKenzie's clients who have horses and all these, you know, chickens and animals, and they've got these two great Pyrenees that you can't, I've never met because they are working. And they're not for sort of, for me to just scratch and play with. But the Pyrenees would love to sit outside

and sort of look over the property, make sure things were okay. And when we had them, the sheepdogs, the Alberts would spend more time outside because they had a family member, essentially, to be with. But now that we don't have a Pyrenees, I feel like Albert doesn't like to spend a lot of time outside unless you're outside. Yeah, he's definitely more attached to us. But weren't we just at some place, Josh, where there was a fence, I think in California and there was a golf course? A golf course. And they said, don't come in this area. Don't pet these.

It was a fence. Don't pet these. Because they're guarding some kind of goats. It was goats, wasn't it? Yeah, there were goats that were clearing brush from a hillside. And the goats were just eating stuff. And then these, yeah, two big Pyrenees would just bark at you as you drove by in your little golf cart. I once saw a thing about Pyrenees on TV.

with this guy was a farmer, a cattle farmer down in Texas. But he had a lot of scrubby land that he needed to clear for, he was more concerned about fires, you know, brush fires. And he had, say he had 200 goats and he had three great perennies. And when they were puppies, they would put them in with the sheep and they would drink the milk, you know, from the female, from, the to use. And as they grew, that was their family, you know, and they would guard it, sit out in this heat all day, watching the goats. And they had predators there, they were, you know, pumas or some kind of wildcats. And you would see them, they'd see one of these cats and in this video that pre-pernese would get up and start to go after them. And I remember what the farmer said is that at the end of

the day, he said, if I have all my dogs, I know I have all my sheep. They won't leave the sheep behind. It was really, really amazing. Dogs do amazing things anyway. Yeah.

All right, everybody. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for the... Do we have more questions, or is that it, Jeff? We have one more question. Oh, yeah, we do it. One more question from Lori. She asked, Larry, have you ever coached a team that Sether Josh played for.

Yes. The Blue Jays. It was a little league team. And I guess it was Little League

they had to have been no more than 12 and say 10 to 12 somewhere in there. And so yeah, I coached that. And I remember it being fun.

I remember we had we made up a song. Yeah. It's something Josh is obviously inherited from me. And with all of the kids' names, we're in the song. So we're talking baseball. We're talking for, yeah, to the song, we're talking baseball. I still remember it.

Go ahead. Yeah, we're talking baseball. The scotches and de Mayo's talking baseball. La Point and Stavaridis, the Myers boys, Chris Martin, Jeff LaPlante. Stirred the hearts of all the Blue Jays fans. with Andy Comer, Mark Reagan and the goose. There we go. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing that this many years later,

because we had like, we weren't good. We weren't like a successful team, but we had a barbecue at the end of the season, and you sang that at the barbecue, and I feel like we all learned it, and it is stuck in my head. There we go. So, you know, those of our listeners,

when this, you know, we finished talking and you'll hear Josh's song, we'll expect you to remember it. Yeah. Also, you coached and then at some point, like, you know, we've all got our Myers tempers and you decided you were better as an umpire because then you could never be wrong. I like that. Because you were the law. You were Judge Dred. And you umpired for a long time. Yeah, 16 years.

and long after you guys were, you know, done college and high school and even some adult leagues, I did it for 16 years. It was a hobby. I liked it a lot. Yeah, I liked it a lot. I started playing golf and I don't have time to do it anymore. And probably I don't have the knees for it anymore. But yeah, I really did enjoy it. All right, everybody. Well, I think that's it. Well, thank you, Daddy Boy for filling in here. This has been wonderful. It's great. Now, I just, and I want Seth to be upset. If the listeners and send it a lot of information say,

does Seth have to come back? Yeah. And the answer is no. He doesn't have to. But it hurt his feelings, so. Yeah. Well, Sufi, we do miss you. He will be back.

But it is great to be able to go to our bullpen, Daddy Boy, and, yeah, and get the right-hander, the left-hander, if it's you or hurry. And McKenzie also eager to get in on this. So who knows? The show that she did, the part that she did was, she was great. Because I think we had some notice. Both Hillary and I had some notice. She didn't. And she stepped up.

And she was great. And so, yeah, that just, you know, she, we needed a little prep, a little bit anyway. She didn't need anything. She stepped up. Yeah. And she had a live audience to connect with a live audience. Not nothing. That's for sure.

All right. Well, thank you, Daddy Boy. Love you so much. I love you too. Really enjoyed it. Thank you, listeners. And we'll be back with another episode next week. Bye.

We just love these listener episodes. Listeners send us stories from all over the world and from way back in time. Michael was studying out in my strict. Stayed to travel right after Christmas. Traveling companion was their older sis. Together they hitchhiked out to Paris. Ten days later things got testy Michael grabbed their bag and hitchhiked right back to Holland dicey decisions made on that drive

Michael is lucky to be alive Joanne from Rhode Island went to Canaby Lake and her condition that was a mistake No cotton candy, no funnel cake. Sweet Nana Betty thought, give me a break. On the way home, Nana Betty, said Joanne, what gives? That park is great for kids.

That's when her uncle saw all of her spots. Joanne had a raging case of chicken pox. Megan and her family from Colorado spent spring break down in Mexico when they had to go. Disaster was waiting, wouldn't you know? In Houston got stuck in customs. And thanks to those Texans, they missed their flight connection series of mishapses is what happened next. Consider yourself warned and fly direct