Mikerphone Brewing's Charitable Cheers and Unconventional Creations

What if your favorite beer could also support a worthy cause? Tune in to our 24th episode of the Two Guys Beer podcast to uncover how Mikerphone Brewing not only crafts exceptional beers but also collaborates with the Elk Grove Fire Department for a charity event benefiting Project Fire Buddies. From discovering Microphone at Jack's Bottle Shop in Rochester to exploring their community-focused initiatives, we share our excitement for this Chicagoland gem. Get ready to be inspired by how this brewery blends creativity and compassion, all while brewing some of the most unique beers we've tasted.

Ever pondered what a strawberry and peanut butter jelly sandwich in beer form would taste like? We break down our tasting experience of a soft sour ale collaboration between 1840 Brewing and Mikerphone Brewing, revealing its dessert-like charm. Anticipation brews as we discuss an intriguing Belgian beer, corked and bottled like fine wine, and share our desire to visit Mikerphone in Elk Grove Village to explore more of their innovative offerings. Whether you're a fan of IPAs, ciders, or something entirely different, this episode promises a flavorful journey through craft beer's diverse landscape.

Travel mishaps, historical explorations, and hotel horrors—oh my! Our whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., brings stories ranging from a prestigious ceremony at the National Fire Academy to the contrasting realities of travel accommodations. Plus, take a historical stroll with us through Gettysburg and Emmitsburg Road, reflecting on the Civil War's enduring impact. As always, we spice things up with fun facts (ever heard of a flamboyance of flamingos?) and vibrant beer discussions. Don't miss out on this engaging episode packed with great stories, community connections, and, of course, phenomenal craft beer recommendations. Cheers!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

All right and welcome in once again to the Two Guys Beer podcast Andy Beckstrom, sean Field. We're back at it again. I believe we've decided episode 24, I think is what we're at. I think that's what we decided that's a two dozen or a case. I guess that is a case. There we go. An actual case. People are like, oh, get a case of beer and they get a 12-pack.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Yeah, that's a half a case. Yeah, that's not a true case anymore.

Speaker 1: 0:38

I mean, it's a craft case, I guess in a way.

Speaker 2: 0:40

But no case is gonna be 24.

Speaker 1: 0:43

It's gotta be 24 yeah yeah, so we're up to 24, so I hope you've enjoyed the journey so far, with all of the different uh places that we've uh wandered off to, and even some of the randomness that we've wandered off on as well. Uh, kind of things get a little random at times but definitely plenty of that absolutely that's what happens when you're in a bar drinking beer.

Speaker 2: 1:03

It goes from point a to X, back to B and F and out the door, exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:10

You just let the beer take you on the tour. That's really what it is. That's what it comes down to. Today we're going to talk about Microphone M-I-K-E-R-P-H-O-N-E, so Microphone, not microphone, like these guys like microphone. So like a little bit different. It's a brewery out of the Chicagoland area. It's outgrove is the actual location. Yeah, outgrove Village is where it is, in kind of that Chicago-ish area, kind of one of the suburbs there and uh, highly uh recommended by. I stopped by a um, a place, uh, down in rochester, a nice little uh liquor store that uh, you know, like all they really had was, uh, just craft beer is pretty much all it was. So I tried to uh challenge amanda into asking where they kept the bush light, but she would wouldn't fall for it, she didn't go for it at all.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Well, that's a heck of a liquor store. If it says craft beer Like, that's the liquor stores we should have.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Absolutely. It was a really cool place. I'll bring the name up here. I didn't get the guy's name that we were working behind the counter, but I asked him to recommend some, and this is one of them that he highly recommended, as well, as I think there's one more that we'll have in a future episode that he highly recommended. That he thought was really good too, so a couple of really good options coming up here, did you?

Speaker 2: 2:32

promote our podcast, our fine podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:34

I certainly did. I even left a couple of cards there for you, oh perfect.

Speaker 2: 2:38

I was just recently in Washington DC. Last week on a trip out there. I deposited some of our memorabilia out there for the Washington DC goers surfing the DC area. Love it. You might find some of our memorabilia.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Let's see here Jack's Bottle Shop is the name of the place. Jack's Bottle Shop. It's in Rochester, kind of just off of Civic Center Drive Northwest up on 6th Street, but just kind of not too far off of Civic Center Drive Northwest up on 6th Street, but just kind of not too far off of the old main drag State Highway 1463 that come through there, so not very far off. It's right next to Forager Brewing, which is a place that I had ended up at after a brewery. 5k I know star athlete, naturally look exactly like a runner. So that's what I was doing. I was down there at Little Thistle. Brewery is what we were originally at, but we stopped by another one because you don't just go for one, especially if you're driving all the way to Rochester. There's plenty to stop along the way there, 100%.

Speaker 2: 3:37

It's called research and development. For the show Yep.

Speaker 1: 3:41

The R&D fund. That's what it's all about. So, yeah, that's where we stopped in, a cool place, really cool. I highly recommend it. I've talked a lot of times about in St Paul. The Dabbler Depot has a lot of different places. They have I believe they call it the Singles Lounge, which is just a walk-in cooler that has single cans of beer instead of like four packs or anything like that. So it's kind of a cool place to be able to. You can get all sorts of different onesie, twosies and stuff like that, and this place is kind of like that too. So they had a lot of any type of they had it kind of separated by style of craft beer, ipa, sours, things like that, so you could find just about anything. It's a really cool place. I highly recommend you know, swinging by there. If you're in the rochester area, of course, sure, or if you're not, make a way, you know, make a trip it's interesting he's recommending they're highly recommended, you say from this guy at the liquor store.

Speaker 2: 4:31

They both come from the chicago area. Well, the last couple episodes we've done have been on beer in chicago. You know pipestone or pipeworks brewing and off-color brewing and both of those were really good. So hopefully this guy is right and we keep that on going with this stuff here from Microphone Brewing Mike.

Speaker 1: 4:51

He's in a Michael.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Jordan mic. There we go. That might be the same thing, and if you do have a suggestion yourself, feel free to drop that in the comments. Any of our social media Look us up Facebook, instagram, youtube which is where a lot of this is now starting to kind of come out. So we want to appreciate all of the support that we've gotten there and, uh, they'll like, share and subscribe. We'll, you know, ding ding, like all the things right now, but uh, we definitely appreciate all of that. But uh, yeah, if you have anything you want us to try to try to take a swing at, we'd be happy to uh be able to get. I have gotten a couple of suggestions from some friends of mine as well, and I think some of it I think too, just like I just want you to try the beer.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Right, they're not worried about the brewery.

Speaker 1: 5:31

They just want to try that, so, but yeah, we're happy to be able to do that. That's the that's part of what we're.

Speaker 2: 5:40

We're givers, we're very giving, and you mentioned that I just got a text message the other day from somebody that is recommending we have a beer on the show. Although he wouldn't tell me what he thought of the beer, he said if we have it on the show, it would be a surprise for us and for all the viewers and listeners out there. It actually comes from Belgium and it comes in a wine bottle with a cork on the top. But it's a beer, it's not wine. So we might have to scrape up a bottle of that here in one of these episodes of Brady and see how that goes.

Speaker 1: 6:09

I mean I like beers from New Belgium, like Fat Tire, that's a good beer Over in Colorado. But yeah, you have to try something from.

Speaker 2: 6:19

Old Belgium Imported from Belgium. Og Belgium, yeah, in a wine bottle. There we go. We'll see. Maybe I'll be on. Stay tuned, I might be on a future episode.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Yeah, should be kind of interesting. Well, I don't know about you, sean Careful, now I'm shaking it up. I was going to say we should pop the top here before we get too deep into this, but maybe you want to. It is kind of a fun can. It's what we got today. Is we go together like dot dot dot and it's got kind of the can. Is it kind of reminiscent of grease, is kind of what it is, so kind of like the song, and then it's a soft sour ale with strawberries and peanuts. So this will be a little bit of a different, kind of a little more off the board of what we usually do.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Like we typically do a lot of IPAs like things within that realm, but you know, it'd be kind of something to try something different.

Speaker 2: 7:13

Yeah, I'm kind of excited to try it. Usually I'm not too excited to try beer that has strawberries and peanuts in it. Again, we've talked about that before. Sometimes some craft beer gets a little outrageous with what they try to brew a beer, and anytime I see like peanuts and strawberries and beer, I'm not too excited about it. But this actually, for some reason, the soft, sour ale with strawberries and peanuts is what gets me. It's not like an IPA with strawberry and peanuts or something. It's a soft ale. So I'm curious as to how this is going to go it should be interesting.

Speaker 1: 7:44

It turns out this is actually a collaborative effort as well, with the 1840 Brewing out of Milwaukee, wisconsin. So I didn't even catch that until just now. So you're wandering along with us, like we've said.

Speaker 2: 7:56

Anybody's been to 1840, let us know. Tell us what your thoughts are on that.

Speaker 1: 7:59

There we go. Well, let's get the best part of the podcast going Make sure I don't splash on the laptop here.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Smells kind of fruity. It sure does. It definitely tastes some strawberry flavor in there and it definitely tastes like peanuts. And I'm going to say this right now the first thing that came to my mind after a drink of this and it was on the palate for a few seconds was a strawberry and peanut butter jelly sandwich.

Speaker 1: 8:37

I follow that, yeah, I definitely get kind of that strawberry jam kind of flavoring to it. It is interesting, I don't know that I've ever had a soft sour. I've had some sours and some of them can get real, real bitter, real sour, but that's part of what they are. But this one is definitely. It's a soft sour. It's almost like a cheesecake in a way and not really any gram to it, but it has that kind of soft flavor to it. I mean it's pretty heavy on the strawberries but it has that kind of soft flavor to it like it's not. I mean it's pretty heavy on the strawberries but it's not, uh, not real overwhelming, I guess yeah, it drinks like a light beer.

Speaker 2: 9:09

It's kind of a light fluffy type beer. You know it's not too heavy, not too hard with the strawberry and peanut, like a lager, like a light lager, I would say for sure. I definitely taste the strawberries and peanuts in in it though, for sure. Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad. You know, I'd probably drink another one or two, yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:30

I think, if we are maybe going down the old route of the lawn mowing index, lawn mower index I think this would probably be after the mowing, after the burgers, while you're having some pie or something Kind of a dessert beer, sure.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Yeah, I would agree with that.

Speaker 1: 9:51

I don't know that I'd have four of them while doing the lawn. No they're kind of sweet, very good though, but I think that that's probably where I'd label this one.

Speaker 2: 9:59

A little sweet, I would say for sure A little sweet, kind of in the realm of angry orchard sweet, but not that sweet Like angry orchard apple is super sweet Like you drink one and you're just kind of like blah, you could probably drink two of these, but it is sweet. The strawberry does make it sweet, for sure, Right yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:15

But it's pretty good though I do like it. So the interesting, you know, on the can, if you look it up at some point, so it does have kind of the you know the grease kind of feel to it. You know, like the two, it kind of in their outfits there, but one has a strawberry for a face and then the other one has a peanut for a face or in the microphone shirt on that one. So kind of fun, a little fun little can, fun little deal. I like it. I think it's, you know, pretty good and you know I the more that I've kind of looked at some of the information for Microphone. I think it'd be kind of a cool place to be able to check out and try some of their beers. What do we got? So Microphone is a family-owned small craft brewery located in Outgrove Village.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Illinois Did a quick look up. It's kind of on the northwest-ish area of Chicago, kind of in the suburbs, but it's still kind of within that Chicago-ish metropolis, you know what I mean. So it's still kind of within that metropolitan area. Founded as a passion from homebrewing, mike and Lisa Palin started with the concept of a brewery inspired by music out of their basement. So that's kind of the thing. That's why the microphone name comes in. They are very big on live music. They do a lot of live music there.

Speaker 1: 11:26

They like to try to kind of weave it in with what they're doing. A lot of their beer names. We'll kind of touch on those here in a little bit.

Speaker 2: 11:33

Well, that's right up our alley. You and I both love live music Absolutely, so that would be perfect, that'd be great.

Speaker 1: 11:39

So that's something that they kind of focus on. So, beginning in 2015, they brewed and released their first commercial beer. That same year, microphone Brewing was awarded Best New Brewery in Illinois by Rate Beer, as well as one of the best new breweries in the world by Beer Advocate Magazine. Now, I know Beer Advocate Magazine. I haven't heard of Rate Beer, but Beer Advocate Magazine, that's a pretty big. That's a little bit pretty well known. One for sure it's pretty big.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Music and flavor is their inspiration. Microphone continues to produce high quality small batch beer, including everything from classic styles that push the boundaries of what beer can become, which I would think that the soft sour with strawberries and peanuts definitely kind of fits in with what that is. So you know, kind of fits in with what that is. So you know, kind of a cool deal. Microphone brewing, craft beer inspired by music. That's interesting.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Some of the awards that they got 2021 gold medal for Sir Blends-A-Lot. That was at the US Open Beer Championship. Perfect. That same year, that same US Open Beer Championship, they also got the silver medal for she Blends a Lot. So they had Sir Blends a Lot and she Blends a Lot. Interesting. Both won 2020 gold medal at the FOBAB at Sir Blends, a Lot. 2015. Best New Brewer by Rate Beer, as we mentioned before. Same thing from Beer Advocate, let's see here. Rate beer, as we mentioned before. Same thing from Beer Advocate, let's see here 2014,. First place in the specialty beer category Bell City Winter Warmer Competition with Tis the Season, a French Saison brewed with orange peel and ginger. So they won three different things during that one an Imperial Stout and a Sour Puss, a Sour Brown Ale, which I don't know that I a sour brown ale. That'd be interesting.

Speaker 2: 13:27

That might be interesting. It sure sounds like they really go after the flavor, though on there. Yeah, with the one you just mentioned with the ginger in it and stuff like that. You've had ginger before. It's a powerful flavor.

Speaker 1: 13:38

It's a heck of a flavor, yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:40

And then trying this soft sour ale with strawberries and peanuts. Here you can definitely taste the strawberry, you can definitely taste the peanuts. So if they're doing ginger-type beer you know ginger's pretty powerful it would be interesting to give that a whirl and kind of see how that fits in while you're brewing beer with the other ingredients.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, it would be very interesting. So let's see, what else do we got here about them? So that's see here. What else do we got here about them? So that's kind of like the long and the short, what they have kind of on their website. They do have a tap room in the Elk Grove Village. They have Industry Monday 3 to 9. But otherwise they're closed on Tuesdays and then got some decent hours noon or 11 am to a little bit later on on Wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and then short hours on Sunday. So a little bit of kind of a nice little mix there, but open more often than not. They encourage you to stop on in. They do limit you, however, to let's see, if I can find it 60 ounces of draft beer per customer per day. I did a quick little Google search. That ends up being about two liters of beer, wow.

Speaker 2: 14:46

I'm glad they're putting a cap on that which we'll talk about liters of beer here in a little bit.

Speaker 1: 14:52

We'll kind of come back to that one. Remind me of a story from DC. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. Yeah, so that's something that they kind of limit a little bit there. But they, you know valid ID, you know kind of the standard stuff Sunday and Monday dollar off classic full pours and dollar off 16 ounce can pour beers. So yeah, and then all their names, you know, hey, mambo, mambo Italiano is an Italian style Pilsner Money on my mind, west Coast style Pilsner, like all the things are named after something within songs.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Yeah, so Money on my mind. I'm trying to think what song that is Like. I know what it is, but I can't think of it right this minute. So it's a good thing I'm not doing trivia, Right?

Speaker 1: 15:38

Oh yeah, so it's kind of a cool little place, one of the other things that they do. I do have to highlight a little bit. See the main stage here. Yeah, I was going to say I thought it was Snoop Dogg but I didn't want to commit to it just yet. So mind on my money, my money on my money.

Speaker 2: 15:54

Let's see here he was just at the casino a couple days ago he was just right up here.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Let's hear some of their events that they have coming up Now. They do have events that are recurring and then they also have some special events. They have a location there you can be able to rent out. So they do have kind of like a little pseudo-event center, if you will, to be able to do certain things there. First Thursday of the month pinball tournament with Stern Army, so that's kind of a fun thing. Second Thursdays trivia, which you know I'm in for that.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Fourth Thursdays are bingo, so they got a lot of things going on, but again, they also have, you know, some live music and some stuff like that. This episode is likely to come out after this particular event that I'm going to talk about, but if you go to their website microphonebrewingcom slash events, it goes over. You know. They have a cornhole tournament coming up, they have beer fest things going on. They got all sorts of different events that they have coming up, but one of the events that they have that, as I mentioned, this, will likely drop after this event happens. However, I do want to highlight one of the charities that they give back to and that they're involved in.

Speaker 1: 17:02

We've talked numerous times on the podcast about the brewing community likes to try to give back, they like to try to be involved in the community, they like to try to support positive things.

Speaker 1: 17:12

You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 17:12

I think we talked about at one point in time there was a brewery they were trying to move into a city that I had went to school at, you know, years ago, and, uh, the city council was getting bombarded with people that didn't want it moving in there because we didn't need another bar and they're just drinking and driving and stuff like that, and it's like that's not at all what that community is all about and so like, like there's still some education to be done with that.

Speaker 1: 17:34

But at the same time, like the craft beer and community, craft brewing community community is so great at like giving back and doing things like that. So I like to try to highlight some of the things that they do. So they have an event coming, coming up for us but again, as I mentioned, like when this drops it'll be uh, probably have already been done, but they have a fire and green charity event with the Elk Grove fire department. Now, the more that I looked into this, they have, like I said, they have a couple other things. There was a first anniversary of tacos Lamanitas DJ games, tacos, things like that. That's always fun, you know.

Speaker 2: 18:10

I like tacos, all of that stuff. Oh, a hundred percent Tacos. Tacos go well with beer.

Speaker 1: 18:12

Oh, 100%. We have an open mic night, things like that Cornhole Tournament. But this collaboration with the Elk Grove Fire Department is raising funds for Project Fire Buddies. I didn't really know what that does or what that is, so I had to look that up. It's kind of a cool thing. We are firefighters who offer support and give back to children fighting critical illnesses. Their battle will not be fought alone. So a really cool kind of organization.

Speaker 1: 18:42

And it's not just so Elk Grove is involved in it. But they're not. It's not just like their thing, it's all over the place. They have a network of departments that continue to flourish, with new areas and cities joining the ranks each month, and then you can explore the department page on their website that's projectfirebuddiesorg, to be able to find out who's all involved with that. But what they do is they focus on. They bring gifts for birthdays, holidays, they'll play games, they'll provide ticks to concerts and special events and they'll try to attend, as firefighters, special events in the kids lives that are going through horrific illnesses, whatever it may be. They will help also secure medical supplies, medical devices, things like that. They will also have fire buddies come and visit the fire station, have dinner with the crew on their full-time firefighters and do tours the station, check out the rigs. If they're going to do like a birthday party or something like that, they'll show up with the trucks and the lights and everything going, so they do a lot of things like that.

Speaker 1: 19:44

So it's kind of a really cool thing that they do and they get involved in and I think that's kind of a it's a cool thing. I mean being kind of with that fire.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Yeah, you're a firefighter yourself. It. It's a cool thing. I mean being kind of with that fire.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Yeah, you're a firefighter. It's kind of for me personally kind of a cool thing, but I really, like you know, like there's an organization like that that kind of looks to try to give back to, I mean, kids that are going through just horrific, terrible things.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Well, I'm kind of curious about what that is. Is it the paid firefighters? Is the city that large where these organizations are using city fire departments that actually get paid? Or if it's the volunteer firefighters, because you know, all volunteer firefighters get paid nothing basically, and those fire departments are so underfunded.

Speaker 2: 20:26

You know you rely on all your fundraisers and your beer bus and you know the put the money in the boot at the stop signs and things like that. Um, the fact that there's firefighters or groups of firefighters going around purchasing things for medical supplies and to help kids is kind of mind-boggling. When fire departments are underfunded as it is yeah, going above and beyond how are they getting the resources to help these kids with critical issues that need help? That's kind of interesting.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yeah, so that's kind of a cool thing. They have the event that they have coming up as a fire and green charity See if it has some details on it but it's just a kind of a collaboration with the Elk Grove Fire Department. They helped to brew a deliciously drinkable hazy pale ale to help raise money. So they're going to give proceeds from the beer throughout this particular event. But they're going to have a fire truck, bounce house, face paint, things like that, and there's also a food truck that's going to be out there too. So kind of a cool little thing that they're going to have out there for that.

Speaker 1: 21:28

But I also want to highlight, you know, like the projectfirebuddiesorg just kind of a cool thing that you might be able to donate to as well, whether you go through the brewery or if you just want to donate directly to it or if you want to find out more about it. I think it's kind of a cool thing to be able to do that, Like you said, taking time out of their already kind of tax time to a certain extent to be able to do more. I'm guessing that a lot of them are from the career fire departments, the full-time fire departments, but Minnesota especially, is actually one of the most underfunded. They have almost across the board almost all volunteer.

Speaker 2: 22:04

There's very few Outside of Minneapolis and St Paul.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Yeah, there's only a handful of. Yeah, I think it's. I don't remember all of them and I'm sure Amanda judged me for not knowing all of them, but St Cloud has mostly career, but they do have kind of a mix of them. That's a fair amount of them. They have duty crews or they'll have people that are assigned to it, but they're not necessarily like full-time doing that. Otherwise, a lot of cities like Cambridge and Asante, kind of locally, they'll have like one full-time like one of their three chiefs will be a full time person that will be there for some administrative things but also be there during the day to be able to take some of the medical runs and kind of take some of the heat off of having calls go out all the time, sure, so there's some of that. But otherwise, yeah, as far as like full fire, full full time you're talking, you know, like you said, cities of the first class or Minneapolis, St Paul, duluth, rochester, kind of long and short.

Speaker 1: 22:59

There's not a ton of them in the state of Minnesota, but you go to other areas. If you go through Florida or Illinois or things like that, the bulk of them are career fire departments that have a lot of full-time, which is kind of cool to be able to see, and a lot of opportunities to be able to uh get into that career and be able to do some things like this. But uh, yeah, I mean I'm sure, like I was saying, some of it is going to be some full-time, some volunteer kind of intermixed with that, so it's not going to be the maybe the whole department. So, to your point, you know, it is still like they're still doing another job and volunteering and now also giving back to the community doing something like this. So very cool kind of deal.

Speaker 2: 23:36

So you know, it is very, very cool that people have time and the dedication to do that and the willingness to do it too. You know, you don't see a lot of that anymore in today's world. Not too many people are selfless anymore to volunteer their time to do that.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Yeah, it's a. It's definitely seen in a lot of different things, especially volunteer firefighting. Nobody wants to volunteer, nobody has the time to do it. That's probably one of the biggest things Life is. I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm older, but life seems to get way more busy now than it ever was before, and so having that time to be able to donate to that seems tougher and tougher really for everybody to be able to do it.

Speaker 2: 24:13

Yeah, that you know seems tougher and tougher for really for everybody to be able to do it. Yeah, I think, if, uh, I think everybody has time, you know you have time for what you want to make time for.

Speaker 2: 24:20

So if you really want to do it, you make time for it. You know. If you really want to go play beer league softball, you make time to do it. If you want to make a podcast about drinking beer, you make time for it, you know. And you may not pass the drinking beer. So yeah, people's priorities are different, you know. They're not about community and helping out your neighbor anymore. It's selfishness. Me, me, I, I I'm not doing that, I'm not doing this. You owe me, government owes me. I'm not doing that. Spiel. In today's world it's kind of different, you know.

Speaker 1: 24:53

It's definitely kind of a different era, that's for sure. Yeah, but this is kind of a cool thing, you know from people that do spend time giving back and doing things. But yeah, I don't know, it's kind of a cool thing. They have all sorts on their website. If you're going to go to the events tab or at the bottom of the main page, they got probably 15 different events that they have coming up in various different areas of golf tournaments, or one of them is a fundraiser at Chipotle, so you got to go by Chipotle to be able to do it. Okay, I'm in for that.

Speaker 2: 25:21

I won't argue that point at all.

Speaker 1: 25:23

Might be a little bit tough. I got to go to York, Pennsylvania, but I'm always down for a road trip.

Speaker 2: 25:27

Exactly, heck, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 25:29

They probably got a brewery or two out there too.

Speaker 2: 25:31

I'm sure they do. I mean, I was just out in Pennsylvania a week ago there we go. Why not go again?

Speaker 1: 25:38

Uh, it's your Brentwood, tennessee has a dodgeball tournament coming up, so yeah, they got all sorts of events all over the place. So, yeah, kind of a cool thing. So check that out. Uh, project fire buddiesorg. And then of course, there's the microphonebrewingcom Again M-I-K-E-R instead of the microphone like you would normally have with this. It's a little different spelling, but that's kind of what they do.

Speaker 2: 26:03

I want to be like Mike, like Mike.

Speaker 1: 26:06

So yeah, that's kind of the long and the short of kind of what they got going on. You know you can visit them again, elk Grove Village. Make sure you bring your drinking shoes if you're going to get after the old 60 ounces, the two liters of beer. But you know it's definitely something that they, you know, have options for. They have let's hear what is it. You can send party inquiries on their website as well. Family friendly and dog friendly. So bring the whole crew. They do have some small snacks and then food trucks on the weekend. I wonder if they have pretzels from Von Hansen's.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Your favorite? I'm sure they do. Von Hansen's gets me every time. I'm sure they have a case just waiting for you back there.

Speaker 1: 26:49

I'm sure, oh, von Hansen's.

Speaker 2: 26:51

They don't know if you're ever going there, but I guarantee you there's a case of them back there. It says Andy Beckstrom all over it, right, exactly, purposely put it out when you get there.

Speaker 1: 27:01

What do you think about it now?

Speaker 2: 27:03

huh.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Oh, man Gets me every time, so I haven't had any of those actually in a little while, so I'll have to try that out.

Speaker 2: 27:12

I don't, I don't need to try that out.

Speaker 1: 27:15

Fair enough. So I mentioned before that I had to kind of circle back to the story about DC. So it flew out to you were just in DC recently. I went out there Five days before you.

Speaker 2: 27:27

Exactly yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:28

You were there for a little bit longer than I was there. I was only there for about 48 hours. It was kind of a little whirlwind tour that uh was. Uh, it was quite the day, let me tell you, quite the weekend, two days really is you know kind of what it was. So so fly out there, uh, fly to.

Speaker 1: 27:42

Like baltimore had just a debacle of a rental situation with uh did a budget rental car. You know no big deal. Just, you know, because they're all rental cars, you know, I mean they're all gonna be new cars. Just depends on what kind. You know, if you get leather with the car, if it's just cloth, or you know the Armstrong windows or something like that. You know what. I mean, it didn't really matter, I don't really care.

Speaker 1: 28:02

You know, budget rented cars a good, solid company. Except for it was awful, oh, to get through the line. That wasn't that long to be able to get a car. The car ended up being nice and it actually worked out really well because they gave me a minivan. That was not necessarily the intention, it was kind of a dealer's choice kind of thing, and that's what they gave me and I was like, oh great, wait, no, I think this is going to work out, and it did work out. I'll explain why I finally eventually get there. Drive, drive like hell because I'm already late, because it took so long now, or whatever, and had to take like a shortcut through Emmitsburg.

Speaker 2: 28:37

Not Emmitsburg. Emmitsburg Road there is a. That's where the Union Confederate Army came in to fight the Battle of Gettysburg, emmitsburg.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Road, gettysburg. That's where I went through. Gettysburg is where I went through, but Emmitsburg is where I was headed because that's where the National Fire Academy is and that's why I was there ultimately. So I actually went through Gettysburg because it was actually a shortcut than taking the freeway that had a major accident on it, so it actually kind of worked out. So what I was there for ultimately was Amanda graduated a multi-year process that is now ended with her. She has now a certification as a executive fire officer.

Speaker 2: 29:12

Congratulations, amanda. I'll drink to that, yep.

Speaker 1: 29:15

Congratulations. It essentially equates to roughly like a master's degree in fire science, leadership things like that. So a very cool deal. A lot of really cool people that I met with this group, that they're very prominent full-time fire people from all over the country Men, women, chiefs, captains, like all sorts of different levels, you know go to this.

Speaker 1: 29:37

It's very tough to get into and very tough to complete, because not all the people that she started with completed the entire thing. Some of them even got all the way to the final section and then dropped out at that point. So it was definitely a challenge and it was definitely quite the thing. But, you know, I think that she would probably say that it was still worth it. So I think that, uh, you know it was. It was a cool deal so and it was a fun ceremony to be able to go to and they announced all the names and brought everybody up there and got you know a thing and, uh, the assistant uh, us fire administrator I think that's her title was there to be able to hand out the certificates and so kind of a really cool thing to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 30:11

So, and out of the entire country, I think there was like 24 people that graduated this round, so it's not like there's a lot of people that do that. So it's like I said, it's hard to get into and it's hard to finish. So but I think it was a two, almost three year type of process to be able to do this. And she'd go out to Emmitsburg for a week or so and then come back and then have homework on homework on homework for months and months and months, and then go back out there for a week or two, and same thing over and over and over. So over the course of this process she also got connected with a group of people that they would they're kind of their core group, that they would hang out with. You know what I mean. They'd go out to dinner and they'd go to the bars or whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 30:51

From around the country they were doing the class, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:54

So they all would go to Emmitsburg every time at that academy. But, yeah, one was from California, one was from Iowa, idaho, like all over the place. I think one of them that would hang out with them, I think she was from Arizona, like all over the country. So you know kind of a nice cross section of you know people from all over the place. There was a group that was also a couple or well, he was there, his wife came, same as I did, but he was from I think I'm going to say South Carolina, but I'm probably going to get a message saying it was North Carolina but it was one of the Carolinas is where we're going to go with. So, but very cool people, a lot of fun. So that's where the minivan actually kind of worked out really well, because originally they were kind of scrambling because we had all set up hotels in DC. Instead of staying as a fire academy, just everybody trucked down to DC be able to kind of hang out and celebrate that night and then the next day kind of check out DC and go out to like they had set up a really fancy dinner at this really, really nice restaurant and so they were kind of scrambling on like who's going to drive it down and who? You know all sorts of details with that or whatever, because it was four or five people and all their luggage, for you know, they were there for about two weeks this time, so kind of a lot to try to be able to figure out. I'm like here I come to save the day with the minivan and so everybody piles in there. So it was a great time.

Speaker 1: 32:08

You know, I got to kind of really get to know those guys. They're really, really cool, and when we get down there, we find this really cool German craft brewery, brew hall kind of thing Nice. I'm failing to remember the name of it, though. This is where I fail. Let's see if I can find it real quick here. German beer garden Dasha there we go. Okay, dasha beer garden Very, very cool place, place it ended up being.

Speaker 1: 32:37

It's like a little less than a mile from our hotels. Everything was walkable. We, basically we drove down there and dropped the car off, which, let me tell you, the car was nice and the drop off for budget was phenomenal. The guy that we talked to was super nice, very helpful, and he's like oh, if you're looking for an uber, mcdonald's right over there there's about 10 of them that are sitting there waiting because it's a drop-off for car rental. So you know, they just know that people are going to be looking for a ride. So it was super easy, super quick. That part went really well. Check-in counter for BWI terrible. I already gave them feedback. Don't worry about it, you know nobody has to go after them or anything. Anyway, so we get, you know this all set up and you know it's a walkable. We get at this place. Well, they serve beer. You can either get a pint or you can get a boot.

Speaker 2: 33:18

It's about a liter.

Speaker 1: 33:19

So it ends up being 30, some ounces or whatever, so like a liter. But it was one of those where you definitely had to have had that happen to him twice. Oh, no, second time. I guess it hit him so hard that it actually got his wife.

Speaker 1: 33:45

So sorry for kind of selling out on that one, but it was still a good time. But let me tell you, we drank some boots it was. It was kind of you know, it's a celebration to be just be done with that process and you know, like cheers and we're having a good time, and I think we figured out that there was a between 20 and 25 boots between about four or five of us. Wow, so it was, let me tell you, it was, you know, but we, you know, we ordered. They had a bunch of really cool food and little platters. We would just kind of order for the table and stuff and you know it was really cool. So that next day we just kind of checked out the national mall and went out to that dinner and then I flew back the next morning after that. So again, like 48, 50 hours 48 hours in DC Exactly.

Speaker 1: 34:26

So it was very cool. But, yeah, the, when we talk about the them being limited to a 60 ounces, you were definitely not limited to Dasha, that was for sure. So, but it's a good thing that we were on foot, being able to get back to our hotel. So, but it was cool where we were staying. That was a really nice hotel, but just walkable to everything. You know what I mean and we've, you know, had a decent rate on it. It was like 200 bucks a night or something like that kind of downtown and it was fantastic. I don't know, it was a great experience. You know, only a couple of days, it was very quick, but it was so much fun.

Speaker 2: 34:56

Sure, Sounds like a good time. All right, my trip was. I was there a few days before you. We were there for five nights, something like that. Drove straight there 18 hours well, about 17 hours to get there from where we live here, 17 hours to get out there and I'm to get out there and I'm I'm a cheap ass when it comes to hotels. I am a cheap ass like I find the cheapest motel not a hotel.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Cheapest motel I can stay in is this how we end up on the side of the road in perham yes, yes, that's exactly how this happens.

Speaker 2: 35:30

So that's the type of stuff that I I buy because I choose to spend. I don't do anything there, but sleep. Yep, when I'm on a vacation, I'm out and about exploring the world, the state. Wherever I'm at, I want to see everything I can. I'm up at 6 am, I go to bed at midnight, wake back up at 6 am, I'm gone. You know, I'm exploring everything. So if you've ever been to DC, if you don't stay downtown or close to that national mall, in that radius, that one mile radius, dc is a trash hole. What you think it would be the best place in the world, since you know that's where our government is and we're supposedly supposed to be the best, most powerful government in the world, you know.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Well, they are within that little line.

Speaker 2: 36:12

Yeah, so DC is not the greatest place, so we stayed. The first hotel motel was in Alexandria, which is about seven miles from the capital and National Mall area, so we roll in. It was budget host motel. I'm like, all right, we're here. You know, 17 hour drive. Ha, check-in was terrible. The guy didn't speak a lick of english. Okay, fine, we'll finally get it figured out. Dammy's like. Looking at mike. Seriously, this is where we're staying and we've stayed in some motels and whatnot.

Speaker 2: 36:46

Get into the room. It smells so bad. I've never smelled the room smelled so bad in my entire life. It smelled like people have been smoking in there for a hundred years and there's been no smoking for how many years? In every state and places like that, the walls were yellow, the ceiling was yellow. Tammy wouldn't even shut the door on this motel, so people are walking by. I'm like we're gonna get murdered in here. You leave the door wide open. It stunk so bad. The fridge was covered full of white stuff on the top all down the side side, a little two-cushion love seat in there where there's stains all over. There's cigarette hole burns in the bed In the closet. Somebody must have been cooking meth or something in there because there's flame marks on the walls and burn marks on the walls. Back in the living room there's a bullet hole in the wall that somebody looks like they stuffed a tissue in the hole like a little well tissue they repaired it so so tammy's looking at me and I'm looking at her and I'm like, let's go to bed.

Speaker 2: 37:46

Not really even for, even for me. I'm like what the hell are we doing? And you know, tammy's looking at me. I'm just laughing. I couldn't stop laughing. She even took a picture of me. I was laughing so hard. And we never fight, we never argue. And she was about. She was like I'm gonna risk a fight here, our first ever fight. We're not staying in this fucking place, right? Well, what do you mean? Like?

Speaker 2: 38:13

this is great so, needless to say, this was the shittiest place I've ever seen in my life. It was the dumpiest place, you know. There's bullet holes in the walls, there's fires going on in the closet, stains, smells. It was gross, so we ended up leaving. So we started on that whole process and I use expedia a lot and I'll never use expedia again. Expedia sucks. Fuck you guys.

Speaker 2: 38:35

And I've been using Expedia for 15 years, so I've always one key cache saved up and I'm like, all right, fine, we'll finally use that. And it was almost like $400 and some dollars and we'll get a different room. Fine, no big deal. Go to book the room. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, it goes to a different email address that I've never even made an account with Expedia through, even though it is my email address. But I've never used that email address for anything related to this. Right, they didn't use my one key cash get to the hotel and now I see him charge $500 for this room. Shouldn't be, because I should have been able to use that cash. Spent hours on the phone with Expedia. I was on the chat, tammy was on the phone. My Expedia account was wiped.

Speaker 2: 39:19

They said due to inactivity. I said inactivity. I have three pending trips on there, one of them being Germany. Right, and now I can't access that. Well, prove it. Prove it, Because there's some morons in India answering these fucking phone calls. You can't get to anybody. So I'm getting super pissed, pissed. I'm sending them screenshots of my credit card that was charged for the germany trip and stuff and a trip in iowa for a nascar race and all this stuff like what. I'm sending you these confirmation numbers and itinerary numbers and you're telling me you don't have it. What am I gonna do here?

Speaker 1: 39:51

you know right? Yeah, it definitely changes a whole lot of things.

Speaker 2: 39:54

I went on and on about it and they're basically prove it, prove it, prove it. No, this doesn't happen. This doesn't work. So we got nowhere. In any event, that's kind of how it carried on in the beginning of our trip. The rest of the trip was fine and fun and all that stuff, but that was after 17 hours of driving. That's the last thing you want to deal with. In the meantime, when we got back, dammy finally got a hold of somebody at expedia and they were able to pull up all our germany stuff and they sent me an email of that and they credit our account with 300 of my new account that I never made. Credit it with 300 of one key cash. I'm like I never made this account. This is the one I've used for 15 years, you know, right. But they claim I closed it myself. Like no, I didn't. I wasn't even in any screen to close it.

Speaker 2: 40:43

You know, and the previous people were telling me, they just wiped it due to inactivity.

Speaker 1: 40:48

I mean, you guys need to get your stories. You're not even telling the same story.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Like my wife, has an Expedia account and she doesn't even use it.

Speaker 1: 41:01

She hasn't used it in years, but hers works just fine, so it's not due to inactivity. I just didn't want to help, you know, and it was, it was literally three or four hours.

Speaker 2: 41:04

We were literally on the phone for three or four hours. That's not an exaggeration, that's no joke. It was literally that long, and my wife is super persistent. Let me speak to a supervisor, let me speak, and they would just put us on hold for 30 minutes and then pick up like, oh, you're still there. Yeah, we're still freaking here. You know we need this information, right. So, yeah, that was kind of our.

Speaker 2: 41:25

Our beginning of the trip was dealing with all that. But we finally got into a hotel that wasn't a whole lot better. Now I forget the location of it, like afton hills or bunker or something like 11 miles from the main, the capital and stuff, and when we were there, there was homeless people sleeping in the breakfast area where you would go down and get your continental breakfast. I saw a fight out front. One of the days we came back, there were some guys throwing down fisticuffs in front of the hotel, because why wouldn't you really? They reek like pot the whole time, which pretty much everything reeks like pot now when you're in the city, because it's legal in most places.

Speaker 1: 42:03

Yeah, it's so in DC, everywhere you walk it's so I don't care if you you know pot water.

Speaker 2: 42:09

I don't care about that, but I hate the smell of pot.

Speaker 1: 42:12

It stinks. Oh I, if, just if you could fix that Right, I would. That's the only part that I care about.

Speaker 2: 42:18

Make like an odorless pot Exactly.

Speaker 1: 42:22

That could be a business venture. There we go.

Speaker 2: 42:23

We could grow odorless marijuana plants.

Speaker 1: 42:25

We're going to have to.

Speaker 2: 42:27

I don't know anything about chemistry. The best ideas come after beer Come after beer, here we go.

Speaker 1: 42:31

That's what it is.

Speaker 2: 42:32

That was the start of our trip out there and the whole reason we went out there was because my lovely wife got me a birthday present for my last year's birthday A meet and greet to meet my favorite congressman. If you can have a favorite congressman, I do. I'm a fanboy, you know Mr Thomas Massey of Kentucky. So I got longer than 30 minutes with him because he didn't care what was going on next. But super awesome guy, down to earth, friendly, offered my wife coffee like four times, was willing to talk about anything, actually answered things, told me who the eight good people are in politics that actually are there doing the right thing. Obviously said the bad ones, like this is the stuff I can't tell you on Twitter, right, naturally, yeah, great guy. I met his chief of staff. We were in his office, just super friendly. Twitter, right? Um, naturally, yeah, great guy. I met his chief of staff. We're in his office, just super friendly guy, awesome, you know.

Speaker 2: 43:24

His staff gave us a private tour of the Capitol so I got to go in a lot of different places that the general public doesn't go right by the speaker of the house, right by his office, and Mike Johnson was in there and he's a, he's a a turd bucket, but we won't get into that on this episode. But I asked the uh, the intern that was giving us a tour. I'm like you mind if I stick my head in there? He's like, yeah, we better not. I'm like it'll only take a second. He's like what could go wrong? You better keep going.

Speaker 2: 43:49

I'm like all right, he thought it was a good funny though too, because he works for thomas massey. So, right, uh, we got to go out where the any president they get elected, you know, and they have their inauguration on that platform on the capitol and they're over, like where we had to stand out there and check that out and all sorts of things in the capitol. But that was the reason we went out. There was to meet him. Super cool. I can talk about everything we talked about, but that would fill up a whole episode on the race that'd be a whole deal but it, but it was super cool.

Speaker 2: 44:16

Nice, it was a lot of fun and you brought up Pennsylvania. I'll just throw this out here you were on Emmitsburg Road. I'm assuming if you went through Pennsylvania you probably were on Emmitsburg Road. If you weren't, you were very close to Emmitsburg Road.

Speaker 1: 44:30

Yeah, I think it Just outside of town. Yeah, I think it was. Let's see if I can find it here. Emmitsburg Well, so it's Emmitsburg, Maryland is what it is, but yeah, it was, let's see here.

Speaker 2: 44:44

Literally the road the Confederates went across when they were attacking the Union lines, when they marched all across the field. Right, if you know a ton about. Gettysburg Emmitsburg Road was the road with the fence that they needed to Emmitsburg road was the road with the fence that they needed to.

Speaker 1: 45:00

So I know a lot more about it now as of recently, because a part of the assigned work homework that Amanda had was she had the book that's about that thick and the four and a half hour movie, which was actually a mini series that did quite well back in the nineties or whenever it was, that it was out there, like 93, the one with Robert.

Speaker 2: 45:21

Duvall yeah, no, it's a. He was in gods and generals, so it was yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:25

Which I think that one was connected to that. In a way it was a prequel, but it was a Martin Sheen yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:31

And he was Robert E Lee.

Speaker 1: 45:33

Yeah, yeah. So that one was, uh, it was assigned to do that or whatever, and she's like I don't think I'm gonna do it, I don't think I want to watch that, and she's in a group chat with all the guys and like most of them are like I don't think I'm gonna watch that. It just seems ridiculous. How is that gonna actually help my class and stuff like that? And part of it was because they were going to spend one of the days going out to that, that area, that field.

Speaker 2: 45:52

That was part of the week as they went out there and spent time.

Speaker 1: 45:55

They said it was awesome, very kind of like, reflect a lot, you know, take a lot in. But you know they were like this movie is terrible, like why is this going to get connected to that, or whatever. And so I made the decision one night where we had nothing going on that night and a little bit of open time. I'm like tonight's the night, we're going to watch this movie. She's like tonight's the night, we're going to watch this movie. She's like, oh yeah, for sure, are we really going to watch this? I'm like we're going to dial this up. Oh no, no, we went that direction, but I said one bourbon per hour. We got about halfway through and she's like I'm probably going to need more bourbon.

Speaker 1: 46:36

It was probably hour three before we could figure out the uniform situation on who was you know like what side, and then there was like random people that were like officers wearing the other color, and so it was like I don't think they should be talking to each other. Maybe that's why they lost the war, like I don't know what's happening right now. It was, it was very strange, so it was, but it was a fun night. I think we made the best of the entire thing Definitely did learn that they won. They've placed very highly for the Razzies, you know like the worst movie of the year or something like that, but they did win worst beards.

Speaker 2: 47:08

Oh, okay, if you watch the movie.

Speaker 1: 47:10

Google the movie. Just look at the beards that they have in the pictures or whatever. It's just awful, but it was fun. Pictures or whatever. It's just awful, but it was fun. It was fun night, you know, being able to do that but yeah. So, yeah, it was emmitsburg area is kind of where we went, but yeah, through gettysburg and I didn't get to go out and see that, but uh, her and her class went out. We're able to tour the battlefields. They were actually each assigned their own character, oh, okay, so I remember which one she interesting she was. But uh, their one instructor when they would, when they would uh show up're one instructor when they would, when they would uh show up to class or when they would get there. You know it would be such and such as entering the battlefield, and so that was like their whole bit.

Speaker 1: 47:43

So it was kind of a kind of a fun, little you know history kind of thing, but something a little different.

Speaker 2: 47:49

Yeah, I'm a, I'm a history nerd. I love, I love history. I love American history is my's, my favorite, but I'll take in any history at any time period of all over the world, but my favorite is American history. We did tour Gettysburg as well. We went up there for a private tour. It was a three-hour private tour. The tour guide gets in your car and drives you through the battlefield and you get out and he explains what happened here and what happened there and all those sorts of things in the three hours. Really cool happened here and what happened there and all those sorts of things in the three hours. Really cool. You know. We get out on the confederate side. He's like this is where the confederates were. You know, I'm like standing right here, right here, they were standing in this wood line right here.

Speaker 2: 48:27

So, yeah, they were all right here and I'm like, wow, I'm standing where they were standing. You know, he's like general lee was over there on his horse watching the battle unfold, so he went over there and, of course, at the end of the tour we went to the union lines and did the same thing on the union lines and I went through the museum. If you ever get a chance to go, take a tour of it it's. It's really cool. It's. It's kind of crazy how many people died on that field shooting each other, americans shooting each other over essentially slavery and taxes and stuff, and it was pretty crazy. Um, a couple things I learned about that going through the town of gettysburg. When you actually go through really cool little town, it actually looks like it did 200 years ago too. It they kept it the way it looks. There's 118 buildings that are still exist. That happened during the battle. Wow, still there. You can still see a cannon fire in the side of a musket fire on the side that of course, they restored them and like paint the buildings, but they paint where the divots that are in there are painted, so you can still see it and stuff. But the coolest thing. I know quite a bit about the battle and the different generals' names and stuff. But what I didn't know and I did learn there is, of course the tour guide asked us where are you from? Well, of, of course we're from minnesota. And he's like, really is like I've got some very interesting things to tell you about the first minnesota regiment. I'm like, oh okay, I didn't know much about first minnesota one or the minnesota first. The first part about the minnesota first is they were the very first regiment ever conscripted into the union army. Because there was a minnesota politician in dc when the first shots rang out at Fort Sumter and the Minnesota politician I forget his name said OK, lincoln, you can have us right away. So we were the first Union members put in the Union Army. It was the Minnesota first.

Speaker 2: 50:11

And in Gettysburg the Confederates actually broke through the lines on the left flank with about 1,600 Confederates, because General Sickles didn't have his army where General Meade wanted them. The Confederates broke through and about 300 yards away for about 1,400 Confederates that broke through, there was a group of 248 Union military men just standing there. Nobody had given them orders. So some commander came up well, what are you guys doing? Well, nobody gave us any orders. He's like you up. Well, what are you guys doing? Well, nobody gave us any orders. He's like you.

Speaker 2: 50:39

See those Confederates over there, 1400 of them, about 200 yards away. Put your bayonet on and run into them. So 248 going up against 1400 Confederates. They're outnumbered like eight to one. Only 41 of them survived. But they held up the Confederates, just enough for the Union to reform their line on the left flank to repel it. Well, that was the Minnesota first. So 248 went in, only 41 survived and held up the Confederates, just enough for the Union to reorganize. And because of that, if you're ever in Gettysburg, if you buzz through, if you happen to notice there's monuments everywhere in this park. It's 1400 of them or something like that. The guide said the second largest one in the park is the minnesota first and it's a.

Speaker 2: 51:26

I can't remember the dimensions, of course it's huge like a like a small size building, you know, but there's an infantryman on there charging exactly where they started, where they first started running, is exactly where the monument just sits. So that was really interesting. The minnesota history that we were played a pretty pivotal role in the battle of gettysburg anyway.

Speaker 1: 51:48

So it's interesting to be able to learn some of that stuff and that's so. That's the type of stuff like if you go out there like you can learn a ton of stuff from the guides. Amanda was saying that like they've talked to some of them that, uh, you have to like I don't remember the exact details, but you have to go through schooling and classes and things like that for like two years, five, five years before you even can take the test to be considered being a guide. Within that, like it's unreal what you have to do to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 52:17

So like I'm not surprised that you know you mentioned like minnesota and then boom, just drop some knowledge on you because they have to be to that point because it's such a famous or big time area.

Speaker 2: 52:28

But they do. Yeah, that's interesting. You brought that up because I asked the guy I'm like what does it take to be a guide over here? And he said it's five years of schooling and studying and schooling and it never ends. And then when you're done you take like six tests and you have to pass all the tests with like 95 or higher to be a guide. And pre-covid there was about 160 guides. He said now there's about 72 because naturally they're all older people. Yeah, I mean there's not a lot of history nerds out there. I mean there are, but usually they're older. You know they're not typically the younger crowd because they're busy doing other stuff. But he said the first test in about three years that they're allowing to get new guides is this year, finally this fall. So they haven't even been allowed any testing to become one of these certified guides in three years. So they're definitely hurting for guides.

Speaker 2: 53:14

So if anybody is that interested in American, history specifically Gettysburg go out, they're looking for it, you know. And when you do it you're an independent contractor, so you don't work for anybody. Specifically, we did a three-hour personal tour and it was $117. And of course I gave them a $40 tip when we were done, but that's kind of how their income goes.

Speaker 1: 53:38

But yeah, five years of studying six tests very cool, very intense, that's for sure. So, but that's cool though that's amazing to be able to learn some of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 53:43

So it was super neat and the museum was cool. You know they had all the different firearms in there. There's still trees with musket balls lodged in them and cannonballs lodged in them in the museum. They don't let you think with that much out in the park because it's technically it's gettysburg national park, now right, and they don't allow people used to go with metal detectors. If you had a metal detector, he said if you start one and you'll find musket balls and everything. And he said they don't allow that anymore. There's some people do own some private property in the area. Some of those people let them do it on their land but, like in the park, they don't allow any metal detecting or any stuff anymore, but super cool it was.

Speaker 1: 54:20

I was on cloud I was like oh, I bet, yeah, those little history nerds, you know getting my nerd on out there.

Speaker 2: 54:25

You know, even my wife thought it was cool. You know she likes history, but not like I do. You know, and so she was like oh it was pretty cool, it was fun, you know. You know it was a good time. Get out to Gettysburg and drink some beer when you're out there.

Speaker 1: 54:37

Yeah, absolutely there you go. So yeah, well, yeah, you got anything else? Today I think we got kind of the long and the short of a microphone and the history of DC and Gettysburg.

Speaker 2: 54:50

Yeah, I could have gone on longer too. This would have been like a five-hour episode. Oh, absolutely, I don't have too much else. Road trips I got a fun fact about road tripping maybe kind of it ties in Jumbo jets. You know if you fly on a jumbo jet how much fuel they carry. They carry a lot of fuel. If you were to take all that fuel and use it in a car, how far do you think you could drive a car on one tank of jumbo jet fuel on one jumbo jet?

Speaker 1: 55:15

I'm guessing more than 460 miles.

Speaker 2: 55:18

You would be correct. Okay, yeah, yes, I'll drink to that Way to go, andy. Yes, so if you took the fuel on one jumbo jet out and kept it for your car, you could drive around the world four and a half times that's a lot With your average car for a mile. I mean, we can get into the details, but the average vehicle. You could drive around the world four and a half times on one fill up of a jumbo jet.

Speaker 1: 55:43

Wow, that's a lot of fuel.

Speaker 2: 55:46

More facts from beer. There you go.

Speaker 1: 55:48

There you go. Did you know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance?

Speaker 2: 55:52

No, but it makes me feel flamboyant Might.

Speaker 1: 55:58

I just have to keep drinking beer. You know, push on through the night. On that note, yeah, check out microphonebrewingcom Again, m-i-k-e-r for microphone and also projectfirebuddiesorg. So some things to be able to check out. But otherwise, yeah, that's kind of the long and the short of the podcast today for Microphone Brewing and we go together like dot dot dot soft sour ale with strawberries and peanuts.

Speaker 2: 56:28

Today, Perfect, all right.

Speaker 1: 56:30

Thanks everybody. Andy Beckstrom, Sean Field, Cheers.