S&YE164 - 48 Hours of Tristate The Finale

[00:00:00] Hello, my name is Rafael and you can find me on Instagram at PearlTheCrosstrek and Subie and You Podcast. You are listening to episode 164 of the Subie and You Podcast. This is the last segment of 48 Hours of Tristate.

[00:00:31] So I took a ride with Jeff, who goes by SlowSubies, and we had some conversation there, and we finished up at Turn In Concepts, or at least I finished up at Turn In Concepts because

[00:00:44] I was only there through early Saturday morning because I had to come back home to watch a performance that my son was in. So I want to give another huge shout out to Jeff and thank you so much for coming to pick

[00:00:59] me up at the airport and getting up really, really early with me on Saturday morning to take me to the airport because I think my flight left at 7 something, so we had to get

[00:01:10] up really early to get there in time for me to make sure I could get through security, even though that wasn't an issue. But I don't like getting there late, and so Jeff was very accommodating in getting up early so that I could get there on time.

[00:01:25] So thanks again, Jeff, so much. I really, really appreciate everything that you did for me on this trip and I had a really good time. So thank you for coaxing me and twisting my arm to get me to come out there and finally

[00:01:41] see what it was all about and get to meet a lot of people and also get to go to SOA and SIA. That was a lot of fun, so thanks again. The Subian U podcast is brought to you by Eccentric Designs.

[00:01:56] For those of you who don't know, Eccentric Designs is a small community-driven business that offers custom-fit vinyl overlays for most Subaru models. This includes various designs for the rear reflectors, taillights, and side taillights. I also offer fun decal designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers.

[00:02:14] To find designs for your Subie, head on over to eccentricdesigns.com. There's always more projects in the works, so be sure to follow at eccentric.designs on Instagram. And of course, I got to see my good friend Jen of Eccentric Designs while I was out there

[00:02:30] on that trip. The morning that we went to SIA, she and I met up for breakfast with Jeff, and it was cool because Jeff got to meet her for the first time, and we had a nice little breakfast

[00:02:41] and some great conversation, and it was a lot of fun catching up. So thank you so much, Jeff, for helping taking me out to meet her, and thank you so much, Jen, for meeting us. It was nice to catch up again.

[00:02:56] This episode is also brought to you by SubaruGear.com, and we're going with another Subaru gear collection you can find on the website, the Subaru Give Back Apparel and Accessories Collection. Discover how their Give Back Apparel and Accessories Collection helps make a positive mark on the world.

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[00:04:04] Okay, I have another patron question of the week, and this one comes from Sierra who goes by SLT Trek, and I'm almost laughing as I'm saying this because I had to message her separately,

[00:04:20] but she said, if you could meet Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, or James May, but only one of them, who would you pick out of the three? That's my attempt at a British accent. I had to message her because I asked her who those guys were. I didn't...

[00:04:40] I've watched Top Gear, but I didn't really... I haven't watched it that many times. I don't have cable, and I didn't really watch much of it on Amazon Video, so I didn't know their names. I just had... I just know the show.

[00:04:57] But knowing that I have watched a few episodes, I really like Jeremy Clarkson's accent and his attitude that he has on the show. So again, I haven't watched that many episodes, but the ones that I have seen, I know enough

[00:05:14] to know that I would really like to meet Jeremy Clarkson because he just... Again, he has a cool accent, and I like his attitude. I wish I could give more information about the guys and about why beyond what I said

[00:05:31] that I would want to meet him and maybe why I would want to meet the other guys, but I don't know that much about them. And I don't know that much about the show, other than seeing a few episodes.

[00:05:41] So, thank you so much, Sierra, for your question, and I hope that my answer wasn't too disappointing. This episode is brought to you by Ryca Wheels. Ryca offers wheels for the 1st gen, 2nd gen, and now the 3rd gen Crosstrek. I just checked their website.

[00:06:01] They've got wheels available for the 3rd gen. Thank you, Ryca, for offering wheels for the 3rd gen Crosstrek. They also offer wheels for the 4th and 5th gen Forester, and for the 5th and 6th gen Outback.

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[00:06:50] to get 10% off your purchase. Thank you so much, Ryca Wheels, for sponsoring this Subi and You podcast. This episode is brought to you by Mele Design Firm, where they believe that quality parts should look great while adding functionality to your build.

[00:07:07] At Meledesignfirm.com, not only will you find their battery mounting systems, engine bay caps, and other Mele products, you will also find products from other great brands available on the site. Mele offers products from Andersen Design Fabrication, Anti-Gravity Battery, iWire wiring

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[00:07:47] When you shop these two sections, you can save by using the code SUBIU to get 5% off your purchase. Thank you so much, Mele Design Firm, for sponsoring this Subi and You podcast. Alright, now we'll get into this episode, the last segment, the finale of the Subi and

[00:08:07] You podcast, 48 hours of tri-state trip, and whatever you want to call it. But yeah, I had a good time, and we were, like I said, mentioned earlier, I rode with Jeff and then we went to Turn In Concepts, and I interviewed a few people while I was there.

[00:08:25] So, you will hear those interviews, and of course, like the ones before, it'll kind of jump around a little bit because I was just editing out sections where there just wasn't a whole lot of relevant conversation. So just bear with it on that.

[00:08:42] But here we go with these conversations from 48, different areas and sections of 48 hours of tri-state. There you go. Now we're set up. So now I'm in the car with Jeff, Slow Subis, and because a lot of the other cars have

[00:09:17] passengers in their front seats, it's easier to get in his car. But I'm going to record with other people too while we're out tonight, I think. So what are you thinking of the trip so far? Pretty typical of what I've been through, which is in a good way.

[00:09:41] I kind of hyped this up before, so to me it's living up to what I like about it. That's good. Yeah, I mean, I'm enjoying it so far. It's nice because I get to meet new people. I get to see... I've been to Pennsylvania before.

[00:09:56] I've been to Allentown when I was doing some work for my old job, so I got to drive around some and it was really nice. I don't know where we're at right now, but it's some pretty countryside and we've got

[00:10:09] some snow out on the ground, so that's nice. You know, we don't see this back in Houston or even any parts of Texas that are close to me, so I'm enjoying this. We just left Breezewood, which is kind of the middle of Pennsylvania as far as east-west

[00:10:27] on the turnpike. Yeah. So about halfway across. Okay. So another probably two hours we'll be going through Pittsburgh. Okay. Yeah, I've never been through Pittsburgh. But yeah, it's hard to push people's wives into the back seat to get in the U-Brain. Yeah.

[00:10:50] And get out of the front seat so I can do an interview. It might not work out so well. All right, passenger princess. Get in the back there. Take a nap. It's nice seeing these farm buildings out here and houses and rolling hills, especially with all the snow.

[00:11:05] Yeah, and there's so many little two-lane roads out this way too. Yeah. I think Pennsylvania still has the most state-maintained miles of roadway of any state. Wow. You would think California or Texas or something, but the roads are just so concentrated in Pennsylvania

[00:11:25] and almost all of them are the responsibility of the state. Yeah. Where you go to California or Texas, you might have a lot that are county roads. Yeah, we do. Stuff like that. Got you.

[00:11:37] There's a lot of state roads around here, all these little two-lane logging roads through the mountains and everything. Great for motorcycling too. Yeah. It's nice because we started off at SOA Wednesday night and now it's Thursday.

[00:11:52] We're heading from New Jersey to Indiana to go do the SIA tour Friday. I'm excited about it because I'm going to get to meet up with somebody Friday morning that I haven't seen in a long time, so that's going to be cool. It's going to be fun.

[00:12:15] Got to meet some people or see some people again that I know from SOA Wednesday night. Got to meet some new people. It was cool because I got to meet you first, picking me up in the Sue Me and You podcast. Impressive.

[00:12:32] Yeah, I was there for a few days. You got to talk to those young ladies from Make-A-Wish? Yeah, I talked to them. I'm trying to remember their names. I'm horrible with names. Yeah, me too. But I got them recorded. We got that little notebook now.

[00:12:47] You can take notes. Yeah, I know. The whole room of swag. Yeah, I had some nice stuff for us, including that backpack. I have the notebook in the other backpack. I've got to put it back in this one. I'll show you.

[00:12:54] I'm going to get you a new one. I'm going to get you a new one. I'm going to get you a new one. I'm going to get you a new one. I'm going to get you a new one. I'm going to get you a new one.

[00:13:48] Yeah, it's still... Well, events like this, I mean, I've got to take time to take notes and stuff. I already feel like I spend too much time taking photos and video instead of just enjoying the moment. Yeah.

[00:14:01] You know, the last thing I'm going to do is take time out and start writing everything down too, like I'm making a professional production out of it or something. Man, that's so cool. Look, there's some houses off to the side down below where we're at. Oh yeah.

[00:14:19] There's a lot of tiny townships. Yeah, it's really cool. Nestled in the hills. Yeah. Some nice little downhill highways here. Yeah, once we get around Pittsburgh area, the turnpike gets twisty and steep. It becomes like a mountain road.

[00:14:42] For a major highway, all you can see is getting a little twisty already. Yeah. It'd be fun to be driving that BRZ in this. Yeah. Especially with it being a manual. Yeah, I like the way Missy set that up with looking like the Mach 5. Yeah. So cool.

[00:15:01] Yeah, it was fun. It was fun driving it for a little bit. Strike you with this trip so far? I mean, I know you said it's pretty typical but... No, nothing. So it goes according to plan.

[00:15:19] I mean, as far as what Paizan and the organizers do, it's a well-oiled machine. I mean, they got the system down. We get a little behind schedule sometimes. I was trying to get everybody checked this morning.

[00:15:32] The driver's meeting was a little late but that was because there was a lot of people that didn't check in last night. Oh, yeah. So they were trying to get everybody checked in this morning before the driver's meeting. So that ran. Considering the whole day we're doing... Yeah.

[00:15:49] You know, like a 14-hour day, 15 minutes late is not bad. No, no, no. But, you know, they got everybody registered. Everybody got their little wristbands that we... Yeah, we ripped them off. We ripped them off last night because we weren't told to keep them.

[00:16:02] Yeah, so we're wearing these wristbands that we got when we first got to SOA and we're checking in with 48 hours of Tri-State. And we got back to the hotel room and we ripped them off.

[00:16:14] And then this morning, Thursday morning, we were told that we need the wristbands for the whole trip, especially to get into SIA tomorrow. But one of the organizers was saying, even I ripped it off. Yeah. At least two of the organizers ripped them off. Yeah, they didn't know.

[00:16:34] The word did not get out. But now we know. So the people that took them off got them new wristbands. That'll be in the after-action report. Yeah. Put it on the website. Keep your wristbands. It'll be in the podcast too. Oh yeah. Refer to episode... Yeah.

[00:16:54] Again, thanks to you for letting me know that I'd be hopping around and recording with different people because that's what pushed me to a great system for it. Yeah, it was just me and Corey brainstorming at the last closing dinner. Yeah, it was great.

[00:17:10] Like, we'd like to get them to come out. How's it going to work? How's he going to get content? We were like, hey, you know, instead of just setting up at each venue, because that takes time and all that. Plus, we'd have to get there early.

[00:17:25] We'd be the last ones to leave because you got to set it up and break it down. We'd have to get a space at each venue. It takes a while to set it all up. Yeah. Yeah, it would be a logistical nightmare on top of everything else.

[00:17:35] So, yeah, the fact that you could do a completely mobile thing and you just carry it on the plane with you. Yeah. I mean, all of it fits in my backpack.

[00:17:43] But I mean, the really great part about it too is that it's not only great for this event, but I'll be able to use it for any future event where I can go out and just take my

[00:17:57] interview mic with me and either have two mics and have somebody sitting down with me or just use the one mic that I have and talk to somebody. Total interview style. Keep it with you all the time in case you have like an impromptu interview. Yeah.

[00:18:14] That's a good idea. That's an interesting Subaru. Hey, you want to come talk to me? Yeah, I need to get a smaller bag that I can just carry this around with me. What's that on top? Oh, it's his camera.

[00:18:27] Either that or maybe he's got the antenna turned sideways. I see the antenna. Oh, yeah, yeah. I thought maybe that was like a WeBoost camera. Yeah, I think he's the one that's got the 360 camera on the selfie stick. Oh, that's kind of mounted on there.

[00:18:47] He just left it sitting on there. Oops, it went flying off. It's so pretty with the snow on either side of the highway like that. You can see it's 52 degrees and there's still snow everywhere. I was in Colorado several years ago and it was in January.

[00:19:07] I went out there for a work trip. We got there, I think we flew in Monday. We worked all day Tuesday and then part of Wednesday. And I think it was Tuesday night it ended up snowing all Wednesday morning.

[00:19:30] Six to eight inches of snow built up on top. So that was awesome. Taking the car back. We ended up going back to the airport because the guy that I was traveling with, he was going back home.

[00:19:48] And I had friends that lived in Colorado Springs at the time. So I rented a car at the Denver airport, drove it down to Colorado Springs that Wednesday afternoon. And then stayed with my friends until Saturday when I flew back home.

[00:20:04] But we were out hiking the incline which is over near Pikes Peak. Some old abandoned railroad ties. There was snow out everywhere. Not everywhere but there was quite a bit of snow here and there. But I ended up getting hot because it was like 50 degrees out.

[00:20:26] And I was hiking with a hoodie. Oh the mail pouch tobacco barns, they're all over western Pennsylvania. Our group? Yeah. Are we having issues? Oh yeah it looks like one car is having an issue. So yeah those mail pouch tobacco barns, they're all over western Pennsylvania.

[00:21:03] They like store tobacco there or something? No it used to be a brand I guess. And it's some historical thing. Like you can look it up on Wikipedia, I forget the whole, they're everywhere.

[00:21:24] Yeah kind of like all the shops kept the old, with the wooden Indian tobacco stores. You know even though they weren't selling that brand anymore. Yeah. The more I come on this, like the first year or two you get a little nervous about how does everybody else drive.

[00:21:43] Because I've been on charity runs for motorcycle groups and stuff. You get people come out for those who maybe ride their motorcycle twice a year. And they just don't know how to ride, they're unsafe. And I just stopped doing those motorcycle group rides.

[00:22:02] So you come out for something like this and everybody's in formation trying to weave through traffic. And you just, if you don't know, you know, you don't know how these guys are going to drive. They're being crazy.

[00:22:15] Like the first couple years I came on there was a lot more younger guys, like college age kids. And WRXs and old, you know, beat up modified WRXs. You know they were, there was a few guys that had taken a little bit of chances.

[00:22:29] That's why the speeches, like this isn't a race. There's no trophies at the end, relax. It's a group ride. Yeah, I mean you want to represent, like they were saying, represent the brand. Oh yeah, once you put stickers on your car you're representing all that.

[00:23:07] Obviously not those little ones that are burned out there, but a lot of these barns are still being used. I had one snowstorm in Philly, I think it was 77 or 78. I just remember being able to walk from one car to another.

[00:23:25] Like we just, as little kids we just walked onto our neighbors' cars and stuff. Because the snow was like, it was several inches thick on top of the cars. And then piled up in between so we just were running along the cars. Building tunnels in between.

[00:23:40] Not growing up in that environment, not being able to experience that. It's like, to have that experience. Deprived of some childhood. Yeah, see like this kind of countryside, we don't see this kind of stuff.

[00:24:23] We won't be able to see it much longer when we put up the sound barrier. Like when we were in Nevada, there was snow on the road like that where we were driving on the snow. I was like, this is crazy that we're actually driving.

[00:24:44] Oh yeah, my daughter's up in Madison, Wisconsin. She said they, other than the main highways, they don't pile the roads. They just drive on it. How far is Wisconsin from you? So we moved her out there in this car. Yeah.

[00:24:59] All her stuff, well not everything that would fit. It was me, my wife, Maria, her cat. And then for some reason we could only board, we could only board one of our two dogs at the time because one of them didn't have their shots or something. Yeah.

[00:25:22] And so we had to take the one dog with us too. So it was three adults, a small dog and a cat. The cat was in a carrier. And then the whole, like everything she could pile in the back, behind the back seat.

[00:25:38] Slowly mailed all the rest of her stuff out. What are we doing? Am I going around? I think he's filming. You said something about keeping through two or three car lengths because he's... Oh, so yeah, so from, so I have. Oh you have?

[00:26:40] I mean, no, I've considered it. You got you, you got you. Because our daughter's birthday is in August but I think FlatFest is in like September. That's why I was talking about maybe, you know, we go out and visit her for her birthday.

[00:27:04] She might be getting a Subaru eventually too. She wanted a Subaru because when she went, she first moved out there, I mean she was graduating college for a year or two. She moved out there and she still didn't have her driver's license.

[00:27:17] Like she had, I started to teach her to drive when she was in high school and she had like such, you know how these kids are with the anxiety now. Least bit stressed out and I was like, okay, I'm not going to tell you to do this.

[00:27:33] Just you tell me when you don't want to do it and we won't do it. And I got to the point, you tell me when you want to drive. And it was like, she still never finished it. And then she moved out to Madison.

[00:28:03] A couple months to work and she got tired of standing out in the cold. You know, or waiting on the bus or paying for Uber and all that. But the problem was she went and bought a car in early late 21, early 22. I guess early 22.

[00:28:23] And it was the time when they had the supply line issues. So there was like almost no new cars on the lots. Which meant everybody was buying up the used cars. She asked me and I was like, look, I was like, you want where you're at?

[00:28:40] You get the snow a lot. I was like, you want something in all wheel drive? I was like, obviously I'm going to push Subaru. I was like, but you know, honestly Volkswagen, Toyota. You know, front wheel drive isn't bad. Just put snow tires on it.

[00:28:54] But I was like, ideally you want the all wheel drive if you can get it. So she ended up, the only thing she could find that she could afford was a Toyota. A C, whatever. A C-H-R. A little, I think it looks like a ladybug. Yeah.

[00:29:15] What has she got? I think it's a black one. But anyway, she got that. She likes it because it's a nice size and you sit up a little higher. But she's trying to reduce her payment on it. Because she's got her student loan she's paying too.

[00:29:36] We're going under a mountain right now. Oh yeah, it's a mountain. It's crazy that they build these tunnels through mountains. Severely engineered this stuff, you know, I guess. I'm trying to tell her, like, instead of, because she was talking about refinancing her car. Yeah.

[00:30:14] I'm like, all you're going to do is spread the payment out further. To have a lower monthly payment. I was like, you're going to have to pay a lot more money, the interest rates are higher. I was like, look for new cars now.

[00:30:24] I was like, I got my Subaru with 1% financing. We got my wife's Jetta with 0% financing. Yeah. Because they had just got the new model years in so they were trying to get rid of the old ones. It all depends too on your credit. Well yeah.

[00:30:39] She's got fine credit. But I was like, just look for the financing deals on the new model. You might get away with a lower payment because she's got some equity in her car now. Like it's worth more than she owes on it.

[00:30:53] So she can use it for a trade-in. Yeah. And then still, you know, if she gets 0 or 1% financing, she might even have a lower payment on a new car than she's paying now.

[00:31:04] My other car was paid off and I was starting to drive to Dallas for two reasons. One, to go see my girlfriend. But two, I was delivering food to this little vegan market up there. I was picking stuff up from Houston and driving it up there.

[00:31:19] But I didn't trust my car to make it so I was renting a car and driving up there. And I was like, I can't keep doing this. You know?

[00:31:28] I mean she was paying me to drive the food up there so it was kind of paying for the rental car. But I was like, I can't just keep driving a rental car up here and renting one every time.

[00:31:37] Plus, if I'm not going to be delivering food, I don't want to have to rent a car every time I want to go see my girlfriend. So, I was like, you know what?

[00:31:45] It's time to start looking at getting a new car and I knew that I wanted a Crosstrek. But I saw that they were advertising 1.89% financing. And I was like, you know what?

[00:31:58] I'm going to go ahead and apply and I feel confident that I should maybe get like 4 or 5%. You know? Because that would be a lot lower for me. And I heard back from the bank that I got approved for the 1.89% financing. And I was like, this is awesome!

[00:32:17] And I'm like, okay. I'm doing it. I've got 6 years until retirement and I don't see myself getting another car before then. Yeah, I mean unless something major happens with my Crosstrek, I don't see myself getting anything else.

[00:32:32] I mean like, and that's why I try to take care of it and not drive it too hard when I'm going off road. Or otherwise. If something happens, like I can't really, if it's out of warranty, I can't really afford to get something major fixed.

[00:32:48] Well, that's our last couple years before I retire and we move. It's all paying down our debt right now. By the time I retire, hopefully the only thing we have is the mortgage on the house still. And we'll be, we'll have some equity there.

[00:33:02] In fact, we already do because the house, we bought the house brand new 3 years ago and there's already houses in our neighborhood selling for like 30% more than we paid for ours. Technically we already have equity in it. Although the whole housing market went up.

[00:33:17] So we don't really have like more buying power. But it would be enough if we sold it, we'd have enough to put down on something else. Without having to take it from somewhere else. All right.

[00:33:30] So we pulled over because some other people had pulled over to check on their car or something. And I don't remember exactly why we pulled over. I think that was to find out what was going on with this person's car.

[00:33:41] But when we pulled over, we got out and Jeff ended up pulling his seatbelt off. And when he did, his mic that was clipped to his seatbelt flew into the backseat and we didn't realize it.

[00:33:55] So from this point on, there wasn't really any audio from him that you could hear. It was just me talking and it would have sounded awkward with a one way conversation. So unfortunately I had to take all of that out.

[00:34:11] But I don't think there was too much more after that. And now we will get into the conversations at Turn In Concepts. Where we had a pizza dinner with some drinks and cookies and also the raffle and the auction.

[00:34:29] So I was able to talk to some people while I was there. I also talked to one of the owners of Turn In Concepts. So that was really cool. And then I got on the mic a little bit later to talk about...

[00:34:46] I got on my mic in front of everybody to talk about the podcast a little bit. And the item that I was auctioning off, which was the hat signed by Rihanna Gelsimino and Leah Block.

[00:35:01] But it was a little bit out of my comfort zone to be up in front of people talking. But I guess when you know what you're talking about, it's a little bit easier. But still a little bit anxious. I was a little bit anxious about that.

[00:35:16] But it turned out okay. So you'll hear that towards the very end. Again, these conversations kind of jump around a little bit because I didn't record the entire time that I was there. So I was just trying to keep in the relevant content.

[00:35:30] Hey, how are you doing man? Why don't you introduce yourself? I'm Rafael with Sue B&U Podcast. We're here at Turn In Concepts on Friday night. Everybody's doing the raffle and dinner. So how's it going, man?

[00:35:43] I'm Justin Williams, one of the staff for the 48 Hours of Tri-State Charity event. Just here to make sure people have a good time. And we raise money for Make-A-Wish. How long have you been doing this? This is my 15th trip over 16 years. We missed one thanks to COVID.

[00:36:00] I've been staff for about half of that. So just attending first? Yeah, I just started out as an attending and then I started helping out with routes because we were going through West Virginia. And then I just became the routes guy.

[00:36:17] And now I have a bunch of cars that follow me around every January. We all get lost together. Did they ask you to be staff or did you ask to be staff? I was asked. Alright, cool. It's been a good time.

[00:36:34] We've raised a lot of money for Make-A-Wish. Yeah, I heard. I talked to the Make-A-Wish ladies on Wednesday night when we were SOA. Yeah, they're fantastic. They've been a great partner for us with this so we can grant wishes. Yeah.

[00:36:49] When I started, we were doing American Cancer Society and we changed to Alex's Lemonade Stand. We've been hanging out with Make-A-Wish because it's just been a really good fit and what they do is amazing. Yeah, I know.

[00:37:04] They were telling me about all the money that 48 Hours of Tri-State has raised for them and then also all of the money that Subaru has raised for them. That's pretty incredible. Subaru does amazing with their sales.

[00:37:19] You choose a charity to donate to and one of them is Make-A-Wish. Yeah, it's been a really good cause. This is my first trip and I've enjoyed it so far.

[00:37:28] It's been a pretty good experience and meeting a lot of new people, trying to remember names but the name tags definitely help. That's not something that we've done very often with the name tags. I have forgotten mine. Which group have you been riding with?

[00:37:43] I was with Group 3 with Paizon's Group. Ah, Paison's Group is not the fun group. Group 1 is the fun group. Okay, well I'll have to remember that for next time I come out. We find the squiggly roads.

[00:37:54] Yeah, that's what I heard but y'all are going to find the squiggly roads tomorrow more so, right? There were squiggles today. It was hard to find squiggles in the land of flat but I managed. Well that's good.

[00:38:07] That's why they got you to help lead some stuff and find some paths for them. Oh yeah, it's been good. My co-pilot there, she keeps me telling people to go the right way. That's good. Alright, thanks for chatting with me. Nice to talk to you.

[00:38:26] Alright, I got somebody here that a fellow Houstonian man. How's it going? Why don't you introduce yourself for the CBNU Podcast? Name's Jorge Ortega. What do you drive? Right now, I'm driving a 2015 Chevy Suburban. Yeah but on the back of it, it has a purpose.

[00:38:46] Yeah, it is the official Subaru Justy support vehicle. Yeah, we've got the Justy driver over here. My name is Xavier Ortega. I drive the 1988 Subaru Justy. You also have another car too, right? Yes, I also have a 2011 WRX Hatchback. Alright, nice.

[00:39:06] So, you came up to me when we were stopping yesterday and you recognized my phone number and then we started talking about Houston and that was pretty cool because you said you have family back in Katy right now, right? Yeah, they're in Katy.

[00:39:23] So when I noticed your area code was 832, I'm like man, that's home. I know that number anywhere. Yeah, I know. That's pretty cool. Like way up here and then meet somebody from back home. This is what this trip's about really if you think about it.

[00:39:38] It's that Subaru of share the love. This is love. This is family. It brings people together from all over. There's other folks here from Houston as you might have already talked to them. So it's pretty interesting that we get folks from all the way to Houston.

[00:39:53] I mean, we're in North Carolina right now so it's pretty cool. So when did y'all buy the Justy? We bought the Justy I want to say mid or beginning of December is when we bought the Justy. Were you nervous about bringing it out here to 48 Hours of Tri-State?

[00:40:11] Because I know that being on when we were stopping for gas yesterday, you said you were kind of coasting in. But how many miles were you getting out of it? I'm usually getting 35 per gallon. But yeah, I was definitely very nervous.

[00:40:26] We tore it apart beginning of December, resealed the engine, popped it back in maybe a week before the trip. Drove it around town and just towed it up here and now it's driving perfectly fine. Nice. Yeah, it's a great looking car too.

[00:40:41] And that's the first time I'd ever seen one. And I know people aren't seeing those around all over the place. So y'all just happened to see it and decided to get it. Yeah, we were just counting around on Facebook Marketplace.

[00:40:53] It came up and we're like, hey, what about this? We're like, let's see what happens. And here we are. We probably already put about 1,100 miles on the Justy. And it's still ticking, knock on wood.

[00:41:08] And I think it's been the only Justy on the 48 hours of Tri-State in the existence of 48 hours of Tri-State. So we haven't confirmed that yet. We still have to do some research, but we think that we might have the only Justy.

[00:41:26] Yeah, if it is, that's going to be really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're excited about that, but we're excited to have it here. It's definitely not the fastest. It's definitely the oldest. It's definitely the only one with three cylinders.

[00:41:39] But hey, it's kicking and it's ticking and it's keeping up. And it's only front wheel drive, right? It is front wheel drive. So it's not an all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. It's only a front wheel drive. It's an interesting looking car, but it's really cool.

[00:41:53] It's definitely something cool to find and hang on to. Yeah, yeah. It'll be with us until it decides to not be with us anymore. So we'll let the Justy decide when it's enough is enough. And how much are you going to drive it?

[00:42:08] Are you going to make it more of a daily driver or an occasional driver? It's definitely going to be my daily driver until I get my 2011 WRX fixed up and everything.

[00:42:17] I'm going to tear the engine apart on that one and get it all back up, built and everything. So are you in school? Are you just working right now with your daily driver? Yeah, I'm currently working at Capital Subaru in Greensboro.

[00:42:31] So I'm actually working at a Subaru dealership. I'm done with school. I did my two years at GTCC in North Carolina for automotive. So that's where I'm at right now. Cool. You're in the right place for having a Subaru. Yeah, yeah.

[00:42:47] So thanks for chatting with me for a bit. My pleasure. I'm glad you're here and good to meet you. And we're going to definitely keep up with the podcast. So just see what happens in the future. Thank you. Appreciate it. How are you guys doing?

[00:43:09] I'm here with Chip, N.R. of the OBXT. And I'm here with Sean from Subaru. How are you guys doing? We're having a great time here. Delicious pizza, good company, good driving. A lot of rain today though. Yeah, we did have a lot of rain.

[00:43:24] What's your experience been like so far? I think it's fantastic. I think that for me I have a connection with the Make-A-Wish program. A couple of my students went through the program. So I think it's awesome what they do for me. So I was excited to be involved.

[00:43:39] So how about you? This is your first time attending Korea? First time, that is correct. First time. We've done a lot of driving. I think my car says this trip's up to 1,000 miles so far. And we'll probably get up to 1,800 miles on this trip.

[00:43:53] And what are you driving? I'm driving a 2023 Ascent Onyx Edition for this trip. But my daily drive is a 2023 Crosstrek Premium. That's nice. Crosstreks, yeah. I enjoy both cars. The Ascent's probably a better road trip car with the size and comfortability. But I enjoy both cars.

[00:44:16] And yeah, this trip's been a lot of fun. Met a lot of cool people. Saw some familiar faces and met a lot of new friends. So really excited about that. And looking forward to continuing the night and this journey.

[00:44:30] So with the SIA tour today, was this the first time that both of y'all have been there? For me, yep, absolutely. It was a new assignment for me too. I know, so my friend Jen, who goes by Eccentric Designs, she lives like 10 minutes from the plant.

[00:44:44] And I met up with her for breakfast. So it was really cool to see her. But her husband works at the plant and she's never taken the tour. So after going today, I was like, you have to take the tour. It is so awesome. I really enjoyed that.

[00:44:58] I loved watching the robotic arms in that one section where they're doing all the welding points. I was just so... Yeah, it was so cool, man. Everything was just perfectly in sync with that. The robotic arms coming into place.

[00:45:12] Them doing their whole thing and just getting it done in such a quick and efficient manner. Yeah, and it was cool seeing how much infrastructure is in there. Because you've got so many conveyor belts, so many lifts, all the robots. And it's just like very...

[00:45:34] Just seemed to flow really smoothly. And then it was cool to see the workers doing that too, working on the cars as it's going down the assembly line. So it was a lot of fun. How many cars did you point at?

[00:45:46] I'd like to take that one and that one. You see it coming through all painted and shiny. One thing that stood out to me is I believe all those cars that were being built today were already ordered by a customer. You're seeing these cars as they're being produced.

[00:46:01] And you're kind of foreshadowing a customer's enjoyment. And then looking at it too, I was like, man, that's a lot of Subarus. Something that maybe you can help me with at some point. When I first bought my Crosstrek, because it's a manual, I bought it in 2021.

[00:46:24] I was trying to... I don't remember who I was. I found somebody within Subaru before I met Charles, before I met Lauren. And I was emailing asking if they had any data on either the number or a percentage of Crosstreks that were manual in 2021 that were built.

[00:46:45] That's a good question. I don't have that answer, but I know some folks internally that may have that answer. So I can ask around. Yeah, because I'm just curious. I do see the breakdowns of vehicles sold per day or per week or per month.

[00:47:03] And you could check the breakdown on the models and all that. But I don't know if it goes that far into manual versus automatic. Yeah, because that'd be interesting to just like if there was a roundabout percentage of like in 2021, 3% of all Crosstreks manufactured were manual.

[00:47:26] It's definitely interesting stats, just seeing the trends too and all that. But yeah, food for thought. Well, and then seeing that Crosstrek Wilderness in the lobby area of SIA, it was really nice. I like that. Are they making any Crosstreks with automatic?

[00:47:45] I mean, a manual now or not at all? Not at the third gen, no. No more manuals. So it's like seeing the Wilderness, I really like it, but it would be so hard to give up mine because it's a manual. You know?

[00:48:00] You would be reaching for your pedal and your stick all the time. Yeah. I have a question for you. Is there anything that surprised you during these past 48 hours from SOA? This was your first time at SOA too, right? Yeah, it was the first time I'd been there.

[00:48:16] Anything that surprised you there or during this whole journey? I don't know if there's anything that surprised me, but like it's just, it's really cool to see how many people showed up to the event.

[00:48:30] And then like seeing the number of, I mean, you know they're going to be there, but it's just cool rolling up and seeing like so many Subarus. Especially like there's a lot of modded Subarus, you know? And then, but I don't know.

[00:48:43] I think just like because I've been in the community, I've been to other events, like the hospitality kind of doesn't surprise you anymore because you know that everybody's going to be like welcoming and talk to you and stuff. So I don't know.

[00:48:59] I think maybe the rainy weather today surprised me. Well, definitely you're used to the southern weather. Houston was probably what 60s, 70s right now. You know, it's the winter seasons. Today we had probably one of what I think is the worst weather, cold and rainy.

[00:49:15] Yeah, it's no fun cold and rainy. But when I get home Monday, it's supposed to be below freezing for like Monday and Tuesday back there. And they say we're supposed to get snow. And if they do, you know, I'm going to go out and have some fun. Crossed.

[00:49:30] How often do you guys get snow? I it seems like we get snow, maybe like a good dump of snow, like every five or six years. And the last one we had that hard freeze. That was three years ago, three winters ago. So yeah.

[00:49:47] So if we don't get anything this year, then maybe another year or two. Different than anything else. But it's fun. Yeah. Well, when I went out to Moon Rocks, Nevada, I was able to drive through some snow out there. I drove in an Outback.

[00:50:02] One of the guys that had has an Outback. This was in the shop. So he rented a Tacoma. So I got to drive a Tacoma through some snow and then drove a first gen Crosstrek in some snow. So that was a lot of fun.

[00:50:15] Yeah, I think that was the first time you saw snow too, right? Or am I mistaken? I've seen snow before, but not that much. Yeah, that was that was a lot of snow. Well, thank you guys for hopping on the mic for a little bit.

[00:50:30] I mean, I want to try to find the guys. I don't even know who runs this shop. That probably be a good idea to get them on to get them to talk about, you know, their shop a little bit. I'll find them for you.

[00:50:40] There's a few folks that I saw. Thanks for making a trip up though. I hope you enjoyed it. You said these guys are calling you up the last three years. So it's good you did. Yeah. And it was great meeting you, Chip. Nice seeing you're Outback.

[00:50:55] Yeah, a little dirty and dusty, but I drove nine hours pretty much to get down. So a lot of road salt and stuff from through the Adirondacks and pretty dirty. But I love her. Love that car. Yeah, that's a long drive.

[00:51:08] So you drove nine hours to get to SOA to begin with? Six and a half into the city and then parking. And then from there, get into Cuba of America was another two and a half, two to two and a half hours. So altogether about nine hours.

[00:51:22] That's a long trip. It's worth it. Good time. So you're in SOA and is this your first time doing 48 hours of Tri-State? First time doing all of this. Yeah. So I've been Rob Marino, I think one of the guys who's on the staff here.

[00:51:38] I've known him, done a few trail events with him and he's talked about it numerous times. So I kind of did some research on it. It sounded like a good thing. And once I found out what the fundraising was for, then I got involved.

[00:51:51] So it's been good trip. So what do you think about the whole event so far? I think it's been fantastic. I think the Subaru headquarters in Indiana, Subaru has been very welcoming. Very welcoming. The meals have been great. Everyone seems to get along.

[00:52:11] If you don't know somebody, you meet them. Everyone's friendly and the drive's been well organized. Except for the weather and traffic sometimes, but you can't control those things. If anybody's still hungry, we have plenty of food. We're going to try and start wrapping everything up in 7-10.

[00:52:27] So if you want more tickets, go see Nick in the back. If you have not put in your tickets, get in line and please start doing that right now. I've got to go put some more tickets in.

[00:52:38] I haven't put any of mine in because the line was really long. But now that it's died down, I'm going to go hop in there. I'm going to draw a few more. I just met him. Could you talk to him? No, no. Why don't you introduce yourself?

[00:52:53] My name is Kyle Williams, Subaru ambassador for the last year and a half. I'm here to have some fun and excitement at the 48 Hours of Tri-State. He's walking by right now and you asked if I had met him yet.

[00:53:07] But my friend Jay and Chris Hill, Jay messaged me and was like, Hey, see if you can find Kyle Williams and say hi to him for me. So I found him and went and said hi to him. How has it been being an ambassador so far?

[00:53:25] It's been great. I've wanted to volunteer and do things in the communities for years. I like cars. I like Subarus. You put them all together and it's just a good time. We're out there making a difference in our communities,

[00:53:40] whether it's cleaning up the green belt that we do in Harrisburg or helping with some of the local charities, helping underprivileged areas. It's just been wonderful. What's your experience been with 48 Hours of Tri-State? Good. Last year we were fortunate enough to go to Vermont Sports Car.

[00:54:00] That was absolutely amazing to see what kind of operation they run up there. That was a once in a lifetime thing to really get the behind the scenes look. They opened it up and let us roam around, which was amazing.

[00:54:14] This group here almost becomes a little bit of an extended family. Still learning a lot of the names, but there were people, last year was our first year, they were asking where my wife Stacy was at because they met her and talked with her.

[00:54:29] She's normally by my side, but it becomes an extended family. Meeting people from all over the country and making these connections is invaluable. What about 48 Hours of Tri-State? How many years have you been doing this?

[00:54:44] It's only been two years now, but it feels like I've been doing it a lot longer. This trip was pretty tough, coming all the way from Camden to Indianapolis. I don't think I'd want to do that trip again unless I absolutely had to. It was well worth it.

[00:54:58] The tour at SIA was top notch. It was amazing to see how the cars go from sheet metal to rolling off the line. It was really cool. That was a really fun experience and I'm glad we got to do that.

[00:55:13] When I was riding with Jeff, Slow Subies, he was telling me 48 Hours of Tri-State is not usually this long of a drive because they're not usually going this far. Like he said, it was a long drive. Normally a lot more breaks, but all the leaders understand that

[00:55:29] and they make sure that everybody's okay. We're making sure that if people need breaks, we do the breaks. We made it through and we're here and just having a good time. You got a nice car too. I mainly work with Faulkner Subaru out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

[00:55:52] They are one of the leaders when it comes to ambassador programs and what they do. They were gracious enough to give me a 2024 Outback Wilderness for this trip. Nice. To represent the dealership, have the name out there. A lot of people know.

[00:56:12] If people have been around a little bit, when you say Faulkner Subaru, they want to bow. It's like the holy grail of dealerships because they get it. They understand what Subaru does and they understand what ambassadors do. Whether it's the 48 Hours of Tri-State or any other thing

[00:56:29] that Subaru is passionate about, they are 100% behind. What's your experience been like driving the Wilderness? It's been pretty good. I agree that the Wilderness, comfortable seats, especially for that long ride, the seats were really nice. I like the wireless Apple CarPlay.

[00:56:51] I don't have that in my 22 WRX or my 22 Forester. I like that just getting in the car and being able to not plug it in, fiddle with the cord. That's been really nice as well, using the maps and phone and texting, the talk-to-text.

[00:57:06] I would say my only complaint is they kind of clustered the audio controls on the left side of the steering wheel. I'm so used to my cars, there's too much going on. That would be my only complaint. Other than that, it rides nice, it handles nice.

[00:57:22] I do have the Tully cargo box on top, so I'm only getting 22 miles to the gallon. Still, you can go 400 miles on a tank of gas. It's been nice. The wireless Apple CarPlay, that would definitely be a nice feature to have. Yeah, very much so.

[00:58:00] Trying to decide what I want to put my tickets in. There's some things that they could either mail it to me, or I would have to try to take it back with me on a plane, which I don't think I could do that. There's some SubiMods gift certificates.

[00:58:20] There's an LP Adventure gift certificate. It's very tempting. I think I'm going to go with the SubiMods. Corey, over here where it says Quantity 1, what does that mean? For example, Quantity 1, you get one $150 gift certificate. One $250 gift certificate like this, seven complete auto details. Same with this one.

[00:58:49] Some of them are doubled up. For example, G&G, they gave us eight $25 gift cards, but to make the door price raffle a little bit quicker, sometimes we just double it up. Most of the dealers, like Goldstein, you see they gave us $1,000. Same with Johnson's, they gave us $1,000.

[00:59:06] We double it up. It's got to go faster. Other than that, it can be longer than what it needs to be. Who are the people that work in this shop or own this shop? The owner is in Michael's house. So the gentleman in the house.

[00:59:23] With the blue plaid shirt, that's Clint, right? Clint is the owner of the gift ID. He's an OG. We've both been in the business for 20 plus years. Probably close to 25. He was here the last time we were here in 2015. The shop looked just like this, full of cars.

[00:59:43] They're buying a five-car stacker. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm Rafael with the SubianU Podcast. I'm here with 48 Hours of Tri-State. Clint with Turn In Concepts. Nice to meet you. How's your trip so far? It's been good. This is my first one.

[01:00:08] I had Corey and Paizan on the podcast a couple of times. They've been trying to get me to come out here for three years. So I'm finally able to make it out here. It's great to be in the shop.

[01:00:19] How long have you been involved with 48 Hours of Tri-State? Oh, wow. A long time. We've been in this shop for a little over 10 years. We had the guys from 48 Hours out at the old shop. It's probably been about 12 years that we've been involved with the program.

[01:00:39] How did y'all get involved with them? They reached out to us. I think it was the first time they were going out to the factory in Indiana. They were just looking for logical stopover points. We've known Mike for years.

[01:00:53] He's bought our products for six months since we started the company. So we've known him for a very long time. He just put together, hey, Turning Concepts in Cincinnati. We're driving right by there. Let's just stop in. That's what happened. What do you all do here?

[01:01:14] Obviously, standing in here, it's a shop where y'all are doing some engine work and other work. We started with Subarus. Our bread and butter is still very much Subarus, as you can tell looking around. We do everything but rebuild automatic transmissions. We don't do that.

[01:01:36] We've touched just about every single thing on these chassis over the years. From motor builds to just normal maintenance, suspension setup. We even have a track arrive and drive program. Tony Barber, my business partner, he's the other owner of Turning Concepts.

[01:01:55] He does trackside instruction and data gathering, data analysis. So we started out as enthusiasts and just went way overboard. We went from casual enthusiasts and we actually started the company, Tony and I started the company, to support our racing habit.

[01:02:15] It was a hobby that grew horribly, horribly out of control. Here we are years later with a shop, lifts, employees, doing stuff, doing research, making new parts, working with engineers. Here we are. It just kept going and kept going and kept going and it hasn't really slowed down.

[01:02:36] That's good, yeah. You've been around for a while. It's very good because I pay my mortgage doing this. So what does it mean for you now to be hosting this stop with 48 hours of Tri-State? It's great. I am so happy that you guys keep coming back.

[01:02:53] We had that whole virus thing which put a damper on everyone and everything. So it's been a few years since we've seen the crew roll through. And it's nice. I see a lot of people that I've seen here before, which means they're repeat offenders in the 48 hours.

[01:03:08] But I also see a lot of new faces and everybody is really, really friendly and they're really enthusiastic and they're very happy about what they're doing. And it's all for charity, which is a great thing to see.

[01:03:19] Yeah, and it's nice that you opened up your shop after hours to host it. I am more than happy to do that. It's helping other people, so I do what I can to help them also. Well, thanks for talking with me for a little bit.

[01:03:35] Man, it was nice meeting you. I'm really glad that you came out. Alright, in this section right here they were going over the auction items. But Paizan was also giving thanks to the people that were involved.

[01:03:47] And then they were talking about how the vendors that provided auction items are really important to raising money for Make-A-Wish.

[01:03:59] But the audio is kind of hard to hear, so I would recommend if you were driving to pause it here and wait till you get home and use headphones.

[01:04:09] So for anybody listening to this, this part here would be best using headphones because it's kind of hard to hear.

[01:04:16] But there's some good information and I think it was really important to leave this part in to kind of give people a behind the scenes of what it's like at the auction and the raffle and the dinner that we had on Friday night.

[01:04:35] So here we go with this section. So we're at the raffle drawing. Taking care of all the donations, all the stuff for Make-A-Wish. Very important. Mark has helped with all the sponsors and the t-shirt design that we had to change many, many times.

[01:05:37] He did it at the last minute. He did not pick the color. He didn't pick the color, he just did the design. Here you go buddy. If anybody wants to see why we picked a different color, go look on the t-shirt quilt because 90% of them are black.

[01:05:52] So we try to vary it up from ear to ear because we don't always want to wear black. Mark has been on almost every trip. Some kind of smorgasbord. Mark, on the other hand, he takes care of all the sponsors and he has been on every single trip.

[01:06:15] We have Dami, Robert, I'm using his middle name. Robert takes care of all the dealer relations and that's who acquired us the dinner on Sunday night, the dinner tonight, the dinner after.

[01:06:39] The dinner tonight and a whole host of other things that help fund insurance and all kinds of things that we need to put the trip on. He's been integral.

[01:06:52] Cory came on a couple of years ago, about 3 or 4 years ago, and he's been helping out with the social media and sponsors. He's shaken down this year at the last minute at least four sponsors. And he lives in Virginia too so it makes it even harder. Wow.

[01:07:13] Justin, Justin takes care of all the roots. Sorry. We're going through West Virginia where he lives so tomorrow the roots should be spot on. And if you have to go to the bathroom, we heard his house is open right?

[01:07:27] Yeah, we're going to be passing by his house if anyone needs a bathroom break. He has 7 pine trees in the backyard. He just had a septic pump. But since he lives in West Virginia... Wait, wait, if you're West Virginia does he even have indoor plumbing? No.

[01:07:41] But he has been doing the roots for years and he's very, very helpful. We have Jason who takes care of a lot of things. I'm not sure exactly what he does but mostly sponsors. But he's always there when we need him. Bruce takes care of the food. Bruce!

[01:08:02] He pays for the food. He acquires the reservations. And if anybody gets in any legal trouble, he's our counselor. And I think Nick is the last one. Nick was Ted's assistant and now he has taken over Ted's role as do all, be all.

[01:08:36] And he's done a great job. I appreciate the amount of people man. I'm going to get one of you. Yourself? Yourself. Oh yeah, yourself. Yeah, who are you? I just organize everybody else that does the work. I'm going to make sure I got everybody.

[01:09:03] I forgot one person and it was a disaster. And many of these guys are married or have girlfriends. So we thank them for letting them get on the phone calls once a week. So I don't know all their names but suffice to say we're very thankful for that.

[01:09:25] Is everybody having fun? Yeah! Does everybody know the number on the raffle table? Yes! I am very fortunate. Just one other note since I have to. How many people here work, and two of the groups already heard this but I really want to get it out to everybody.

[01:09:53] How many people here work on your own cars at home? Raise your hands. Of those people, keep your hands up, if you work on your car at home, how many of you always use jack stands no matter what you're doing on your car? If you're not, okay.

[01:10:13] Please, I beg you to use jack stands. One of my closest track friends over the weekend was working on a car during a week and the jack failed and it crushed him to death. So we can't save him but just take it as a sobering reality

[01:10:32] that anytime you are going to lift the car up, if you're going to do any kind of work, please put jack stands under there. I know we all say, oh it's just going to be a few minutes. Please.

[01:10:44] A minute to be safe, otherwise your family will be missing you. It's really important. Cheers to your friend. Most importantly, let's thank Tony Concepts for hosting us here. Somewhere he's on a phone call so if you see him around, he's a really tall guy.

[01:11:20] And he's got a D.I.C. outfit on. Those guys have been in the business for 25 years. If you need to order anything, if you need to buy parts, just reach out to them and if they can't help you solve your problem, then it can't be solved.

[01:11:38] With that being said, I've got to order before we start. Let me turn over to Mark. Thank you. Without these sponsors, you see before us, there would be no door prizes for the Raffle. Please, if you purchase something from any of these businesses,

[01:11:58] let them know you were on the 40 hours of Tri-State event. And we sent you to them. By doing this, these businesses will see their value of donating to us. So we ask for your support. Us. These sponsors, they have to see value in this.

[01:12:20] So if you have a friend that uses social media, whatever you do yourself, it's easier for us to get sponsors. And obviously that makes this event bigger and better. And, which makes Make-A-Wish, it makes our donation bigger.

[01:12:37] There's a lot of businesses now, some of them are not able to donate. Some of them are, but they can see value in this. It's very important to us. Let's do it. These are $100 if you go to buy them. These were hand delivered. $100 each? Yeah, free shipping.

[01:13:00] I'll welcome you to there, I promise you. High five! Alright everyone, we have one really big special item that we're going to open it off last. What do we got? So this year on the trip, actually what, two years ago. Two years ago.

[01:13:22] So we got an email, both Pison and I got an email from Tom Salvino. He said, hey, we got this really great podcast. It's called Subia U. We want you guys to get in connection with him.

[01:13:32] So that way you can maybe do a little bit of a podcast, kind of put your name out there. So we've actually recorded two podcasts. Episode 63. 63 and 95. And recently, where is Jeff? Slow Subies, where did he go? And he just recently did an interview as well.

[01:13:50] How many episodes do you have? 155. So there's 155 episodes. And if you look on our Facebook page on Sunday around 2 o'clock-ish, you'll be able to see the two episodes that we were in. If you check out our Facebook page, right? Because what that's going to do,

[01:14:07] you can listen to that on the way home and it'll get you to where you need to be. It's a good nice little road trip podcast. You guys are super enthusiasts. Another 48 hours. Yeah, oh yeah, from here. From this. Well, right, exactly. And obviously that'll take some time.

[01:14:26] Good point, Peter. So he just also did a podcast with Make-A-Wish. That was just a couple days ago. Seems like forever because I don't even know what day of the week it is. But I wanted to let Rafael say a couple things. We appreciate the support.

[01:14:39] And not just Corey and I have been on it, but we also listen to it. Yeah, so I started it back in January 4th of 2021. I saw all the enthusiasm from people out in the community. So I wanted to get people in the community

[01:14:52] to talk about their Subarus. So that's what it's been for. It's been for the community. But I've also had people on like Bucky Lassick, Lance Smith and Rihanna Gelsimino who signed this hat. So I sent it out to her last season because she was also with Leah Block.

[01:15:08] So I have a signed Subie and You podcast hat by Rihanna Gelsimino and Leah Block. So that is what this auction item is up for. Thank you. You're welcome. To be 100% clear, this man came out here from Texas. I didn't drive. He didn't drive,

[01:15:32] but Jeff went and picked him up all the way here. Yeah. So also with Rihanna Gelsimino, she was on three episodes. Episode 61 is really good because she talks about it's, I call it Rally 101 with Rihanna Gelsimino. So she talks about what rally is,

[01:15:48] what her job is as a co-driver for Travis Pastrana. And then I had her, I don't remember exactly which episode it was, but I had her on again for when she was racing with Leah Block. So you can hear her talk about racing

[01:16:01] with Leah Block in comparison to like Travis Pastrana. Nice. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. So like I said, make sure to tune in on our Facebook page and you'll get a link. Pick your podcast platform and listen on the ride home. All right.

[01:16:20] So would you like to start the bidding then tomorrow? Yes. All right. Starting bid is $50. Who's got 50 bucks? Leah Block signed it. 50 bucks. All right. We'll skip to 10. Who's got 60? 60. 60. Who's got 70? Ryan, you got 70 bucks. I know you do. Don't lie to me.

[01:16:52] I see that smile you do. 70 bucks. Come on. Come on. You got it. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Raise your hand. 80. 80. Who's got 90? He's got 90. Free shipping. 85. 84. Huh? Say again? Do the dance. Do what? What? So what are we at? 80 bucks. 80 bucks. For 150 bucks.

[01:17:44] Also, if anybody knows Chris over here, Xtrax Luna, he was on the podcast. I see your Instagram pages all the time. Very nice. Thanks for mentioning us. We appreciate that. Come on up. He mentions us all the time. Rightfully so. I think she agreed to $300. Yeah.

[01:18:10] And that was it. That's my experience at 48 Hours of Tri-State. Again, I want to thank everybody who was accommodating, especially Jeff, for having me out there, for continuing to bug me to come out there.

[01:18:27] And I'm glad I was able to make the trip and meet so many people. It was nice to actually see Subaru of America's headquarters. That was really, really cool. And it was nice to see some people from SOA that I have met before and some new people

[01:18:45] that I was able to meet. It was great talking to the women from Make-A-Wish Foundation. I'm glad I was able to get them on the mic and hear from them first. So, yeah, it was a really good experience.

[01:18:59] And again, if anybody has thought about going, I highly recommend going out there and making the trip, whether you're local or you have to fly out like me. If you have to fly out, you will be taken care of very, very much so. Everybody was very great.

[01:19:18] And I mean, I didn't get to meet everybody because there was a lot of people there. There was different groups that were going out and driving. But I did get to meet a lot of people. And it was, again, it was just a great experience.

[01:19:32] And I'm glad I was able to do it. And I'm glad I went when they were touring SIA because that was a really cool experience. I really want to go see Vermont Sports Car. That would have been really, really cool too. But it was great going to SIA.

[01:19:49] And I may just schedule a trip to Vermont Sports Car on my own sometime if I can't, you know, go out there with 48 hours of Tri-State some year. But yeah, thanks again, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

[01:20:04] Thanks for bearing with me, for breaking this all up and getting it into three different parts because there was a lot of editing to do. And again, just thank you to everybody who was very nice to me and welcoming and accommodating and had a lot of fun.

[01:20:22] And yeah, I would like to do it again sometime. So I hope you all have a wonderful week. And we will be back with another episode with a guest next Monday. And yeah, thanks again. I really enjoyed this experience and we will talk to you later.

[01:20:43] Much Subie love. Raph. The Subie & You podcast is hosted by Raphael in a Closet in Houston. Produced by Raphael in a room next to the closet in Houston and edited by Raphael on a computer in the room next to the closet in Houston.

[01:20:58] With music by Luke Ruiz in another room in Houston. You can find the Subie & You podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many more. To support the podcast, please head over to patreon.com slash subieandyoupodcast.

[01:21:14] Once you join, you will have access to the Discord channel and Discord chats with other patrons. If you'd like to get in contact with the show, you can find them on Instagram at subieandyoupodcast, online at subieandyoupodcast.com, or by email, subieandyoupodcast at gmail.com.

[01:21:30] That's all for this week. Tune in Mondays for new episodes.