WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Boys Only #6: Gate Guy Goes to Alaska

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Nate and Storm chat with Dennis Cook, AKA Gate Guy, about Hot Ones, his iconic music, and family stories.

What's going on, guys? We are back here on Radio Free Hillsdale with our podcast, Boys Only, featuring me, Storm Drexler. You, Nate Gallagher. We're doing the full intro. The Boys, the Lads, the Jens, the usual. Oh, yeah, the full intro. That's right. Every time. We're here to make that safe space. No, I'm not going to go through the whole intro again. You know the drill. We're back. It's another episode, Boys Only. Today, we've got a very, very special guest on Dennis Cook. How you doing, Dennis? How's it going, guys? I'm very honored to be here. This will be fun.

I'm going to tell you about my story in Alaska, one of my trips that I took. Super excited to have him on. Better known as Gate Guy across campus, Dennis is a friend to all, a guy we all see passing by every day. Although your position has been moved recently to from kind of up next to the library to down on the other side of things I see as construction spreads out. Is that, or is that going to move again? Are you going to be reallocated multiple more times? I think the plan is to keep you guys guessing and going through different mazes. Yeah, yeah.

Other than that, I don't really have any of the specifics. Yeah, that is what it feels like. It feels like we're constantly being shepherded into new directions. I'm not like walking through the library to get to lunch. It's very weird. Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah, I took the path the other day and I was like, what? There's no signs.

I'm just wandering through a library. Now I come down here. And then they put a new set of fence in to corral you away from the opposite side. To get back to the lunchroom. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. It's very confusing. They don't tell me a lot either.

They just say, go to work. Well, before we get to stories, you got some questions for us? Nathaniel. Honestly, mentioning the Alaska story, I'd like to hear that one first. You don't hear that first. That's just off the rip. Yeah, if you have one just in mind, just ready to go. I don't know.

I was just going to tell you about my journey to Alaska. Alaska. Talk about that. You journeyed to Alaska? Oh, yes. Yes. I was going to get there one way or another. It was a huge high hope of mine.

Something I prayed about forever in high school. And then a few years after high school, I got the chance to go up there. I have some wonderful family up there, the leaders family. My aunt Catherine's like a matriarch of the family. And it's a family of 11 kids that my grandma had. and Catherine was pretty much the whole head of the thing up there. Yeah, she pretty much did it all. She was grounded, you know, the cornerstone of the family.

That's wonderful, yeah. And she's got a wonderful family up there. She's got her son Ryan and Chad and Scott that live up there and they all have children. And they're just very blessed, wonderful Christian families. And they let me come up there and I stayed with all of them a little bit. But mainly I stayed in Moose Pass, Alaska, which is a very, very tiny area. And a very Alaskan name. Very Alaskan name.

Yeah. Yes. Is that in like the main large like Canadian, northern north of Canadian part of Alaska? Or is that in like that stretch of? That's along the Seward Highway. So that'd be along the stretch, the Kenai stretch. and it goes there's one main highway

that goes through it and it's a sewered highway it goes from sewered Alaska up to Anchorage, Alaska and about halfway through there is where Moose Pass is that's so cool I visited Alaska once

we were in oh what's that Canadian city Vancouver we were in Vancouver as a family a couple years ago and briefly spent a couple days up in Alaska so didn't get too far in

but it was gorgeous I loved the geography, the mountains, the pines. I was like, I could definitely come back here and spend more time here. Yeah. It was definitely an ambition that I'd had for a long time. In fact, when I got off the plane,

I took a knee and kissed the ground. Yeah. That was how happy I was to finally make it to Alaska. And it didn't let me down. It was amazing. It's a frontier of sorts. It's the last frontier. I think that's the nickname of the state. Is it actually? I did a whole state

facts episode on Alaska. It's also called the Great Land. The Great Land? You can fit two and a half Texases inside of Alaska. Can you really? Yeah, so people ask me like, is it really dark for 30 days? And I'm like, if you go far enough north, but I didn't go that far north. Yeah, yeah.

I stayed south of Fairbanks. I did stay in Denali National Park at a lodge for a few months, and that was great. But that was as cold as I wanted to get. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think when I was a little kid, I thought all of Alaska was tundra because I watched that movie Balto, the animated movie where the dogs have to bring the medicine across Alaska. And I was like, that place looks really cold. It's all cold like that, yeah. Yeah.

And now it's, it used to be cold here, and it's not cold here anymore. I'm so happy. So to touch on that idea, when I was leaving Alaska, we were up in the plane, and I thought I was looking at white caps on the ocean until the plane turned. And it was an ocean of mountains, just as far. as you could see this vast stretch of land that no one could live on. Yeah. But probably hundreds and hundreds of people had gone on to these mountains looking for chunks of gold and trying to make their fortune at one time.

Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Yeah, it was so immense. It wasn't an ocean. It was mountain range. It was mountains. That's so sick. I thought I was looking at an ocean. Like icebergs or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Dude. That was incredible. Boys on the trip to Alaska? Get it. We have to take a trip, man. Well, I think it's time for questions now.

And related to Alaska. Cooper asks, how many of you would it take to kill a polar bear? You get no weapons. I get no weapons? None. But you get multiple of you if you want. However many of you. Well, there's this tactic I've heard of.

And you cut a hole in the ice and then you sprinkle peas around the hole. And when it goes to pick up the peas, you kick it right in the ice hole. Oh, I'm sorry. That's fine. Very loony tunes. That's amazing. Yeah, I don't think I ever want to encounter a polar bear.

I did have a dream that I was walking home one night and there was a bear following me. Oh, that's scary. Actually, it's just a dream? Well, there is a story. I was taking a jog along Seward Highway right by the turnigin arm.

And first one car starts honking. and then another about the third or fourth car I'm like What's going on? You know, I'm not exactly I thought these guys in Alaska were pretty ripped

Maybe maybe I'm looking good today Or something What's going on And this truck stops It says hey, would you like a ride? You just went by a couple bears A mother and its cub Oh my gosh

And I go It's behind me It's great behind me isn't it I think I better just pick up the pace I'll be all right that's awesome but I'm slightly colorblind I never seen it

I don't know how close it was but I'm guessing it was fairly close because they saw from the road if they were offering to like get you in their truck they were worried for you because we see bears

fairly regular yeah but a mother and a cub is definitely something to be afraid of yeah yeah that's when they get real protective right that's when they like

claw your face off but I figured I was already buy it if it was gonna eat me it would have already just done it I think I would need need 17 of me.

I think I don't, I think that that's breakfast for a polar bear. 17 storms? You don't weigh anything, man. All right, man. You're a little key, like, whoop. Yeah, whoop. You're a straight line. If the audience can imagine what I look like, just imagine the sound effect.

Whoop. Imagine Gumby. All right. Okay, I'm getting done. Yeah. No, 17. I think I could take him. You're just using your fist.

Yeah, you have no weapons. Well, but with enough of me, I feel like I can. and like push him over and like use whatever's around me. It's not cow tipping. So you're thinking you need to like swamp them. Like you need to at least a hundred nates. I need a lot of nates, man. Yeah.

I mean, like it's, it's a bear. I mean, what if it's just a sun? I've watched National Geographic. They just like run into a herd of walruses and. Wolf walruses? Yeah, they weigh a ton. So I'm cooked. Yeah, yeah, I'm done.

17 of yours is like the only thing that can even like, oh my gosh. Orca will kill a polar bear. Walrus is the only they can even try. Like that's regular size. I think I die anyway then. A bear could defeat an unlimited number of me. You'd have to exhaust it.

There's a lot of ways to die in Alaska. Most of you're challenging a polar bear is not the way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Simon asks, what's your favorite thing to do in your free town? Because we always see you as gate guy, but I feel like you're so much more than gay guy. I love to fish.

I love to fish. You didn't mention that. I'm definitely hooked on fishing. Can't wait until my daughter's big enough to go fishing until then. I'm just going to put her on a backpack and be like, we're going fishing. Oh, that's put her on the back pack. Yeah. I want to go up.

No, we're fishing. Like C-3Pio and Chubacca in the Cloud City. She loves doing all kinds of stuff outside, especially with dad. Yeah, I love that. I remember you talking about that on your Hot Ones experience at the Needfelt Hot Ones event last week. I wanted to at some point bring that into discussion because, That was very entertaining to watch you. I don't know if it was as fun for you as it was for us,

but to watch you eat all those spicyy wings. What kind of now with a week after that, what are your outtakes? Like, what, how was the experience? Do you regret it because of how spicy you was? Or did you have fun? No, I was completely honored that they asked me to, and it was hilarious. I loved watching Dr. Matzos.

He definitely killed it. And then I was really nervous because, like, I don't think I've been on stage since. like eighth grade band or something. Yeah. And it definitely wasn't that big of a crowd and everything. But I recognized the faces and felt a little bit more at ease. And then, yeah, after Dr. Matzos had the whole crowd just rolling, I was like,

Brennan, how do we go on? We did all right. Yeah, no, you guys did. It was a very great section. Yeah. It was definitely more like a wholesome section because the Matzos was very, like, funny and got the people like, this is going to be a good event. And then you guys came in it was just very like, because you talk so much about your

daughter and everyone was like saying oh yeah i just made me feel good oh she's a show stealer i i can't wait till she's um coming to events and stuff this summer and you know going out to the park and um i visited a few different churches and some of the students have been really excited to meet her and that's so sweet she's adorable and she's sweet she's a light of my life yeah no i still think we need to do a hot ones event on this show at some point i i don't maybe just you and me i just we need to try some spicy stuff. Sure. We'll start eating on the show.

Yeah. They want to hear us much on the show. I don't want to hear that. Liam asks, who has inspired your music taste most? Because, like, I think the thing that most people recognize immediately was that you just played music and it was good. And it's always good. I passed by and I'm like, yeah.

And it's super like niche a lot of the time. It's very much like, whoa. How does he know that? Jeez, I guess it goes all the way back. to my mom's record collection with the Beatles and Jimmy Hendricks and, of course, Bob Dylan. Oh, yeah. But I've learned to appreciate a lot of music that tells a story or makes you feel something. But I just love all kinds of music.

Some of my friends in high school were into metal, but they also appreciated the classics and stuff like that. Dr. Livingston was my band teacher, and he's an incredible person that taught me to love the classics. I think it's just the love of music itself that has inspired me to look for more music. And I really got into bluegrass when I was in Alaska. That was a thing.

I've heard about that. Everybody dancing. You've heard about bluegrass? I mean, from Tennessee mostly, but I would imagine it would be in Alaska as well. They don't really have bluegrass where you're from. No, they have rap. You just have rap.

Way to East Coast. Yeah, our rap industry is pretty big too. But we're weird down in Georgia because it's like a mix of people who like country, people like rap and people who like both. So there's some sort of strange crossovers occasionally. It's a good time. Yeah.

Rapp's my least favorite. I mean, I definitely respect the art of being able to do it. As long as it's got a good message, I'm down with it. Yeah. I don't like mad music. Sad music. Sometimes I need sad music.

For sure. That's also definitely harder to play at like a college, like this one. I like most of their colleges, like, if they expect you to play that stuff. But like here it's kind of like, oh, playing. When I go home, I don't really listen to rap either. Going to play the Playboy Cardi album? It's so bad. The new Playboy Cardi album is just not it.

Yeah. Liam also asks, how do you manage to always be so? joyful because you're just so jovial like you say hi to everybody and it's just like I think it's just my personality there's a deep darkness behind his eyes yes yeah I was born in the dark yeah yeah being depressed I think is partially a choice and choose to be happy dude that's so true yeah this is a great message just smile this is the wholesome episode yeah you can definitely be depressed if you want to be yeah all right those are those are definitely more like fun question.

I mean, serious questions. These are more like the fun ones that people ask. Cooper asks, if you had to eat a crayon, which color would you eat? I've heard they taste different. Shiny? Yeah. That's not a color. Or like one of the silver.

metallic ones? Yeah, gold. Yeah. Silver. No, I got to go with I feel like I got to go with like orange or something because it's like blue is very, very artificial. I mean, obviously all of them are, but I feel like I can, in good good faith, you like an orange crayon. I'm taking red, man.

Red? I feel like it takes like fruit punch. But what if it contained... I got scared of red stuff when, as a kid, they took all of my Thomas the train was the way the ones that were red because they were like red paint's gonna kill you. Oh, yeah, it was the big thing.

Did you guys hear about this? Yeah, red 40. When I was young, they were like, don't eat the red M&Ms. Yeah. Give them to your parents. Kill them instead. Yeah.

All right. No, but they took away my red train. I remember this very distinctly when I was like three years old, and they were like, you would have died. And I was like, oh my gosh. So now I feel like I don't eat red stuff as much anymore. Well, for sure, that could have been a thing, too.

Yeah. It might also just been like that specific model had, like, lead pain or like some... Oh, I'm sure it was just that. But then it scarred me and so that I would not buy red toys. I feel like I don't... Some people I told you were like, yeah, I got, like, this thing happened and I was like five. And I just remember... I don't have anything like that.

You don't have anything? No. I didn't drink milk. I'm just all right, man. Or, like, a few years when I was young. because I had a sippy cup with milk as it was baby and then it like rotted in the back of the car and my mom didn't notice and she kept putting me back there

and I kept with the smell of rotten milk around me was like ah and then one day she found it and she was like oh my gosh but I didn't drink milk for like five years after that milk is so good yeah now I've come back around to milk but like I feel like I had some like I was like seven or eight and I was in Newport Rhode Island and I had a hot dog and then we went and took a ferry trip

and a bus ride to like historic and on the bus ride, I was like, I don't feel great. I'm sitting next to my dad. I'm like, I don't feel great. He's like, you're fine, you're fine, and we get to the historic site, and I take about four steps off the bus,

and I just start yacking. Oh. So then you're, immediately number hot dogs? No. I was like, give me another one. Wait, really? Yeah.

That's crazy. I don't care. You don't like associate certain things? I'm not really. Interesting. Do you have any of the things as a kid? Well, my half-brother's nine years old, than me and he convinced me that drinking milk mixed with cola was going to be good and that was

so awful but he tricked me into drink it. The pilk, the pilk. The pepsi milk. Yeah, I still can't shake that. That's terrible. I still can't remember the flavor. But a funny story, my friend that never grew up around dairy farms and my family was a big dairy farm when I was younger and one of my uncles still has a dairy farm. I took him out there and he tried raw milk and he's like, I can feel my bones getting stronger right now. It is so good.

I was in Wisconsin this summer and being from the suburbs of New York, I don't, raw milk is so illegal. It's illegal because it's so good. You cannot sell it nothing. It's so illegal. I went to Wisconsin and they just offered me a glass and I was like, I will absolutely try this

because I love milk. And it was the best milk. It's like a whole meal. I have ever had. Like, I can eat a lot if you've ever seen me in the capture. Like way too much. They might kick me out. You got to get your money's worth, though.

Yeah. It's like $20 a meal. I get a cup of milk, a tall one, and that is a solid meal. I can't like... It's a meal. Milk meal, yeah. That might be the saga milk. It's got the ice cream in it.

It's got to get it. Yeah, I've never had a whole glass of raw milk. I've, like, I've, like, tasted it. It's so good, dude. I got to try it. I could just sit there and slam it. Who is? Was it, was it Jack who had a ton of raw milk last year?

Jack or Henry? One of the two. Yeah. Are we outing them? Yeah. Is that, no, it's illegal. That's totally illegal. That's totally illegal.

Jack Baldwin, full name drug. Oh, no. Is it illegal here? Yeah, aye, aye. I think so. I think it's illegal in the entire United States. Well, they, they, it was labeled raw milk. It was actually not raw milk.

We're fine. We're going to get arrested because of our podcast. We're not going to get arrested because of our podcast. We're not going to get. A raw egg's illegal too? I don't think so. No. They should be.

I don't think so. They should be. Elijah asks, favorite memory from your own college slash young adult years if you went to college? I don't know. I don't guess he doesn't know. Yeah, I went to Jackson Community College for a little while, and I really like that. That's where I met one of my best friends.

My best friend, Sarah Cornell. She worked there for years as a student. advisor and then many other tasks that she took on. Any good names? I remember a college student that was taking pre-recks at JCC and the rest of his college was here at Hillsdale College and there was a snowstorm and he was wearing very nice shoes and there was a foot and a half of snow and I asked him if he needed to ride three times. He said, no, I've got this.

I've got this, and I seen him about halfway to Wendy's, maybe a quarter mile from there, and he would just look like a frozen popsicle, just marching. Blue and icicles coming off. I think he survived. Yeah, hopefully. The shoes didn't, though. Shoes were bad.

Shoes didn't. Wrong shoes for the occasion. Yeah, truly. Simon asks, would you rather eat 17-quarter pounders or swim in the Everglades? Oh, wait, what's so bad about swimming in the Everglades? There's a lot of alligators. I'll swim there.

That's such a bad choice, dude. I would rather... Well, there's no way I can live through 17-quarter pound. I mean, is that one week or one day? I think it's in like roughly one sitting. Okay, so I had a double quarter pounder and I can feel my blood getting thicker. I feel myself dying. Let's say in a day.

You have to eat 17 in 24 hours? A light work. You start strong. You start off breakfast. How many pounds is that? Okay, if I know I'm going to have to do this, what you got to do is wait. So you don't eat for like three days.

Isn't that actually not the strat? No, it is the strat. Don't eat for like three days because then you have completely nothing in your stomach. And then eat like five, but go slow because the instinct is to just cram them in your face because you're hungry. No.

Eat them slowly. Like, eat them over like an hour. Ooh, okay. Because then you use all that stuff. stomach space and then slowly be nibbling on them throughout the day. You'll get through 17. Easy. I love swimming.

I'm just going to go with the everglades. There's alligators and snakes. I feel like I'm fine. An alligator, I haven't really, I've seen them and I've been down to the Everglades, but I don't know how they react. Like, if there's a bear, you get loud and you make yourself bigger. Does that work with an alligator? In the wild.

I just yell at it. Yeah. Get away. And then I jump at it like I'm aggressive. Yeah, snap down. I think in the water, at least, an alligator, like, that's their home turf. You're done for it. You're done.

Yeah. I don't think I'm going to take a casual swim. I think it would be a cannonball. Yeah. I think the strats hit them in the eyes and then, like, clamp them, something around the mouth, probably. You have to get, like, behind their neck. Almost put them in, like, a rear naked joke. You got to punch them in the nose, right in the nose.

Oh, yeah. That's a shark. Oh, that's a shark. That's a shark. And also, I think it's in the gills. If you, like, grab a shark's gills and, like, rip? That's brutal. That's how we do the salmon.

You won't tear them out. Yeah. You got to kill the salmon so it stops flopping around so it doesn't attract the bear. Yeah, they have little clubs. Everybody has a club on them. Are you kidding? What is going on? It's like plopping on the ground and trying to get it.

It took a little while to figure out, and it sounds like a wood block. Club. It's great. Salmon are pretty big, right? Yeah. We usually went for the sock ice salmon. which is one of the smaller but tastier, but they're 24 inches or something like that.

That's a big fish to be dead to death of the stick. They basically fished all the king's salmon out of anywhere that you can get too easily. It's sad. That is sad. Yeah, something that you could, used to be able to walk across.

There'd be so many of them you could walk across the river on their back and now you can't get any of them. Dang. That's all the questions I have. Well, I wanted to say about the, what was the other thing, the burgers?

The reason I'm skeptical, is because last summer, we had a challenge in our friend group where one of my friends was confident that he could eat 100 McDonald's nuggets in a day. Oh, wow. And he prepared. He prepared and we put money on it.

He was like, he was so confident. And I was pretty confident too, but I wasn't there for the first start of the day. So I, like, didn't do it that day. I was going to undergo the challenge later as well because I can eat a lot as well. It may not look like it, but I can. But this friend starts eating

and throughout the day, has the nuggets and we get him the 100 nuggets. And he made it only to like 72. Like he could not. He was like, I'm going to die. Like I'm going to like burst. My lungs are going to collapse. And I was like, that didn't seem like a lot of food.

But 17 quarter pounders, you're done. You're done. That's what I'm saying. You're finished. If 100 nuggets can, if 100 nuggets can bring you to the ground. Start with three a day and then work up. He's going to practice. Yeah.

By the time you get there, you're dead. Yeah, you're like, too much red meat, you're just, yeah. 650 pounds, I'm ready. Because I did 50 nuggets in a sitting once. That's not bad. Because they had this Wendy's, okay, they actually didn't. Well, they have the 50 nuggets is always available to Wendy's.

Well, you always get the party platter. Right, but we, we convinced the 100 nuggets. Yes. So this is a famous story in our friend group. We went to Wendy's, and they had this old way back in the day family deal where you could get a 50 nugget bucket for like $10. and I think someone like we somehow convinced them they still had the deal and that the cashier was like okay and they got the manager and we like showed the manager like this old version of a menu I think and they did it and we ordered two of them and we got a hundred nuggets for $20. This was before we did the challenge and it was just three of us and the three of us ate the hundred nuggets collectively and it was a legendary experience because we only spent like a collective of like $7 each on lunch but each got like 33 nuggets.

Who all was in that story? That was me and my friend Carter, and my other friend Jonah, who you have not met. Okay. Yeah. Does that make Carter? So I do wish they would have gotten some, like, Wendy's Nuggets for the Hot Ones Competition.

It was like a cold sponge. Those were the worst chicken nuggets I've ever had, but it kind of took away from the spice, you know, cold and flavorless. Was it nuggets? It wasn't bone? No. Oh. Dude, a cold wing, a cold boneless wing, like, that might be the bad.

The bad. Capital TV. Most of all, boneless wings is just such an L. Yeah. I get it easier to just pop, like, for spicy. Like eating it spicy foods, they just pop it. But, like, I want to eat a wing. I think that cold wings with bones, though, are good. No.

I enjoy them, like, in the fridge the next day after a Super Bowl party. I would take a... You got to heat it up. It worked well for the spices because it distracted you. It's like, yeah. You're just... Wait, which one was, like, the worst? You remember?

So I think... So I've heard of rumors. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. But that wasn't the spiciest technically, like on the list, wasn't? But it seemed to last. Yeah.

Did it keep getting spicy? Like, could you tell? Because I- The last one was extremely hot, but it didn't last super long. Like, from what I've heard from people who eat a lot, my dad has eaten a lot of different spicy food. You know, like, he did a hobanero challenge with his buddies back in college. Ooh.

And he was like, there comes a point where it's just like, you can't even tell anymore. Like it's so hot. Your nerve endings are just curled back on fire. He's like the difference between like 100,000 and like 400,000 is very noticeable. But the difference between like 2 million

and like 4 million or like whatever the new highest one is. It's just like you can't. It's like your body goes into shock. Yeah, you're just, oh. Ready for the next winged in? And I don't think it should be classified as food either.

It's just an experiment. It's not food. It's just an explosion. Not to be eaten There's one of them I think I mentioned this last time We were talking about it Because we recorded last week's episode

Right after watching You guys do that And it's like one of the green ones I forget it's like the Los Calientas one Or probably something That one is good Yeah I've had that one before

We bought a whole bottle And it was delicious Right Yeah I've had some of them That were pretty good But that is my new secret weapon For next winter

If I'm gonna be outside Yeah. Survival tactic. I'm just going to bring some hot sauce. Shoot it. Yeah. If I get lost in the wilderness and the snowstorm, hot sauce. Yeah.

Bam. It'll warm me up. Yeah. I already told you the Thai food story. Yeah. I went skiing a while back. And the way I kept for them, because I hate wearing lots and lots of layers, the way I kept for them was I had a small whiskey shooter.

And halfway through, I had a thing I did a shot of whiskey. I'm 21, by the way. I was going to ask. Yeah, I'm not adding myself. I'm 21 years old. Elite skiing tip. But yeah, but it was great. I've never been skiing.

And it really warmed me up. I don't. You've never been? No. Okay, now we're learning things to this podcast. We're going to go to Alaska and you're going to ski there. I would like to because you think I'm. Liaska.

I live pretty close to the Appalachian Mountains. Like, not that far. Like, it's like two and a half hour drop. The Appalachian Mountains. Oh, awesome. I always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. No, hiking them is great, but skiing them is not. Were you in West Virginia?

No, I was just in New York. That's the only good spot in the Appalachians. But they just, they don't, they're not tall enough, like, to ski them. They don't get enough snow on them. Right. Okay. So it's just like rolling down a hill. I'm imagining when you said it's not tall enough, my mind first went to like, oh my gosh, I've only been skiing for like a minute and I'm at the bottom of the mountain. Right.

Like, yeah. Yeah. Like, they're just not that big. Not enough snow. The Rockies are really worth. up. It gets really nice in Alaska. It's even comparable to like the weather here in Hillsdale. Sometimes it gets even 80 degrees up there and it feels warmer like you're closer to the sun or the ozone's thinner or something. Yeah. But there's always snow on the mountain and this kind of brings me back to the jumping in the Everglades.

It might have been more comfortable to jump in the Everglades and then jump in to Big Lake Alaska. I've seen a couple people out there waiting, and then I've seen some big burly guys out there with some life jackets on. I'm like, okay, maybe Alaskans don't swim much because it's cold all the time. I just want to be safe. Well, I took a running, jump, and dive,

and it took me five minutes to get my breath back. I mean, I almost lost consciousness because it just seized me up. I had to tell myself to calm down and breathe, and it was... Yeah, like cold shock, yeah. It knocked the wind out of me when I hit that water because it was glacier fed.

and I had no idea and then a few months later I had some time off of work and I'm fishing every day in the kayak and my cousin, his wife Aaron, goes, you're wearing a life jacket aren't you when you're out there?

I'm like, no, I'm an excellent swimmer. It's beautiful out. She's like, you remember Big Lake? You remember that? Yeah. The shock will get you in. All the water's like that. It's all freezing cold. Yeah, I put my life jacket on after that.

You can sink down and then you come out and ice scoop. Exactly. Yeah, like, you kind of bobbing. Bobbing Ice Cube. You just like that. Yeah. Well, that's really all the time we have today. Thank you so much, Dennis, for coming on. Thank you so much. This was wonderful. Yeah, it was really good to have you and have a great conversation.

We will see you guys in the next one. You have anything else to say, Nate? As always, thanks for the questions. Submit more. Do we have a next guest confirmed? We do. I'm not going to name drop yet, but the next guest is a funny one. Come on. and come back and listen next week. Submit those questions. You guys are kind of slacking. We need some questions. We need to answer your burning concerns.

Next question. Next question. But that's all the time we got today. Thanks again. See you.