National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 99: Bike Heists, Scubavangelists & Camping Gone Wong

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Today’s stories include scubavangelists, cave proposals, bike heists, and camping gone wrong. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! COME SEE US ON TOUR! For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm half of that show, and my name's Danielle. I'm the other half of that show, and I'm Cassie. And in case you missed it on Monday, big news. Huge news. The biggest news. We've ever news. Oh, or that.

Yeah. Actually, it's up there for sure. It's pretty up there. And it's really exciting because Danielle and I are going on tour. We are coming to a series. city may be near you, depending on where you live. Perhaps. Yeah, depending on where you are in the country, maybe it's close by. And in case you missed it, it's going to be in October and November of this upcoming year. We have all the dates and all the details and all the links and everything you could

ever possibly want to know about this tour, linked in all of our social pages and our website and all of that. But just a brief recap, we're going to Boston, we're going to Seattle, we're going to New York, We're going to Minneapolis. We're going to San Francisco to be warm, maybe. We're going to Chicago. November. It'll be still warm maybe there. San Francisco is the last day of our tour on November 12th.

Yeah, not in this order also, by the way. Yeah. It's going to be bobbing everywhere, but. This is a riddle. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, so you're missing. I know you were just about to say Chicago, but you're missing one.

Chicago. And we're going. And we're going to the one, the only Wisconsin. We're going to Milwaukee. That's right. So I can officially go. I mean, we officially cross the border. But I feel like this will be my official time spent.

I didn't even eat cheese my first time in Wisconsin. Yeah. And it's not for lack of trying. I don't know what was going on. I think it must have been where we entered the state of Wisconsin. It was kind of in an industrial area. there was no cheese for miles around. Yeah.

Maybe we'll eat cheese on stage in Wisconsin, but you'll only know if you come to our Milwaukee show. Yeah, that's right. There you go. So if you want to see, this is the best advertisement we've ever done. We're like, we really need to hype this up. I hope we did it. So, anyhow, it's going to be a really fun, exciting tour.

And we don't want to give too much away. But if you've been to any of our live shows in the past, We've done a few, a handful over the years, but they've followed kind of like a live podcast episode taping format. And this is going to be a little bit different in nature. So without divulging anymore, you just have to come and experience it to understand it. So hope to see you in one of those places that Cassie just listed.

Or all. Or all of them. That would be a feat. I don't know if I would. Like, I mean, I would like it. But if I saw you on every single tour stop, I'd say, hi to you every single time. I'd be like, are you sure you don't have anything else that you want? Every tour, every stop is going to be different, though.

Yeah. In ways. So do it. I don't know. I take it back. I was going to say that would have weirded me out, but I can don't it, actually. It was a process to get through, but we got there. Yes.

Okay. So now let's get to some stories. Yeah, because that's why we're here. Okay, I'm holding my iPad, so I will go first. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that part. So you can. Yeah, you were just looking at me. So I'm just ready.

I'm just here. I'm vibed. She's vibing. Yeah. Well, the first thing I have to say is actually a call back to one of the conversations that we had in a previous Trail Tale episode back in episode 93, Trail Tales 93. I don't exactly know how it came up, but we went on a little bit of a side tangent about photo labs. And if those A still exist and B, if people work in them and see weird things. And if they

do see weird things, what happens? We just had questions. And we've received a few different answers. And I wanted to just call attention to one in particular because I think it's actually really important to know. I know we were joking about it, but this is a little bit more serious. And I feel like we should draw attention to it. So this is not my first official story. It's just a little bit of a PSA. Okay. I'm serious. Yeah, get serious. Right. It begins PSA from Trail-N 93. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I work for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the Exploitation Division, and I cannot tell you how many reports we still. receive from photo developers and people submitting CSAM child sexual abuse material to be developed. The amounts of report we receive about this has definitely decreased over the years,

but we still get them. The audacity or stupidity that it takes for someone to have CSAM developed is absolutely insane. But yes, in the year of our Lord and Savior, Dolly Parton, 2026, people are still using photo developers to develop such material. In addition to still using floppy disks, we have also heard stories about gore and sexual photos being processed as well. So shout out to CVS, Walgreens, etc. Photo Developers, the unexpected front lines heroes. Shameless plug for any reports about child sexual abuse on or offline, please let us know at 1-800 The Lost or at missing kids.org. Thank you for all you do and for keeping our team entertained during long days at work. Love E. The Lord and Savior's work, honestly, people who are in this, in that field,

incredible. I mean, what you see is horrible and awful that we even have to have these conversations. But wow, that's, I can't, when they mention floppy disks also. Oh, yeah. People are using floppy I haven't used a ploppy just since high school, which is maybe even middle school. Yeah. Or we had, um, my school was going through something, some weird transition. But we, instead of going from middle school to high school, I think because the town was getting too big, they did this thing called upper middle school. So you went from middle school to upper middle school, which was just seventh and eighth grade.

And then we went to high school. So did you start middle school in sixth grade? grade? I don't. No. Because if upper middle school was seventh and eighth grade, what was middle school? I don't know. Because mine was, and I know it's different now, but my school did, elementary school was kindergarten through sixth grade and the seventh and eighth was middle school and the ninth through 12th was high school. But I know that they have since moved sixth grade to middle school. Oh, interesting. I don't know. I just know that we were the first round. of kids to go through this new.

The building was brand new as a brand new thing at the time. So I don't know if they got it figured out. I hope so. It's been a while. Yeah. Hopefully you got that ironed out. But anyhow, okay, let me go into my first actual story. But thank you, E for sending that in.

I'm actually really excited to tell the story and I picked it for this specific trail tales because you are looking at or listening to a newly, freshly scuba, certified gal. That is true. Congratulations. Thank you. So exciting, especially as someone who hates being underwater, I think it's really scary. Me.

Oh, yes. As a person who hates being underwater, I think it's really scary and also really brave to do it. Like, I think I would get claustrophobic and freak the fuck out. But you did it. Yeah. exciting. I will say I don't have any experience diving in any other location other than 53 degree water off of New England.

Was it fun? Did you have a nice time? I'm sure. It's great in other ways. But as I was getting all of the gear on and everything, especially for the open dives for my certification and things like that, I was really excited because I was getting to go into the open ocean. But also as I was layering up everything, I had a brief flash of thinking of you and my Cassie wouldn't even make it into the stepping into the water. There was just too many layers of things and apparatuses to handle. And you would have just freaked the fuck out for sure. Yeah.

But anyway, it was really cool to actually get into the water and see it sounds so obvious. But to see everything that we normally see on shore that comes up dead to see it alive and thriving and color. and scurrying around. And it was just a different world. And I'm getting the hype of why people love the ocean so much because I got to experience a completely different part of it. And so I chose this story because it is titled the Time Traveling Scoob Evangelist. Oh, okay. Hello, ladies.

Love your podcast and have turned my friends and family into listeners, or so they say. I started listening to the episodes from the very beginning, a year or so. ago and have finally finished all of the episodes and now have to wait for new ones. I am Richard and I am the scuba evangelist. Some Christians are evangelists. I have been scuba diving for nearly 45 years and preach the virtues and benefits of scuba. Thus I am the scuba evangelist. Scuba is really the only way to experience more than 70% of the area of the globe. Whether a coral or rock reef or open ocean, there is nothing like the people. of diving. You can be within arm's reach of another diver, but still experience everything as if you

were completely alone. I encourage everyone to try it. I have never met anyone who completed a scuba course that did not enjoy diving, to which I say, have you met Cassie yet? Because she might blow your mind. My diving experiences include Sonotes in the Yucatan, Bull sharks in the Gulf of Mexico, sunk in male plains in the Caribbean, warships off the coast of San Diego, Channel Islands National park and even Blackbeard ship, Queen Anne's Revenge with a sand tiger. I may submit stories from those dives or my time as a dive master assisting scuba diving classes at a later date. In the interim, here is an odd tale from the beginning of my scuba diving life. I learned how to scuba dive in the fall of 1981 while serving in the Navy in Japan. I didn't learn as part of my naval training, but one of my

instructors was a Navy seal and had an unconventional way of confirming his students were scuba ready prior to graduating us. I may describe his underwater torture test, which turned out to be very beneficial in a story another time. I was able to dive Tokyo Bay for about a year before being stationed stateside. My usual dive buddy was a Marine chaplain,

a very experienced diver with the added benefit of divine protection. Our normal dive spot was a beach not far from my apartment in Yokosuka. We would meet at the parking lot, gear up, and walk carrying our fins to the water's edge. We would then perform our buddy check, put on our fins, and walk backwards into the water before starting our surface

swim. If you learned how to dive in the last 25 years, you would not recognize this procedure, but this is how it was done before your buoyancy compensator could be filled directly from your tank. This is OG scuba. I love that I understand this. I'm like, oh, got you. I'm picking up what you're putting down, Richard. This beach dive required about 100 yards surface swim before descending. After the swim, we would deploy our dive lag and descend the roughly 40 feet to a sandy bottom. Our dive would follow the bottom's gradual descent to about 60 feet where we would encounter a rock reef abundant with sea life. Fish, rays, eels, and on this and other occasions, nurse sharks. As you probably know, nurse sharks are timid and generally harmless.

On this day, we witnessed one on the reef giving birth. It would rub against the bottom and live baby sharks would emerge and swim away. Unfortunately, neither of us had cameras, a prohibitively expensive scuba accessory in the spring of 82. This majesty of watching a shark give birth is pretty cool, but is not the point of this story. After some exploration, we agreed that it was time to end the dive. It's standard practice to make a three-minute safety stop at 15 feet of depth, and at the end of each dive to make sure you off-gas to avoid the bends. The advantage of many beach dives is rather than floating by a mooring line for three months,

minutes at 15 feet, you can slowly follow the gradual ascending bottom until you're able to stand and remove your fins and then walk in. On this day, my buddy and I misjudged the depth and when we ascended, we had to manually by blowing to inflate our buoyancy compensators to stay at the surface. Our heads broke the surface facing away from the beach. We were turning to confirm that there was no boat traffic around. We put a few breaths into our BCs, stabilized and turned to swim back to the beach. However, rather than seeing an empty beach and parking lot, it looked as though we had surfaced in the early 17th century. There was a samurai army with cavalry on the beach, or rather two samurai armies because there was an actual battle going on. You could hear the panting of horses,

grunting of men, and clanging of swords 20 yards out into the ocean where we had just surfaced. We turned to look at each other and confirmed that we were both seeing the same. thing. I don't know about the chaplain, but I was hearing the theme from the Twilight Zone. This was before the X-Files. We didn't dare say anything to avoid drawing attention to ourselves, as some of the Calvary had muskets, and we were unlikely to be recognized as humans in our scuba masks and our gear. Had we swum through an interdimensional portal? We each checked our air gauges nowhere near enough for another dive, even assuming we would recognize the portal if we saw it. I had learned a bit about the Japanese and had recently read Shogun, and had the chaplain not been there, I would be willing

to believe this was a symptom of gas narcosis. But the fact that we were not 80 feet down and acting drunkenly ruled out that thesis. We were looking for a place to ditch our gear and emerge from the water out of view of the battle armies when we saw it and realized what was actually going on. Our beach dive was on one side of a point of land jutting into Tokyo Bay. Apparently, while we were submerged a slight current, possibly from title action, had taken us to the other side of the point. Because the site that brought relief and proved we had not somehow been transported to a feudal Japan were movie cameras and reflector screens. We had surfaced offshore of a movie set. They were filming a movie. About the same time that we saw the equipment, the crew saw us. They were not happy.

Most cameras looked to be pointed up at the beach, but there must have been at least one that showed the ocean as a backdrop. We swam down the beach, not approaching until we were passing by the cameras, but action was halted and we were greeted by an angry director and production crew. I am not sure it was a good thing that they all spoke English. My Japanese was not very good. And we told them who we were, U.S. military stationed at nearby Yokosuka, let them think we were the Navy SEALs on a training mission. After a few minutes and several heartfelt, I'm sorry and please forgive me in Japanese, a tea break was called and a good amount of laughter ensued. They told us about the movie they were making and we told them what we had seen during our

dive and answered questions about scuba diving. Considering it would have cost them several thousand dollars to reshoot, I hope they were able to edit the footage so time-traveling scuba divers did not appear in their movie. Or maybe they changed the plot to include scuba divers from the future. Who knows? Anyway, ladies, that's a story. from early in my scuba life. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, enjoy the view, but watch your back and for any currents that might lead you to surface in a different century. Wow, that must have been so tripping to be looking at something from that time period and then to surface and be like, wait a second, what year are we in right now? Yeah, what just happened to us? And the whole gas narcosis thing

is also so legit of being like, are we just going through in a medical event right now? And we're both having the shared delusion. I really wish I double-checked the email and he didn't include the movie name. Maybe he doesn't know it because it sounds like he didn't watch it. Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah. But I just thought that was so funny. That is so funny. Richard, thanks for writing in. Yeah, thank you. All right. And since we're on a theme of things that I don't enjoy in life, Let's read my next story, which is titled Cave Proposal. Let's go to a cave. I'm just kidding.

I actually, the caves I've gone to have been pretty fun. I just don't like being in small confined spaces, which none of the caves I've been to have been like that yet, so I've had good experiences. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. My name is Danny, and I hope you lovely ladies are doing well. I've been listening to the podcast since I started my degree in geology at the University of Georgia and around the time I met my now-fiancee Tommy. Anytime I'm on the road or doing lab work, I listen to this podcast. Today, I want to tell y'all about the most memorable engagement possible and potentially

for all the wrong reasons. Tommy and I refuse to give each other Christmas gifts. Instead, we pile our money into a camping trip every year. We've been to New River Gorge, Mammoth Cave, and most recently, Our road trip to Alabama consisted of many waterfall hikes and the Stevens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve in Jackson County, Alabama. Some people sleep on the southeast when it comes to outdoor recreation, but the Southeast U.S. offer some of the most beautiful and intimate outdoor experiences imaginable. You just have to look underground. The Southeast Cave Conservancy manages most of the wild caves in the area, including Stevens Gap Cave,

a.k.a. my favorite place on this planet. I knew the cave well, but it was a goal of mine to show it to Tommy. To get to Stephen's Gap, you must first go to the Liberty Diner in Scottsboro, Alabama. Sign your name on the wall, and then you can go. Kidding, but it's a caving tradition in the area for good luck. That's how Tommy and I's first caving trip of 2006 started. Afterwards, we drove the 20 minutes out of town to the trailhead of the one mile trail to the entrance of the cave. Stevens Gap is a smallish cave with two entrances. One entrance is a rock scramble, while the other option is a 140-foot sinkhole. I don't do heights, let alone waterfalls that drop 140 feet into earth, so we took the other

entrance. I left my favorite jacket and our snacks at the entrance of the cave, and we took in only the essentials. For a couple hours, we experienced all the beautiful hidden pockets of the cave has to offer. We see enclosed waterfalls, remnants of ancient dunes, cave crickets, salamanders, and millions of fossils. And I filmed a couple of reels for the UGA Geology Instagram. Eventually, we decided to start heading out. But before we left, Tommy asked me to set up my phone for a photo.

I knew right then, and he knew I knew from the grin on my face. We turn around to admire the waterfalls dropping into the sinkhole, and he starts stalling. kissing me and talking about the most random things possible to playfully watch my agony. Then he leans down to look at a rock. I think, all right, this is what we are doing now, looking at rocks. So I squat into my feral, what is this rock pose? Lo and behold, the rock is a geode. And when he opened it, there was my ring.

Immediate tears, borderline sobbing. Will you marry me? Tommy asked. And you would think I would say, yes. of course I love you so much but my cave delirium brain said Are you sure? Didn't you say that?

I said that to hell too I was like are you sure? I'd least like yeah I wish someone else had witnessed his face Yes he was sure and so was I I said of course I'll marry you and we celebrated all alone in that cave Well at least we thought we were alone

Shortly after we hear a single sharp wist coming from the entrance of the sinkhole. Weird, but we started heading up to see if maybe someone needed help. When we reached the top of the cave, three young guys started cheering, not because they knew we got engaged, but because they thought we were dead. The friends were going to spend the evening repelling, but they saw my things at the entrance of the cave. Immediately they started thinking their fun trip had turned into a recovery or rescue mission.

We laughed it off and offered the guy some snacks before high. biking back to our car. The story should end here, but it doesn't. The next day, I didn't have my favorite jacket. Shit, I knew exactly where it was. It was sitting outside the cave. We were going to the NASA Space Museum and decided to stop and check for it on the way. It was pouring down rain. I hoped that the three guys we saw the day before had left my jacket in the lost and found at the trailhead. We get to the trailhead, no jacket. Oh well, maybe they left it in the cave thinking we would come back for it. It is practically flooding at the point, but I will not leave this jacket behind. So we devise a plan. I would hike to the cave to see if my jacket

was there. Tommy would stay at the parking lot just in case someone asks why we're there with an expired permit. After an hour, he'll come after me in case something happens to me. Great, plan set. That was the best hike of my life, filled with adrenaline from so closed, newly engaged and crossing streets, that weren't there yesterday, I felt so alive. But when I got to the cave, my jacket was gone. I finally had to admit that the guys who were there ready to rescue us took my beloved jacket. Instant deflation. That jacket had been with me for so many adventures and it would not be coming with me into my new chapter. After about 50 minutes of leaving Tommy, the parking lot started to come into view. I heard heavy footsteps bounding towards me, and I looked over to Tommy, dressed in nothing

but underwear and a trash bag, holding a rope in one hand and a first aid kit in the other. He was soaked and slipping in the mud that was starting to run off the hill. I couldn't help but laugh. That's my man, I thought proudly. Both of us breathing hard, I yelled through the rain. I thought I was making great time, and he yelled back, I couldn't wait any longer, wondering if something bad had happened to you. I started to tear up, not because of my jacket, but because I never thought I would love a person this deeply. We wanted to get to NASA's space center when they opened, but instead we got there two hours before they closed, mostly from running in the rain and Tommy trying to buy me dry clothes. I wouldn't have had that trip any other way. So enjoy the cave, but watch your back.

You never know what exceptional memory you'll make from someone stealing your favorite jacket. Danny and Tommy. Congrats Danny and Tommy. Yeah, that's really cute. Especially because you like caves. Yeah, what I was going to ask, what your reaction would have been if Al proposed to you in a cave? I mean, I would have said yes, wherever he proposed to me, I would have been like weird, but okay, we've literally never visit a cave together except for once on a group trip. But okay.

But I do like the being alone part. You know, I think it's really cute that they were alone. It was very intimate, quiet setting. They were obviously in a place that she loved, which is so important and sweet. For me, I would just be like, oh, yeah, are you sure? Why are we here? I thought you were murdering me. I have a question for you, actually, why are you doing this in a cave?

But yes. Yes. I agree with the private proposal thing. I think people who want very public displays of proposals are just like whatever you want to do, it's fine. But for me personally, I would absolutely hate that. Yeah. I don't want anyone around. I don't want a crowd. I don't want witnesses because what if I say no? I'm just saving you embarrassment. I, there's a chance I'm going to say no. There is a chance. So, might as well take the L in private, you know. It's like she's doing you a favor, actually. That's right. Has nothing to do with me.

Okay. So my next story is titled Mag You're It. I know how much you like freaky stories, as do I. I met my wife married Angie in college. She went by Mags and we were active hikers and skiers. After graduating, we decided to hike, Mino de Santiago, also known as the way of St. James in Spain. We took the Via de La Plata Trail, which is about 700 miles, and would take us about 10 to 12 weeks. We had talked about marriage,

but never too seriously, but something about the pilgrimage made it feel right to propose. I knew the cathedral of Salomonica would be coming up in a day or two, so when I entered a little village, I found a shop with rings. Unfortunately, back in the 80s, credit cards and ATMs weren't popular in Spain. The shop didn't take travelers checks old school and I had very little Spanish money as mags carried most of the cash and I wasn't going to let on what I was doing. I was able to barter the Rolex I had just received from my dad for graduation. This is commitment. That is commitment. A Rolex is a crazy gift also. Yeah. There are all Rolex is expensive. Is it one of those brands that everything is like sh-she?

Yeah, I think so too. I've never been able to get one, Rolex. I wish, but I've never been able to get a Rolex. No one's ever given me one. You would never wear watch. No one's ever bought me a Rolex, but our PO box is listed on our Instagram, if anyone's interested. The first one that comes up is a,

$110,000. But the second one that comes up is $325. Okay. So not all Rolex is ours. Just for clarification, I want the $110,000 one for people wanting to ship one to my to our PO box. Okay, shot that down. Got it.

Anyway. Back on track here. I called her dad and asked his permission, but he was pissed as it was about 2 a.m. his time. Nonetheless, he gave me his blessing. I proposed. she said yes and two days later on a Wednesday afternoon we made a donation to the cathedral and found two people on the trail to be witnesses and we were married.

Mags and love that spur of the moment it kind of just shows like I love you so much. Let's just do this like this feels right. You know, Mags and I were best friends and literally worked with each other and around each other 24-7 and we never got bored. Even years later, we would have to be. people ask if we were dating or newlyweds. Life progressed and we had two children. As they grew, they had a game called mag, you're it, as opposed to tag you're it. It was our family thing. Kids grew up and went to college and started their own lives. We were very fortunate because we

were able to retire at 51. I can hear both of you saying, how the hell can you do that? Long story short, we had a small business we started when we were 22 and it grew to be very large. A corporation came and bought us out. Congratulations. Congrats. That's my goal, too. Actually, I'm going for 45. Which means I have to go for 45.

We're a package deal. You can't just be like, yeah, that's my plan. I don't know what the hell you're doing. You guys get us for 10 more years and then we're retiring. Okay. Dream big. Long before camper vans were a thing, we bought a camper and would travel three to four weeks at a time going to national parks, skiing, and mountain biking. We always stayed active. We were hiking

in Acadia National Park one day, and Mags slid on a wet rock, got her foot wedged, and broke it pretty badly. The emergency room put a cast on it and said she would require surgery. She wanted to get home to Connecticut and get the surgery done there. I drove all night and made an appointment the next day. One week later, she went in for a very routine, hour-long surgery, and we expected to leave the hospital in a few short hours. Sitting there reading, the doctor came out and the look on her face immediately told me something was wrong. She told me that Mags had died in surgery, and I couldn't process it. My best friend had just died. I was absolutely devastated. After a couple years of grief counseling, I started to get back to life. Mags had always wanted her

ashes spread on the Camino de Santiago, and I was ready to do that. I got permission from the Spanish government, and off I went, a 55-year-old guy who was going to hike 700 miles. Even though I was in shape, it was grueling. I preferred being in a tent by myself, which is illegal on the trail, so I would pay farmers 50 euros or so to camp on their land. About eight to nine weeks in, I just couldn't go any further, my depression had returned, and I was overall in a bad spot. I sat in my tent and said out loud, Mags, give me a sign. I really need you right now. I can't do this alone. The very next day, after hiking for four hours, there was a couple I met in a little village. I was waiting to fill my canteen, and the girl turned to me and said, Mags, you're it. I said, what did you just say?

and her friend replied saying she only speaks French. I asked the friend if she heard what she said and the girl said yes, but I have no idea what Mag's Urit means. I broke down as I had just received my sign. That night I spread her ashes and finished the pilgrimage a few weeks later. For the record, the French couple would not have heard me as they had stayed overnight in the village. I still get chills thinking and talking about this.

Thank you for letting me tell my story. regards Mike. Chills. You can't get more spot on than that. No. She was like, you want to sign, I have one for you that you're going to recognize immediately. And unmistakably also. Yes. It's like, what did you say? And then have it, have someone else hear the same thing you heard, you know? Reiterate it and be like, I don't know what it means. But sorry. Sorry about that. And just like move on with their day. And like unbeknownst to them, they just totally gave the best gift they could have ever given, you know, in passing. So I love that story. Mike, thank you for sharing a piece of your love story with us.

Yeah. All right. Well, my next story is titled The Death of a Sleeping Bag. Hi, I'm a new listener and love the podcast. Welcome. We're so happy to have you. On a camping trip with friends in Cedar City, Utah, we spent the better part of the day paddleboarding with my dog, Mabel. She had the time of her life swimming and fetching, and then we went back to our site for dinner and a fire.

Once the night started winding down, me and my now husband Ritchie took Mabel to the tent and settled into bed. I was awoken from a deep sleep by Ritchie, who said he smelled something horrible. I sleepily shined my light around to find the sourced brown puppy prints in circles around the tent. and a sad little border collie ashamed hiding in the corner. Clearly, someone had had an accident. I followed the prince, only to find that the trail ended at my sleeping bag. I nervously lifted the bag to discover that in my sleep, I had rolled over into Mabel's runny-duky puddle.

We spent the majority of the night scrubbing the tent and trying to remedy the smell. Unfortunately, it was the coldest night I've ever camped in, so I had no choice but to settle back into my only slightly cleaned sleeping bag in the only slightly smelly tent. It made for a very rough night. As a side note, we had borrowed that tent from a friend and to this day never told them what happened. Oh, no. What? I love that.

That's diabolical. That is a good secret to have. I hope one day when the feeling, when it's feeling right, you're like, I have a confession. Oh, you like to admit it later on. Yeah. A week or two later, having deep cleaned and air dried my sleeping bag, which was no easy feat, my sister, Carson, and I decided to take Mabel and my mom's dog Beans on a backpacking

trip. Now, some important notes about Beans, she is the strangest dog I've ever met. She is so incredibly stubborn and has very particular patterns and practices she has to follow. If not, she goes completely stiff and will not move. She is also wildly unathletic, so we made sure the backpacking trip was, in hindsight, fortunately, very short. Anyway, it was a beautiful day and the hike was perfect other than the flies. We were excited when we hit camp and the sun started to go down and with it the flies. After 15 minutes of bug-free bliss, the mosquitoes started coming out. So many mosquitoes.

We had done this hike before, but never so early in the year and had not done near enough research on bug conditions. They were bothering us, but more than anything, they were bothering Beans, who started scratching the outside of the tent to get in. We obliged, only for her to scratch the inside of the tent, wanting to rejoin the group. After repeating this cycle several times, we decided it was best for everyone, especially Beans, if we retired to the tent so Beans felt both safe and included. I had been enjoying some relaxing reading time for no more than 10 minutes when Bean's stomach made a horrible sound. It was clear Beans was going to lose her dinner from one end or the other. Feeling protective of my newly clean sleeping bag, I instinctively and stupidly held my hands out in a cup under her mouth just as she started to vomit. That is quite the instinct.

I've never. Instinctively. I've never had that reflex. Actually, I have had that reflex, but I'll, I had that reflex once, but it was my own vomit, which may be worse. Oh, well. I instinctively, like, covered my hands over my mouth, and it was really bad because it actually just shot up. And I was in a car, and it shot up and hit the ceiling. Oh, there was power behind that one.

Yeah. I'm sorry, Amy. It was her car. Of course, it was Amy's car. So if you're listening, just know I think about it kind of often. To this day. Yeah. Anyway, back to the story.

It was the worst thing I have ever smelled in my entire life. As Carson gets a whiff, she immediately unzips the tent to vomit in response. As for me, I had saved my sleeping bag, but now had to carefully direct a handful of dog vomit out of the tent without spilling. And I did it. Success. Yes, but just as I turned my body away from beans, she unleashed round two. Feeling the warm and chunky vomit on my back, can't catch a break. I leapt out of the tent and started stripping all my clothes off as I sprinted to the lake in a panic to rinse off.

Oh no. When I came back to assess the damage, I saw that my freshly washed sleeping bag had all become a victim of beans. Worse still, when I looked at beans, her entire face swelled to twice its normal size. In a hurried panic, we grabbed our things to take beans to safety. Because of the worry, we weren't able to take things down and put them away as well as we usually would. So our packing consisted of throwing everything in a garbage bag and hoisting it over our shoulders, Santa Claus style. We hiked back down in the pitch black worried for beans's life. Meanwhile, while, Beans was happy as a clam, sniffing everything around, and, as usual, having no sense

of urgency. When we finally got back to cell phone service, we called the vet and were advised to give Benadryl. Beans was totally fine, and now we never take our dogs anywhere without Benadryl just in case. Anyway, that was the last camping trip that sleeping bag went on. Whether in my head or not, I could not get the smell out and ended up retiring her. Thanks again for your stories and entertainment. That sleeping bag was cursed. Yeah. It's best to be gone.

Get rid of that. I, you know, the, like, it's not funny. It's not funny. But the thing going around right now, I think it's called cyclosporiasis or something. Yeah. Sounds like this is your patient zero beans. And that other one. Because like the diarrhea and vomiting, isn't it?

That's what the sickness is. It's like three weeks of that. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So we might have just solved the case. There it is. I have the worst thing I've ever smelled now that we're on this topic. And it's relevant to the story because it's kind of similar.

It was one of those. I'm not really a contact vomitor. Like if I see someone getting sick, like it grosses me out, but I'm not heaving myself. You know, I don't. Yeah. Okay. I don't want to look at it, but I'm okay. This was years ago. But I was with an ex-boyfriend and we were in his car and Chaska, this is before the days of even blue. I just had Chaska. And he had gotten into some sort of something outside. And he had eaten a lot of it. And I know for a fact, it was, some type of poop. His poop, other dogs poop, and other animals, it was poop, no denying it. And which is gross in and of itself. And then we get in the car, we're driving for a while. And I look back and Chaska's like, he's not pause up on the center console, but he's sitting in the backseat,

like right between where the center console would be. I look at him. And his eyes are kind of almost shut and he's just like swaying and he never gets car sick ever so i'm like oh no what's going on bud like and then all of a sudden i start seeing him do the he's he's starting to heave yeah but we were actively driving i'm like you need to pull over right the second joc's gonna throw up before we can get anywhere close to the side of the road he projectile vomits the most vomit i've ever seen come out of a dog And it was vomit and poop Because he had just ate poop And it went when I say everywhere

Every nook cranny in the like where you put click your seat belt in like in the it was And I was like I'm going to throw up I was leaning my head out of the window about to throw up I'm like this is the most disgusting thing I've ever experienced in my entire life so I felt bad for Chaska. I wanted to make sure he was okay, but I was also now fighting for my life. And then my boyfriend, my axe was mad at me. I'm like, yeah, because that's my fault. And that's where we broke up. So actually, you didn't pull over in time. It's so funny because I have a similar story with an ex-boyfriend's dog. He was not in the car with me when this happened, but I was taking his dog hiking and I was going up to New Hampshire and his dog had extreme anxiety in the car which was very frustrating because he would

scream pretty much the entire car ride and pant and we were going about an hour and a half away so anyway he was screaming panting he did this every time there was no like oh something's wrong this time it was just his normal panting spinning around in the backseat like just being a little wild and um we get to the parking lot of the trailhead i just pull in i'm about to park oh no and he starts shitting all over my back seat and i'm not at the parking spot yet like i have to get to it i'm like no no so i'm like rushing to get to the parking spot but also because he is full of anxiety he was also running in circles and and stomping it all into the backseat of my car.

And also just like the cherry on top is my seats. They weren't like leather or like the cloth, like the cleanable cloth. They're like that fuzzy. They were kind of like that fuzzy seat where like it's very hard to clean. And he's just stomping in all of it. And I, we were actually, I remember we were. were at a gunstock ski resort. There's a height. We were going to hike up. And it was summer, so there wasn't really anyone there. And I was meeting up with a friend and she like grabbed a

bunch of paper towels and we cleaned it the best we could. But for the entire ride home, I had to have the windows all the way rolled down because we just couldn't get everything out of it in time. And then I had to get my car detailed because it was so it was so disgusting. Yeah. Dogs. They're the best. You should get one. Yeah. Adopt now. Use our code NPAD. This life could be yours as well.

Yes. Okay. So my last story is titled, Don't Steal My Partner's Bike, a Love Letter. All of my stories have to do with love. Yeah. Wow. In some of yours, too. Yeah.

I mean, my next story is titled Wedding Stabbing with a Happy Ending. So I guess mine is also a love story coming up. Maybe. Okay. So, all right, here we go. Don't seal my partner's bike a love story. At the beginning of this year, I got a new job which I hated simply for the fact that I had a long commute, a classic conundrum. Like I would wake up in the morning and cry about it kind of drama. When my delightful partner R suggested your podcast, my entire outlook changed and suddenly I was excited to get out of bed and drive to work so I could hang out with you two and listen to your stories. Thus began a tradition of R&Me listening to different episodes than one another and then coming home each day saying, you have to listen to this episode, it's crazy, before proceeding to spoil every detail for one another. It's been epic, so thank you.

I can't emphasize that enough. This story doesn't strictly take place in the outdoors, but it does involve a climbing gym and a bike race, sort of. R and I met a while back working at a climbing gym. It was during a time in my life where I swore I was. wasn't going to even think about dating again until I turned 30. I was 23 at the time. That just made me feel. I don't know what just happened. I got hit in the heart really quick. I'm like, that's so young. That's so young. 23. You have a whole life ahead of you. Bring the tear to my eye. They were actively in a long-term relationship, so the odds were pretty

stacked against us. Less than three months later, they were out of that relationship, and I realize that love is in fact real. We've been together ever since. Since we started dating, my entire life has turned upside down for the better. Our is the kind of person who says they want to live an adventurous life and then they actually go and do it. And they love sharing their knowledge and skill set about the outdoors. I've seriously never met someone that is so good at something and so excited and patient about sharing that thing with others. They've taught me how to climb, backpack, camp, and also a million other things about life. Simply, they are the strongest, most wonderful human I know. At the time this story happened, Ars Carr had recently taken its final

breaths, so they had turned to biking as their main means of transportation. They bought a nice red bike off Facebook marketplace for 50 bucks. Our co-workers switched out the pedals for these fun, red and gray kind of swirly pattern ones. One afternoon, when we were still working together at the climbing gym, we planned to meet at ours apartment so I could drive them to our shift. When I got there, I didn't see their bike on the porch where they normally lock it up, so I assumed they weren't home yet. I texted them and they opened up their door right away. My bike was stolen, they said, relatively casually, considering the gravity of the situation. I was enraged for them, but they just calmly said, I'll figure it out. At the time, I didn't know

how much they meant that. The next day, when I came over after my shift, they were sitting on their computer. They looked at me excitedly. I found my bike. What do you mean you found your bike? I said. They turned their computer to face me and there it was. A Facebook marketplace post of a red bike with gray and red swirly patterned pedals. It was unmistakably their bike that someone had stolen and was now trying to resell. As a reminder, R bought this bike for around 50 bucks. This man was trying to sell it for 500. Wow. crazy. Our closed their computer and calmly said, I'm going to go steal it back. And so the heist began. They messaged bike thief and made a plan to meet at a pizza shop a couple of blocks

down from our work. We wanted to pick somewhere relatively busy and familiar. They planned to meet in the early afternoon right after our shift finished up. I was working that day two and all morning, we and our coworkers were brainstorming ways to pull this off and how to make sure our stayed safe. Someone suggested they should bring scissors to protect themselves. Yeah, totally scissors, I said, are looked at us again. Again, so chill, so calm, and said, I am not going to stab this guy. And so they brought a wrench. At their end of their shift. Yeah, bludgeon him. Right. Bludgeoning is the better option. So different. At the end of their shift, I took my brain. and we got in the car where I drove them about a block away from the pizza shop.

They got out in a place where bike thief couldn't see our car. They pocketed their wrench and walked around to the front of the store. Next to the store was a one-way, one-lane alley. This was their planned escape route. We figured we might not have enough time to actually put the bike in the car without bike thief catching up to us so we came up with an alternative plan. I pulled my car into a parking spot at the end of the end of the alley and watched R out of my side mirror. Bike thief brought the bike out of his truck and R

put on a convincing show of asking questions and seeming curious about the bike. Then they asked if they could take it on a test ride. Bike thief shrugged and R hopped on it, giving it a few slow pedals before turning the corner into the alley and absolutely gunning it. I pulled my car out of the parking spot and idled in the alley to make sure bike thief didn't hop in his truck and try and chase them down. I waited until I saw them turn off of the alley and head towards the gym before pulling around the block to see what bike thief was up to. He was pacing back and forth and looking at his watch. I almost felt bad for him, but not really. By the time I drove back to the gym and parked my car, R was storing their bike safely in the back stairwell. Then they immediately blocked bike thief on

Facebook. Success. We reveled in our glory for a minute and I returned back to work. I like to pretend that I was a big part of that win, but let's be honest, they did all the brave stuff. I was just happy to be a part of it. This was just the beginning of me understanding the boldness, strength, and creativity of R. They will never cease to surprise me with the combination of bravery and sweetness they bring to the world. I'm endlessly grateful for the adventures we share. Thanks for sharing my story. I love you too.

I love you are. Happy birthday. Kay. That's so sweet. That is cute. I'm so glad you got your bike. back and that's so shitty when people do stuff like that because that's kind of common i remember my cousin someone who she knew stole her cell phone and she knew that this person had it and then he

also i think it was on craigslist that he had listed her cell phone on to sell and her dad actually went it was like hey i'm interested in this phone and showed up and confronted him and got her phone back without paying obviously such a dad move but i love love that you guys were able to like swindle this guy and I don't feel bad at all for him standing there looking at his watch like is he coming back? I think it's hilarious. Yeah. I don't know if I would be brave enough, but I commend the heist in its entirety. It's just such a stealing is such a, especially when you don't need to. Like that person didn't need to steal that bike. Yeah. And tell it for $500. Like that's insane. I mean, you don't know. Maybe.

they needed it financially. That's what I think, like, when people are being really sleazy like that, I'm like, maybe you needed this more than I did. You know, maybe you need this money. I know that's not always true. But that's just, I'm like, if you need it that bad, you're doing it wrong. And I will seek revenge. But just know, I had a pure thought about it. And I consider that maybe, you know, you're just in a tough spot. Yeah. That's kind of you. I just get pissed right now. Yeah. You have one more, I think. Stop just looking at me. I do have one more. It's called wedding stabbing with a happy ending. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I've been thinking about submitting this for about as long as I've been listening to the podcast, which has been years at this point. I started from the very first episode and always listen when they air. Thank you for sharing stories and sharing yourself. with the listeners. It's safe to say that all of us listeners love and appreciate the work you do, so keep on doing amazing things. Thank you so much. It means a lot that you listen every time. We post an episode. It really does. My husband and I will be celebrating our ninth anniversary this year, and I figured it was time to share our wedding tale with you and the listeners. For some background, Carl and I met in 2013 when we were hired on the same day at a local coffee shop in Northern California. We shamelessly flirted with each other for eight months before making it official and fell deeply in love with each other.

We share a passion for travel and adventure, and in 2015, we sold all of our stuff and backpacked around Southeast Asia for nearly four months. While we were in Laos, we took a hot air balloon ride at sunrise where Carl proposed to me. Once we returned stateside, we decided to move back to my hometown in Idaho to be closer to my family. We planned our wedding for July 2017 at a beautiful country park five miles north of my hometown called Virgil Phillips Farm. The setting couldn't be more idyllic. We live in an area called Palouse, which is a region of rolling hills that were once prairie. Now these rolling hills are mostly farmland, but they are also interspersed with forests, creeks, rivers, and beutes. It is truly a unique and awe-inspiring place.

The park where we got married has a large gazebo, heritage apple and plume orchards, wetlands, a pond, winding forest trails, and a large meadow. Our ceremony was in the meadow in front of a large grove of quaking aspen under a white arch laden with local grown flowers. Like most July days in this part of Idaho, our wedding day was forecasted to be a hot one, and we were concerned about our elderly and young guests being out in the heat for too long. Our reception was to be in town in a hotel with air conditioning. The plan was to keep the ceremony short, take some photos, and then head to the reception. I am super type A, so I had the entire wedding timeline planned out to the minute. Husband interjecting here to note that while the timeline was literally planned out to the minute, Laurel was in no way a bride's a lot like this makes her seem.

That's very kind. That is very kind. I love when husbands have their wives back. like no no she was fine i had spent the day getting ready at my parents house while carl was at our home getting ready he has ADHD so i was bugging him to make sure he ate during the day which of course he forgot to do by the time the pre-seremony activities were taking place he was starving but he pushed forward surviving on some car chips in a granola bar someone dug out of the bottom of their bag for him We took wedding party photos before the ceremony, and we were all a little sweaty in our wedding attire, but it was no problem.

Our ceremony was short and sweet. Afterwards, we hung around the flower arch and got group photos with all sides of our family. Then we took bride and groom photos. Since we were on a budget, we had asked our friends to help clean up the chairs before heading to the reception. The rental company arrived to pick up the chairs in Archway just as we were finishing up with the photos. The last thing we needed to do was take the flowers off the archway. I wanted to take them home with me, and then we could head to the reception. My husband collects pocket knives, and as my wedding gift to him, I had given him a small penknife

with a blue jigged bone handle and a Damascus blade. It was sleek and beautiful, and he, of course, had it in his suit during our ceremony. As we are wrapping up photos, I say to him, do you have your new knife on you? can you cut the flowers down from that side? Of course, he tells me, always excited to use his knives when the opportunity arises. I turn to my right and start fiddling around with the flowers from my side. They are being held on with zip ties that are about a half an inch wide, which is pretty thick for a zip tie. I have my back turned to Carl when I hear a little sound come out of him like, oof. I turn around and look at him as he says, I think I just stab myself. He opened.

his suit jacket and pulls his dress shirt from his pants to reveal his stomach with blood blurping out of a fresh puncture wound. Even though he had been holding the knife away from him and pushing outward, the small knife was not the right tool for the job. The excess force he was applying made the knife slip off the zip tie in just the right way so that it came down onto his stomach. Our photographer, who just so happened to be a former wildland paramedic, jumped into action. and my dad offered up his bandana so Carl could apply pressure to the wound. We rushed my dad's car, which luckily was parked by the gazebo, and not at the top of the very large hill where everyone else had parked.

I was in the passenger seat trying to stay calm. Carl was in the back seat holding a bloody bandana over his stomach, and my dad was driving like a bad out of hell up the narrow dirt road, peeling out onto the highway and speeding us the five miles back to town. During the drive, I turned my dad, and asked, do you think I should call the ER and let them know we are coming? My dad said to me, good idea. When they pick up, tell them we've got a 30-year-old man with a stab wound to the abdomen. I don't want to say that, I cried, but I did it anyway. And when we got to the hospital,

the receptionist at the ER got on the intercom and said, stab wound is here. They whisked him back, and I followed in my wedding dress and shoes. They hooked him up to monitors, inspected the wound, and eventually told us the game plan. Either they would do a CT with dye to see if there was any internal bleeding, or they could put him under anesthesia and go in from the wound opening to see what damage was done. If he got put under, he would be admitted for the night. But if he got the CT scan and everything looked okay, he might be able to be discharged. We opted for the CT scan.

As anyone who's been an ER patient knows, you do a lot of waiting. I definitely played up the fact that this was our wedding. day and we still had a reception to get to, and everyone treated me like a queen and tried to move things along as fast as possible. All of the doctors and nurses were so good to the both of us. Eventually, he got the CT scan and that, plus the monitoring showed that he hadn't hit anything important, and they let us know that we would be released that night. Wahoo! He ended up needing two stitches as it was a narrow blade, and the stab was a puncture without slicing motion. Carl maintains to this day that it went in all the way to the hilt of the knife. The doctors and my

husband even made a joke about how a little bit of belly fat, one might say a beer belly, saved his life. Before we got released, they let him know that he shouldn't eat or drink any alcohol that night. Are you kidding me? He reacted. I haven't eaten all day. If only he had listened to me when I reminded him to eat before the ceremony. After some back and forth, the doctor agreed he could eat dinner, have one size of cake and one glass of champagne for the wedding party toasts. Finally, at 9 p.m., we rolled up to our wedding reception. Our reception had started without us, and our friends and family were passing the time sharing stories about us while we were in the ER.

Nine years later, and we are all still bummed. We missed the appetizers we had picked out for our big day. We were only three hours late. Dinner was waiting for us, and our maid of honor, best man and dads were ready to give their speeches. We also had a long receiving line where everyone thoroughly tipsy by then thought it was necessary to give the groom a big slap on the back and wish him well. Newsflash, he was in a lot of pain and every smack on the shoulder or back caused him to wince. He could barely stand, so we scraped our first dance and had the caterers bring our wedding cake to the head table for us to cut. Even though my

meticulous schedule had been ruined and Carl was in a lot of pain. It was still a really fun reception and so many people have told us it was one of the most fun weddings they have ever been to. I mean, think about it. Our wedding day had all the trappings of a great story, romance, drama, suspense, and a happy ending. As all good groomsmen do during a wedding, hours snuck out to the car during the reception and wrote with chalk pens on our back window, just married, then promptly stabbed. When we left for our honeymoon two days later, we decided to leave it on our back window. This brings us to our honeymoon and where I tie the story into national parks. For our honeymoon, we spent five nights camping in Yellowstone National Park, five nights camping in Grand Teton National

Park, and one night on each end traveling to and from the parks. For our wedding registry, we had asked us to contribute experiences to our honeymoon, including things like boating on Yellowstone Lake, wildlife tours, rafting the Snake River, a dinner cruise, and other meals at some of the most iconic lodges in both parks. The only thing we decided to back out of was horseback riding, as bouncing around in a saddle did not sound appealing to Carl and his poor sore stomach. One very cool experience we had was on the Old West dinner cookout in Yellowstone. The visitors are gathered up in horse-drawn covered wagons and take into a cookout site

where cowboys grill you a full dinner and then play live music while the sun sets. It was a truly incredible experience on its own, but for us, something amazing happened. While we were waiting to load up into the covered wagon, we got to talking to someone in the parking lot about the message written on the back of our car. Of course, we told him the story, and it turned out he was our wagon master and one of the musicians. So after dinner was over, our wagon master was up on stage with the rest of the cowboy band, and he invited Carl and I up to have our first dance since we didn't get to have one on our wedding day.

The band played Elvis can't help falling in love. It was pure magic. That's so sweet and really kind and a beautiful place to have your first dance. Other notable memories from our honeymoon were seeing a grizzly mama with her cubs and Grand Teton, getting Carl's stitches removed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and also making a bone National Park Stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument on the way home. The year after our wedding, I led a group of students on a week-long volunteering trip to southern Idaho through the university I work at, and one of the students was a pre-med

student who volunteered at the hospital. Our group grew very close over the week together, and I ended up sharing our wedding story. I showed everyone a picture of Carl in the ER bed with me by a side in my wedding gown, and the pre-med student exclaimed, they had you in the critical trauma room and I thought gee I sure I'm glad they didn't tell us that at the time years and years later we also learned that a second bride and groom had arrived at the ER that night but apparently because of appendicitis I'm not sure I believe that or not or if maybe the two stories have gotten mixed up over the years from ER lore we still have the knife which we now consider a family heirloom and we still are hoping to go back to Yellowstone and Grand Teton someday soon this time. time with our two kids that have since joined us on family journeys. Enjoy the view, but watch your back and always use their right tool for the job. Laurel. What a memorable nuptial day. Yes. Truly. Not everyone gets stabbed at their wedding. Yeah. I mean, thank God for that. Yes. I would like to hear some wedding stories gone awry. That would be really fun to hear if people have them.

And interestingly, coincidentally, if we believed in those, as I was preparing this, I went and got like the next day or maybe two days later, I went to get my scuba cert. And the only other girl that was with me in the certification course, she was actually already certified. She was just getting dives under her belt for another certification, like a higher level. and she was saying how she on the side works as a DJ, like a wedding DJ. Oh, fun. And one of her most memorable ones was a couple years ago now, and I forget where it was, somewhere in New England. And the groom, like, took a bet from some of the groomsmen to jump off of, like,

some, like, balcony thing. And he snapped both of his ankles and had to go to the ER. No. Like right after they got married, the party was just starting and he jumps off a balcony in front of everyone and just breaks both of his ankles. Oh my God. No. That would give me the ick. If I, I know.

That would give me the ick so bad. I'd be like immediate divorce. Can we annul this? Is it too late to get this reverse the act? I changed my mind. Yeah. did say, I think I said something like that. And she was like, oh, no, I follow on Facebook and they have kids now and stuff.

I'm like, okay, glad I worked out for them. But I don't know if I would have. Yeah, I was like, ugh. Okay. Anyway, so that's the type of things we want to hear if you're going to send in something about weddings. It needs to be, I want the tea. Yeah.

Give us the tea. All right. Well, thanks for hanging in on a particularly long trail tale. episode once again come see us on tour we would love it so so very much yes a lot of the venues are fun and cool and we picked uh cities that we knew especially in the lakes region like west like midwest you guys are uh plentiful out there you're like oh i'm from wisconsin and michigan and all that i'm like in illinois who would have thought so many of you so we expect to see every single person.

And also, just saying this, just saying this, no pressure, New England. But the Wilbur is a big deal in Boston. Yes. We are going to be at the Wilbur. And it's very nerve-wracking. So if you're in New England, you better get there. Come and bring, like, at least two people. Please.

Please. There's so many seats to fill. Yeah, there is. It's like over a thousand. And yeah, it's like Taylor Swift's wedding amount. Which, true. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's what we're competing with right now. So please. I didn't even think of it that way. And now I'm intimidated. If you are an outsider on Apple subscriptions or Patreon, we have two extra stories for you. If you want more, mine is titled Ghostly Trail. And mine is called Grandpa, did you put a ghostly trail? in my car.

All right. We're switching themes. Yeah, going to the paranormal. So we'll see you over there. Everyone else, we will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye.

Bye. Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learn something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more MPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories, just like, this one with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're

enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. I know Baxter says he can't hear it, but I can hear it very loudly and is very distracted. I can hear it very loudly. Okay. Sorry, Brackson. I believe you. I just don't believe you. I don't like it. We just don't understand how you couldn't hear this. It's like reverberating around this room. I think you should get that checked. Some people can't hear certain sound decibels.

That's true. Yeah. Have you ever considered that you can't hear trains? Go to the doctor.