Small Towns Podcast
Small Towns Podcast
E14: Vacation
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Welcome, millions, perhaps billions, of faithful podcast listeners. We are your hosts, Jason Kimber and Dave Simmons. We'll bring you along with us as we share life stories from our experiences living in small towns, or in Jason's case, an unincorporated community. That's true.
SPEAKER_01Along with genius suggestions for solving the world's problems and a whole lot of laughs. This is the Small Towns Podcast. Hello again, folks, to the Small Towns Podcast. I'm Dave Simmons, joined by my good buddy Jason Kimber. And uh Jace, here we go again. Uh, we've had a good handful of podcasts that we've released, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
SPEAKER_00I love every minute of it. I I think they get better and better, and uh I hope our listeners are enjoying it. I mean, I cracked myself up. If nothing else, we're here to make ourselves laugh, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but um we sincerely appreciate. We've got a lot of really nice feedback from people, and we sincerely appreciate everybody who's taking the time to listen to some of these podcasts, and hopefully they've made some people smile over the course of their day, and because really that's what we're in this for is to just bring some smiles and some happiness to some people out there, and that's kind of the goal with this whole thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, give it a subscribe. Apparently that matters. I think it does. Yeah, I think it does. And you know, listen, dig down deep, give us a five-star if you if you like it. Listen, I'm not the boss of anybody, but give us a five-star. I think there was one joker that gave us a two. I think we talked about this earlier.
SPEAKER_01We we just think that that person might have accidentally slipped and hit the wrong button.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's the only reason that's the only thing that I can come up with. I can't think of, anyways. That had to be it. That had to be it for sure. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Also, weather makes me a little happier. I get the what is it, seasonal something depression where I mean I'm sure it's a real thing. I'm yeah, I'm not making fun of it, but for sure. Man, through the wintertime here in Cache Valley, it's brutal. From December, January, February, we're starting to get out of that now. And weather's getting good, starting to feel like maybe summer's around the corner, maybe some vacations coming up.
SPEAKER_00I hope so. I mean, for sure, because my girls, they're counting down the days until school is out. Looking forward to the next family trip. Were you growing up, Dave, did you take very many family vacations?
SPEAKER_01Um, handful. We didn't think we were gonna do something big every year, but we had a couple of Disneyland trips. Okay. Um I remember I remember driving to Disneyland, which is look, Jason, I can't even drive an hour and a half now. I'm such a baby. Yeah. I really am. I get in the car now and I get the jimmy legs, and uh we we occasionally have to drive, you know, six hours away for sports and different things, and oh my gosh, you would think that I'm being punched in the face. But I have lots of friends who just love that. They love getting in the car and going distances. And you guys recently drove Oregon, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00We did drive to Oregon, but I'm here to tell you I'm with you, buddy, and you get a case of the Jimmy Legs. There's nothing try this next time. Sometimes you gotta just stop and you gotta give it a kick. Just kick it out. Just kick it out, just kick those Jimmy legs out. But yeah, we drove to Oregon. In fact, we've been to Oregon twice in the last little bit. First time we drove. That was actually this past November. On our way home, we ran into a little bit of uh nasty weather. I said, Heather, just remind me, make me promise that we are never driving this far again.
SPEAKER_01It's just how far is that for me?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I you know, we drove up to Corvallis, visited uh Heather's brother and her family. Um, it was like a 12, 13 hour drive. Driving an hour and a half to Salt Lake is the plenty for me. Well, yeah, and it's funny that I'm saying this because, like, again, Grass Creek, Utah is not close to anything. So for me to jump in the car and drive an hour and a half to Burley, Idaho, or you know, a couple hours of Breedham City, two and a half hours of Logan wasn't a big deal, but I'm getting soft, buddy. I'm getting soft. I don't want to drive.
SPEAKER_01You know, but back in the day, I remember my parents had a Toyota, hatchback Toyota. Okay. I had two sisters, so there were three of us, and it's not like there's a second row or anything, but they could put down those seats. Yeah. No seat belts. No back then, you know, you just you were just riding.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And we would make a little bed back there. Yeah. In the hatchback, it was a glass. You could look right out. I remember coming home from Christmas Eve, we would always spend down with some family in Salt Lake, and so we would make these little bed in the back, and you could look out that top window and we'd search for Santa Claus every time. And pretty sure I saw them a couple of times. Guaranteed. There was also a tiny little light, like it what you know, and cars will have a dome light on top. Well, this car had one in the back, like in the trunk area. Okay. And the thing is maybe two inches by two inches. Sure. But we used to pretend we were watching it as a TV. You know, now kids actually do have videos and movies and something. We were watching this little light, and according to us, that we were watching King Kong. I don't know why we were watching King Kong. That little thing we would just stare at.
SPEAKER_00I could just see Dave now. Kids in my day, you know, we just watched the dome line. We just watched envisioned and imagined that it was King Kong.
SPEAKER_01So you can zip it back there? Oh yeah, that was the extent of our uh onboard entertainment, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00We didn't take a lot of vacations, but we would every summer, every summer. My mom, bless her heart. My dad, he would take two vacations a year, but his vacations were uh centered around two main events. One, the deer hunt. So he'd take a week or two off in the fall, October, to go deer hunting, and that was fun. Well, I think we talked about it. But you went with him. Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, as many times as we could. And loved it, that was a lot of fun. And then he'd also take off, you know, a week or two in the summer to haul hay. So if I were to suggest either of those options, hey heather, how about for our family vacation this year? We either haul hay or go deer hunting, she'd be like, that's a hard no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, those aren't vacations in my mind, those are additional jobs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Extracurricular activities that she wants no part of. Yeah. But my mom, bless her heart, she would bundle up, again, my brother Wade, then my sister Lisa and myself, we would jump in the old Subaru, station wagon. Her older sister Shirley, shout out, hey Shirley, and her younger brother Andre, they both live down in Salt Lake City. And so every summer we'd run down there, and it was a fun week. We'd either go to Lagoon or we'd go to the zoo, or we'd go to Raging Waters. You know, we'd try and squeeze in, you know, some school shopping and things of that nature. So it was kind of a fun trip. But my mom, bless her heart, I mean, she's just a real trooper, but she was very uncomfortable when it would come to driving in the city. Interestingly enough, as soon as Wade turned, you know, 16 and got his license, if we officially 10 or 11. Fair enough. We all were. We all were, but you you know, you couldn't do that in the city, but as soon as he could legally drive, you know, we you know, my mom hasn't we'd drive for her, but we would drive to Salt Lake, and and once we got, you know, past Brigham City, it was like radio turned off, no talking, and she's like 10 and 2 focused. Yeah. And I remember one time, I do not know how it happened. Shirley and Andre, they would give my mom, this is obviously long before MapQuest, long before GPS. So they would give my mom these just turn-by-turn directions to get to their home. We didn't go there a lot, I mean it was once a year basically. And so she wasn't super comfortable, but she'd follow these directions. Well, one time, you know, we're heading down I-15, headed south to Salt Lake. I don't know how it happened, but she took the wrong turn, and we are heading on we're heading to Evanston. Okay. We're on what is that, I-84? I don't know what it is. Yeah, but we're heading to Evanston, Wyoming, and we we get going, and and once you get on that freeway, there's not a whole lot of opportunity to turn around. Oh my goodness, turn up the anxiety level to about white knuckle 10. Yeah. Oh, my mom was like, Stop jogging, stop talking, and we're like, I didn't know if we were, I mean, we were eastbound. For all I know, we probably would have stopped once we got to the Atlantic. I'm not sure. I was gonna say, New York here, wake up. Yeah, so you know, that was our summer vacations. Loved them. Sounds like stressful.
SPEAKER_01Have you noticed how a lot of times vacations, you don't really remember the actual vacation as much as the problems that happened? Yeah, yes. I mean, that if you think back on it, a lot of the stuff, like for instance, Susie and I, we were gonna go on a little cruise, and the cruise was flying, setting sails out embarking, I don't know, yes, out from Miami. We flew to Miami, we were there a day early, and the plan was to get a rental car and to go to a hotel. And you know, well, we get to the hotel place, or excuse me, the rental car place, and they're like, Oh, we don't have any cars. I'm like, but we had a reservation for the car. Well, we don't have one. And so they start looking around, and they said, Well, we do have an iconoline van, like one of those, what are they, 10-person vans? At least, I guess. Apparently, they were thinking that Susie and I could just cruise around in Miami. Yeah, why wouldn't you? I'm not gonna lie to you for a half second. I can't remember if it was her or if it was me. One of us thought, well, maybe we could put it. You entertained it. We entertained it for a minute because we were so tired we wanted to get to our hotel. So can you imagine? Yeah. Just cruising around. I mean, that kind of a van, you don't hold it 10 and 2, you actually hold it four and six. Yeah, like yeah, like it's like an underhand grip.
SPEAKER_00It's an underhand grip that you're just driving.
SPEAKER_01And then when you got a turn, you're kind of like It's a two-handed exactly really gonna pull. That's this is why we need a YouTube channel at some point, so I can demonstrate how you have to drive. Well, it's like driving a school bus.
SPEAKER_00You're like the nice lady behind the counter or gentleman, I don't know who it was, but you're like, I don't have my CDL. I can't drive that. You put it in reverse and it beeps.
SPEAKER_01Is that us? For a second there, we entertained it, and unfortunately, we just hung out. And Susie at that point, she's a nervous traveler, so at that point, somebody came in later with another car, and we were able to get a car, but for a half second there, I thought we were gonna be cruising Miami Beach in this iconoline van. You might as well just not even get a hotel. You know, you just sleep in the van.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you just kind of pull that upside out, you know, outside the hotel and just drinking over. Vacations are fun though, and you know, we try and take our girls on as many vacations as we can, and I'm glad that we do. But I remember I was, it wasn't until I was in the ninth grade, my grandmother called a granny. You know, my granny was my dad's mom. She called me up one time and she says, Hey Jason, we're planning a trip. My Aunt Sharon and my Aunt Betty Jean. She says, the three of us are planning a trip to go see my Aunt Judy, who lived in Southern California at the time. She's like, We're gonna go down there, we're gonna go to Disneyland. You know, I've never been, and I'd love to go. It's the happiest place on earth.
SPEAKER_01It really is. Until you get there. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Until you get there, and yeah, all these tangents, I can't wait to get into them. And I loved her for this, but my granny, they stopped in Grasswork, they picked me up. She drove one of those big old beautiful, it was like a Buick with Saber. Well, no, and I'm we're gonna go back a few years. It was like a 1986 Buick town car. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's good stuff. And Natrek player in it. That's a good ride. That's a good ride, it's so comfy. So comfy. She made these little owls out of like faux fur that would perch in the back window. Very classy. Very classy. Sounds very classy.
SPEAKER_01Very classy, but it's all first class riding right now.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's first classy. You just kind of riding like you didn't, it was truly like kind of the boat, the motion of the ocean, you know. You just kind of cruising down there. But when you did trips with my granny, bless her heart, you didn't just drive through McDonald's because that was waste. You just didn't do that. So, why would you drive through and get a double cheese, although I do love a double cheese, when you could just bring a sandwich from home? Yeah, you pack a cooler, you make up some sandwiches, or maybe you bring a loaf of wonder bread and some bologna. You know, that's how you eat the good stuff, the high-end stuff. So we're we're cruising, they pick me up at about 11 o'clock. I'm trying to remember kind of how the details of this story went. We're thinking, well, we need some lunch. We go to gas off, we get to about Wendover in Nevada, and we stop to pull out the cooler, and we discover the cooler was gone.
unknownGone.
SPEAKER_00Like they didn't forget to forgotten the pack. It's not in the trunk. It's sitting at home, just waiting to be loaded up. So we're like, dang it, there's nothing to eat. So we drive a little bit longer. We're like, that's okay, we'll be fine. We can stop and get something somewhere else. Plus, there's a lot of other food and snacks that we brought. Well, listen, we're cruising out across the just the barren lands of Nevada. My Aunt Sharon was sitting in the back, and I just hear this little, almost like like a little mouse just kind of eating something quietly. Just nibbling away, nibbling away. And I'm like, you know what? I don't have any sandwiches, but you know, I think they brought some cookies. I said, Hey Sharon, we got any of those cookies? And she's like, Um, what uh what cookies? She ate every cookie! She ate all the cookies, she knew the sandwiches were gone. She it was kind of like every person for themselves. Wendover, we discover the sandwiches are gone. She knows, listen, we're all gonna get hungry here in about an hour. There's no rationing. There's no rationing. Sharon! She ate them all. I hope she's listening to this podcast. I'm gonna make her listen to this one because we tease about that all the time now because she was just so quite um what cookies? Bath, chip full, cookies were gone. What kind of cookies? Uh, they were those delicious, they're like a kind of a chocolate cookie that were kind of covered in powdered sugar. Sometimes I can get on board with those. Yeah, kind of a crinkled cookie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm becoming a little bit of a food snob. Oh, you are? You think that adults, we've talked a little bit about this, but adults, you know, they're they get a little better and they can eat more things. Sure. You know, there's certain things. Don't be doing it.
SPEAKER_00You know, what would you not eat? I do know that you won't eat a bean. I remember this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're not eating beans. I'm not eating a bean, and I'm not eating a mint brownie either. Don't look, I know everybody's like mint brownies are delicious. Well, regular brownies are delicious. True. Just make a regular brownie. You've hit a hundred percent of the population that like regular brownie, and I'm gonna go with maybe 50% like mint brownies.
SPEAKER_00So that's low.
SPEAKER_01You think? Even if it's 75% with a regular brown. I don't know. Maybe we've already talked about this on the book. No, I don't think we have, but this is fascinating. I have a real problem with it. Let's let's just play to the masses. Why not? Susie goes, well, I really like these. I don't care. You also like a regular brownie.
SPEAKER_00It's like putting tand paste in your brownie.
SPEAKER_01That's how I see it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah, might as well. But if you think about that, if you did have a mint brownie, then maybe you wouldn't have to brush your teeth afterwards.
SPEAKER_01Now you're thinking. See, now I haven't thought about that. Or the same with mint ice cream. And I have no problem with mint on its own and chocolate on its own. Sure. But when you start putting them together, that's like a peanut butter and ketchup sandwich to me. Oh. Well, yeah. I don't that's a big stretch, buddy. That's a big stretch. Well, I don't know. It's probably me. But if but if Aunt Sharon's back there wolfing on a mint brownie, I'd say take him. You can you can have all you want.
SPEAKER_00I can't believe she had all this brownies. I mean, she had all the cookies. There's nothing. I mean, we'd had to drive to freaking Ely to get anything to eat. I'm sorry about that. Well, listen, but that's kind of the nature of family vacation. And you said earlier, like, you remember kind of the and I think it's what makes kind of a memory fun. You know, again, we didn't travel far. My dad had kind of this funny I said it was a rule. I don't think he ever made it a rule, but we'd tease him a little bit about it. If he was ever within what I'd call like a three-hour circumference from his own bed, he was gonna home. He was gonna get home to it. I identify with him now, absolutely. I'd rather sleep in my own bed. I'm either a hotel or my own bed. Me too. That's just kind of how I roll. But as uh you know, my older brother got married, ended up moving to California for his work. And so we did decide one time drive to California to visit him, and we as a family went to SeaWorld. I couldn't sell my dad on the concept of Disneyland. He just wasn't quite on board with he thought that might have been too many people, too many lines, just not his cup of tea. And he liked SeaWorld, we had a lot of fun. This was in the early late 90s, actually. For some reason, Dave, and this could be a different podcast altogether, but for some reason I was going through a phase. We talked about dad bods here, didn't we, a little while ago? We did, yeah. And I still had my dad bod then long before I was a dad. A 15 might have said. I think I was like 21, 22 years old, and for some reason I thought it was an awesome idea to wear just my really cool jeans, but then I'd wear my Aggie t-shirt going. Tucked in. Tucked it nice. Tuck it in, yeah. I tuck it in. I don't have a physique, Dave, to tuck in a t-shirt. I haven't had that physique since I was in jeans, not till since I was in second grade. Oh my god. But my parents would always buy those disposable cameras and just give them to the grandkids. That's a fantastic idea. I realize in this day and age, I don't even know if you can buy a disposable camera anymore, but my parents. Yeah, they can.
SPEAKER_01They're on they're on the tables of like weddings and stuff. It's a genius idea. Sure it is, till somebody takes an inappropriate picture.
SPEAKER_00And then nobody likes that. Nobody likes that. Well, let me tell you what you also don't like. So we give these cameras to my nephew Austin, my nephew Dave. They're running around taking these pictures of all these cute porpoises and you know, shamu and stuff like that. I just need to remind you that my nephews and nieces at this time, they were like short, maybe even below waist high for me, if you will. So all of a sudden they look up and they take a picture of Uncle Jason from below the belly. That's not a great show. No, that's not a good angle. Not a good angle for me. I'm like, oh, you throw that away. That's so nasty. But we were getting ready to go to we went to the shamus show, and I was trying to be the cool uncle. I'm like, hey, Austin Dave, let's go, let's sit down here in the soak zone. You know, let's go to the soak zone. And their mom, she's sweetheart. I just love her. She's sweetheart. She's no longer married to my brother, but sweet girl, her name's Tina, still close with the family. And say, no, no, no, I don't want the boys getting wet. And I'm like, come on, Tina. Say, no, I don't want the boys getting wet. I'm like, fine. So we go sit up outside of the splash zone, which is basically the no-fun zone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. And we watch the shamu show, and it's fun. He was fine, but a little boring because nobody's getting wet. But I was just trying to be, you know, a good uncle. Fast forward a little bit later in the afternoon. We go over to the uh Dolly, the gray. Yeah, I remember Dolly. You remember Dolly? Absolutely. It's kind of like the gray whale, yeah. Dolly the dolphin, the gray whale type of thing. We get there a little bit late. Smaller venue,
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SPEAKER_00but it's packed. It's completely packed. Except for the splash song. Except for the very front row. Nice. Now I don't think I don't know if Tina's listening to this podcast. I hope she is. She may remember this incorrectly, but if not, I guess again, I think we've read she could have her own podcast, but this is how I remember it. Um I was at this point I was trying to be a nice brother-in-law, and I saw like the very back row was completely empty. And I said, Hey guys, this whole back row is fine. She's like, No, no, no, we can we can go down front, it's open. I said, but oh, I said, splash zone. Yeah. She's like, I've seen the show, you don't get wet here. I'm like, I've seen this show too. Dolly can pack a punch. She can pack a punch, and she's like, no, no, it's different. I'm like, you sure? And I'm like, but I knew. You did know. I did know. And now I was starting to get a little facetious, if you will, a little mischievous. And I'm like, you sure? She's like, yeah. I'm like, okay, let's do it. We go right down, sit on the very front row. Are you still wearing the jeans? And of course.
SPEAKER_01And this is the same trip.
SPEAKER_00Same trip. You've got your tucked in t-shirt, Indian. In my jeans. And to paint the picture of my dad, everywhere my dad went, he's wearing cowboy boots, Levi jeans, long sleeve western shirt. Doesn't matter that it's 100 degrees outside.
SPEAKER_01You're gonna be warm.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't matter, yeah. But we're looking sharp. Yeah. We're looking sharp. Enjoying the show, having a good time. Dolly, the great gray whale. Was her name Dolly?
SPEAKER_01She was really long. She was a long black torpedo-looking thing. Kind of. I don't know what kind of creature that's.
SPEAKER_00Me neither, but a breed of whale, and the cute little uh whale trainer says, Dolly, say hello. Oh wave to the crowd. Yep. Do you remember how she waves? Yep. She turns around, she faces you, and then she takes that big old tail fin and then just scoops the water over top the rail. Dave, we could not have been any more wet had we jumped in that tub with her. In fact, after like the fourth or fifth wave, we bolted for the side. Really? We bolted. You were out. We were out because like my niece Allison, she was actually quite tiny. She started to cry. We bolted, like we were dripping wet off the day. We're like, yeah, so cool! It was awesome. It ruined my dad's camera. Oh yeah. Worth it. Can't imagine what it did to his boots.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00You just wore them till they dry out. Worth every penny. It was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01So you're in the was your t-shirt white? No. That's trouble. Because if you're already tucked in. It's trouble.
SPEAKER_00It's trouble.
SPEAKER_01You didn't like your early onset dad box.
SPEAKER_00I know because it's like the eye of the storm. Yeah, right in the street. As I'm talking about the belly button, guys. Don't look directly into the eye of the storm. It's kind of like a tractor being.
SPEAKER_01You know, for as bad of an outfit as that was, when we went to Disneyland, I was, I want to say 11. The only reason I remember is because we have a photo of me, and I'm wearing the shortest shorts that any young man has should ever wear.
SPEAKER_00Well, how old are you?
SPEAKER_01Probably about 11.
SPEAKER_00Okay, love. You just said that. Yeah. Pay attention to that.
SPEAKER_01I'm a little better. I'm a little better. About 11. I'm wearing these short shorts. Cheeks have to be closed. Oh, yeah. Are we seeing pockets? There weren't pockets. These were like almost sweat type material that's almost a cottony type of thing.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so you didn't like you didn't, these are not homemade shorts.
SPEAKER_01No, this was a set. Yeah. And I know it was a set because the top. Brace yourself right now. Oh no. The top was a cutoff. Okay. Now that I'm thinking of it, maybe this was purchased in the girl statue. Because that top was just underneath my little chest. Like a midriff. Yes. A midriff. My belly is it's a belly shirt.
SPEAKER_00You took all the wonder out of the eye of the storm. Yeah, here's the storm.
SPEAKER_01Here's the eye, it's all of it right here. And then I got these shorty short shorts. And then I got some tube socks that are gray because they match the gray shorts and top that are pulled up to my knees. Oh, did they have the colors on the top? Yes.
SPEAKER_00Of course they did.
SPEAKER_01Yes, to match. And the shirt said USA, a small little spot. USA on my shorts. And then the gray short socks with the red tube part at the top. How my mother let me leave the hotel that day is beyond me. Jan? Oh I'm not. Yeah, I that's on her. Yeah. Isn't it? I don't know if it is, because nowadays I have an 11-year-old. He's gonna wear what he wants. I mean, I might give him a little lip for it and tell him, uh, I don't know, but he's still gonna wear what he wants.
SPEAKER_00I hope this isn't bad. I can picture little Dave Simmons, little 11-year-old Dave Simmons in the middle of the day.
SPEAKER_01It's a good head of hair, though.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I bet. Way better than it is now. Just flowing. But I bet you had a lot of other 11-year-olds there at Disneyland that were just as trippy as you were that day.
SPEAKER_01I would like to think it was the style.
SPEAKER_00Oh, for sure it was.
SPEAKER_01I hope that style was only for a couple month period in all of human history.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because that is not okay.
SPEAKER_00It's not okay. I remember having a pair of shorts that were similar to that, probably shorter than they should have been. And they almost had the stripes down the side.
SPEAKER_01Uh you know what we should do is on our Instagram page and maybe our Facebook stuff, we need to post some of these pictures. Yeah, because Dave, if you were comfortable with it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. I I mean You have no shame? I got no shame, buddy. I picture you maybe like a little sweatband and some maybe some armbands. Yep.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I had it on that with that outfit, but I had some of those. Oh sure. Those are high quality items there. I remember also that time because we went on Space Mountain for the first time. And that ride messed me up. I remember thinking that I was anticipating corners and turns, but you're in the dark in Space Mountain. So I'm thinking we're we're headed left and then we go right. Okay. I remember my mouth. I must have been super trying to be as relaxed as possible, but my lips were going the opposite direction of the way we were actually going. And I remember thinking, I'm not riding that ride again.
SPEAKER_00You can't second guess the mouse, buddy.
SPEAKER_01No. I mean No, he knows what he's doing. Yeah. I don't know why it took human history so long. Go ahead and put a roller coaster in the dark. I mean, to me, that seems like uh why would you not put a roller coaster in the dark? Yeah, I mean you're gonna kind of amp it up.
SPEAKER_00Sure, next level.
SPEAKER_01Next level roller coaster, put it in the dark.
SPEAKER_00I love everything about Disneyland. I really do. And and I would go every year. Even now? Even now.
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SPEAKER_00It is the happiest place on earth for me. I've only had one tiny unfortunate experience, but of a customer service experience that was not super stellar. But I'm glad that I had it because I think it's a super funny story. This happened, oh, it's been a few years ago now, but not that long ago. We're over in California Adventure. Corn Dog Castle? I love a good corndog. Oh, and I tell you what, they're not a better one there than at the Corn Castle. Really? I'm gonna go there next. It's so good. It's a California Adventure. It's so, so good. The only preface I'm gonna throw to this story, I just said it, but I'm gonna say it again. I've never had a bad experience at Disneyland. Like you go there, people are so nice and they're friendly. Even when you're riding some of the smaller, slower rides, if you see some of the workers, they stop and they wave. I I just I feel like it's a great model of customer service, with the exception of this one time. Okay, corndog. As so often we do with our children, and as we try to help them have the most magical time at Disneyland. If somebody wants a corndog and somebody wants you know a churro, we just accommodate whatever they want. But for me, I wanted a corndog, and so I said, You guys have your churro over here, I'm gonna run over. It's not too far, I'm gonna run over and get me a corndog. And it was not even a normal lunchtime, so it wouldn't be a big deal. I run over to the corndog castle and I can see the turnstiles they have to do the line management. But Dave, I promise I'm not exaggerating. There was nobody in line. Nobody. Not one soul. Not one soul in line. So I realize that the line goes that way, but I'm coming up on the other side. And so I just run up and I just walk straight to the window. And I might have been a little bit because I just kind of ran up and I'm like, hey, can I get it? And this lady, she's like, sir, she put her finger in the Sir, the line is over there. Line pointed over there. And I said, Oh, I said, I know, I said, but there's no she's like, sir. The line. You're being reprimanded a bit. Yeah, I've been reprimanded a little bit. The line is over there, and I said, I realize that, but there's nobody in, and again, the second or she's like, so the line is over there. And I said, Okay. So now I'm now I'm gonna have a little bit of fun with this. So I walk over to the line and I walk very dramatically. Yeah. You know how I can sometimes be. I walk dramatically all the way around the turnstiles, slowly, slowly, as if there was somebody in front of me. Yeah. And then I stop and then I wait. But I tell you what, this girl, she wouldn't have none of it. Really? I stood there, and finally she just said, next. That's all I just wanted to do. I'd like me? That's what I like me. I looked around behind me. I'm like, oh, that must be me. Or I went up and I ordered my uh my corner.
SPEAKER_01I had that similar thing happen at Burger King just here in town. Really? But nobody's there. I order my food, that's great, and I'm sitting down, and there is nobody sitting out there. Number 22! That's me. I'm the only one here. You could just go ahead and hand it to me. Maybe it was just sir. Yeah, I don't know. Here you go. Here's your food. Those are those are fun times, though. Like I said, those are the times you remember on vacations when something weird happens, or something, I guess unfortunate. We also have decided that Disneyland is for eight years old enough. And we might even be closer to 10. The first time we took our kids, our oldest was probably, I don't know, six. And our youngest was two, or the next child was two. Oh, that was a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's tough.
SPEAKER_01It was a nightmare. Our youngest, he threw his shoe into the lake there at uh Disneyland. And you don't just pull it out, it's way down there. They had to go fish it out. Yeah. He fell outside of our hotel and bashed his head. He had a big old bruise on his head. He must have been concussed because he then threw up in our bed that night. Oh no. And then we were walking along the beach, Eric, and Susie goes, You better hold on to his hand. He'll go in. I'm like, he's not gonna run into the ocean. He ran into the ocean. Of course he ran. I went in with my shoes on and pulled him out by his foot like I just caught a fish. Like a marlin. Yeah, marlin. So next thing you know, I have to go buy new shoes because my shoes were now ruined because I just walked into the ocean. So we decided at that point, no kids under eight. Oh, and that was also when we first walked in. The first really ride you come to, there was no line. But it was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I don't know if you've been on that. It's one of the old school rides where there's loud and flashing lights. Those two kids were crying after ride number one. And I look at them like, there is no crying. This is the happiest place on earth. And then after that, couldn't get them on anything. They didn't want to go on any rides because the first one we set them up with was not the one to set them up with. So, nickel's worth of free advice out there for everybody. Start on an easy ride. Little Mermaid, the one that's nice and slow and fun music, and then from there you start to amp it up a little bit, but that was rough.
SPEAKER_00It is rough, but it is fun. And these are memories that we're creating for our kids. And I love it. I uh this is just a parting thought, if I may. Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely. Just a parting thought. And this is something that I generally am not going to do on a regular basis because this is gonna be a little vague, but this is kind of a fun thing to be vague for. I'm gonna give a shout-out to one of my dear friends, Jania. Just a great use full name. I'm not afraid to do it. No, do it. Because I know she's a listener. Oh, is she can she's a listener. One of my favorite rides at Disneyland is the Pirates of the Caribbean.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I can write that over and over.
SPEAKER_00So all of my listeners are listeners out there. When you see Jania, I want you to ask her if that's her favorite ride, too. Because I promise you it is. Is there a reason behind that? There for sure. There is a reason. And I can't.
SPEAKER_01And it's not just because it's nice and cool.
SPEAKER_00No, no. It's it's just downs back to many, many, many, many years ago. Well, you've got me on pins and needles, yeah. Yeah, maybe actually with her permission, I'll probably share it at some point. At some point.
SPEAKER_01So Okay, well, that's uh we could probably wrap up another podcast here. We sincerely appreciate everybody out there listening to us. Again, pass it on to everyone else, you know. Hopefully, we can bring some smiles to other people out there, Jason.
SPEAKER_00All right, we'll see you guys.
SPEAKER_01Thanks again, folks, for listening to another episode of the Small Towns Podcast. We're pretty sure we've changed your life for the better. If not, well, we'll try again next time.