Chic Chat: Larry from Jeep Talk Show on Welding, Jeeps and Rubicon Dreams

Welcome to another exciting session of Chic Chat, where we blend style, adventure, and the unstoppable spirit of Jeeping! 🚙 In this episode, we dive deep into the world of off-roading with our special guest, Larry, co-host of the Jeep Talk Show flagship episodes every Tuesday. Join us as Larry shares his journey into the Jeep life, from his first Wrangler in 2018 to his lifelong passion for all things automotive. From building a rail buggy at 14 to fabricating custom Jeep parts, Larry’s story is one of adventure, welding, and getting out to the middle of nowhere! 🌄 We talk about his YouTube channel Jeep and Mo, his love for fabrication, and his dream to tackle the Rubicon Trail. Plus, meet Duke, his 120-pound black lab sidekick who steals the show on every Jeep trip! 🐾 Highlights: Larry’s start in off-roading and how Jeeps became his ultimate adventure vehicle. Tips and tales from the welding world – including why a good weld isn’t always a pretty weld! 🔧 Memorable trails like Johnson Valley and Gold Mountain, and bucket-list destinations like the Rubicon. A sneak peek into Larry’s other passion: restoring classic cars, including a 1964 Mercury Comet road trip adventure! 🚗 Heartfelt advice for new Jeepers: Don’t wait to chase your adventures – get out there and explore! Don’t miss our flagship Jeep Talk Show episodes every Tuesday at JeepTalkShow.com for more Jeep fun with Larry, Tony, and the crew. Whether you’re a seasoned Jeeper or just dreaming of hitting the trails, this episode is packed with inspiration to fuel your off-road passion. Subscribe for more Chic Chat episodes, hit the bell 🔔, and let us know in the comments: What’s YOUR dream Jeep adventure? 🌟 #JeepLife #ChicChat #OffRoading #JeepTalkShow #AdventureAwaits Welcome to Jeep Talk Show, the ultimate podcast for Jeep enthusiasts! Join Tony, and, the crew as we dive into off-road adventures, Jeep Wrangler 392 updates, Jeep Gladiator camping, and the Jeep Cherokee relaunch. From $130K Jeep resale trends to Gladiator tent reviews, we cover Jeep modifications, off-road gear, and events like Easter Jeep Safari and Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion. Get expert Jeep 4xe towing tips, lightweight truck camper insights, and off-road trail guides for Jeeps. Subscribe for weekly Jeep news, join our community at jeeptalkshow.com/discord, and hit the trail with us! Head to https://jeeptalkshow.com to explore our world of Jeep madness, subscribe, and let us make your day a little more rugged and a lot more fun. Ready to roll with us? Let’s hit the trails together! #Jeep Talk Show, #Jeep podcast, #off-road podcast, #Jeep community, #Jeep off-roading, #Jeep Wrangler, #Jeep Gladiator, #Jeep news, #Jeep modifications, #Jeep accessories, #off-road adventures, #Jeep events, #Jeep 4xe, #Wrangler 392, #Jeep camping, #Jeep trails, #Jeep Wrangler 392, #$130K Jeep resale, #Jeep infotainment bricking, #TuneOutdoor Gladiator tent, #RealTruck trail access 2025, #Jeep Gladiator camping, #lightweight truck camper, #$13K Jeep camper, #Jeep Cherokee relaunch 2025, #Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion, #Easter Jeep Safari 2025, #Jeep Badge of Honor app, #women off-road Jeep podcast, #Chic Chat Jeep podcast, #Jeep off-road gear reviews, #best Jeep accessories 2025, #Jeep 4xe towing tips, #off-road trail guides for Jeeps

This week’s Chic Chat episode on the Jeep Talk Show features Wendy interviewing fellow JTS Host Larry. Dive into Larry’s Jeep journey, learning how he got started with his off-roading adventures and what inspired him to explore the country in his Jeep. Plus, meet Larry’s loyal off-road companion, Duke, his 120-pound black lab who never misses a trail. Don’t miss this engaging episode, and subscribe to catch all the exciting stories from Jeep enthusiasts!

Well, welcome to another session of Chick Chat. It’s the place where we celebrate the perfect fusion of style and adventure. Jeeps have long been synonymous with ruggedness, freedom, and the spirit of adventure.(…) And who says women can embrace all of that more? Well, guess what? We’ve got a very special guest again tonight. I love this. Larry from Jeep and Mo, you

Larry is one of the co-hosts on the Jeep talk show, flagship episodes on Tuesday with me. So you guys have been hearing from Larry, but now we’re going to dive in a little bit deeper. So welcome, Larry. How you doing? Hello. How you doing? Sorry. I met a chick for Chick Chat.

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And listen, by the way, just cause it says Chick Chat and we’re women interviewers. It doesn’t have to be women that we interview. So I’m pretty excited about this to get to do a little more deep dive with Larry because you know what? We’re on the show. We just kind of get into what we’re doing and we roll and the three of us with Tony, we just start laughing and having a good time. So if you haven’t checked it out, make sure you check out that flagship episode on Tuesdays, Jeep talk show.com. But right now we’re going to learn a little bit more about Larry. So Larry, I’ve got a couple of questions for you. Okay.

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So first off, I kind of want to know, I think the listeners too is how did you get into jeeping or your first Jeep? So give us a little bit of a history of how you kind of came to be in this lovelies industry.(…) Yeah. So unfortunately I’ve got the four wheel bug or the gas bug or whatever you would call it. I’ve been in some form of auto something my whole life. Okay. And I’ve owned a little bit of everything.(…) Always wanted to get out in the middle of nowhere, if you will. So I knew that, you know, the normal cars or normal, anything wasn’t going to work.(…) I kept seeing all the stuff on YouTube about the jeeps going out in the middle like Utah or California or somewhere. So I decided that, well, you know what? I think we’re going to, we’re going to dip our toe into that little bit.(…) And we went out in 2018 and bought a Wrangler and it’s been pretty much downhill ever since.(…) So 2018 was the first time you’ve really done some off-roading. In a Jeep. Yes. In a Jeep. Okay. Yeah. Well, that’s cool. Had you done any other types of off-roading prior to that? So my very first vehicle was a rail buggy. Oh, okay. I had started building that when I was 14,(…) built it through 14, built it into 15. And when I turned 16, the first, first thing I ever drove on a road was that buggy to get a license. Love it. We drove in a license and then, uh, you know, we took it off-roading. Now, obviously a rail buggy is not the same off-roading that you do in a Jeep. Right. Because it’s only a rear wheel, Volkswagen type thing.(…) So yeah, that was kind of my first experience at it. And once again, totally different obviously,(…) but you know, just, uh, I’ll just say I’ve, I’ve always had some kind of desire to be out where people aren’t. And you know, the, the Jeep was fast forward, almost a 40, 50 years. And the Jeep was the next evolution of that. I love it because that’s a, I think you hit the key of getting out in that open. We talk about that too on different segments of our shows. All of us do. We’d love to be able to go someplace that the Jeep takes us where we can’t get there by a regular vehicle. So I think that’s a really good key on that. So now you have a YouTube channel called Jeep and Mo, correct. And you talk about welding and different things. When did you start welding as far as getting into fabricating? Was that back when you and your teens, when you were building that buggy or was it?

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So yeah, basically back then. So my father was a machinist and also had a body shop.

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So, you know, I kind of, that’s, that’s how I grew up. I went to school for it to be a machinist. So I’ve been in the metal trades as long as I can remember. Wow. And, uh, you know, the, the welding and the fabrication, you know, there’s nothing better for that than, uh, than a Jeep, because, you know, I kind of say that a Jeep is nothing more than an adult erector set. You don’t know what a wrecker set is. Go back and look that up. Look it up.(…) Because it’s, you know, a Jeep is so, it’s so versatile and there’s so many things you can do to it. And there’s so many ways to tailor a Jeep to you. Yeah. And you know, we all may not agree with each other’s builds, but one thing about it, it’s you, whether you want to see an expression of how a person is, you look at their Jeep, it’ll, it’ll tell you a lot. Not that it’s bad. Yeah. Well, no, and that’s true because they, you know, we’ve been on runs and there’s always that sort of envy, if you will, looking at someone else’s bigger build or better build. And we always talk about that even in newbie nuggets, you know, start off with the stock Jeep. It’s very capable. And then slowly start to add and do things depending on what you want to do. So now as far as the welding, what would you say is one of the most fun or memorable things that you actually either fabricated or welded that you, that you look back and think, wow, I actually did that. Do you have something in mind?

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Yeah. So we, all of all the fabrication, our Jeep I’ve done, whether it be putting all the tresses on, you know, you know, modifying those axles or the drawer system, we aluminum welded in the back. I don’t know if I could point to know one thing cause it’s just a culmination of a little of this and little of that. So, and you know, most of that stuff, not to, not to pimp our channel, but you know, all this stuff that we’ve done to the Jeep and all the welding I do, we, we, we do it and we put it out there for content as well. Sure.(…) And, uh, for more than anything other than something I’ve done that stood out more than another, it really, it really is to me more about the feedback that I get off of what I build.(…) Right.(…) Because some of the things that I, that I’ve welded, some, you know, I think I don’t think much of it, but the feedback that I get from the people watching our videos is rather nice. And, uh, to me, that’s the most gratifying part of the whole thing. Well, you’re also, your channel allows people to learn like, you know, last year I participated in the ladies off-road network and one section was about welding. And I remember you giving me some tips and me looking at some of those videos about trying to weld. I’d never welded before. And you know, yes, Bill had done some welding and he was kind of guiding me a little bit, but, um, I just think it was nice that you had that information and you were so willing to help me out. And I’ll just say for the record, you know, it looked like it was going to be fairly easy. I mean, honestly, you’d get the torch, you put the metal together, you just, you know, hit it. It’s supposed to melt.(…) That’s not what happens by the way. It will do that. It will melt.

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But I think what was interesting for me was that it was way harder than I thought. Um, but I could see where experience and just keeping at it. I think I could get pretty dang good at it. And I think it’s learning what a good weld is and stuff. So, uh, now you went to school for this, correct? For welding or did you learn on your own? Yeah, a little of both. So I went to school to be a machinist. I took some welding classes early on in my career and a lot of it is just over the,(…) Derek, I hate to say this, over the 40 plus years,

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you can say it, learning what’s good and what’s bad, you know, and you know, the other part of that is in Instagram is a good one for showing everybody what a good weld is. Okay. But I’m here to tell you,(…) not all good, good looking welds are good welds. Yes. I remember you saying that it’s about the actual contact and does it stick together and that? Yeah. So true. Yeah. We can make pretty welds, but we can also make it not stick together, but man, did it look nice. Yeah, they do look nice. It’s interesting too, because if you follow anybody on Instagram and you see people that are fabricating, it’s a super appreciation for people who can make it look pretty and also make it stick. And there are people in the industry, in the jeeping and the off-roading industry that that’s all they do is build and fabricate for people to make sure that they can have a piece that works. So if I take my Jeep in and say, okay, sir, I need you to weld this for me, I’m expecting them to do the correct thing and that it is going to last.(…) So I think there’s a skillset to it for sure. I, I would not claim myself as a welder. Um, I at least understand some basic fundamentals, but I would need a lot more time behind that torch and sort of understand and learn to perfect it. So right. And that’s kind of what we try to do on a channel it. You’re not going to, no one’s going to learn how to weld or wheel or anything off of one video. Well, they shouldn’t.(…) It’s more about just starting to build though, that, that foundation. Yeah. Right. It’s the old adage of, you know, a house works better if it’s built on a good foundation, you can’t build a good house on sand. Yeah. So it’s just getting started even like, even when you’re wheeling, right? You don’t dare just jump out there and all of a sudden you’re expert on the rock crawler and you just hit the start button yesterday. Yeah. So you gotta, you gotta, you gotta take that, take those baby steps. Yeah. Now speaking of wheeling, you do wheel, you have a second Jeep now. Um, what’s on your bucket list of a place to go?

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So I still wanted one of these days, get out to the Rubicon. Yeah. I know there’s a big crew in the Jeep talk show, um, just to be honest with you, in the Jeep talk show, um, just discord rooms that are going to go out next year. Jerry’s pirates, right? The pirates, the pirate group. Yeah. I’m not sure what they named themselves, but I know that a big cruise going out there next year. I’m not going to be able to make that. I love to get out there, but you know, for me, I would always rather be in my Jeep,

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but even like when I’ve came out and wheeled with you and bill, yes, out in California.

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Yes. I want to be in my Jeep, but more importantly, I want to be there. Right. So if I can’t be in my Jeep there, I’d rather be, you know, boots on the ground.(…) And like, when you guys took me through John bull and out there, gold mountains,(…) beautiful area, two, two black diamond trails. Yeah. And I always forget the king of the hammers area. What is that again? That’s in Johnson Valley, which is, yeah, we went out there.

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So for me, it’s just about getting out more than anything. Yeah. And we had a lot of fun because we did some pretty awesome trails in those two days. And you got to see not only the mountains and the view from the mountain tops, and then we went down to the desert. And of course, as I’ve mentioned before, those rocks don’t really move. So it’s kind of fun to do wheeling on rocks that are pretty sturdy and you just have to figure out how to climb up and through them. Um, but we had, we had a lot of fun. It smelled like Coca-Cola. Yes.(…) And then, and then we have the pine tree that if you actually put your nose in between the little, little, uh, what do you call those? Let’s see where the bark is. It actually smells like cherry, cherry Coke. Yeah. Yeah.(…) That’s the kind of stuff that why I love my Jeep and wheeling. It’s, it’s more about the experiences, you know? Yeah. Well, and it’s people that you meet. I mean, there’s friends that I’ve made on this, you know, trek of learning to Jeep myself that I don’t think I would have met like you. I mean, I don’t know if you and I would have, if our paths would have crossed, it might’ve, we don’t know, but the fact that, you know, we did that, you came out to, we did a Jeep talk show event here. Um, and then you came out to wheel with us and it was really cool. And you got to stay here. We put you up in our place. Fed. Yeah. Did all kinds of fun stuff, right? We just had a good time. It was good, good time. But that’s what you do when you, uh, you get to meet somebody and you become friends with them. So, but so is you have the Rubicon on your list. Is there any other place in the country that you definitely want to like take your Jeep to and wheel? Yeah. I like to get out East, you know, I keep hearing, you know, about, about the trails out, you know, out East. And I liked, I liked to get out there cause so far we have not been very much farther, farther than, uh, you know, it was at the smoky mountains. I was going to say you’ve been to the smoky mountains, right? We’ve been to the smoky mountains.(…) So we’ve been to Texas, you know, for the Texas events, we’ve been all the way to the, uh, UP in Michigan

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in the Jeep. We’ve been as far as, uh, EJS in the Jeep. For Moab. For Moab. Right. So yeah, I would like to, I think that the stuff out East is well within reach is cause it’s only half a day drive. Well, and you also have, uh, trails in Oregon and Washington that would be stunning to do as well, you know, and there’s a lot of Colorado too, even though you were Moab, you kind of pass through Colorado, but there’s a lot to do in Colorado as well. Yeah. We’ve been in Colorado two or three times. And you know,

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the thing I liked the most about Colorado is now there are some hard trails there when I say this, but for me, it’s more about the scenery. Yeah. I love getting out there like imaging pass. You’re a Colorado for me. If, if I could retire or just move anywhere in this world,

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right now it would be your egg. How are I? It, that is such a beautiful area. Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous. Yeah.(…) No, it’s a, it’s amazing what you can see and do. And you’ve actually traveled quite a bit with your Jeep. You actually drive your Jeep. You don’t flat tow it, right? Or, no, we don’t let toe it. I’ve got a 2018 that it’s got a, almost 140,000 miles on it. Love it. So it gets around. Yeah. But that’s kind of cool. Now you have a buddy that goes with you almost all the time on these Jeep trips. Oh yeah. We’re talking about Duke.(…) We got to talk about Duke. I have a 120 pound black lab that he occupies the whole back seat. So, you know, wherever I go, he’s, he’s there with me. Obviously if I’m flying somewhere, he doesn’t get to go to those. Yeah. He did. I didn’t get to meet him when he came to California. Darn it. Yeah. But if I’m driving, he’s, he’s right there with me the whole way. I’ll just say he kind of took the place of my kids when the, when they, when the girls grew up and moved out, he moved in and he took over.(…) So was that something you had to like chorus him to get in the first time or was he ready to go the minute you said, get in? Once we figured out how to get him into it every time easily, you know, our Jeep has the rock slide steps on it. Okay. Now I found a ramp that he could walk up. Nice. He walks up, gets in the back seat. I clip him in cause he wears a vest. Okay. So he isn’t flopping around any inside of the Jeep. Well, 120 pounds. You don’t want that flopping around. That could seriously hurt him and yourself too. Yeah. Something happened. Yeah. There’s been a few times in a few obstacles where your nose dive off of an obstacle. Yeah. And I can tell he’s hanging off of that, that tether. That tether. So yeah. He’s like, wait dad, hold on a minute.

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Now when you take him out, I know that he just draws a crowd and people love him. Do you let people give him treats? And if you do, what’s his favorite treat?

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Yes. And yes.

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Any treat doesn’t matter what it is. Pretty much. He won’t eat lettuce, but he’ll eat about anything. He’ll eat about anything else. Well, he’s a smart dog. Dog’s on the lettuce. Yeah. So Duke we rescued him in, in 2020. Okay. So we rescued him. He was about five years old. Wow. And, uh, you know, we, we got him just pretty much as a world shutdown for COVID.

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And, uh, you know, he’s been pretty much by my side ever since. I love it. Yeah. I hear stories when you guys were at EJS that people just gravitated to Duke, like they had to go meet Duke. He’s like your, he’s like your other mascot. Yeah. And he’s got to be more of people friendly. Right. It took some work because me and my wife, we like to rescue dogs because that’s, that’s just what we do.

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And, uh, his previous owners wasn’t very kind to him. So it took a little bit of socializing to get him so that he would behave around people. It’s got it now. Now people who just come up and pet them. And I, like, you know, I always kind of keep them on a little bit of short leash at first. Well, you have to. Right. But for the most part, anymore, he’s used to it. So it’s all good. I love it. So now you have another channel on YouTube, not just the Jeep and Mo channel. Correct.(…) Correct. And so what is that channel about? And what is, what are you working on? Yeah. So actually I’ve recently started another one. So technically I have three. Oh my goodness. Okay. I don’t have enough free time, right?(…) Oh my gosh. I love it. So there’s a, there’s a fabrication only channel and truthfully, I haven’t put a lot of content on that. Okay. The four by four fab shop. And I was trying to keep that strictly fab work because you know, the one thing YouTube always tells you is to try not to do too many things on a channel. Got it. So, and you can see it in the channel when I start doing all kinds of different things in the jeeping channel, if I put it on its own platform, it works a lot better. Okay. Right. So that channel is just full of fabrication. Like that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Custom exhaust work,(…) more in depth welding videos, welding cast iron, you know, all that kind of stuff. So most of that stuff’s out there and I recently peeled off all the old car content. Okay. Because I found that the old car content that I put out, it doesn’t, it isn’t very well received on a jeeping channel, which kind of makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.(…) So on that channel, we, we primarily do, you know, old cars. I’ve got a couple of Mercurys. I got an old, an old truck and it’s about rebuilding those. We’re getting ready to do,

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I’m going to call it a fly and drive from Denver back to St. Louis and an old Mercury Comet, a 64.

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Oh my gosh. How many days do you think that’ll take you? Cause you’re not going to do freeway with that. So you’re going to have to go side roads. Yeah. So me and my daughter, she’s going with me. Nice. And we’re going to go to Denver. We’re going to, we’re going to back road it to the Royal gorge.

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So that’s about two hours to figure out is this, is this car going to make it, what else, like what else do I got to do to it? Cause that’s the nice thing about the old cars, spark fuel, air, the wheels stay on and the engine still turns. You can pretty much make it work. Now, how about the tires? Are they good? You think they’ll make the trip? Don’t know yet. Oh, you haven’t seen it. I’ve, I seen the car when I bought it. A picture. No, I bought that. I bought the cars back in,

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well, just, just before I went out for my knee surgery. So I bought it just before May. Okay. So I bought two cars. I brought one on back here cause it wasn’t capable of driving. And one I parked at one of, you know, friend’s house in Denver. Okay. And I haven’t seen it since. Oh gosh, I love it. Yeah. Well, it’ll be fun. I mean, first off, how cool that you’re able to take your daughter on this adventure. I mean, that’s for me, when I do things with my dad, there’s just this connection with the daughter dad kind of deal. So I think that’s going to be really special memories for both of you. So I applaud you for doing that because I think we need to do more things, you know, one-on-one with our kids and our parents.

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But how cool and Royal gorge, my gosh, I love that, that area. That is just the most amazing bridge. I think it’s the tallest in the U S by the way.

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And they don’t let you drive across anymore. It used to be, that’s how they actually, you know, you could actually cross over, but there’s so much activity you can do there too. So it’ll be fun. You can take some pictures, try to get the car in the pictures. Is that the idea? That’s the idea because that’s, that’s going to be YouTube video. So we have been to the Royal gorge in the past.(…) So right after I bought my Jeep and it was in early 2019, okay, me and my daughters, we went through Pikes peak and Royal gorge.(…) And my youngest, when she was with us on that trip, she always went to zip line and she picked her first zip line that’s going across her Royal gorge. I told her you set the bar kind of high, but yeah, I know exactly. Cause you’re above it all at that point. I’ve seen that zip line. Yeah. It’s funny when, when we were doing a motorcycle trip and we stopped through there and bill is not a big, he doesn’t do Heights. So my dad and I walked out to the center. You know, that bridge is pretty wide, right? It’s not just a narrow little bridge. So we’re out there. And next thing I know, Bill’s actually walking out to the center.(…) We were shocked because he’s so afraid of Heights. Yeah. And of course, I’m looking over cause I love Heights and my dad’s looking over and finally, Bill just kind of got comfortable with it. So I love that, but it is, it’s definitely worth a stop if you’re going to be in the area and that’s in Colorado. It’s really good. So the whole city is where it’s at. So, yep. Yeah. So the whole premise of the video is we’re going to, from there,(…) we’re going to head East to go through Dodge city. Going to go through a bunch of small little towns, just kind of embraced a small town life. And then you should, you know, eventually it’ll be on a highway, but it might not be till almost Missouri.(…) Kansas is going to be a back road. Yeah. There’s a lot to see though. I mean, I know Kansas is flat, but there’s a lot of beauty in Kansas. You know, we’ve been through this a couple of times on the back of the motorcycle. It’s, it is beautiful. So there’s a lot of different things to do and see. So, well, that’ll be cool. So that’s coming up. And then what is your plans with this car or these cars that you are collecting? Are you trying to sort of restore them and then sell them? Is it just going to become a collection for you? What’s the ultimate plan for that? Well, I’ve been told this is not going to be a collection. Oh, I, let me guess who did that. The chief operating officer, right?

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The missus. So we’ll end up selling one of them. I don’t know which one yet. Okay. So one of them just because there’s only so much room, I don’t live with a piece of property with a lot of acreage. So men in a subdivision.(…) So, you know,

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one of them will have to go until we pick up our next, our next, whatever that’s going to be for a flying drive. Cause hopefully it’s ain’t the last one. Right. And who knows what that one will be. But now you’re talking about sort of a restoration. So you’re, are you taking it down to bare metal and to frame? No, no, no. So you’re just restoring whatever needs to be like wiring and maybe upholstery and that kind of stuff. Yeah. We’ll get, we’ll get it comfortable. If I can say that we keep the, you know, the buzzword today is patina. We’ll keep the patina on it. We get, we get it functioning with, you know, all the mechanicals and the wiring and all that. All that is we bring that up to, up to, you know, working order.

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It’ll never be a, you know, a hundred percent on the outside with rust or any of that. The interior will be a little bit rough,(…) but it’ll be road worthy at any time. That’s amazing. And I know there’s a market out there because people love the nostalgia.

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They love old cars. I mean, I, I’m fascinated when I see when I just have to stop and look, you know, it’s like, wow. And then when you see it brought back to life, I love, when they’re, you know, using all original parts and all original pieces, if you can, I think that’s really amazing to do that, but it’s kind of fun. So is that, is that from your young age of building buggies that you sort of have an allure to restore these cars or did this sort of happen later in life? And you thought I want to do this. Well, I think, I think, or I blame one of the two, I think I was from my father because you know, my father, he grew up in, he grew up in California,

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started in Fort Wayne, pretty much grew up in California back in the fifties with all the car culture. Okay. And then, uh,(…) broke down in Missouri.

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And, uh, you know, I’ve been around him, you know, all, growing up with all the cars and all that culture. So it just kind of, you know, came to me naturally.(…) Well, I think it’s exciting that you can have that love and now be able to do something with it. I think a lot of people look at things like I do an old car, but I wouldn’t even, it’s not my passion.(…) Um, but at the same time it would be a fun project. I think it would be really cool for Bill and I to do something like that and rebuild something. And, um, but I’m, I’m kind of a girl like some of the things in the sixties with, you know, a little more of the muscle car era personally. Absolutely. You know, that’s what I really like, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate it. Um, I’ve done car shows in the past, uh, different life. And, uh, it was always fun to see the different models of cars and people bringing them, you know, to show quality. These are people that are doing a full resto and, you know, taking it down to the frame and, you know, polishing it, making everything shiny. Um, but I think what you’re doing is actually really unique. You know, it’s just a fun project for yourself. So that’s pretty cool. Yeah. I would love to find an old Willis wagon. So I found it. I’ve found a couple in a boneyard recently that I know where I can get parts now. You didn’t tell the CFO that did you? Well, she,(…) maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. Okay. She doesn’t know yet, but I’d love to find one. It’s I primarily look at V it, look for vehicles out West. Okay. Because there’s nothing here that’s been on the road for any amount of time. That isn’t just rot. Well, I was just going to say, you don’t, we don’t have the, that’s dry out here. So I understand you can find stuff that doesn’t have rust. There’s no salt usually. Right. So there’s no issues.(…) Wow. So you said you found two. Well, I found two for parts. Okay. So now I need to try to find the roller, if you will, the, the vehicle that I can buy and maybe drive back.

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And so it’s nice. I ideally it’d be nice to find one somewhere around California, like that maybe at the start of route 66 and get it back and get it back. I know where I can get a bunch of parts once it’s back here. Yeah. So that’s, that’s, you know, and I love those old Willis wagons. Well, you never know. Point front end. You never know who’s listening.(…) They might know somebody who knows somebody. So that’s how you network by the way. You just put it out there in the universe and somebody goes, Oh my gosh, there was a guy I know on a show that was looking for this. Yeah. So you never know. And then I’m, then I’m forbidden to ever get on here again from the CFO.(…) She’s going to go like, you can’t talk about other cards anymore. That’s not fair. You’re going to get too many offers for different cars. So, all right. So your CFO, which is your wife, by the way, um, how long you guys been married?

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Oh boy. Oh boy. I’m sorry. Now she’s really going to get mad here. She listened to the show.

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1988 till today. And have you always been in Missouri?

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Yup. I grown up, grown up and raised all right here. Yeah. All the families here, everything. And she was from here as well from Missouri. Yup. She grew up in a downtown St. Louis. That’s amazing.(…) Yeah. It’s, it’s a, most people tend to move a lot.

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You know, when you see what they, where they grew up and then they’ve moved out of that area, it’s nice to know that you were in that same area that you grew up in and, and, uh, it’s just cool. And then you get to meet your wife there too. That’s pretty cool. Right.

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All right. So when you are not jeeping or off-roading and you’re not welding or building YouTube videos, what is your favorite hobby? Do you have a hobby on the side that you like to do for spare time? Yeah, those are pretty much my hobbies. I was just going to say, I know,(…) but you got to ask,(…) throw the ball for Duke once in a while. Yup. No, no. He that’s all part of it. Now that’s when I, if I’m not working or traveling for work, you know, those, those are the things that I do. Yeah. And you do travel a lot for work. Do you want to share what you do? Yeah. So I’m a, I’m a tooling engineer. So basically for a medical device company, if you look at anything, anything plastic, um,(…) that’s pretty much what I do. So any of the tooling that needs built, uh, have it built, get it running and, uh, make sure, you know, there’s no issues at the molders. So I, I get all over the country and sometimes all over the world doing that. Yeah. You’ve, you’ve actually traveled outside of the country. Yup. Yeah. I’ve reached this year. I’ve been to Germany and been to France a couple of times. And, uh, yeah, this has been a light travel year. So,(…) well that’s either good or bad, but your molds, you’re actually, do you actually design and create the mold or you helping once the mold is built, then you’re actually making sure it works and functions as it’s supposed to. So I’ve done all aspects of that. So I started, I started in this trade as a person cutting the chips, making the molds. That led me into the design and the creation.

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And you know, now that I’m older, it’s pretty much now that I know all the aspects of it is in the management of the, all that stuff. Which is nice. That’s something that you’ve earned along the way and your love of machining

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seems like a perfect fit for you to be doing the tooling. Yeah. It’s one of those things that, you know, you can call BS when someone’s giving you a line because you’ve been through it all. Yeah. You’re like, ah, I already know that. All right. So outside of this country, what would be your favorite country that you’ve been to or a place that you’ve been that you like?(…) So I really like Germany. Okay. That’s kind of my people, if you will. I like the country,(…) like the food, people are great. And, uh, yeah, I, I think overall, I would, I would like to see maybe more, I’ve never been to Switzerland and, uh, but for the most part, Germany, I’ve been to Northern and I’ve been to Southern and, uh, it’s a beautiful area. If you’ve never been to the black forest, you really need to go.

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And I know they do wheeling over there too, don’t they? They’re off roading. Yeah. Absolutely. Have you ever been able to connect with somebody and ride with them? No, so far all my trips over there have been pretty booked up with work. Yeah. So I never got to connect with anybody and do any wheeling, but, uh, maybe one day. Yeah. It’d be interesting. I know there are, uh, Facebook pages for everything. It’d be fun if you knew you were going to be in a certain city that you knew there was wheeling offered in that area to just go to that Facebook page for that city or that town and just say, Hey, is there any off road groups or something like that that I can connect with? I’m going to be in town this week and I’d love to ride with somebody. Is there a trail ride going or something like that? You just never know. I mean, that happens all the time in big bear. We have a big bear Facebook page and people are always, you know, Hey, we’re going to come up or what’s the best trail or this is what my setup is. And so, you know, there’s always that opportunity, but how, how fun that would be to, you know, wheel in a different country. So be interesting to see what vehicles they use too. You know, is it going to be a Jeep or is the Jeep set up and built differently than what we know? Or is it a different off road vehicle completely?(…) Yeah. So I didn’t see many Jeeps when I was in Germany. I actually see more Jeeps in France of all things, but I’m sure, I’m sure they’re there. Yeah. Now does your CFO,

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we don’t, we don’t want to call her the wife. Does she get to go on any of these business trips with you?

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Not yet. She’d been to one or two with me. She went with me once up to a Niagara falls.

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I had to do some training in that area. So we, you know, obviously I got to pay for her to go up there, but paid, paid, we, scheduled a training. So it ended on Friday,(…) spent the weekend up there at Niagara falls, which was kind of nice. Yeah. So, you know, every now and then she will, but. Well, it’s hard to like, I, for my trade show that I do in Las Vegas, my husband would be pretty much sitting in a hotel room the whole time because the trade show itself, I’m there at, you know, six 30 or seven in the morning. I might get back to the room by nine o’clock. It’s just because the way the day goes and it’s just such a long day. And there’s not much for him to do for us during the trade show. So there is no downtime if you will, to go quote, see Vegas. So I understand that work sometimes gives you a big demand and then you don’t have time. So why would she just go to sit in a hotel room? But some cities, I would be, I think she’s probably like, I want to go see that, you know, and then she could go be the tourist while you’re working. But then that’s not fun because you guys aren’t sharing it. So. Yeah. I had asked her if she ever wanted to go to, you know, offshore with me, but she’s like, I ain’t sitting in that plane for that long.(…) That’s true. It is a long flight, isn’t it? Plus changing planes.(…) Changing plane. You burn up a literally a whole day, 24 hours of just travel time. Now, do you get jet lag or are you pretty immune to that?

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So when you go, when you, when you go to Europe, that’s the one to get you because even typically when you leave, you typically will start to travel fairly early in the day. Okay. And by the time you get there,

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you’re going to get there in the morning the next day. Oh, okay. There’s a day that just disappeared.(…) So if you go to sleep, you’re going to sleep during the day, which, which that ain’t going to work. Right. So that’s interesting. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t think about that because I’ve not traveled. Well, I’ve been to Mexico and, but I’ve not traveled outside of the country other than that. Interesting. Hmm. And think about that. So now you have a second Jeep, a newer Jeep, right? So what do you have? Well, it’s just the 18. It’s just a 2018. The only one that I have. Oh, I thought you had two Jeeps. No, not yet. Not yet. It’s just, it’s just the one I’ve got the, I’ve got a 70 Dodge. I’ve got the Jeep, but I have two Morcuries.

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So yeah, no, no, no, a second. You’re going to get me in trouble talking about with my second Jeep. Listen, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m not putting in the universe.

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For some reason I thought two Jeeps, but I think I’m thinking about your cars that you have too. So it’s all cool. So well, what would be something that you would want to say to the listeners to motivate them to get out and wheel? Do you have a something you want to pass along tidbit of knowledge or something that you want to pass? Yeah, I would say with more than anything, don’t be afraid of the unknown.

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And for the most part, you know, the, the Jeep and community is very friendly. You don’t have to go crazy out there, but you need to get out and go see things because, and I’m speaking, you know, for myself, you’ve only got so many days on this planet. You don’t know when that last day is going to be. So don’t wait to keep wanting to go do things and never get there because, you know, I’ve always wanted to get that middle of nowhere. And then, you know, middle late sixties or middle late fifties is when I really started getting out there in the Jeep. So if I’m going to pass on anything, it’s, it’s going to be, don’t keep putting it off.

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You don’t, you don’t have to be even the one with the Jeep, get connected to somebody with a Jeep and you can be the passenger just as easy. Yeah. And we talk about that too a lot, especially in my segment of newbie nuggets that you can be a passenger for a number of years. And when you’re ready to step out, you can do that. And you could be a good spotter, you can be a good photographer.

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There’s all kinds of things you can do as a passenger and people love to take people out. So we’ve done that a lot too, where we just say, look, if you can’t make it or you don’t have a Jeep, come with us and we’ll show you, you know, that could be family that could be friends. It could be somebody you just meet. We had that on a trail when we were doing, and one of the guys stopped and he was like, well, where are you, what are you guys doing? And I have a brand new Jeep and it was completely stock. And it was like, you can come with us, but you can’t do the trails with us. Cause we knew that he couldn’t, you know, he wasn’t set up for that. And he’s like, well, can I ride with somebody? And I’m like, yeah, come on. So you make friends and connections that way. But I think too,(…) finding runs, if you’re interested in doing off-road is sort of searching the Facebook, it seems to be a lot of Jeep groups now are not true clubs anymore, where you have to go to meetings every month and all that kind of stuff.(…) And it’s just like join a Facebook group. They’ll tell you when a run’s going to happen and then you decide to go or not go. So, but that’s, that’s very good advice is definitely get out there, experience it, go see what this country has, no matter what part of the country you’re in, if you’re hearing this, there are trails and there are people going out. So, you know, go have some fun. So, yeah, I would say if it’s anything that starts out with I’ve always wanted to,

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well do it because once again, you only get so many days on this earth.(…) And if it all, they end up with everything being, I wish I always,(…) you know, no one’s ever going to say, man, I’m so glad that worked all those extra hours and never left work. It’s so true. Yeah. And I’m going to end up like that. Isn’t that called a woulda, shoulda, coulda? Exactly. That’s kind of what the motto is. Yeah. You know, it’s so true. My, my dad, just as an example, has about 725,000 miles on Harley Davidson throughout this country.(…) So we started, you know, riding with him about four years ago, maybe five years ago, maybe it’s six. I have to think about that. So we probably logged about 50,000 miles with my dad and he’s, you know, now 80. And he has decided that it’s, he needs to stop. He’s like, Hey, I got all these miles. I haven’t had any close calls. I think it’s time. You know, he’s been on three wheels now for about two years.

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And I applaud him for doing that. But the biggest takeaway I got from that was that I am so thankful that I said yes to every one of those trips, because I’ve been a workaholic my whole life. So I normally would say, no, I can’t be gone for nine days from the job. Or no, I can’t be gone for 21 days from the job. I mean, it’s tough to do. You’re still working when you’re on the road, you’re still trying to maintain things, but I am so grateful and thankful that I got to see so much of this country on the back of the bike with memories, with photos and sharing it with my dad and my husband. And I will always be saying from now on, you know what, the job’s still going to be there. Spend the time, get out, go do it, have some fun. So yeah, I love that advice. Typically even after you retire, that job is still going to be there being done by somebody else, but those memories are always going to be yours. Well, and I think we do that too much. And you know, it is tough. The economy is tough right now. Things are bad. People are working two and three jobs. It’s hard to envision taking time to go do something, but just as simple as getting out for one day, riding with somebody who has a Jeep. You know, if you’ve got a buddy who has a Jeep and you’re looking at him and you’re like, you know what, can I go with you sometime? Yeah, they’re going to say yes.

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You’re my friend, you’re my new friend.