Slow Baja - Mike Pearlman On The NORRA Mexican 1000 The Happiest Race On Earth

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

Mike Pearlman was a teenager growing up in Los Angeles when his father bought a used 1964 Toyota Land Cruiser. Ed Pearlman was a florist and an avid hunter. The utilitarian 4x4 looked like the perfect vehicle for the upcoming deer season and delivering flowers. Not long after, Mike's friend was driving the Land Cruiser on the highway; he didn't know that you had to shift gears manually and blew up the motor. Ever resourceful, Ed found that a Chevy V8 would fit. With Pete Condos's assistance, Pearlman soon had a hot-rodded Corvette motor under the hood! Ed Pearlman read about the 1966 record-setting run from Tijuana to La Paz on Triumph motorcycles by Bud and Dave Ekins, Eddie Mulder, and Cliff Coleman. Pearlman thought that he could beat their time in his hopped-up Land Cruiser. While searching for wider tires, he met Dick Cepek, selling farm implement tires out of his garage. Cepek traded six tires for a chance to ride shotgun. Their attempt at the record failed, but the idea for the first off-road race was born-the Mexican 1000! In this conversation, Pearlman shares stories from the founding of the National Off-Road Racing Association, those early Baja races, and how with Eliseo Garcia Jr., they revived the Mexican 1000 as a vintage rally. Enjoy this conversation that originally aired on July 13, 2020. For a taste of off-road racing, you can join Slow Baja in the Safari 4x4 Class for non-race vehicles. We drive portions of the actual racecourse, see the most scenic parts of the racing and make time for tacos, tequila, and tranquilo! Visit NORRA's website here Follow NORRA on Instagram Follow NORRA on Facebook

Well, as I'm packing up the old FJ40 for the Nora 500, I just thought I would share this conversation that I had with Mike Pearlman after the 2019 500. I drove down to his house in Aguadulthé and got to see all the cool old Nora stuff in his office and talk about how his dad started this new sport called off-road racing. So it's fun show. Timely as I'm heading back to do some dirt road driving in Baja with my. Nora family and can't wait to share benchmark maps with the last place finisher in each class. They're going to get a benchmark map and I'm going to share Tequila Fortaleza with everybody. It's going to be a good fun time. So I look forward to a week in Baja for the Nora 500 and I will talk to you soon. Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the slow Baja.

This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches and small batches and And hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. We are in Aguadulse, California with Mike Perlman, and we're going to talk about Nora and how Everything got started back in 1967 or before that, and I'm really looking forward to hearing stories about the old and the new and how you created the happiest race on Earth.

So let's just jump into it. Well, basically, it got started. Mike, I know you're into the land cruisers in the FJ 40s. It got started with an FJ 40. And I grew up, and we lived in Tarzana. And dad was into deer hunting and wanted to go to Utah and take it. take his 14-year-old son, which was me, deer hunting in Utah. So on Ventura Boulevard there in Tarzana, he saw an FJ 40 land cruiser for sale.

And honestly, I've never seen one before because back then in 1960, that was back in 1964-ish, they weren't out here. You hardly ever saw him. But this one belonged to the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate, which was Tarzan. They must have given him one. And there was the land cruiser for sale. He bought the land cruiser, and here we were going to go hunting. Okay, so a couple weeks before hunting season, my buddy borrowed it and blew up the motor.

He got in on the freeway and didn't know how to shift. Got into the second gear or first gear, I don't even know. And he blew a rod right through the side of the block. So, Dad being the mechanical. kind of guy he was. He went to the junkyard with the bell housing and he said this V8, this little 265 Chevy motor will fit. Okay, well he got it to fit and fired it up and we did our deer hunting's little trip and we got back and he cleaned it up and he did a real clean installation. He got of a hold of a place called Confer and Pete Condos did a real nice installation with the V8.

Okay, and we had fun with that car. Now we didn't go jeeping anymore. Now that it had a V8, we went hill climbing and drag racing. So there you go. That must have been a real sleeper to, you know, I can't imagine that. It was probably the first V8 ever to go in a land cruiser. Well, that's what I was thinking. It's so common now that people put V8 motors in land cruisers.

I may be the last guy who has just a stock old land cruiser, but really it could have been the first one. I think it was the first one. I've never seen one before that. And how fun that must have been to just get your foot into it and make people scratch their heads a little bit and say, what the heck? Well, then we jumped up to a 327, and then we had to put a cam in it, then we had to do some headwork.

Yeah, one thing led to another. And some fuel ejection, so one thing led to another. And it was a fun, fun car. So he decided to buy a new one. And the day he bought it, he took it over to Confer, pulled the engine out, put a V8 in. Wow. So there was zero miles on the six-cylinder, and now he had a fast little car.

And he read this little article. Actually, the article's here on the wall somewhere. It's in a book over here. We're in the office. And it was about how Eddie Mulder, Bud Eakins, Cliff Coleman, and Dave Eakins set a record on triumph motorcycles from Tijuana to La Paz. And dad said, I can break that record. I could break that in my land cruiser. Okay, well, he went out to buy some wide tires,

and back then you couldn't buy wide tires. So we found somebody selling farm implement tires out of his garage. And the guy said, well, I'll give you six tires, but I want to be the co-driver. So his dad said, okay, six tires, great. You're the co-driver. So they went down, they tried to set a record, and they broke down, they didn't set the record. But when they got back, Dad said that was so much fun.

We had a great time. I'm going to put on an event. So he put on the first Mexican 1000 rally. He called it a rally. It was really a race. But he couldn't buy insurance if he called it a race, so he called it a rally. Bought insurance and had the event. The other guy, the code driver, he decided to sell off-road equipment, and his name was Dick Sepeck.

And I think we all know where Dick Sepec went with all the equipment. So basically the Land Cruiser pushed us into doing the National Offroad Racing Association. And that's how it all got started. Yeah, it's a pretty interesting beginnings there. It worked out well for Dick, didn't it? Oh, yeah. And dad. Yeah.

Yeah. So interesting, can you pick apart the initial run between Dick and your dad and trying to beat that record? That record, it's been talked about a bit. I've read some articles about it. Pretty exciting trip for those guys. Was your dad that kind of a guy? He just said, wow, I'm going to go do it. I can do it in my land cruiser and I'm going to do it and nobody's going to talk me out of it. Dad was a florist. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Okay, but he was into his land cruiser, and he enjoyed working on it and putting the engines in and out, and pretty mechanical. But he just did it. He just did it on a whim.

He didn't take his little son with him, but I was only 19. Well, no, I was about younger back there, maybe 16, 17. but they had a good time and they broke down in Punta Prieta on the hill that climbs up to the airport and funny enough when I entered in the 1968 race I broke down in the same exact spot

Wow What are the odds of that? You know Myers-Manks dune buggy Anyway that was kind of funny Same, I mean, within 50 feet, I broke down. And that was kind of their event. They had a great time. It shows they came back and it took over their life.

Yeah, it sure did. And let's jump right into that because I've heard some stories. I've read some history on the event. And from the National Road Racing Association to the National Off-Rode Racing Association, that was pretty good jump. Well, the reason the word Nora was invented or the word off-road was invented was, I remember dad decided, well, he needed an office. And so he rented an office, and we were standing out. He and I were standing outside the office, and he called the National Road Racing Association. And he said, I've got this idea to put on an event.

And I need a rulebook. you guys have a rulebook for road racing I need to do something for this dirt racing that we're doing and they said okay and so Jack Brady and John Christie came over and they worked for

the other association the road racing association and the first thing they said is we need a name for this new kind of racing And they're going, well, we could call it dirt road racing, fire road racing. And I kept going, Dad, no, it's not on the road. It's off of the road. It's next to the road.

It's off of it. And dad went, you're right, son. It's the off road. And he said, we'll just put the word off in there. And we'll call it the National Off Road Racing Association. And that's where the word off road started. I got to hand it to dad. I didn't start it.

He's the one that said it. I just was going, it's not on the road. It's off the road, but dad put it together and... Well, if you'd only trademarked it. Yeah, right. Well, we did. We just haven't come to talk to, no. Well, I'd love to hear more about that first event and then just the craziness of how it kind of just grew and grew.

Well, the first event, I remember it. Dad wanted to start it at a hotel in Tijuana. And pretty soon he realized the parking lot's way too small. He had 68 entries the first year. Wow. The parking lot's too small. What do we do? Where do we start?

So they got up in my dad's partner's plane, Don Francisco's plane, and they flew over Tijuana. And they said, look, there's the only spot that we can start the bull ring just outside of Tijuana on the ocean. They said, okay, let's go there. So somebody drove over there. The gate was open. They pulled in. They started the race there. And the owner came over and said, what are you guys doing here?

You guys didn't call me or get permission. And he let him start there. They started the race there. And that's where it started was the bull ring. So ceremonial start at the bull ring. Yes. And then on to Ensana for the actual start, correct? If that's the right history.

It was a toll road back then. We drove down the toll road. and we had to pay for each car, and we had to put somebody with cash. They wouldn't just take a big chunk of money from us. Every time a car went through, you had to pay 80 cents or whatever it was. And so we had to put somebody with a little bit of cash at each toll road, and every time a race car came through, they'd pay for it. I'm laughing, but these are the problems you have to sort out

when you're a big event promoter on your first event. So we went to Ensenada, spent the night, and had a restart in the morning. and that was fun. Yeah, and the diversity of cars. Can you still picture? I think the one car that always stuck out in my mind, and it was a Porsche that they built a hard, they had a hard top, and the doors opened like a gull wing,

I believe, I think if that's what it was, but it was a yellow Porsche. I think Marty Fioka rebuilt it recently. And I'll have to try. track him down and get that story. That was one of my favorite cars. The other one was an Edsel. Yeah.

That Bill Strop built, and that Edsel was so cool, it was just beyond. There was a Ford Ranchero. Just all kinds of cars came out of the woodworks, and it was a real, a real first-time event. It was cool. You know we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser down to Baja, and when we go, we go with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use, Baja Baja Bound Insurance, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey, do you have a 4x4? You love off-road racing. You've got to join Slow Baja in the Nora 500. It's Ensenada to Ensenada three great days, October 7th through 10th.

Kurt LaDuke, Offroad Hall of Famer, leads the class. If we can do it in our old truck, you can do it. Get your street legal four by four, get into the safari class, and I'll see you in Ensenada. More info at nora.com. That's www. N-O-R-R-A.com or on Slow Baja. So 68 cars started. Yes. Do you recall? Now, I know you were the official photographer for the event. You told me that once. I took a picture of each car, and I think you can still see the pictures because I did it every year,

against the stone wall in Ensenada. and it had a background sign that either said Mexican 1000 or the Baja 100 or whatever the race wasn't. It had the date. And that was everybody had to get out of their car. And it was right before the start. They were all buckled in with their helmets. They had to get out, take their helmet off. They were all upset.

But they got their picture taken. Okay. That's when photographers were still valued. Now, you know, they couldn't be bothered to do that. But, you know, my adventure book. buddy Ted Donovan saw one of those old pictures and he said this year when we go to the Mexican 1000 we need to do a photo like that exactly like that he said I want you sitting on the front of the car in your racing suit and I'm going to be the guy in my flannel shirt standing at the back of the

land cruiser so we're going to recreate a a photo that he saw on the internet just because I think that's really cool that you made the effort to do that so you have that record what I was going to ask Do you have any idea how many vehicles actually finished that first race? I think it was 40%. Wow. It just sticks in my mind that number was 40%, 60% broke down. I remember the sob broke in half. And, yeah.

Well, they were pretty well-versed in international rally. So I remember that the sobs reading my dad's old road and track when I was a kid, I mean, obviously long after those events occurred. but reading the stories, Asab's had a pretty good rally presence and knew what they were doing, but Baja really killed them. Well, they couldn't do the whoopty-dos.

It just broke it in half. Wow. And I think the next year, there was another one that broke in half in the same spot. Wow. So 67 was the first year. Yes.

Do you recall your dad his frame of mind after the event happened? Was he elated? Was he exhausted? Was he elated and exhausted? Do you remember any of that part of it once you were all finished and... I don't ever remember him exhausted.

I think he was just in his own little world having a good time. Yeah. And was it a good time? Were people having fun? Okay. So after the start in Ensenada, we had to get the press and we had to get all the officials down to Cabo, to La Paz. It didn't go to Cabo.

It went to La Paz. And so Dad rented two airplanes, two decent. C-3s. And I'll remember those D.C.3 flights. You were sitting in the DC-3. I think they only held 20 people each. And you'd see a truck pull under the engine. And they'd reach up with jumper cables and start the engine and all the smoke would come out. And then the other engine would start. And there we go. Okay. Cool. And we had two of them, one for the press, one for the crews. and they flew down there, they landed, and the flight was something else.

We could go and we could walk into the cockpit. I remember walking in there, and here was the pilot, and there was somebody's wife sitting on his lap, and they had margaritas in their hand. Oh, boy, we were having a good time. But we got there, and those were fun times. Then it went to a DC-6,

but the two DC3s were very many. One of them is still sitting in Ensenada. Wow. Well, as I always say about doing events in Mexico, it's not a weekend at the track. There's a little more to it than that. You've really got to have a sense of adventure if you're going to take on something like this.

This was a first time deal. Yeah. So 67, the event occurred. People actually finished. How did the event plan and go for 68? Now, you've already told me you were driving. driving in the 68 event. The 68 event was the next Mexican 1,000.

And he had more entries. I don't recall how many. But I remember I entered. I broke down. But it was in good event. More entries. And then the next year got more entries and more entries. And this became pretty popular.

Right. And at what point did celebrities take this and say, you know, I want to be involved? Steve McQueen, obviously, well-known. James Garner, well known. I think they were from the beginning. I'd have to look. I don't know offhand, but from the beginning, they were involved.

Yeah, I've never seen the boot in person, Steve McQueen's boot, but that James Garner car, the Chuck Barris built, shortened mid, you know, he was like sitting right, had that 455 motor right next to him. It's sort of almost like a mid-engine thing. I didn't know George Barris built that. Yeah, so it was a shortened. And it's up at the Mendenhall Museum.

It's a shortened... The Oldsmobile. Yeah, it's really something. You know, you look at it, it looks like a regular old, and you realize, I don't know how many feet. Two or three feet are missing from the middle of the car. Uh-huh. And that motors basically can put your hand on it.

It's right next to you like where your shifter would be. I think John Swift might have that car now. Wow. It was really something to see. And I remember seeing... I had Dymo labeling on the tachometer that said 7,000 RPM 140 miles an hour. Okay.

And they probably used every bit of that, yeah. So they had some big cahones if they were driving that thing. I remember there was a Condor Motorhome entered. There was motorcycles triumphs. Well, I was into the triumph, so I think they're the coolest. But they were, they took, they won the first races. And the Honda, Long Beach Honda won. So it grew dramatically.

Yes, it did. And your dad had his finger on the pulse of this brand new sport. And then poof. You know, problems, I'm sure, dealing with... Well, we had a little problem dealing with the government down there. Everybody had their hand open and wanted money. Oil crisis and a few other world problems. And so politically, it changed and then scores.

got started. Mickey Thompson got in there and took the races, selfish, and they did a good job for all these years, and I thank him for it. And when dad passed away, somebody challenged me and said, why don't I do something like my dad did? So I thought

about it for a little bit. I got a little upset that they even said that, but yeah, I put on the first redo of the Mexican 1000. Yeah, and so... We brought back Nora. Yeah, so my buddy,

Ted and I got on to, we're not racers. We have no business in a race car. We're just guys. And I had a dream to do the La Carrera Pan Americana. And so I was doing that in 2006. And I said to Ted, if we ever figure this thing out, because we were really in over our heads, we had no idea.

You know, the race starts in Chiapas, and you race all the way from the bottom of mainland Mexico back up to those days. It went from border to border. And I said, if we ever figured this out, we're going to get one of those class, was it class 11 of the stock beetles? Oh, yeah.

We're going to get a class 11 beetle, and we're going to drive in the Baja 1000. I think they're the funnest. So, you know, that was 2006. I think it was 2007 or so. I heard some, read some stuff that you were going to put this historic off-road race on. Well, the first one was in 2009. Right, but I think in 2007 or eight,

there were some rumors about it was going to happen about it. Yeah. In 2009, we planned it planned and we had entries, but the hurricane came and took off, took out the roads. And so 2010 was our first event. So I reached out to Pete Brock who had raced in the early 60s. No, he raised. The Dotsons there. So he was ahead of the Dotson team. And road race Dotson's and then off-road race Dotson. And I had a Dotson Fair Lady, a little two-seat convertible that I had done the career with. So it had a full roll cage. and I was naive enough, ignorant enough, to think maybe I could off-road race this thing, put some tall tires on it and a little bit of beefier shocks and springs. Pete said absolutely not. There's no possible way.

But he did send me whatever you had in the way of rules at that time. And I remember reading about it that you recommended that each vehicle have a sleeping bag for the driver and the navigator. And water. Yeah, and water. Of course. Yeah, water. and, you know, I would have tequila, of course.

But I just remember thinking that that sounds like my kind of event. You could break down and need a sleeping bag and spend the night out in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. Let's go. I remember waking up in the 68 race. And I was fell asleep. I was so tired by the time I got to Punta Prieta down there, wherever I was. I was sleeping right on the race course.

I'm lucky I didn't get run over. So fast forward to getting this event launched. I understand that the people who are smart enough and lucky enough to get into that first race really had a ball. And then the word just spread through the off-road racing community, like you better get in for next year because this is the event. That was in the 67 event? No, no. When you rekindled the race and you got that first one done. Well, we had a different focus.

We weren't focused on making money. Okay, it was Michael Novell and myself. We were focused on having a good time. Money wasn't even in our minds. We just wanted to finish something our dad started. Alessio Garcia, myself, Michael Noval, and a few other people helped us. And we just wanted to finish something dad started. And so it wasn't from our pockets.

It was from our hearts. and that bell rings real loud. And so we had a fun time. We keep it fun. And it's still not from our pockets, but it's still from our hearts. And we're doing it right. Yeah.

So I've had a chance to get to know LSAO a little bit. He's a quality individual. Yes. His dad was involved with your dad, correct? He was my dad's right hand, man. He was the Secretary of Tourism for Baja at the time. Absolutely. Yeah, that's interesting.

I'm going to have to talk. He got us the permits. He got us right in where we had to be. Amazing. Amazing. So when you got back together with LSAO and you did the first event and it, again, the word spread like wildfire. This is the, I'm not sure who coined the term the happiest race on Earth, but it became pretty quickly known as the happiest race on Earth. And here you are, what, 11 years later?

And it's still happy and people are still loving it. You haven't wrecked it. The reason is is because it's not from our pockets. Okay. Otherwise, it might get ugly. Now, people who aren't able to see this, you can see this very serious look on Mike's face. I don't want to know the financials, but it sounds like it's still being done with a big heart. Yeah.

And anybody who had a head for these things might not be doing this kind of work. That's true. I'd rather be installing washing machines, okay, if I'm making a little money. But we're having fun with it. I wake up every morning and what's in order doing today? Who do I call? What should I do? But it comes down and we have meetings on the phone.

I go to Mexico a lot. I haven't gone in the last three months because of this virus stuff, but it'll come to an end. And you've made some great lifelong friends out of this. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Too many. And I think maybe more importantly than your personal friendships that have come out of this, this has been a way, I think, and I'm, you know, just looking at it from the outside,

this has been a way for a lot of folks who have been involved in off-road racing at a very high level to share the sport with their children, grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren, it could be, who knows? Well, they bring their families in, but it's also brought them back because a lot of them are too old to be competitive in maybe a score race. Okay? to where you have to get in there and bust your butt all night to finish. And we stop each night.

Yeah, and there's a hell of a party. We go to the bar and we talk and have fun. Right. Okay, so it's a little bit of a rest each night. And it's a lot of fun. Yeah. We keep it fun. We serve food.

We have bands. We have tequila. Yeah. And I remember a couple of years. I think we're going to have it this year. every time you pull into a checkpoint, you get a shot of tequila and a beer. So there you go, and another shot if you want it. But as long as we're not racing, we can drink tequila.

Well, there you go. I'm all in on that. Yeah. So I was able to participate in the Baja 500 because I didn't happen to run into Eliseo and Pepe once while I was driving my old land cruiser down in Baja, and they were mapping a section of the course, and they went by in your Lexus LX-450, and they had all the Nora stickers on the side.

So we had a chance to stop and talk, and they invited me to do the Ensenada race. And that was really a lot of fun, because you're at a hotel. The race made two big loops, and then you're back to the same place every night. And it was really an easy way to go. I think that that event,

is going to be a great boon for folks who just need to go get their Baja fix. Yeah, that the 500 is easier. Yeah, and I'm looking forward to the event in October, October 3rd through 10th to do the Nora Mexican 1000. And I'm in the safari class, which I think is also a great opportunity. The savvy safari class that you can take a street legal, four-wheel drive. No roll bar. or in my case a vintage four-wheel-drive vehicle

and have somebody like Kurt LaDuke kind of be mother hen looking after the flock, I think that's an amazing way for people to get to see an event like the Mexican 1000 and feel like they're part of it. Well, they are part of it, very much so. And it's all part of going down there and just having a good time. Well, whose brainchild was that? I mean, it just seems like that's a genius idea to open this you know, portion of the event up to folks who don't have a racing vehicle.

They've just got their cool, fun-old off-road truck. I'm not sure who came up with it, but it kind of fell into place, and we had a few meetings, and here we went, and there we go. Well, as an ambassador of that class now, I really had a great time, and, again, Mark Stahl couldn't have been nicer, big-time racer, Kurt Ladoot couldn't have been nicer, big-time racer, and Gerald Lee, who's the class sponsor and his savvy, off road. He couldn't have been nicer. I think it was Gerald's idea. I'll give that to Gerald.

All right. Well, I'm going to talk to Gerald, hopefully, on this podcast swing that I'm doing. So what's next for you? The event's coming up in about three months. We're talking here in the third week of June. We've all been sheltering in place for months. People are itching to get down to Baja. What's next? Well, I hope that Mexico is safe enough and that the governor and the mayor and the tourist department and everybody involved and giving us permission to do the events is watching carefully

because I don't want to get down there if it's not safe. I think this is just one race we're going to do many and let's let this virus go away one illness, one death is not worth one race. I hope they

I hope they restrict us and I hope they got their eyes open and watching us because I don't want to go down there just because somebody says it's safe and have everybody follow us down there. Must be a real headache for you

trying to plan an event that's this big now. Well, I just don't want to get anybody hurt. And just like we put the cars through tech inspection, be safe down there. And let's make sure that the world is safe, not just the cars. Right. And let's talk a little bit about the crazy mix of vehicles that can participate in a NORA event.

You have this year a pair of Vespas, I understand, are coming, just like in the original races way back when Vespas were running in the late 60s. God bless them. Yeah. So you've got some Vespa guys coming. You've got the guy with the Westphalia camper. Yes. You've got me in the safari class with my 50s them.

year old land cruiser completely stocked bench seat you know go to nora.com and look at the entries the 2020 entries and you'll see all kinds of versified vehicles and I think that because of norah a lot of old off-road racing vehicles have now had a second life people are out searching for these historic vehicles and putting them back together just so they can bring them out and show them off absolutely it's it keeps it the fun keeps going that must be hugely gratifying for you yeah it's a lot of work it's a lot of work well i appreciate you've been super generous with your time on very short notice mike i appreciate um uh you making some time for the slow baha podcast let's wrap this up and tell me best way to find out about the event is that nora dot com nora dot com uh nora fanpage dot in the

on facebook yep you're also on Instagram and somewhere we're on Instagram and you can find us. All right, so it's Nora. I'll have all the notes. I'll have all these locations in my show notes, but if you're interested the event is October 3rd through 10th. It's the

happiest race on earth. More information at nora.com and certainly you can always go to Slow Baja and see the pictures of how much fun we had in the safari class. So again, Mike can't thank you enough for making a little time for us and look forward to seeing you the next time down in Ensignanada at the starting line. I'll be starting you. I have the green flag every

year. All right, buddy. Thank you very much. Okay, bye-bye. Slow Baja's wardrobe is provided by Taylor Stitch. Responsibly built for the long haul, Taylor Stitch makes clothes that wear in, not out. Wherever your adventure takes you, Taylor Stitch has you covered. Check them out at taylorstitch.com. A lot of you have asked how to support the show. Well, you can go to slowbaha.com, buy yourself some merch, click that donate button, drop a taco in our tank, and always, always share the show with a friend, give it a five-star review on whatever app you listen to, and I will see you next week.