What Does Freedom Cost On Two Wheels - Eglė Gerulaitytė

We bounce from beer-soaked banter and Swedish summer stories into the nuts and bolts of adventure riding, including suspension setup worries and the odd ethics of modern road culture. Then we sit down with Egle On The Road to trace how travel, rally racing, and service-minded community work can turn motorcycling into a life direction. 
• Swedish archipelago travel and the strange joy of slow miles 
• Rear shock spring upgrades on a loaded ADV bike and why the right tools matter 
• Nürburgring photo finds and workplace hazing stories from the road 
• Lane etiquette rage and the problem with dashcam-driven “citizen enforcement” 
• Egle’s Scoog Sweden experience and the community that shows up when you break down 
• Growing up in post-Soviet Lithuania and learning to dream past borders 
• Peru volunteering, learning to ride from scratch, and earning confidence the hard way 
• Dakar Rally reporting, rally raid reality, and why exhaustion becomes addictive 
• Little Big Rides and women-only off-road tours that build skill without the pressure 
• Ukraine fundraising, gifting a DR650 to a new mission, and serving in Lithuania’s Volunteer Armed Forces 
• Land’s End Observatory rideout pick and practical 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally check-in steps 

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_08 0:00

Season five, episode eight. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I am your host, Taylor Lawson. And today I am joined by a man who has developed, planned, coordinated, and delivered GPS coast-to-coast rallies, built GPS waypoint tracking apps, built out a Mercedes Sprinter van to drag motorcycles around the country, crunch rees, written a book, maybe another one on the way, and is often featured on a weekly number two global sensation adventure motorcycling podcast, How Does He Find the Time, better known to you as Aaron Puffowl.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I will send you your wire transfer for that intro. Thank you, Taylor.

SPEAKER_08 0:46

Thanks for making the time, brother.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Are we just trying to make it as uncomfortable and full of crap as possible?

SPEAKER_08 0:52

Well, at least uncomfortable, the fill of crap part, you know, that's just too late for that, but you've done all that. All right.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, tell us what's coming up, man. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_08 1:00

Coming up in this episode, we will have some um idle banter and some drinking. We will have some tech questions about Motoshock Springs, interview with Eggle, known on socials as Eggle on the Road, Aaron's Rideouts, practical ADV cannonball news about check-ins and what is expected of you as a rider prior to arriving at the 2026 rally.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_08 1:29

There's a lot there, buddy. There's a lot. So,

Beers, Banter, And A Mess

SPEAKER_08 1:32

Aaron, where are you uh where are you drinking? What are you sitting?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Hey. Well, cheers, bud. Here is a oh, I made a mess. Oh man, that was that went everywhere, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:46

You need a moment to clean that up.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Listen, I got shop towels everywhere. Good to go. It's a uh backcountry brewing, widow maker, hazy IPA, and I'm in the studio, which is now covered in beer.

SPEAKER_08 2:02

Nice. And for me, logger than life, a massive bold double IPA, 8.5%.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Did you say logger than life? Yeah. Wow. Pretty good, huh? That's pretty, that's a dad joke if I ever heard one.

SPEAKER_08 2:20

Hey man, I don't make them, I just drink them.

Boating The Swedish Archipelago

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Most importantly, tell us all about that amazing trip. I got some uh pictures that you sent to me. I was jealous.

SPEAKER_08 2:31

Yeah, so this year we uh we put we put the boat in the water. Last year we kept it out because I was doing all kinds of other stuff. Um we did India, but just a bunch of other motorcycle stuff going on. I just didn't have time. And also the um the boys weren't so interested. So uh this year we went out. My 21-year-old, he was working, and my 16-year-old went with us. And it was super cool. He's really um these days he's really into jazz guitar. And uh it's one of the things he's studying in in uh high school. And so he just had like smooth jazz guitar live playing in the background for the entire week. It was awesome as we blasted around the Swedish archipelago in our little 28-foot uh floating tent.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

That's awesome. And I know you have absolutely no musical ability. So where did he get it from?

SPEAKER_08 3:20

Certainly not from my side of the family. My my wife has an amazing voice. Yeah, and her and her the dad plays guitar. Clearly, from I don't know, not my side. It's their side. It's it's all them. And and the height as well. This kid's like, I don't know, he's what is it, metric. He's 185. Is he 6'4, 6'5, or something? Clearly not for me sitting here at five at 5'10, not me for sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But that boat's amazing. It's a little, it sounds small, but it's not. It's like a lot of cabin in there, and it's got a single diesel engine. It's a proper little ocean going boat.

SPEAKER_08 3:54

Yeah, it's like a um, it's like pushing a little beach ball through the water, you know, a double-ended beach ball. So you got tons of space in there. It's um that's about nine feet wide. So it's it's it's it's like a rectangle, a perfect rectangle. Got a forward cabin, an aft cabin. You can fit um, you know, seven-foot people. Actually, it's like seven foot by seven foot, the forward cabin. And then there's two bunks in the back, which are about the same. And then, you know, just it's cool, kind of cool. It's like upstairs living, but you're protected, a lot of big windows, you can see everything. Um, we're sitting having dinner the last night before we came in, which was two nights ago, and we were way out in the archipelago. We make we make one last voyage our day in and the day out. It's like 10 days underway, which is just kind of it's kind of fun. It's just you know, we're we're bonking around at like uh four and a half, five knots, super quiet, calm. Just watching everybody rip around and do crazy shit. And we're just calm, you know, people just go around us. It's nice. We're sitting there and I looked around and I was like, it's no matter which way I turn my head, it was a 360 view of this amazing fire, like magenta sunset. It was the night of the final, the World Cup final, because I saw everybody was in the, everybody was in the uh in the sauna. Like there's a bunch of boaters got together, and then they they have this big sauna. Uh it's kind of not like a typical sauna where you would like have a towel and everyone's naked and it's men on one side, women on the other. It's just everyone's in swimsuits, you're in and out of the water. It's just basically makes it so that your body temperature is warm enough so that when you get in fairly cold Swedish archipelago water, it's comfortable enough that you can actually bathe, right? It's it's it's uh it's almost fresh, it's just brackish. But anyway, so everyone's in the sauna. Someone put a towel up, they pinned a towel up inside the sauna, they kept the temperature at a fairly low level so it wasn't super hot, and they pinned up a towel and somebody had a little projector and they played the World Cup in there. So the whole place was jammed, and there was Germans, and then there's a whole boat full of eight eight Germans, and then they had this guy who's Finnish and his wife is Swedish. There's just tons of people coming together. It was just a fun, fun environment.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Wow, that is the most European thing I've ever heard. Watching soccer in Asana with a with a bunch of people and a projection TV on a towel.

SPEAKER_08 6:07

There you go, man. It can't get any more European than that.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

That was not on my bingo card today.

SPEAKER_08 6:12

That was no, but yeah, but here it is. Here you go. And and here we are.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

And here we are.

SPEAKER_08 6:16

That's awesome. So anyway, thanks for asking. It was a fun trip. And uh despite the fact that it was only it was only like six nights out, it was still uh it was still quite fun. It was enough. It gave me enough time to get back and then sort of regroup here and I start work next week.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences.

SPEAKER_08 6:34

Yeah, well, yeah, then everybody can be an unemployed motorcycle guy.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

That's true. No one else can be a degenerate drink beer drinking. It's by the way, it's 11 o'clock in the morning, and I just cracked the beer to hang out with you. So I'm fully a motorcycle degenerate.

SPEAKER_08 6:47

Well, you've well, it just says that you're committed to the cause anyway.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

That's right. Listen, rubber on the road. That's how I roll. Um, as a matter of fact, speaking of the the boat nexus and someone who's not a degenerate, is I've been following Hunter, the winner of last year's ADV cannonball. He is restoring a wooden lobster boat over on the East Coast. And he named it after his wife, and he's been posting pictures and a little single diesel engine with that big long aft deck and a little cabin forward. Yeah. And it's it's it's wooden. And uh yeah, he's put a new uh steering system in it and so on and so forth. But I'm excited to uh to see that splash in the water soon.

SPEAKER_08 7:28

Yeah, great project. And what a um amazing lines on that boat. Just a typical when I was a kid, what was I was maybe 14, I worked on an oyster boat. So we would go out just as soon as the ice broke, or just before the ice settled in, and we would go out on this wooden oyster boat and we would tong on the Chesapeake Bay for oysters. And um, it was just nice to be out there. Everyone's out there with their Chesapeake Bay uh not, I guess they were Chesapeake Bay retrievers. So it's just you would know more about dogs than I do. But anyway, they were these broad, like they look like chocolate labs, but they they wouldn't stay out of the water. But there was everybody out there, uh, all the boats who kind of get up on the bar and you'd hang out and know everybody by name and chat with them, and they're too far away, you get them on the radio. And it was just a sense of community, was it was it was weird, but it was a really cool sense of community to be part of that. And the work was so physically demanding. It was amazing, but fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah. Hey, why don't we bring it back to motorcycles? Hey, let's do that.

T7 Shock Spring And Tool Fear

SPEAKER_01 8:29

But uh maybe you can give us your conclusions on your on your rear shock spring project.

SPEAKER_08 8:35

Yeah, so uh, you know, after riding with you, and I put about I put about, I don't know, 40 kilos, 80 pounds of you know, tools and crap on the back of my camping gear. And that gives me the camping gear weighs a lot, right? So too much stuff. Let's start with that. Anyone who's gonna, you know, say light is right, Taylor, you've totally blown it. Well, yes, let's just go with that as an opening line. I carry too much stuff. Nonetheless, it's the second time I've taken the bike and I've had about the same amount of stuff on it, and it's too heavy. So, like when you pull it off as kickstand, it goes and the back end sags down. So I researched it and I think they come with a standard weight. I don't know what the actual the measurement is, but I think whatever the standard weight is on this, I think it's a 70 on the spring or a 75. I went up to an 85, whatever that measurement is for my for the for the uh monoshock. And I was like, great, I'll just grab some tools and we'll compress that. But now I'm looking around trying to find tools to actually do that. I've you know, this is a super easy video on how to take this out and then to compress it and do the measurements. Um that part doesn't seem to be a problem, but what I'm trying to figure out is once I uninstall it, what do I use to compress that thing with? And I've gone, I've I was like, oh, just go to Amazon and buy some stuff. And I've read tons of reviews, and they're like, you know, if you have a heavy spring and you crank that down, then the the the the chassis around this mechanism, this tool starts to torque back and bend. And um anyway, I as I was I was I was writing these notes, I was like, this reminds me of a bad experience I had with a a spring, which was um, shall we call it an uncontrolled release of spring tension? And I was I was I was I was in third grade and I was in Mrs. Miller's class and we were doing some like I don't know, work where we're supposed to be quiet. Everyone in the class is quiet, and I'm like second row back, and I've got one of those old, like, you know, government black pens that's kind of pointed on both ends and it you unscrews in the middle and it's got a spring in it. I was taking this thing apart and messing with it. Mrs. Miller had like this big ass bouffant hairdo. You can see where this is going. And it accidentally the spring shot out of the casing as if I had I couldn't have aimed it any better, and it got stuck in her bangs. And then she had she was trying to get this out of her hair, and the whole class starts laughing because she's got this thing, and the more she messes with it, the more hair she gets locked into the spring. And then she's like, Who did this? I'm standing there with two pieces of a ballpoint in my hand is pretty clear who did this, anyway. You know, so my experience with with uncontrolled release of spring tension is pretty horrific, and you know, that didn't end well, and I just don't want to repeat the history. So I want to make sure I get it right. So anybody who's got any advice on the best tool to use to compress a T7, which is 82 millimeters and the spring body is 260 millimeters long. Please send the link and I'll buy that tool and we'll get it done.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Dude, just get like 20 cable ties, you know, just risk it, just roll the dice, see what happens. What's the worst that could happen?

SPEAKER_08 11:53

Yeah, I've told you, I just explained what the worst thing was could happen. Mrs. Miller could get all jacked up with her booffon hairdo.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Well, that spring rate that you're going to is a little bit tougher, but you know, I think I think you could do it with the cable ties, man. Just get some decent cable ties and maybe some channel locks and just, you know, get her done.

SPEAKER_08 12:13

Get her done. Okay. What I do have a I do have the uh I do have a wire type gun, so I could potentially use that to crank it down.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, just death by a lot of little, you know, slits, right?

SPEAKER_08 12:24

Death by the five million cuts. That's it, yeah. What about a um a ratchet strap? I saw someone, I looked on you know that on the T7 Rotterdis forum, and I saw someone had cranked it down with ratchet straps, and I was like, it seemed like it could work, except it might slide.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah, crank it down, then put 25 cable ties on it.

SPEAKER_08 12:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah. What's the worst that could happen?

SPEAKER_08 12:46

Yeah, that's what I'm gonna lose a tooth. Let me lose a tooth. What happened to what happened to your face? I don't know, spring. Oh my goodness. Doctor says it'll grow out.

Nürburgring Photos Worth 15 Euros

SPEAKER_01 12:57

I was poking around the internet and I was watching a YouTube video of these YouTubers, they go to the Nureberg ring, and at the end of the video, they go online and they get their pictures. And there's some professional photographers that are around and they aggregate to this one website. I thought, oh, maybe some of my old trips to the Nurberg ring, my pictures are there. And lo and behold, from 2025 on the old GSA, fully loaded with camping equipment, I found two, may I say, shockingly amazing pictures of me ripping around the Nuremberg Ring with the the GSA with the uh Dunlop Trail Max mission tires on there and everything. It's the greatest silly picture ever. I'm so happy I spent 15 euros on that.

SPEAKER_08 13:49

I'm looking at that right now. I just want to know who who's the rider on that.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

That's me before before I was epic.

SPEAKER_08 14:00

Very nice. I like it. I like it. Um, I'm not sure if we have time right now, but I was we had a listener ask if I could tell some stories of my days when I was traveling the globe and I was doing safety inspections in mining operations. Do we have time for that, you think?

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Let's do it. We have all time in the world, because it's your show. Oh, it's my show. Oh, right, I forgot. I forgot, I forgot, I forgot.

SPEAKER_08 14:23

Here we

China Hotel Bar Bill Haze

SPEAKER_08 14:24

go. Uh so I went to um so I went to China one time. I was in Wuxi, and I walked into this really, really beautiful hotel. It's just white polished marble. The foyer was three stories high. It was very, very grand, one of the more grand hotels I've been in in my life. So in the back left-hand corner, there was like this little sunken three steps down into this little uh uh little bar area, and it was dominated by people who worked at the company that I worked in. And these were a bunch of Aussie guys, and they had taken a bunch of um factory uh CNC uh computerized numeric uh cutting machines, uh the cells, and they had disassembled them from Australia, shipped them over to China, and reinstalled them here. And these guys were the operators and the engineers who were putting the equipment together. So basically it's a it's a group of about 13 or 14 Aussies who were there who were essentially have done themselves out of a job because this used to be their jobs, now their stuff's here. So they've been living there for a while. So I turn up, my manager's Australian, we're coming out of, I'm coming out of uh Sweden, and we go in the back and they're you know, small, small chats. They're like, Oh, you know, I've been here a while, you know, I love this room, I love this, I love on the front side, you know, where are you? And and there's all this chat about rooms, and people are sharing information, and then they go, So where are you? And I was like, Yeah, I'm in like, I don't know, room 1204 or something. And they're like, Oh, that's a great spot on the front there. I love that. And I was like, Yeah, cool. Little did I know. Well, I'll get to the end of it. I'm checking out of the hotel. We've been there for a week, and I get a I'm checking out, and then everything's normal. You know, looking at my expenses, my manager is standing at the checkout spot right next to me, and they're reviewing it. They say, Is everything all right here, Mr. Lawson? And I said, Whoa, there's like a $3,500 barbill. And then the shoe dropped, and I recognized that every one of those nights that we went back, and it was it was every day, we'd end work, we'd go back there, everybody would have two or three beers, and then then go off to dinner. And every night that I was there, every beer from that entire group went on room 1201 in my room.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

That's so dirty.

SPEAKER_08 16:47

So then I uh I looked at I look at I look at the bill and I'm like, you know, of course, I start to audit them and I go, who's signed for that? And I start and I just start going, I start tearing through them, and my signature's not on any of them. And I look at my manager and he's laughing. And I said, What's going on over there? He goes, uh he goes, Don't worry, just just um just sign for it, Taylor, and I'll approve it. And I was like, But these aren't mine. He goes, they are ours. Right. They are from our company. That's just what happens. You got played.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Wow, that's like a training exercise for the CIA or something, right?

SPEAKER_08 17:22

It is. It's like when we were like when we were yachts, right? And we back into the med somewhere, and there's this big cement key, and you're telling people the the new person that you're gonna tune the radars. So you have them put an aluminum foil hat on, and you and then the rugby ball that they're brought with them, you have them wrap that in aluminum and and then strap it onto the top of a boat hook. And you like given that project for the morning ago, it's important that you wrap your rugby ball in aluminum and you strap it. You figure out a way to strap that to the top of the boat hook, and then you go back. I'm gonna give you a radio headset, and then you go back on the key as we're gonna spin the radars, and you go back on the key, and then you move around so we can make sure we get the exact right adjustment. And then you it's like that. I got it's I got hazed. I got hazed anyway.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

One of my first days on a cruise ship when I was a kid, my supervisor's like, yeah, and once a week you have to volunteer for bow watch or something. He made up some term like fog watch or something that without fog. So they tricked me into standing on the bow with a radio. No, yeah, for like an hour. And I and after an hour, I'm like, is this someone more qualified supposed to do this than the new guy? And I realized that the whole place is freaking laughing at me.

SPEAKER_08 18:39

Yeah, that's what we guys, right? I thought you were gonna say it. They're like, then this is um Elon Friday says your turn in the barrel.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Hey, whoa. Anyways, let's get back to motorcycles.

Left Lane Ego And Dashcam Snitching

SPEAKER_01 18:51

So, my last my last tidbit was this trend of these beta male loser bagger riders specifically seems to be in California. And I there's a link there. It's this guy on a sport bike, and he like passes all these guys camped out in the left lane, by the way. These slow baggers doing like the speed limit or like plus 10, and they're freaking camped out. And this guy just rips past, right? And I think they like wave at him, like, hey, screw you, brother. And uh he like wheelies past them and then he slows down, lets them catch up, and he's like, Okay, well, you want to fight or something, let's do it. So he pulls off into the gas station. He's like, What's your problem? Let's do this. And there's two of them, two of these beta male beggars, and he's like, Okay, let's do this. Yeah, well, you can't pass us, brother. And he's like, Okay, well, let's fight, right? And they just get on their bikes and they ride away. I'm like, you're such pussies. Like, I can't stand this sense of you're above the law and we have to obey by uh abide by your laws. But at the end of the day, when it comes down to it, you're just full of hot air, right? So I'm like, it was the greatest video, and nothing makes me happier that when these guys on sport bikes actually say, okay, pull over, let's fight. And then and then nothing happens. I'm like, you're nothing but hot air, and we don't care about your customs and rules. Get the heck out of the left lane and mind your business. And it's as simple as that. If you're gonna open your mouth, be prepared to deliver and suffer the consequences. But don't open your mouth and pretend you're gonna throw down and then do nothing about it. That's the greatest video I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_08 20:37

All right, I'm gonna have to um enjoy that as I fade off into the sunset after my longer than life.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah. Oh, and I have one more video I posted there. It's this crazy bootlicker video. So in bootlicker?

SPEAKER_08 20:53

This sounds like an SM kind of thing. Are we a bootlicker?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Can we just bring this back to motorcycles? This is, this is, yeah. So there's this video of someone with a dash camp. This is proper dystopian crap here, right? So there's a guy in British Columbia, Canada, and clearly some bootlicker, right? He's in the middle lane and he's like passing the left lane. So he's like, he's undertaking, right? And traffic seems to be going a little slower uh than then the post-it speed limit. And this sport bike just rips through, right? So he's gone, right? So this bootlicker loser gets the license plate, calls the police, meets with the police. The police meet him, which is the scary part. Oh, they bring charges against this guy. And I have a whole, I have a whole lit litany of problems with this. First of all, how do you know this is not AI, right? AI generated.

SPEAKER_08 21:49

The whole video, you mean?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

The whole thing could be AI generated, right? I'm like, and as a classic case of the kid is just a kid, he doesn't have representation, doesn't have a lawyer, because you know, no Face no case, right? That's that's that's what you say. So he he was clearly taken advantage of because he's just a freaking kid, which is classic, you know, two-tier, you know, legal system everywhere in the world. And this loser bootlicker going through all this effort and these loser cops actually prosecuting this kid. And it's just made me so freaking mad. Like, what's next? So if I go out with my dash cam and I record some cop breaking the rules and I call the cops, of course nothing's going to happen because law is for thee, not for me, right? This is just, this is just the way it is, right? Uh, or if I if well, can I just go out and say, well, this person made an illegal lane change, or this person didn't signal, or this person clearly went through red light. It are you now saying, well, you have said that you've empowered in this dystopian world that anyone with a dash cam can bring charges against anyone for anything. It is you either enforce all the laws or you enforce none of the laws in this case. And you're saying that yes, this is a lawful way of bringing charges against the public. And it just, I'm so enraged about it. You have no idea how angry I am about it.

SPEAKER_08 23:10

No, I think if any of the listeners did have any idea, if if they're like not clear on it, they can go back and listen to two podcasts ago when we talked about our friend who is known as the most notorious British speeder, was being sort of railroaded in the court system. And he did an amazing job of representing himself there. But yeah, you had the same amount of i of uh of outrage there. So um, yeah, no, keep it up, never change. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I'm just that that's it. I'm just the whole day is ruined now. I'm all fired up, right? You know.

SPEAKER_08 23:39

Whole day ahead of you. Hey, lucky for you, you're already drinking. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Hey, oh, this is gonna be a great day. It's gonna be a great day. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? Let's move on to something more highbrow. Thank goodness there's chapter markers in her podcast. So no one's listening by this point, anyways. So we're gonna make a set uh segment in the future is Things Aaron Hates. So that was the first installment of Things Aaron Hates, and there were two two bold bullet points there.

SPEAKER_08 24:07

All right, and um, this is gonna qualify as things Taylor loves. That's right. I love it. It's a new segment.

Meet Egle And Community-First Gear

SPEAKER_08 24:14

This interview that I did with Eggle uh on the road. She is a Lithuanian national, a journalist who has written at least three books, one award-winning, followed and wrote about the Dakar, I think 2019, 18, 19, uh, competed in a multi-day rallies, competed in many multi-day rallies across the globe. During the pandemic, accidentally founded a moto tour company, Little Big Rides. She just returned from Peru last week from doing another one of those rides. She's a member of the Volunteer Lithuanian Armed Forces. Uh she does fundraisers for extremely worthy causes. We discussed that on the podcast. Uh she has uh most recently taken possession of the injuristan marketing manager position, marketing manager position, where she is uh this is kind of cool. She's shifting the focus uh uh from supporting the traditional uh prolific Instagram influencers to the individuals who focus on uh building the ADD community and giving back to the ADD community. So that's what Enjurostan is doing of focusing there and Egle is uh the she's managing all of the influencers. So that's kind of cool. It was uh we had a really interesting exchange about that. And um someone that she spoke to and they wanted they basically, you know, hey, send me some free gear. And then she talked about the focus on this, and then this person said, Hey, I've got a cafe in Porto in uh in Portugal, and I think I'll focus on changing that and offering free coffee to uh uh to riders who come in on ADV bikes, and um, I'll have some spare tools and some patch kits, and there's a place down the road, and she's and all of a sudden this individual sort of building a sense of community, and they're like, that's a person we want to support. So um, anyway, I hope that you uh enjoy this interview as much as I enjoy spending time with this compassionate, creative, and very, very funny person. So, roll the interview.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

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Scoog Sweden And A Mechanic’s Help

SPEAKER_08 27:17

Thank you for making time in your busy schedule. I know you're super busy, and as we get through this interview, people realize just how busy you are. So you just rode in from the southern region of Sweden where you attended and were a guest speaker at Scoog. How did you find the Swedish rally and how did you find riding on the Swedish gravel roads?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

I have to admit that um I don't really want to leave. Um I feel like I found my tribe in the north, and I'm seriously considering applying for citizenship. This event was really unique, and I know that, you know, people say that about a lot of adventure festivals, but this one, just the people there, the darkness of the humor and just the whole vibe, I just felt at home right away. It was beyond amazing. And uh the riding was super scenic, uh, it but in a kind of a dreamy way, you know, this forests, there's horses, it's sort of like a fairy tale countryside. So it was really beautiful. And um yeah, as for the riding, I didn't really go for the gnarly tracks or anything like that because that bike still needs to survive um all the way back home. So I was a little cautious. Plus, I had a little mishap um going there as I rolled off the ferry. I realized that my bike was spooing oil. Um, so there was that little incident. Um, so yeah, I was just being a little cautious there.

SPEAKER_08 28:37

Did you get it sorted when you were down there? I know there's tons of mechanics down there.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Actually, that was like the biggest welcome um I got in Sweden because I rolled off the ferry, right? I realized that I have no oil left and uh it's it's not looking pretty. And uh I stopped at a gas station and I just sat down trying to figure out what's going on, and and you know, what do I do? Literally, not even 10 minutes in, some guy comes up to me and says, You look like you've got a bike problem. And I tell him, I'm pretty sure I do. I'm just not sure which one is it. And he's like, Oh, well, actually I'm a mechanic, so if you just want to follow me. Um so we ended up going to his dad's farm to tell his dad, sorry, but like he's not gonna be able to help him that day. His name's Daniel, and then we ended up in his garage. Um, and uh yeah, he just sorted the thing out. We also drove to another town to get an air filter because uh my air airbox was swimming in oil. It was a low hose issue. What have you driving back? We were singing always look at the bright side of life from life of Brian, just randomly. And then I told Daniel where I was going to Skug, and he was like, Oh, that sounds like fun. I'm gonna come with you. So he ended up coming to Skug, helping out um in the kitchen and um playing guitar and just hanging out. And now this morning, um, he texted me, because he hasn't ridden in a while because of health issues and things, that he just bought uh an adventure bike.

SPEAKER_08 30:05

Wow, you sold another one. Amazing. It's amazing. You know, we hear stories like this. It's like being vulnerable, right? So if you had been in a car, that probably wouldn't have happened. But here we have this opportunity where people see you and they're like, I want to help. And and there, and obviously he had some roots in it, and then he showed up. That's amazing. What a great intro.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Yeah, that was amazing. And yeah, he just joined the the event and he said, you know what, this whole adventure motorcycle situation is pretty awesome. I'm gonna I'm gonna join you guys.

SPEAKER_08 30:34

That's fantastic. That's really fantastic, and I'd like to hear that. Um, I always credit Robert Baldinger with the reason that I bought a T7. He's like, Yep, sold another one. Didn't get a commission, sold another one. Normally on this podcast, we launch right into motorcycles. We've done a bit of that, but in your case, I think we'll make an exception, and we will start with a bit of history.

Post-Soviet Childhood And Big Dreams

SPEAKER_08 30:56

So, in this conversation with you, I'd like to unpack some of these topics for our listeners. I'll just run through this list here and we'll get to what we get to. Um, your background growing up in post-Soviet Lithuania, how you ended up in Peru and eventually swung your leg over a motorcycle for the first time, roughly 13 years ago. Journalism at Dakar 2019, competing in multiple rallies yourself, and of course you can caveat what competing is at your level. And um, your COVID-19 cabin fever idea turned business adventure, big little rides, your fundraising for Ukraine, and filing your current mission in Company 206 of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. So, growing up, can you tell the listeners about growing up in Lithuania and why places like Patagonia sounded like magnificent alien planet, your words? How writers such as Jules Fern inspired you to think beyond your borders?

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Right. So, um growing up, I was quite convinced that I would like the most exotic place I'd likely ever see would be, oh, I don't know, Paris at the best. Um, because of course my parents' generation was just stuck, right? You couldn't travel west at all. Like it was illegal. Um, and so my dad was quite obsessed with geography and travel, and he would read me all these stories. And I don't know what was about Patagonia, but all these Jules Burns stories, I don't know, the name just had a certain magic to me. Um, and so yeah, it just uh the desire to, I don't know, see the world was always there in a way. Um and just to give people a little bit of context of what it was like, um, and again, it's actually connected to Sweden. That's actually like right before we regained independence, so right on the edge of the 1990, right? Um, my dad is a music history professor, and so um he got sent, because once again, you couldn't travel abroad, but he got sent to some like composer's conference or something here in Stockholm. And my mother asked him to buy me some sneakers because they were just not available, and you know, uh, we had sandals or we had whatever. Um, and she was convinced somehow that the sizing would be different. So what she did was she she measured my foot and she cut out a little stick and she gave it to my dad. And my poor dad had to go to some shoe store in Stockholm with the stick and ask the shop assistants, can you please have sneakers this size? And of course they were freaked out, like please can you just you know? Um but blasphemy got the sneakers. Um, and so yeah, so just just a little context of what that was like. And then of course, once we regained independence and one uh once I turned 18, first thing I did was hitchhike to um Spain with a friend of mine.

SPEAKER_08 33:45

So fantastic. So in 2003, Lithuania joined the EU. What does that shift in political situation open up? What doors did that geopolitical shift open up for you?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Um well, first of all, borders. Um, because before that, obviously you could still travel, but you know, um most Westerners assume that Lithuania is sort of like the armpit of Europe and like we're all thieves and and I don't know, bandits and what have you. Um but once, you know, once we joined the EU um and we had this borderless travel situation, and of course, just overall in the world, I think not just Europe or Lithuania, travel got cheaper, flights got cheaper, things like that. Um and so it was just more and more possible. And like I said, I started out just hitchhiking, um, and then backpacking, things like that. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 34:35

Just to clarify the timeline, had you already started writing then? Had you already a keen interest in writing?

SPEAKER_00 34:40

I always had. I actually wrote a book when I was about five or six years old. Um because uh books were sort of the only way to travel or just get out to a different place back then, right? And to sort of be in different worlds. So um, and I was also always obsessed with horses and the Wild West and things like that. So my my book was uh, I don't know, it was probably like 15 pages. It has something to do with ponies and Wyoming of all places, but uh yeah, writing was always something that I I was very interested in.

SPEAKER_08 35:15

So you casually noted that one of your three books won an award back at home. But you were away and you never collected it. Is there a deeper symbolism there? That the act of traveling and storytelling will always be more valuable to you than the formal recognition.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_08 35:33

Sure and sweet. Alright, so let's fast forward to Peru.

Peru, Volunteering, And Finding Purpose

SPEAKER_08 35:38

You did a bunch of traveling around Europe when you had that opportunity when you were 18. And then ten-ish years later, you ended up in Peru. So in 2013, before landing in Peru, you had, shall we say, declined continued admission at three different universities. And since good things happen in three is you had also declined three marriage proposals.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Marriage proposals.

SPEAKER_08 36:06

So I've got a whole lot of questions to ask around that, but let's just start with the um the first one. What took you to Peru?

SPEAKER_00 36:14

I was actually um going through a bit of a rough time. I was in England at the time, and I I just felt a little lost, and I thought I would love to just get away from Europe altogether and volunteer someplace, ideally with horses, but just anywhere would be good. And I started looking into different options. Um unfortunately, quite a lot. Like I I wanted to go to Africa first, um, but a lot of those options were just rather expensive because you would have to pay quite a lot. And then I found an organization in Peru. They were helping kids uh in the slums around uh Arequipa, the city of Arequipa. And uh yeah, that that option was like a lot more affordable, so I just randomly picked that and I uh I visited some friends in Los Angeles first. My friend, who I used to hitchhike to Spain with, actually lived in LA um back then. So I stayed with him for a little bit and then uh headed down to Peru. I stayed uh in Arequipa for about a month volunteering. I will admit that it was a bit too much for me. Like I just got overwhelmed because I'd never seen poverty of this sort of scale and level. So uh yeah, it's uh I'm not proud of it, but I didn't last very long just because I couldn't quite cope with it. And then I decided to just backpack around a little bit and figure out what to do next.

SPEAKER_08 37:38

It does take a certain type of person to be drawn to that initially. So what was the what was the initial draw? Obviously, it was a as you say, it was a cheaper entry to get into it than going into Africa. Many, many people there also in need. What was it that drew you to that kind of world, that that kind of work, regardless of where in the world it had brought you?

SPEAKER_00 37:56

I just feel obscenely lucky. Uh like to this day, sometimes I have to pinch myself when I'm in, I don't know, Mexico or here in Sweden or anywhere, because once again, growing up I had this feeling that we were trapped, that we would never get out. And and so um the ability to to to travel, to have all these adventures and all these experiences, I I just feel it's it's just down to luck, right? Just because of where I was born. Um and and there's so many people around the world who are in a lot worse circumstances purely for geographical reasons, purely because where they were born, and we are so lucky and so privileged to be where we are. So I think yeah, it's just kind of obvious to help out.

SPEAKER_08 38:42

Makes sense. Were all three of the marriage proposals from different people, or is it one person who is just extremely persistent?

SPEAKER_00 38:50

No, it's uh three different people, and I will say I'm I'm pretty sure I dodged three bullets there, so it's all good.

SPEAKER_08 38:58

That's funny. I had to go back to that. Now we're to the motorcycle part.

First Bike Lessons And Early Mistakes

SPEAKER_08 39:03

All right, so I want to talk a bit about the steep learning curve and the machines. So the blue Zhong Zhen versus the puke green motorcycle. Your first riding mentor, Ryan, recommended you take the 250cc bike to better tackle the Andes Mountains, but you insisted on the 150cc because you preferred the blue one. What did the uh noble Navy blue steed teach you about trusting your intuition? And of course, the brutal physics about an loaded versus an unloaded machine.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Right. Well, so the trouble was that I went into this whole motorcycling business um having absolutely zero previous experience. Um so when Ryan mentioned the 250cc, well, the CC meant absolutely nothing to me. I had no idea what he was talking about. And uh, I don't know, the navy blue just like it just sort of cold to me. I I I don't have any explanation. And Ryan, bless his heart, he was like, he tried to convince me, but like very gently. But I just insisted on the blue one, and he was like, Do you know what? Sure, just go for it. It's okay. You know, once again, because I didn't know any better, uh like now if you stuck me on a 150 and sent me over the Andes, maybe I'd uh reconsider my life's choices a little bit. But back then, because I didn't know any better, I was perfectly happy to be riding along in second gear at 35 kilometers an hour. It's all good. I was in no rush, and so it was okay. And as for the luggage situation, once again, no experience, so I just strapped my back back on the back of that bike. It was it was pretty bulky and and you know, and then I got on to it. And of course, NASA is not a big town, it's it's a rather small town, but Peruvian traffic is a bit hectic. And so yeah, the the first corner I just I tipped over and almost hit this elderly gentleman trying to cross the streets. Um so that was embarrassing, but he very kindly helped me to pick up the bike and and off I went. And I think uh I was a bit terrified for a good hour. It took me a while to just to get out of NASA, but then I finally hit the Pan American Highway, and uh, you know, the desert sort of opens up and there was no one there. And then little by little I picked up the courage to go into third gear and then the fourth and the fifth, and I reached the fizzying speed of I I don't want to like boast or anything, but I believe it was at least 70 kilometers an hour.

SPEAKER_08 41:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Oh my god, that's not stealing. I that was it. That was it, that was sold.

SPEAKER_08 41:36

That's fantastic. For our listeners, would you describe the scene of your first riding experience and how that came about?

SPEAKER_00 41:46

So once again, um, big shout out to Ryan. Um I I met him at a hostel um and he was traveling around Peru on a dirt bike. And uh I just asked him, hey, like this looks really cool. Would you mind teaching me to ride? And he's like, Well, what are you uh what are you planning to do? And I said, I don't know, I'll just ride around Peru or something. And he's like, sure. Why not?

SPEAKER_08 42:09

Sure, let's just do it.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

So uh yeah, so we went to this little parking lot. Um, it was just like dirt, and uh he was like, Well, here's your clutch, here's your brakes, and off you go. Couple of turns. Um, and uh yeah, he was pretty happy with the result, so was I. It took about like an hour and a half, something like that. And I concluded that this is great. I know all there is to know about motorcycling now, and I'm ready. Um, it's good. And then we went to that um washing machine shop and we got the blue bike and uh the washing machine shop that happened to also sell motorcycles.

SPEAKER_08 42:43

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Well, because NASCA is quite small, right? And so there's one big shop that had like kitchen appliances and all sorts of things, and five motorcycles, and so uh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 42:53

So uh there's a couple things that came to mind here. So in all of your recent pictures, videos, and currently as you sit in front of me, you are wearing high-end Lyatt riding gear. Can you explain how your current riding attire may have contrasted from that which you wore when you first struck out?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yeah, there's uh there's uh there's been a few little changes here and there. Um Well, you see, I think uh here in Europe or or in the Western world, let's just say, we have this idea that motorcycling is something. It's it's a bit of a big deal, or like you know, whereas in in in in South America, um at least back then, but I'm pretty sure it's the same now, everybody rides a bike. Not everybody rides a GS1200 or a T7 or any of those things, but the little bikes are they're everywhere. Yeah and everybody rides, you know, your grandma rides with like three chickens and two babies on the back. It's just it's just a great means of transport. It's better than a donkey. And so I didn't have I I didn't feel like intimidated by that. Thing. And that was a bit like, you know, monkey see monkey do. Everybody rides as shortly I can do it. Ryan was super supportive. Like he really tried very hard not to laugh and succeeded most of the time. So, you know, I felt supported and encouraged. Um, and so yeah, once again, it didn't occur to me to get any kind of special riding gear. I had my jeans, I uh I had some like sort of sturdy um construction boots and uh a warm jacket. I got this uh beautiful helmet together with the bike. Uh I think it was made in Taiwan. It had this sort of Spider-Man-ish logo on the side. Um, so yeah, I I thought it was all set up. And then later on I would see uh, you know, Americans or Europeans on KLRs or BMWs, and and they had um, you know, Touritech at the time was big or or or you know, gear like that. And I thought, ah, but they must be professionals, you know, like maybe they're like athletes or something like that. Um yeah, so it took a while um for me to sort of catch up with the idea that actually protective gear is pretty great. Um, and also, you know, this is before Instagram and all of those things. Like back then we had Horizons Unlimited Forum was huge because that's how people sort of exchange information. Um, probably ADB Rider. But like Facebook, Instagram wasn't really a thing. Like now it's obvious, but back then not so much. So uh yeah. I think I made it all the way to Argentina before I actually bought anything resembling actual riding gear.

SPEAKER_08 45:30

Riding gear. That's quite an achievement to run down that coast too. Um talking about the GSs that you had mentioned, so you hysterically wrote about developing an acute envy for the tank bags on the passing BMW and the GSAs. So you strapped your sleeping bag to your tank to look like a real rider, as you said. At what point during those years did you stop worrying about looking like a real rider and recognize that indeed you actually had become one?

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Uh I'm I'm not sure I'm there yet. Uh, you know.

SPEAKER_08 46:00

Modesty prevails.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

I'm not I'm not sure I'm a real rider yet, but at the same time, I think um anybody on Two Wheels is a real rider, and uh I I have no explanation why I fixated on the tank back so much. I d I don't have any explanation. They just looked real good to me.

SPEAKER_08 46:17

It was pretty funny to read, though. It was a great, great antidote.

Dakar Bivouac And Rally Addiction

SPEAKER_08 46:20

Let's move to the chaos chaos of the Descartes Bivouac. In 2019, you chased your Deccar rally for the first time, normally operating on two hours of sleep, running errands for Malamoto riders, men and women, submitting articles from a dusty tent. What was it about the specific cocktail of extreme exhaustion, dust, and watching ordinary people do extraordinary things that made you say, I'm hooked?

SPEAKER_00 46:49

I should mention that uh as I was um I was in Peru, uh just stars sort of a line, right? Um, and my editor from ADV Writer messaged me saying, hey, duck car is being held in Peru only this year, because normally it's a it's three countries. That year it was Peru only. Could you chase it and write about it? But we don't have uh a budget for accreditation for you, so like good luck. Um, and I was kind of reluctant because at the time I didn't really know much about um the duck car. I mean, like I had a vague idea of what it was, but the word racing kind of didn't really appeal to me. I was happy to just plod along, um, you know, admire a mountain, and that that was that was my thing. So I thought, eh, racing. I don't know. So I kind of went into it uh with that, but then once we got going and I realized what it actually was. I think in any scenario where you see people doing the impossible, it's just bound to be inspirational. And uh and then another magazine asked me to sort of uh shadow another writer and and write about him. And so we'd end up talking quite a bit at the bivouac. And uh I was just like, you know, big eyes all the time. Oh my god, this is so amazing, this is incredible, all of that. And he just casually said, Well, why don't you try one? And I said, Are you kidding me?

unknown 48:13

Me?

SPEAKER_00 48:13

I don't know. And he said, I I I can barely ride off-road. What are you talking about? And he said, No, no, but like you don't have to enter the dock car. There's smaller um like entry-level rally races all over the world. And I was like, tell me more. Um, and so once the dock car was over, a week later I was loading the bike on a cargo ship to Europe. Uh DR650. Great bike.

SPEAKER_08 48:36

That was one of my first bikes.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Yeah. The cucaracha. And uh yeah, so a couple months after I showed up at the Hellas Rally rally raid in Greece.

SPEAKER_08 48:47

Great way into it. Speaking of rallies, you playfully poke fun at your absolute peak achievement of finishing 86th overall in the Hispania rally in Spain. Yay, yay, yay. After battling through the Hellas Rally raid in Greece, the Denarik rally in Croatia, Bosnia, Rally Sardinia in Italy, and Bosnia rally. Let's look at the actual reality here. 99.9% of motorcycle riders will never have had the guts to actually line up at the rally prologue, let alone finish a multi-day race. Uh, with broken spokes, fractured thumb, and operating under pure exhaustion. You should be incredibly proud that you just crossed the finish line as most people would have quit on day one. So, having said that, now is an opportunity for you to be absolutely truthful and to bear your soul and to tell us if you were secretly doing all of those grueling European rallies as a warm-up to take on the ultimate cross-country preparation for the endurance test called the ADV Cannonball Rally.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

Oh, you've uncovered my secret plot. Oh my goodness.

COVID Sparks Big Little Rides

SPEAKER_08 50:06

Alright, kidding aside, COVID changed the world. Will you share with our listeners how your COVID cabin fever idea absolutely blew up and turned into an ongoing concern in a good way?

SPEAKER_00 50:20

Um, when COVID hit, I was actually still in Spain. That was right after the Hispania rally race. And um a friend of mine um called and said, dude, you really need to get home, like right now. Uh this COVID thing is gonna get really serious, and and you need to get back to Lithuania. And I was, well, I was still sort of homeless at the time, right? Because I was still living on my bike. My plan was to do a few more European rally races and slowly make my way down south and around Africa and all of that. And um in Spain at the time, no one was too worried. People were still hanging out in restaurants, and so I thought, nah, it's surely it's not that bad. But uh, but yeah, my friend was pretty like get on the next flight home, and and then I did, and you know, I'm greeted by all these people in hazmat suits and all that. Anyhow, so I um I got stuck um in Lithuania for quite a while at my friend's house. And uh at first, of course, just like everywhere, the lockdowns were pretty strict, and uh yeah, we were both going nuts. As soon as the lockdown started to ease a little bit, people were allowed to go outdoors. Like you still couldn't go to, I don't know, to the city, the restaurants, whatever, but you could like go to parks, nature, right? And so we figured, well, why don't we just do um an off-road training event for women, uh like a weekend or something. And Lithuania is a very small country, there's 2.5 million of us, and so you know, like eight people ride, and two of them are female. I exaggerate, but I mean, you get the point. And so we expected maybe like, I don't know, five or six riders to show up, and we got uh hundred and ten plus entries. So all of a sudden we're like, okay, well, we need to do several weekends, we need to book a venue, we need a bunch of bikes, and it was just so much fun. Um, a lot of girls showed up, um, most of them complete beginners, and uh and we just thought, oh my goodness, this is this is great, this is amazing. And then uh once the again the the the lockdowns, once once we're sort of out of COVID uh a little bit, uh I said to my buddy, like, why don't we do this? But in Romania and then Mexico and then Portugal and Croatia and so on. And that's how Bigelow rides came about. And so now we do women's off-road and adventure bike tours, mostly in South America and Europe, uh sometimes in Asia here and there. And it's still rather small. We have small groups, we don't do a lot of tours a year, but each is uh I don't know, it just becomes something something special. Most of those women end up being friends. Most of them come back to do more tours with us, and I think it just becomes a bit of a tribe, uh, because there's just a lot of support and a lot of snort laughing and um dumb jokes and uh sometimes shots at the end of the ride, and it's just uh yeah, it's a really fun thing to do.

SPEAKER_08 53:18

What you're describing is something similar to what Aaron and I have experienced in the cannonball rallies. It's really an amazing sense of community, and it is truly building a community within the community of riders. So, as you say, just meeting Daniel, uh, who helped you with your bike, people want to help each other, which is really amazing. There's something magical about being on two wheels to start with, and you kind of get that that buzz. And then people want to come together and then they do an event together, and then it's like being in combat with them, which we'll get to in a moment. Um, but you build a really strong sense of community. And you said uh one thing that I picked up there is that people keep coming back.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, and actually the best thing, like the what I love seeing the most is actually um those some of those women who started writing with us, just complete beginners, and they were rather unsure of themselves. Because confidence is probably the biggest things, uh the biggest thing. Um oftentimes they have the skill set or a really good balance, or they're actually quite solid writers, but it's all it's all in there. It's it's all between the ears, it's all about the confidence and all of that. And so for me, the biggest, biggest reward is seeing um some of these women do a couple of tours with us and then go off on their own trips alone, or sometimes they link up. Um, there's actually I met um Sophie, one of our um writers uh here at Scoog. Uh, she's Danish, she's done um two tours with us, and she's now sort of formed a little group of female writers in Denmark, and they're exploring on their CRFs, and and and that's like the best thing ever, because you know that you've sort of sown the seed, gave them a little bit of support, a little bit of confidence boost, and off they go. And that's just yeah.

SPEAKER_08 55:04

I mentioned uh that we'll have a question from Justina. Now I met there's a tee-up for Justina. I met her at Scoog last year when I attended, and it was two degrees. You had amazing weather on this particular event. But we had her, I saw I interviewed several people on the podcast and just kind of got their snippets. And uh it was uh Justina and her friend AC. And the thing that they say which ties into your statement is that she said, it's not that complicated. She said, you just need to have a good support group. You need to be able to get the right kind of training with the right instructors, and you need to be on a motorcycle that's the right size. You don't need a 1250 GSA as your first machine.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Yeah, that that's pretty much it. Actually, I'll add maybe that um why we do women's tours is that um oftentimes it's also about this sort of pressure um or like what if I can't keep up with the group? You know, like it's it's it's that there's there's that as well. Uh not just uh individual skills or confidence level, but what if I'm not fast enough? What if I can't keep up? What if other people are faster, better, and and stuff like that. And so when we have these small groups, women only, I think people just feel a little safer. Uh and then uh two, three days in, uh, they realize that nobody's taking themselves too seriously. It's all good. Everybody falls over every once in a while. It's okay. And uh yeah, I think that's that's kind of part of it. Um so just speaking about crashing um and uh, you know, taking yourself seriously or not, um, I had this bright idea, I think it was the second day of Scoog, where um I just wanted to sort of like ride into the camp and like film a little bit. Uh, you know, and so I I have my phone in my left hand and just rolling along in second gear. Now the track is a tiny little bit sandy, right? And and and um yeah, I'm more focused on on the filming parts, and then of course, yeah, there's a little bit of sand, and my front wheel just goes like ha, good one. And I literally eat shit in front of everybody in broad daylight. Like lit it was uh I think yeah, I I think I did good there. Um and uh I yeah, I um I think it just really does not matter at all. You crash, you you you you you tip over, it's okay, it's not a big deal. I mean, I'm I'm I'm sure I will never live this down, obviously. But uh and Martin really struggled to introduce me as an like an actual writer, you know, for my keynotes, and so there was that, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 57:42

Yeah, you make a good point about that. It's interesting, no matter what the uh whether it's men or women, probably more in men, because there's a little more ego in there, is that um the first thing that people want to do is when they fall, is they want to pick the bike up right away. And I if you if you look at the video uh when Aaron and I were in India and I went down, we're going, you know, the switchbacks go, you know, left and right down a mountain, and we took the road, of course, it went straight through the switchback, straight down. And um, it was sandy, and I got on the top of a ridge, I hit the back brake, and a bike just washed up from underneath me. So on Aaron's video, the first thing you see is just laughter. You just hear the laughter. He's like, There's not even concern, like as soon as he sees me go, he's like, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, there he goes, and he starts laughing hysterically. So I just remember going, roll with it, roll out of it, and then just wait a moment, do an assessment, is everything okay? While Aaron's still laughing. So but you're right, and no one takes themselves very seriously. You gotta have fun with it. I have a recording here. So this is a listener question for you. This is Justina. I introduced her a moment ago. She's a friend of the podcast, has been on. She's a fellow with Lithuanian. Uh Scooy 2025 is where I met her. So kindly answer this question.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

What keeps me um sort of coming back to the road to traveling? That's a good one. Oh my god, that that's gonna be cliche as hell. But yeah, just the sense of freedom and the big open skies and mountains and big open places. Quite acutely miss that when I have to be at home for longer periods of time.

SPEAKER_08 59:27

Authentic answer. Thank you.

Ukraine Fundraising And Hard Stories

SPEAKER_08 59:30

Let's take the compassionate thread here. From slum kids to frontline medics. The evolutionary shift in purpose. In 2013, you went to Peru specifically to volunteer with slum kids in Arakepa before your motorcycle journey ever began. Now you're serving in the Lithuanian Armed Force Armed Forces Volunteer Corps. Looking back, do you see that your current defense of Ukraine as the natural and ultimate evolution of that raw human instinct to protect and serve the vulnerable?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

This conflict hits very close to home. Uh, I mean, historically we've experienced what um Russian occupation is like. Uh, once again, very up close and personal. And so this one, um yeah, this one's this one's personal. Once again, uh the just the Soviet occupation alone, uh, my granddad spent 12 years in a Siberian gulag in a coal mine, um, because he told one too many jokes about Stalin. Uh I mean, I I I could go on, but uh bad experience and uh and I suppose just the fact that there's never been any attempts of actual reconciliation, you know, um Germany has done a lot of work after the Second World War to sort of acknowledge and admit what they've done and and and try to repair South Africa. There's been reconciliation, right? Um there's never been anything like that from Russia, and that's why I think the anxiety sort of never left us. And uh Crimea annexation surprised absolutely no one at home. And of course there was Chechnya and Georgia before that, and so the full-scale invasion was just sort of like the final confirmation of what we're dealing with. And um when it comes to helping out Ukraine, I think it's it's it's just uh a natural duty. And I I I have this sort of low-key ongoing guilt that I'm not doing enough because what those people are facing and the resilience and the humanity that they see every time I go there is absolutely mind-blowing. I think we should all be doing a lot more and helping out because they're literally standing at the gates of hell and protecting all of Europe right now. The bigger fundraiser that I did was uh for Nastya, a combat medic uh from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Uh Nasty's 27 years old. Um, she's the bubbliest, most smiley person you'd ever meet, despite working in conditions that are, I think, unimaginable to most of us. When all of this is over, hopefully, her dream, she loves copy baras. Um she would love to open uh an animal rescue center in Kharkiv and sort of tie that in with some sort of uh like a community center for veterans to to to recover. Most Ukrainians um that I know and that we work with, whether they're soldiers, combat medics, local volunte volunteers, absolutely nobody wants this. They're not most of them um are not like professional um soldiers, they're they're lawyers, you know, they're they're poets, they're they're writers. Um and and they've been forced into this absolutely horrific situation. And uh I always find it difficult to talk about Ukraine because where do you even begin? But maybe I could share just one story that just sort of really stayed with me. As we were going through um an area near Svetohirsk, um it's a very beautiful area. You sort of feel almost like you're in southern France or something, and uh it's been known for really um expensive spa resorts, things like that, hot springs, you know. Of course, it's everything's bombed out now and not a lot is left. But there was one um horse riding yard there owned by this um Lady Svetlana, and and we're talking like Olympic level horses, like 200,000 Euro horses, stuff like that, right? When the full-scale invasion began, she uh she sensed that, you know, this is this is gonna get serious, so she sent her horses away towards Kiev or something like that, but she sort of stuck around because there was a couple of there was another local yard, like a small private one. Um anyhow, she was still there and she gets a phone call from a military contact and they say you need to p pack your kids into your car right now, and you need to go right now, not in an hour, but now. Um so she sent her kids away, but she knew that uh the people at that smaller yard were still there, so she actually went to them. Everybody got on horseback, everybody, the employers, the everyone, and just literally galloped across the woods as they were being shelled. Um not all of the riders made it, but most of them did. And when she got back to Kiev, she sold all of her prized horses, donated all of her money to um the Ukrainian armed forces, and she went back to Svatohirsk because the area has been liberated, and she now works in that little local yard um with uh older schoolmaster horses, and uh she invites soldiers for um for little forest rides for an hour or two so they can just be normal to forget the horse for an hour, half an hour.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:00

Decompress, very humanizing story indeed. Animal therapy is huge, especially for combat veterans. Let's talk about how you ended up parting with your DR six fifty and your fundraising efforts.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

When I got back to Lithuania, I started to uh Well, I wanted to help out more, so I joined uh the team at Kalokniga, which is a local NGO. Uh Kaloknica literally translates to road book, uh, because the team is rally racers, riders, it's just sort of that that kind of a team. And uh yeah, I wanted to fundraise for again for Infranastia, uh, for a fully equipped four by four, because those are badly needed on the front lines. So uh I did the ride. Six and uh six and sixteen, the idea was to cover six countries in sixteen days. Um the fundraiser was successful, but somewhere along the way I was like, uh chances are um My round the world travel days might be on pause for a little bit now because I decided that uh I would go back and uh join the Lithuanian Armed Forces. And uh and yeah, somewhere in Czech Republic I just had this idea, you know, I had that CR, Lucy, for nine years. I could never sell it. No way in hell I would sell it. But um I thought why why don't I just gift it to um Ukrainians? Because that would be a really good new mission for Lucy the bike. And uh I had some uh motorcycle friends in Lviv and they connected with uh me with Andri, who was a drone pilot school. He was an officer and and he was teaching uh his soldiers to ride bikes just from ability and things like that. So we connected and uh yeah, I wrote to Lvviv. I met Andre, which was a great privilege, and I handed Lucy over, and uh that was the end of it. I took a bus home.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:59

Lucy initially started off as Lucifer. Is that because this was an unwieldy beast compared to your 150?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:06

Absolutely. I was so intimidated because yeah, this was my first big bike, and uh we were going to do the Trans-America Trail on it, right? So yeah, it was Lucifer, and then little by little it just became Lucy.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:19

Nice, very humanizing indeed. So you went back and then you joined the armed

Joining Lithuania’s Volunteer Armed Forces

SPEAKER_08 1:07:26

forces. So how does so you you've got a lot going on. You've got little big rides, you've got the armed forces, yeah, you're fundraising, you're rallying. How do you how do you find time to do the when the military says you come, you come, right? So how do you find time to fit all the things that you do into the demands of military?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Right. Um, so I that was actually the reason to come back to Lithuania. I I I wouldn't have otherwise. Um and I thought I would just, you know, because once again, I had a great run, right? I I had the freedom and the opportunity to have all these adventures, travel the world and have all these experiences. And uh, you know, the geopolitics got really crazy all over the world, and I realized that uh if this um Russian aggression is not stopped, the Baltics might be next on the menu, and I just felt like it was time for me to do my part. Um, and uh I moved back. I didn't know if if the military would even accept me. I mean, I'm 40, I I have never done anything even remotely to do with the military. So um, yeah, it was a very long process just to uh just to become a candidate. They do all these checks, you know, background medical, all of that. Um, but at the end of the day, I did graduate basic training and uh um joined Company 206. And um because it's a volunteer um basis, so the training is sort of ongoing. You know, if you're drafted or if you join the pre professional army, you um you do nine months and then you're in. Whereas with us, you do three weeks of basic training, and then every month uh three, four days of of extra training all the time. So essentially, once I graduated from BASIC, um I was I I could just build my whole year around the military exercises and training calendar so I know where I need to be. Um, and then sometimes unexpected things happen. So we had a bit of an intense situation uh with uh drones and balloons and things coming from our lovely neighbors in the east. So uh I think it was December, January, um I was with the border guards uh as support. Uh but most of the time um yeah, I'm still able to do a lot of the things around that sort of military exercises calendar.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:50

It's nice to have the agenda already so you can plan around that, so you can obviously do what you're doing. So is it three, four days per month then throughout the year?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:59

Typically, yes. Um sometimes, like uh in June, actually, we're gonna have a week-long exercises. And then, of course, there's all this extra training that you can do. So I've completed the TCCC course, the tactical um combat casualty care, because I think that's pretty crucial. And uh, I'm actually a machine gunner in my squad. Nice. So I'm gonna be going on a machine gun course in August. So there's like extra things you can do. And of course, if if there's a situation and you're called up, then you're called up, and that that that's it. Because again, it's the volunteer basis, so you know, people have jobs, families, all of that. So it's built in in a certain way that you can uh still do other things.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:40

What is next for you beyond the military?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

Actually, Peru. Uh I'll be headed to Peru in a couple of weeks to to lead the Big Little Rides tour. And uh I was uh so inspired by so many people at Skog, and we had a little chat with Morton when there's uh there's a plot to do uh pop-up Skog Lithuania in August. Nice. So that's gonna be happening, and uh yeah, I I hope to just get out and ride some more because Sweden uh I didn't really expect it to be so scenic and exotic and wonderful, and now I'm thinking, well, actually, if I just get out and ride the Baltics, um uh yeah, I just I just want to ride more regardless where I am and what's going on.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:28

It's also it's quite accessible, right? So you can do around the around the Baltics, there's rallies around the Baltics. Yeah, there's a lot of that happening. You just gotta watch out for the bugs certain times of year. And the parking apps. And the parking apps, as we sorted out here on the outside of the studio this morning. Yeah.

Where To Follow And Support Egle

SPEAKER_08 1:11:44

Um, how can our listeners find you and how can they support you?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:49

I think the easiest way is probably Facebook or Instagram. So it's Agla on the Road, E-G-L-E, and then on the road. Um, and then there's my Substack, and of course, if anybody wants to support the Ukraine fundraising efforts, uh the links are in the you know, in the bios and and all of that thing. But yeah, I think social media is probably easiest.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:11

Thank you very much for taking and spending your morning with us.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

Thank you so much for having me here.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:17

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!

SPEAKER_02 1:12:33

Hey cannonballers, thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com. Or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll list it on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now, back to the riveting podcast in progress.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:57

And we're back. Yeah, good one, Taylor. Yeah, it was really nice. She is um she's really authentic, just genuine. Like she's just genuine through and through. And uh it was just fun chatting with her. She's quite nice, just a nice, just a nice person through and through, and um, and funny, and has a uh as she commented in there, a um Sweden for her has the or the group of people that she rode with there at the at the Scoog 2026, had the right amount of dark humor. So she's got that side.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:27

Exactly. I'll uh write up something and put it in her news feed when we drop this episode as well.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:32

Yeah, fantastic. All right. We just had a friend do here. So let's talk a little bit about Erin's rideouts. I think we had uh, well, why don't you talk about our friend who was there recently and the ride out?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:44

Let's hit the road, wear some gears, and ride out to this week's adventure by checkpoint.

Rideout Pick Land’s End Observatory

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

Yeah, so this week's ride out is actually a checkpoint from 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally. It is Lands and Observatory. It's in Colorado, and it's a very accessible ADV ride destination. If you come up from the Utah side, you will climb up a dirt road switchback, really well paved. Well paved, well-packed. Uh well paid, well paved. Well paved. It's a packed switchback all the way up this uh area called Land's End. It's just kind of a cliff, it's kind of like an escarpment. And then at the very top, there's an observatory. So a highly recommended ADV ride out destination in Colorado, really accessible and uh breathtaking. And you can go by yourself with a big bike. It's a great ADV destination.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:49

Nice, very nice. And um, Brian Coffin, thank you for the pictures that you sent for your most recent trip there.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:56

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I think the banner image on one of our groups or something is Brian on his 1200 GS. The last time him and I went there. So uh that's a legendary picture. Nice.

2026 Rally Check-In Walkthrough

SPEAKER_08 1:15:12

What do you say? We talk a little bit about uh ADB cannonball news where we can focus on what people should do and be prepared for when they rock up to do the 2026 rally.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

And you're gonna be helping. So we're excited. We're gonna have about a hundred riders. So we'll have to come up with a well-oiled machine for you and I to process a hundred people. I just want to mention that if we're kind of rushed and I don't have time to spend time with everyone, I apologize, but we can definitely go for uh a beer later. Uh and I have a disconnect between people I talk to all the time by messenger and by email, and I may not be able to put a face to it. So don't be offended by that. I'm I just there's that disconnect, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:15:58

But just Aaron, just to clarify for anyone who is listening, there'll be plenty of other opportunities for you to be offended by Aaron in case he misses that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

Oh, yeah, don't worry. I'm gonna offend you. You're gonna want to. He sent me some pictures. Oh, it's really good. And I said, Well, you haven't done the rally yet. And I said, I'm a little worried because if it all goes to hell in a handbasket, you can't burn it because it's made of metal. And he says, Well, I can shoot holes in it just fine.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:40

You got the right, but now we know I have the we have the right kind of clientele.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:43

Absolutely. I'm like, you know what? You're absolutely right. I'm fine with that. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:47

Okay. All right. So let's talk. You and I have talked about this before, so we can sort of spitball through this. Um, one of the things, just to the participants, one of the things again that I'm gonna be helping with, Brian Coffin will help with, one of the things that we're gonna do since we have more riders this time than ever before, is to try to streamline it. So there's gonna be like station one, station two, station three, and you're gonna go through these different checks. But let's talk about can you talk about sort of start to finish what it looks like the day when you rock up and you're you're there? You got your bike outside and you're meeting us for the first time. What does that look like? Can you walk us through that, Aaron?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:23

Yeah, great question. So I actually encourage anyone to go early. So if you have the time, I'll be there two or three days before rally check-in. So uh just get my phone number off the rally notice page and say, Hey, Aaron, I'm here at the hotel. Can I check in? I'm like, that's a huge help. So if I can just meet you out by the van, you will get to know the van, the big blue whale, rather quickly. Uh, it's the obnoxious Blue Sprinter van. And I'll meet you out early and I can spend more time with you then, and we can do rally check-in early. So that's that's the first thing. The second thing is on the day, it's a bit hectic. And this year we're gonna do all the rally check-in at the van because this particular hotel doesn't have the ballroom set up like last year's did at Kitty Hawk. It was this fantastic space. And by the way, in 2027, we also have a ballroom in Portland. So this year it's gonna be a little bit ghetto, but I'll I'll drop the uh the awning out. We'll have a table set up, uh, kind of like how they do for the scooter cannonball. But this will be the only year that it's like this just because the location. But, anyways, so we'll have a table set up, bring your driver's license, and uh you'll sign the waiver. You will read and you'll agree to the waiver. And uh, and then once you do that, you'll be given your token. And then once you get the token, we'll enter that into your rally app, into your rally phone. Please read the regulations regarding the rally phone. And that's really the uh the bulk of it. And then Taylor will give you your rally numbers, the stickers. And the stickers really are important because we can know your number when you're riding through start, but you can recognize each other. So if you have space on your bike to put uh your rally numbers on all four sides of your bike, you will notice by like day two and three that you can easily pick out someone else who's in the rally rather than someone else who's just riding around. So it helps us, but it also helps you to recognize another cannonballer.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:35

So here's a question that we've had before: do the stickers come off?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:39

They don't come off easily. But the best way that I've figured out is with a pressure washer. So if you just go to, you know, your local car wash with the you know, self-serve car wash, that's the best way. Just kind of pressure wash them off. And if if you don't have that facility, get yourself uh grab your your wife's hairdryer, and uh, and that's another way to uh to get it off. But don't use a metal razor, just use a plastic razor or just just pick at it with a heat gun.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:07

All right, good tip. Yeah, and we had people before who were very particular about that. Um, is there a way to can you just tape a sticker on? We had someone who was creative in last year's round.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:16

Oh, yeah, don't don't don't do that because first of all, uh you're being a weenie. Uh you're you're missing the point. Uh and the guy who did that ended up having the sticker goo, sorry, the the the the glue uh ruining his his windshield. So just just don't be a weenie, you know what I mean? And and just do it correctly, anyways.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:36

Is is that regulation one, just to be clear?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:38

Correct. And if you're not sure, read regulation two.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:43

I think that refers you to uh regulation one. Exactly. All right. Okay, so let's so you rock up, you see the you see this uh beautiful uh dark blue uh sprinter van with the awning out with motorcycles parked around it. Station one, who do they talk to?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:02

Talk to me, they sign the rally waiver, you get the token, and then they see you for the rally numbers and uh anything else that I've missed, and then either you or Brian will get them signed up on the WhatsApp group. So uh the two apps that are on the rally notice page, you should have installed before you get there. One is our rally app, and number two, if you don't have it installed already, is WhatsApp. And that's essentially it. Uh, it's pretty much as

Official Info Rules And Navigation Ethics

SPEAKER_01 1:21:32

easy as that. The main focus here is sign the waiver, get your token, get your stickers, get on the WhatsApp group.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:39

Yeah, and we're gonna have QR codes um taped on well, hanging somewhere. We don't want to damage the paint on the on the blue wheel. Um, but somewhere we'll have a QR code, maybe on a tabletop. Um, that so if you for some reason have missed all of these instructions and you have not downloaded either one of these apps, uh, hopefully to an Apple device, because those are more rock solid than the other kind, um you can get that downloaded then. And just to be clear, one of the things that we can help with is getting the token into the rally app. We can also help with the WhatsApp group, which is an informal chat. Where do people find official information about the rally, Aaron?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:24

That's a great point. Whatever is said on the on the rally chat on WhatsApp is not official information from the rally. The only place to get information is on the rally notice page. And the onus is on you to check it several times a day. And uh, you know, this is where you get your information for start times and any other information we want to communicate. But uh seeing as though this is a zero support ADV kind of rally, there'll be very little information. But if there is information, that's where it will be.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:00

Last question for you What if I have questions about my navigation? What do I do?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:07

You will go ask someone else because you know it would be improper for us to give advice on navigation to anyone in the rally because this is a competitive rally, although not everyone is taking it as a competition, but a lot of people do. And it would be improper for us to give advice on how to navigate because that's part of the skill set. I don't care if you're in the Baja 1000 or Dakar or whatever, or you're doing a uh a TSD rally or a checkpoint rally, that's a skill set. And some people take it very seriously. I know people that are building their navigation plans today. And I know some people that will just open Google Maps and wing it, right? And you know, everyone's welcome. But you know, we we cannot uh we cannot give you advice.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:03

So the last person you were referring to may have been me.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

Well, I I don't encourage Google Maps because even that requires preparation. So you need to have those maps on your local device because you're not connecting to the internet when you're on, you know, land's end observatory. There is no internet, right? Yeah, so as a matter of fact, I sent you the uh access to the rally notice page because you're gonna be ripping around on our an R 450 rally bike. And I thought to myself, well, you're gonna be on your own. So better to get prepared now. And the nice thing about our setup, it's the same as your motorcycle setup. So in your case, you can have your navigation plan, which is probably simply going to be following the GPX route. And you will have that on your phone, which is most people's primary navigation device. And I have a quad lock on the 450. So in your case, I you know want you to be prepared as well because there'll be nothing more embarrassing if you're asking a competitor for advice along the rally trail, and you know, you're riding around on an ADV cannonball branded motorcycle that's lost in the woods, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:17

You know, maybe I should reconsider just staying in the van.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:20

No, no, no. We're putting a lot of effort into this damn motorcycle for you to have fun. So you're gonna have fun, goddammit.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:28

No, I'm totally kidding. I'm gonna use the Segra IO app. And uh I've been chatting with Nicholas, who is one of the developers in that company, which is based here in Sweden. And um, yeah, anyway, I'll be I will be prepared.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:41

Awesome. And you're gonna have fun doing it.

New Rally Signups And Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 1:25:44

Hey, can you help me do some signups here? Because uh, you know, I can't read.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:49

Signups. Aaron, there's so many, there's so many rallies. What do you what do you think I should start with? The 2027 Europe rally? Let's do it. All right, 2027 Europe Rally. Neil and Allison from Halver Hill, UK on their 1250 GSA. Nice, welcome. Yeah, they're two up. Two up, fantastic. Welcome, welcome to the rally. 2027 USA Rally. Chris from Waysboro, North Carolina on his 1200 GS in Pro Class. JP Delassis from St. Louis, Missouri, on his KTM 1290 S A R in Mile Crusher class. White Dragon from Leavenworth, Washington on his R 1200 GS in Pro Class. Glenn Ray from Lorraine, Oregon on a is that KTM 890 Adventure R rally in ProClass.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:46

Yeah, nice one.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:47

One Hanzo. Onahanzo from Atlanta, Georgia on another X Max 300. RV got two scooters in there. Fantastic. And he is in the Mile Crusher class. Brian Steinburn from Bristol, New York on his T7 enters ProClass. All right, that's a couple of T7s we got in there now.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:09

One here coming up as well. Jeff from Las Vegas, Nevada on a Honda NT 1100 in Mile Crusher class. Carrie LaBelle. Welcome, Carrie. And for those of you who uh who may not be familiar, I don't know who wouldn't be, since he's the number one podcast within this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:28

Damn you, Carrie.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:28

Carrie LaBelle. Damn you, Carrie. Carrie, welcome back. Of course he's back. Of course he's back. Carrie LaBelle from in ProClass from Davison, North Carolina on his T7, Ten Ray 700, Yamaha. He's back first, third rally in ProClass, of course. And Todd Breeding, now that name is familiar, very, very familiar from a Sergeant Texas on his R1300 GSA. He signed up for 2025, 2026, 2027, Europe and now 2020. 27 USA in Mile Crusher class. A huge welcome back and thank you, thank you, thank you for your continued support. I'll tell you what, and to everybody out there who's signing up for these rallies, you know, we couldn't, we couldn't do this. Certainly Aaron couldn't do this. I actually have a job. Um, but we we couldn't do this if it wasn't for you guys signing up and and uh and having these adventures with us. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:23

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head, and uh I can't say it any better.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:29

You know what I mean? Let's just take it to the bottom line.

Next Episodes And The Cannonball Attempt

SPEAKER_08 1:28:32

And coming up on the next episode. This is an interesting conversation Aaron and I had sort of off mic. So right now I am I am working the first time through using the riverside podcasting editing software. I did my first recording in there, and I did that with um Yuan Stolbedi, and he's a Swedish guy. He is actually Stolbedi in English, it means Steel Mountain. And uh he's a professional photographer. He started off as a professional ski photographer, and um it's a great interview with him, it's super interesting, um, and how he transitioned from skiing into motorcycling. He actually was with Robert Baldinger when he did Texas, and also uh when he was just recently in Pakistan as well. So he's included motorcycles into his um yeah, into his sort of things that he does. And and uh it's interesting to see to listen to and talk about his transition. So there'll be a couple things coming up. If I can get that editing done in time and I can figure out how to use the software, we also had an issue with the last question that I asked him. The audio dropped out. Um, if we can get that sorted, maybe I have to do a re-recording. Um, we're gonna have if the last question on the on the interview dropped out, I'm gonna have to wait for him to get back because as Aaron and I record this right now, he is currently, get this, he is in Patagonia filming a boys' ski trip where he's been given a factory VW, an electric, I'm not sure what, it's like a I don't know what it is, but it's an electric VW, and it's for their owner's magazine. So it's like, hey, you've had a VW for three or four years now, and now it's time for you to step up to the new model. So he's doing this filming trip where they're gonna use the still and the audio. So they're doing this kind of boy ski trip, and he is a professional skier as well. So um, but they're filming this adventure, and so he's down to doing that right now. So if I have to get one more question out of him to fix that, then it won't happen next week. But next week we will have field notes from the cannonball attempt, and I will hand over to the gentleman who actually will be doing that. Welcome to Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:52

Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to the podcast. So Carrie will actually be doing that and recording it and editing it. This dumb cannonball attempt when you learn more about it. It's like, how do you torture yourself? It's by doing this. But it will be interesting and it will springboard into a lot of other interesting things. So uh yeah, we don't know how everything will will unfold. If it will unfold, who knows?

SPEAKER_08 1:31:21

Well, we're all wishing you a huge amount of uh success with that. So we're sure it will be successful in the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:29

Yeah, it's uh July 22nd right now when we're recording, and I'm gonna start heading out in the big blue whale in a couple of days, and uh we're gonna try to depart traditionally at midnight on August the first. Well, technically August the second, one minute into the day. So that's our that's our goal.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:51

That's the start time.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:53

Okay. All right, fantastic. Looking forward to hearing more about that. Let's talk a bit about the music that's about to roll out here.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:01

It's oldie beta goody. Let him come. It's the uh interstate edit.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:07

And with that, I think we should roll the outro.

Final Thanks And Review Request

SPEAKER_05 1:34:14

Smashing a five-star review really helps the podcast and satisfies the algorithm gods. All hell the algorithm gods. A special thanks to our Patreon supporters. You're keeping this sinking chip afloat. Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball Podcast. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the pegs.