S&YE197 - The Create Outdoors

[00:00:10] Hey, this is Kyle and you can find me on Instagram at TheCreateOutdoors as well as on YouTube at TheCreateOutdoors and you're listening to episode 197 of the Subie & You podcast. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Subie & You podcast. As you just heard, we have Kyle on this episode so we will get to hear his story and his Subaru journey here in just a little bit.

[00:00:36] But I want to thank you all for showing up to the podcast and listening, of course, for all of those who have been around since the beginning and, of course, all of the newbies who might be listening to it for the first time. If you are new to the podcast and this is your first time listening, this is episode 197 so there's another 196 episodes to listen to and probably a lot of people in the community that you may already follow.

[00:01:06] So go check out the other episodes and see which ones are available. Right now we're going to have a quick word from one of our sponsors and then after that I have an announcement to make. The Subie & You podcast is brought to you by Eccentric Designs. 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.

[00:01:33] I also offer fun decal designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers. 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.

[00:01:48] This is not the announcement that I was talking about, but if you were on a previous episode of the podcast, you can go to the Eccentric Designs website and go to the search bar and type in episode specific and it'll bring up episode specific decals.

[00:02:07] Then you can click on that and there are actually different colors that you can choose from and you can put in your episode number and that is how you can order an episode specific decal from Eccentric Designs. And as always, thank you so much, Eccentric Designs, for sponsoring the Subie & You podcast.

[00:02:24] Okay, so this is the announcement that I wanted to make and that is to look out for a bonus episode this Wednesday because I sat with, virtually sat with Joe from Subaru of America and we talked about Subaru being at Overland Expo this year. OEX 2025. So there are five events and Subaru will be at all five of the events.

[00:02:53] So look out for that episode this Wednesday. And if you want to get a little sneak peek of what's going on at Overland Expo with Subaru, you can go to Subaru.com slash Overland Expo. That will have all of the dates and then a little bit of information of what you can expect to see at Overland Expo. But the bonus episode this Wednesday will have more information from Joe. So be sure to tune in this Wednesday to check out the bonus episode.

[00:03:21] And in the bonus episode, I will have another announcement to make when we get to that episode. So again, be sure to check it out. Look for it this Wednesday or listen for it this Wednesday. Speaking of Subaru, this episode is brought to you by SubaruGear.com. Where you can go and find a lot of great Subaru branded merchandise as well as Subaru Motorsports USA.

[00:03:49] They also have a lot of different collections. So they have stuff for your pets, your home, your car, you, your friend, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, whomever, kids. And so they have a lot of stuff for everybody. So go check it out. SubaruGear.com. Use the code SUBANU25 at checkout to get 20% off your purchase.

[00:04:11] If your total is over $50 after the 20% discount, you automatically get free shipping, which is really, really nice. So as always, thank you so much SubaruGear.com for sponsoring the SUBANU podcast. And thank you so much for bringing this incredible offer to the SUBANU podcast listeners. All right.

[00:04:32] I've got one more little announcement before we get into this episode, but I'm excited about the rally in the 100 Acre Woods coming up this month, March 14th and 15th. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of buzz through the Subaru Motorsports USA Instagram page, and I'm sure ARA Rally and Dirtfish and a bunch of other media outlets. So that'll be fun to see what's going on with that rally.

[00:04:59] And I guess maybe we will see Travis Pastrana driving in one of his other cars now that'll be built by Vermont Sports Car. So that'll be interesting and fun to watch. But also what'll be nice, too, is the recaps that will be put together by Bose Media Inc. and Formula Photographic for the launch control little episodes that they do. So anyway, look out for that.

[00:05:28] That's going to be exciting and looking forward to it. Also, lastly, before we get into this episode, how crazy is it that we're at episode 197? Only three more episodes to go and we'll hit 200. I know we would have gotten there a lot sooner if I was still doing them every week. But looking back now, I'm like, how did I do an episode a week for three and a half years? That was that was a lot of work and a lot of time.

[00:05:57] And even though I'm only doing them every other week now, you know, I still do the little subie scoop on every other week on the Mondays that I'm not doing a regular episode. So there's something to listen to every Monday. And then now you've got a bonus episode coming up on Wednesday to talk about the Overland Expo coming up and Subaru attending, which is really cool.

[00:06:20] So thank you all so much for getting this podcast to 197 episodes, because where would this episode or where would this podcast be if people weren't listening to it? So I really, really appreciate all the support. I appreciate everybody listening, sharing, liking, commenting. And we're just going to keep it going. And there's still a lot of people out there that could be potential guests for the podcast.

[00:06:50] And I still want to do returning guests this year as well. So I've got a few people on my list to do a return and we will get to those soon. Actually, 198 episode 198 is scheduled for a returning guest. So that'll be cool. Anyway, now we'll go ahead and get into this episode with Kyle and hear all about his Subaru and or Subarus and what he's got going on and his journey.

[00:07:18] So here we go. Hey, Kyle, how's it going? Good, Raph. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm glad that you mentioned that you also have the YouTube channel because that's cool. And I guess the first thing I want to ask is where did the Create Outdoors come from? Like, where did that name come from?

[00:07:47] So it kind of has two meanings. So for one, kind of more obvious, it's a play on the words of the great outdoors. So it's the create outdoors. But then also it's kind of like a it's a nod to my lifestyle, like taking my creativity to my love of the outdoors. That's kind of where that name comes from, the deeper meaning behind it. Gotcha. OK. Yeah, it's a good name. It's catchy and it works. Good play on words there, too.

[00:08:17] Yeah. Yeah. So then the next question I have is the all important question, and that's whether you prefer waffles or pancakes. Pancakes? Well, I do like both, but I do have to put pancakes as above waffles. Yeah. Good. I do like chicken and waffles, but pancakes are just they're top tier. I hear you, man. I'm with you right there. Good. Another pancake person. We're getting there. We're getting there.

[00:08:46] There's still a lot more waffle people, but it's OK. OK. So so I was looking through your account and you have two Subarus. So obviously you must like Subaru and they're both Foresters. But why choose Subaru and why Foresters? Well, I don't I think when I first kind of got into Subaru, it wasn't like too much of a I was interested in Subaru.

[00:09:15] But I think like over time, as you know, the lifestyle I developed behind it grew, I think that's where my interest more developed over time. I mean, for one, they're dependable. They're capable and also they're really safe. I know some people on this podcast have talked about like stories of accidents they've had in their Subaru.

[00:09:38] And while I personally haven't had like a major accident in a Subaru, if, you know, tapped bumpers a long time ago when I was younger. But actually, my brother had a situation. He used to have a Subaru Legacy and a 2016 Legacy. And one night on the way home from work, he rear ended somebody on the highway and the car, the legacy was completely totaled. It is not savable.

[00:10:05] The airbag went off and everything, but he was like absolutely fine with just like a little bit of chest pain from the accident. So, yeah, I definitely trust them the most for their safety. And he's been on he's been with Subaru ever since. And I've been with Subaru. So, yeah, it's I I like the brand for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:29] My old boss, his daughter had an Outback and she was on the freeway and they had stopped for something. And like somebody was coming down the same lane or close to their lane and just wasn't paying attention or something. She had to literally jump in the car through the door that was open. And the car got hit and, you know, banged around and stuff.

[00:10:54] But they were like, yeah, we're pretty sure that we were OK because of the Subaru. And then they ended up getting another Subaru after that. And they're like, we're only going to own Subarus from now on. Yeah. So did you like I mean, was it did you I guess you knew somebody that had a Subaru and you said that, you know, they're reliable and safe. Did you know anybody else like growing up that had Subarus or just that was kind of your only experience with it? We'll get into it when we talk about how I got my Subarus.

[00:11:23] But I would say both my grandparents, which separate sides, but my grandmother on one side and my grandfather on the other, both own Subarus. At the time, I was in the cars, but I hadn't really, you know, thought too much about Subarus. But yeah, my grandmother had an 05 Forester and my grandfather had, I think it was a 98 Outback. It was a way definitely one of the older ones. And I think my cousin in law has that car now.

[00:11:53] So it lives on. Nice. Nice. Yeah. OK, so then when did you purchase each of each of your your let me say that over again. When did you purchase each of your Foresters? So for the 2005 for the Adventure Wagon, I actually inherited that from my grandmother. So she passed away in 2014, but she had bought the car brand new in 2005.

[00:12:24] And after she passed in 2014, she had written in her will that the car was going to go to one of my cousins because they were adults. They needed a car and it made sense. But I guess she didn't think she was going to live as long as she did because my cousins already had vehicles and didn't need another vehicle. So I had just turned. Well, I didn't just turn 18, but I was 18 at the time.

[00:12:51] And I was just getting into college and I was driving my mom's 2008 CRV and I needed a car of my own. And so, you know, one thing led to another and I ended up keeping the car and I still have it to this day. Yeah. When you mentioned earlier that your grandmother had a 2005 Forester, I was like, wait a minute. Maybe that's the one that he has. It is that exact one. That's really cool. Yeah.

[00:13:18] And then as far as the wilderness goes back in 2023, I was taking the Adventure Wagon back down to Tennessee for another trip. I had driven all the way down there the previous year. And this kind of like this event started a snowball effect where I got to check engine light on the highway. I was like two hours into my eight hour drive for that day and I got to check engine light.

[00:13:47] I didn't know what it was for and I didn't have my own scan tool with me. So I tried using another shop scan tool, but I couldn't read all the codes. So it only told me I had like this lean code, which is like when you're getting too much air, not enough fuel. And but what it wouldn't show me was if I scrolled down more, it was just a math sensor code. So a mass airflow sensor code, which I had an extra one and that could I could have replaced it and kept going. But I didn't end up doing that.

[00:14:16] I turned around, went back home and that kind of put in me this idea of maybe, you know, while this car is fantastic, it's not going to be there for me all the time. So I should probably get a new daily driver. So a couple months later, I started looking for a newer car and we replaced my brother's legacy and that got totaled with a 2019 Forrester Sport. And I really liked that car. I thought it was nice, even though it's bigger than the adventure wagon is.

[00:14:46] I still like the size of it and everything. So I wanted to get my own. And obviously the year prior, they had released the Forrester Wilderness. And I thought, you know, maybe I could get the Forrester Wilderness someday. I'll just get a sport. And then I thought, well, why not just get the Wilderness now? So I started looking around for places. I definitely wanted one in geyser blue. I would not take any other color and had to be that one. And I found one over on the seacoast in New Hampshire.

[00:15:15] And it had only 5,000 miles on it. It was a year old, only had 5,000 miles on it. And I learned it was because. Yeah, it only drove 5,000 miles in a year. Well, I had learned that it was a service loaner. So they were loaning that out to people who were bringing their cars in for service. Gotcha. So I'm two for two on getting cars with very low miles. In fact, I think the adventure wagon is more interesting because when I got the car in 2014,

[00:15:43] it only had 22,000 miles on it. Wow. So it was a nine-year-old vehicle with 22,000 miles on it. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I think my daughter has, I forgot how many miles she said she put on her cross trek. But she'll have it a year in April. And her mileage is, I forgot what she said, but it's pretty high for the first year.

[00:16:11] But she's driven at some pretty far distances. But yeah, that's pretty amazing to only have 22,000 miles after all that time. How many miles does it have now? How many miles? I think I just hit 105,000 just the other week. So it is still low. I thought I would catch up. But now that I have two Foresters, it's hard to catch up because I don't drive the adventure

[00:16:37] wagon nearly as much as I do in the wilderness since the wilderness is my daily. But yeah, I try to drive it as often as possible when it's not broken. Yeah. Yeah. I'm at 122,500 and something. And I'm just like, I'm so close. I'm just waiting till it gets to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 because that's going to be a pretty cool moment. But yeah, mine's getting up there in mileage. But still doing okay.

[00:17:07] I just replaced the brakes and the brake pads and the rotors for the first time. So I feel good about doing that. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. It's always nice to work on your car yourself sometimes, especially when you get it done. And it's kind of like that sense of pride. Oh, yeah. A little sense of nervousness because you're like, did I do it right? Yeah. Oh, I know. I was like, you know, doing a brake job isn't, this is like a safety thing.

[00:17:32] It's not like it's, you know, you're just replacing the caps in the engine compartment or something. You know, it's kind of a big deal. But the guy that I was, I was at his house and he's done a few of his Subarus before. So he had all the tools and I watched a YouTube video before just so I could kind of see what, you know, I needed to do and got it done. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. So the Adventure Wagon, that's what you call it. Is that the actual name for it too?

[00:18:02] Yep. That is the name for it. Yep. A hundred percent. Okay. And do you have a name for the wilderness? So the name kind of fluctuates. I mostly just call it the wilderness. Wilderness once I called it the Daily Wagon at first, but that name didn't really stick for me that much. I've called it like Big Blue sometimes, Weekend Warrior, the Blueberry. But most of the time I'm calling it the wilderness. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:29] And how, so like, you know, you've got this 2005. First of all, actually I was thinking of something that's kind of funny, but like, I'm guessing your grandma didn't do any mods to it, huh? No. And she, I, you know, the one thing that I hate is that it's a base model Forester. So back in the day, Subaru, I don't know why there were just some features. I mean, I guess it was cheaper than the manufacturer.

[00:18:56] So they, it made the sticker price cheaper, but it doesn't have rear disc brakes. It has rear drum brakes. Oh yeah. That's old. And that was only offered on the base model, the Forester. All other trims had disc brakes and it has mechanical HVAC. So the temperature knob and the fan position knob are run by cable instead of like electrical wire. So that was one thing too.

[00:19:23] But yeah, she didn't want like all the bells and whistles. So she was like, just get me a car that works. And that was the one she ended up picking. So. A good one. Yeah. It's so like what, whenever you got it, were you thinking like, okay, I'm going to, were you thinking mods when you got it? Or are you just like, oh, Hey, I have a car. Yes. But I was thinking it's kind of funny. I was thinking in the other direction.

[00:19:51] So I had been growing up playing, you know, video games, car video games, where it was a lot of like street racing and things like that. So the original plan for before was considered the adventure wagon before that car was to lower it, put like more street wheels and tires on it. And if you scroll back far enough in my Instagram, you can see when it was lowered on coilovers, which I still have those. But yeah, it wasn't until 2017.

[00:20:23] I haven't heard many other people say this on the podcast, but I saw Jan Lim's Between the Lines. Oh, nice. And in that there was a segment for Mountain Rue. Yeah. And I remember seeing that. I'm like, people do this with their Forcers or with their Subarus. They take them, they take them like out into the wilderness and do off-roading and camping and stuff. I want to do that. And then I did a complete 180.

[00:20:50] I lifted it like later, like a year later and everything. So yeah, it's, it's been a wild ride, but I've been, I've been happy with the lifted life over the lowered life for sure. So you don't get pulled over nearly as often with a lifted Subaru. Yeah. So what was that first experience like when you got, I mean, and did you, did you go from lowered to lifted or did you go from like lowered back to stock height and then lifted?

[00:21:19] No, I went, I went from lowered to lifted. It was funny when I had my lift kit installed because at the time I didn't have tools to do it myself. And, um, I basically, the guy at the shop told me, cause it was like March when I did it and he was saying like, oh, so you like to drive your Subaru lowered in the winter and lift it for the summer. And I thought that was funny, but, uh, no, I lifted, it was lowered three inches and then I lifted in an inch.

[00:21:46] So I went up like four inches in height and, um, it was kind of weird driving it home afterwards cause I felt like I was driving a tractor because it was so high compared to what I knew beforehand. But yeah, no, it was from stock to lowered and then immediately the lifted and then a couple of years later lifted even more. So, so what was your first experience like taking it off road?

[00:22:13] Once you got it lifted, were you like kind of timid or were you like excited and, and kind of just went for it? I didn't really know what it was going to be able to do, which I guess is a lot of people that get surprised with the capability of their Subaru. Yeah. I was definitely surprised. I mean, afterwards I had watched the original ad for my car and it was like showing it, it was like doing like off road things and everything.

[00:22:40] And I was like, oh, I guess this was really, this really was meant for this. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have, can you send me a link to that later? Like, do you have the YouTube video saved? Okay. I have that saved somewhere. Be cool to see that. So obviously you've got your 2005 Forester built to go off road, you know, you know, you took it from stock to lowered and then lifted. And now you've just been kind of living the lifted life.

[00:23:07] But so with, you know, like you said that it's, it's more capable than you realized, but you've obviously built it to be more capable now. So how would you say that the adventure wagon compares to the wilderness going off road? Ooh, I would say they're pretty evenly matched.

[00:23:32] I think obviously the adventure wagon is lifted higher because the wilderness is still stock at, I think the 9.2 inches of ground clearance. I think that's what the Forester wilderness is. Because the adventure wagon with tires is like 11 and a half inches of ground clearance. So yeah. Nice. But I think it's closer to 11, but still, yeah, it's, it's wild.

[00:23:59] I took it off roading back in December down in Thompson with the adventure one crew. And I, at first I was kind of like worried that I was going to hit something or like driving over rocks. I was going to like hidden on a rock. And then I just kept going over everything. No problem. I was like, all right, well, I don't have to worry about too much with this, but yeah, I think they're pretty, they're evenly matched. I think the major difference comes from the adventure wagon is definitely more of a mechanical

[00:24:27] and raw experience where the wilderness, you know, it has all the dual X mode and all the electronic gadgets in it. And it's a very different experience in that regard. So have you done any mods to the wilderness? The only mods I've done so far are fog light tint, some rally armor mud flaps, and the Yakima roof rack that I have on there.

[00:24:54] I'm not really planning on doing on like heavy, heavily modifying the wilderness, at least in a performance aspect. Like I have no intent on lifting it. I might get like different tires when the time comes and the Okahamas need to be replaced, but I, I kind of want to keep it dailyable. I mean, I bought it for the gas mileage. I almost bought a Toyota four runner at the time. And then I found out that it got the same MPGs as the eventual wagon gets now.

[00:25:24] And I said, that makes no sense to buy, to buy some of the same gas mileage. So I think straight from the factory, the wilderness is just so capable as is that I don't think it needs a lot to take on trails and things like that. So, yeah. And you said when the adventure wagon's not broken, are you trying to take, use that one

[00:25:48] more for going off road and then the wilderness for keeping it on the road and just as a daily, or are you taking it off road also quite a bit? I keep going back and forth because it always happens. It always occurs in whatever condition the adventure wagon is in. So when it's working, my intent is I really want that to be my primary adventure vehicle.

[00:26:14] So like this year, I plan to do a whole camper conversion in the back of the car. Oh, nice. Those are so cool. Yeah. And I want to do something like that and make a more permanent setup and use that as my primary adventure rig. And then the wilderness is going to be more of like a weekender. I don't want to be one of those people that bought a wilderness and only drives it on the street. Yeah. Like, why'd you buy? That doesn't make sense.

[00:26:38] Um, and, um, I do intend to take it on trails, but I feel like I'll probably take it on more tame trail. I don't know. I could take it on more difficult trails and things like that. But I mean, I do need a backup for when the adventure wagon isn't, you know, in proper working order. So it's good to have that option for sure. Yeah. And it makes sense that if you want it to be more of a daily driver to keep it on more

[00:27:04] tame trails, just so that you're not potentially breaking something, you know, if you're going on something too tough, because then, you know, obviously the, the less you take it on tough trails, the longer it'll last and be able to continue to be your daily driver. But if like, if you knew that you could, well, I don't know, maybe that's just not fair, but if somebody told you that you had to get rid of one of your, your foresters, which

[00:27:34] one would you keep? I feel like a lot of people would think this would be a difficult question. I don't think so at all. I would keep the adventure wagon. There you go. It has so much more sentimental value to me than the wilderness does. One of my rules right now is that especially because it's winter time is when it snows, I do not take the adventure wagon out. I only take the wilderness out because if I get into some sort of accident, I would rather

[00:28:02] it be in the wilderness than in the adventure wagon. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, now hearing the backstory, of course, it makes more sense to keep the adventure wagon. But yeah, those, I mean, those, those kinds of things too. It's like you, you just, even if it's not doing so well, it's like, I can't get rid of this. You know, it has, there's just like memories and everything with it too. So, right. Good answer.

[00:28:28] So what, what were some of the first mods you added to the Forester to the 2005? So if we go. Besides lowering it, I guess maybe once you got it to, you know. So when I does, when I flip flopped. Yeah. So, I mean, the very first mods I ever did to it were like the typical plastic dip mud flaps and I did the coilovers. But when I lifted it, I put in a one inch lift kit from Anderson design and fabrication.

[00:28:58] I think that was the very first thing that I did. And I think on my YouTube channel, if you go back, I think that's like the very first thing on there of when I changed everything. I even, I think I even called that video like, oh, change of heart. Like I had planned to do all this lowered stuff to it. And I'm like, eh, maybe not. It changed my mind. But yeah, that was the first thing I ever did to it in regards to like lifting it and stuff was the one inch lift kit, which I wish I had done the two inch first.

[00:29:28] It has the two inch now, but I kind of wish it did the two inch because after I bought my tires later, it looked stock again. Oh yeah. I was like, this needs to be lifted higher. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. What would you say that, I guess of all the mods that you've got on it, what would you say is your favorite and which has been the most useful? That's a, both of those are tough because I feel like I like them all and they're all very useful.

[00:29:57] I, I have to say my favorite would probably be as much of a pain in the ass as it was to install them was doing my unequal length headers. Oh, nice. Just to give it, just to give it that Subi rumble. I love that rumble. Although I have a hole before my muffler right now. So it's very loud and I don't enjoy it. But yeah, I love, I love those headers. The, the rumble it gives us nice.

[00:30:23] Uh, as far as most useful, I would say recently my aux beam lights were probably the most useful. I went up to Subaru winter fest a few weeks ago in Vermont and I had to drive through a snow storm to get there and no one else was on the highway. Obviously using your lights on the highway is very illegal. Don't do that. But I don't condone that for anyone listening.

[00:30:49] But if no one else is around, I did turn on my front lights, my front aux beams, which are yellow tinted. So they cut through snow better. And, um, I could see the highway so much better in that snow storm. That's good. I would have with just my headlights. Yeah. My dingy, um, or halogen headlights. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, if there's nobody there, why not? You can always turn them off. So you see, cause man, I can't talk tonight. You can always turn them off.

[00:31:19] If you keep, if you look, I'm having trouble. You can always turn them off. If you see somebody coming. Yeah. Which I did do. I, I did eventually like catch up with some other people. I turned them off and surprisingly there were no state troopers on the highway at all. That was, that was pretty set. Yeah. So I was scrolling through your page again and I saw that you, you like puddles and, uh, you've been, so you've been through some puddles, you've driven through snow and obviously

[00:31:48] just on trails, but have you like driven through any mud? That's not like, you know, cause obviously there's going to be mud in the puddles, but have you driven to like just through mud? That's like on a trail or something. I, I haven't been on too muddy, muddy of trails. Although I will say the, in the last outing that we did back in the summer with adventure went down in Thompson. The trails were snowy, but there was like mud under the snow.

[00:32:17] So everyone's cars were getting still covered in mud anyway, but I haven't really driven on just strictly muddy trails yet. Hopefully this year I can change that. Yeah. I haven't really driven into too much of mud. I think I've driven in more snow than mud. Yeah. I've driven mostly through mud around here and it's, it's fun, but it's just messy. You know, it, it, I like it because I like it when Pearl gets really muddy.

[00:32:46] It just sucks trying to get it out from underneath the wheel wells and stuff. And when, so I like, I took it and I was spraying all up under there and everything. But when I went to go change my brakes out and I took the wheel and tire off, there was so much like caked up mud everywhere that I was scraping off of all kinds of parts back there. And it was, it was funny. We were just like moving my finger around and it's just like dropping down on the ground.

[00:33:14] But I think it's worse too when it gets on your exhaust and it just, the smell of burning mud is so, it's just so bad. I just, I hate it. It still kind of smells like burning mud when I drive the adventure wagon still, but it's not as bad as it used to be. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so have you ever gotten stuck in the snow? I have not. Not yet. It could happen.

[00:33:42] I got my traction boards ready to go if it happens, but, um, no, I have, I've been fortunate enough to not get stuck yet. Yeah. I've been looking, scrolling through Instagram, seeing all kinds of people driving through, through snow, especially unpaved P and W that guy. It's always, I'm always like, soon as I open up Instagram and I see him driving through like a big chunk of snow, you know, or big like snowy area. And I was giving him a hard time the other night messaging him.

[00:34:11] And I was like, yeah, just rub it in there, buddy. With all your snow. Yeah. I'd love to try some like deeper snow. I feel like that'd be fun to try and get through. Yeah. Thankfully I've driven through snow since I've traveled some and was blessed to be able to drive other people's Seabroofs through snow. So it's fun. I like it. So up there where you're at, where are some of your favorite spots or trails to get out? It's funny.

[00:34:40] Uh, there isn't really too much close to me. I live in this kind of like dead zone where it's, if I want to go anywhere to off road, I have to drive at least an hour and a half in any direction to find a trail. There is, there's really nothing I live in. I don't know if it's really the greater Boston area where I live. I feel like I'm outside of that, but basically if you're, if you're within an hour of Boston, you're way closer to being suburban or an urban area than like more rural.

[00:35:10] If you went to like Northern New Hampshire, Southern New England or something like that. So there isn't too much close to me. I know I've been to Thompson a few times with the adventure one crew. Um, I did some trails with Adam and Matt, uh, transformer track and X trick Matt from time to time to up North. So there, there are definitely trails around. I need to find some more to, to tackle. Yeah. Yeah. We don't really have much around here either. And so much of the land in Texas is private.

[00:35:39] So that makes it even more difficult. But you know, for anybody listening to the podcast, I'm sure you've heard me mentioned Bastrop many times and they went there this past weekend. And I already had planned, so I wasn't able to make it out, but I needed to do my brakes anyway. Like when I took my back brakes off or the brake pads, there was pretty much almost no pad left. It was just like the metal piece that was supposed to be holding the pad.

[00:36:07] So they needed to be done bad, but yeah, it's, it's tough not having trails close by, but you know, at least there's something. Yeah. It was specific Northwest people always making me jealous. It's like, oh yeah, I go like 10 minutes down the road. I'm on a trail. It's like, no. Oh yeah. 30 minutes and I'm in the mountains. Yeah. I'd love to move closer to trails, but yeah. Not right now. Yeah. Maybe eventually. Yeah.

[00:36:35] So, uh, oh, do you have like a bucket list spot that you would like to get out to or more than one spot? I mean, mentioned in already Pacific Northwest is definitely an area I'd like to check out for sure. Um, Colorado would even be fun. Oh yeah. To go out to as well. I have some friends out in Colorado, so it would, it'd be a good trip to make out of it.

[00:37:00] But I feel like there are more trails out there than there are here in like the Appalachian mountains. There's quite a bit of trails down South. I've noticed like in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, that area. So yeah, um, definitely out West or down South somewhere would be where I'd want to go. Yeah. I want to make it back out to Colorado and Arizona. You mentioned adventure one. Are those most of the people that you get out with when you're hitting trails and going out to explore?

[00:37:30] Yeah, I'd say so at this point, like Adam and Matt, that I mentioned before, Sean, Jamie, the Subi, uh, Scott, Trek, a shoes that's Brendan BPM, X-Trek, Nick South, South Coast, Crosstrek, and then like Hunter, Asher's OBW. Mostly the adventure one crew is who I'm getting out there with. Cause I think prior to then, I didn't really know much of anybody except for me. Like the guys I knew in mountain room, but then when things picked up with adventure one, that was kind of the crew.

[00:37:58] Then I moved towards over time. Yeah. So how, like, how close is everybody to each other? We're pretty spread out. I know Adam and I are pretty close. Um, we found out like once that we were like a town or two away from each other. So it's not that far, not that far away. We have a pretty even distribution like in New Hampshire and Connecticut and Massachusetts. So it's a pretty even, pretty even spread. That's good. Yeah.

[00:38:27] And you mentioned earlier that you want to do like a full camping setup in, in the adventure wagon. So are you doing like car camping right now? Just kind of with what you have. And do you go out like for weekend trips when you're doing that? So I haven't done too many camping trips. I want to do more, but, uh, basically right now I just have a bare bones, just camping setup. I fold my passenger seat down and roll out a, uh, uh, sleeping pad.

[00:38:57] And then, um, I have a little plywood camp kitchen that I built that I use as well. And I've made some like window coverings. So it's still pretty primitive right now, but it works. It's one of the most, I find it more comfortable to sleep in than my own bed. I've had other people say that too. So, uh, I did try the same setup in the wilderness once and it was the most uncomfortable thing I ever slept in. Really? Is it what was underneath or how would it make it uncomfortable?

[00:39:27] So this is one of the kind of differences between the two foresters is on the wilderness, you have the hinge for the back seats when they fold down and they have like this flap that goes over the hinges and like it, but it doesn't go flush with the back of the seats. So what happens is, is that it's kind of like sticking up a little bit and sticks in your back. Oh, is it like a plastic hinge?

[00:39:52] No, it's like, um, it's not the hinge itself, but it's like, it's a cover. Oh, like the flap. That goes over the hinge. Yeah, the little flap then when you have like the seats up, it kind of folds back. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking about. But like the adventure wagon, it's actually carpeted over. So it's like a piece of fabric that goes over the hinge. So I guess that's probably what makes it way more comfortable. There's nothing sticking in your back. Yeah. On it. Because I don't have a sleep platform or anything like that.

[00:40:20] I just roll the sleeping pad out on the floor. Okay. And I just sleep on that. So what kind of setup are you going to do in there? Are you going to build your own system or are you going to like buy pieces to put in there and fit in? I'm going to do a full on custom thing. I love building things from scratch. That's one of my, one of my favorite things to do.

[00:40:44] I would even say most of the mods, well, not most of, but a good number of the mods that are on the adventure wagon. I built myself. You built? Custom. Yeah. So this is the thing is, well, so my front light bar is something that I built myself. That's on the front bumper. Okay. And my roof rack is also something I built myself. Custom. Did you take an Ikea bed frame and do that? No. Because that's what one of the other guys did.

[00:41:13] I actually used Super Strut from Home Depot. It's like a, it's like a metal, like C channel type stuff that I guess they use it for mounting like cables and buildings and stuff. And so I use that to make my roof rack out of it. It's not the best, but it works. I do want to make a new roof rack though, more custom. Now that I've worked on my welding skills a little more.

[00:41:39] I want to build like a nice safari style rack from like the old 80s Land Rovers and things like that. Oh yeah, that'd be nice. I learned, I built a lot of the stuff for the car because unlike newer Subarus, there's this cutoff point where there aren't as many mods available for the older Subarus as there are the newer ones.

[00:42:03] So like when you have like the Spider No Drill roof rack, those only go back to like the third gen Forester. There's no second gen. Yeah, yeah. And so I just kind of learned over time that it made more sense to just build the mods myself than trying to find like, find one randomly somewhere that maybe I could do. And I like how Anderson design and fabrication built a lot of their first mods on the second gen Forester. So that was kind of nice to have, to have those.

[00:42:32] But yeah, there isn't as many mods out there for the second gen as there are for like way newer than that. Yeah, I think the second gen might be my favorite body style. It's just, I don't know, it's boxy and I love the boxiness and it's kind of also just kind of plain looking in a way, but in a, I don't know, it's just, it's appealing.

[00:42:57] And I know a lot of people really like that older Forester and the body style and everything and just something about it. But yeah, so you got a good one. I think the second gen Forester is probably what the Crosstrek is now, but back then. Yeah, yeah. And I know, and now we're already on our third gen Crosstrek. Yep. And the sixth gen Forester. Yeah. Yeah, the, I really, really love the first gen Crosstrek.

[00:43:27] That's kind of what I fell in love with. But then by the time I was able to buy one, the second gen came out and then my daughter has a third gen. So, and the third gen is growing on me. And cause I wasn't like disappointed in it at first necessarily. But what I'm most glad about is that it still looks like a Crosstrek.

[00:43:48] You know, I don't like it when they take something and it just looks like way different and completely just, where did that come from? You know, it doesn't even look like the same model or anything. But Subaru does this strange thing where they reveal a new model or reveal a new version of a model or new generation and everybody like hates it. And then it's just after like a year and one's like, you know, it's, it's kind of okay.

[00:44:18] I think, I think we could live with it. Yeah. And, um, this has been going on for years. And in fact, I have a clip from a Wicked Big Meat that I filmed once where it was shortly, it was the Wicked Big Meat after they fit, after they revealed the new WRX. Wow. And people were going up to like the guy all day talking, who was there to talk about it saying like, oh, this is the worst, you know, WRX ever made or whatever.

[00:44:43] And I have a clip where the guy was saying that, cause someone had asked nicely, why is it designed this way? And why do people not like it? And I recorded the guy's response just kind of more candidly, but he was saying that like back when the Hawkeye, uh, WRX and STI came out. So the, the 06 to 07 or 08 generation there, um, before they did the, the hatch in the 2010s.

[00:45:13] He was saying that when that first came out and was first revealed, everyone hated that too. And now it's an icon. Yeah. So it's like, it's just over time people get used to it and they're like, eh, it's not that bad. So. I think the biggest, or one of the biggest things with it too, is the black cladding around the wheel wells and other places. You know, people are like, what is this? And, but. Yeah. I think that was intended to be kind of more like rally style and rally ready.

[00:45:42] I, I kind of like it, you know? And I mean, come on, Bucky Lastic has one. Yeah. I, I liked it when the first came out. I liked how they made it in orange because orange is my favorite color. So, um, I like how they made it in an orange and, uh, I actually don't mind the plastic cladding at all. Cause you're right. It is, it is intended to be more rally based. I think it's just with culture. Yeah. People couldn't afford the STI.

[00:46:08] So they bought WRXs instead for streetcars because it was cheaper. And so, yeah, when Subaru releases this new WRX, that's supposed to be more rally focused. And people are like, oh, but the plastic cladding is so bad. It's just like, all right. Yeah. Yeah. Relax. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, they, I mean, they do look nice. I like them. I, I w I would take one. I wouldn't mind having one. Cause it'd be nice to have something faster than a cross trick.

[00:46:38] Mm-hmm. Cause, uh, I've got the slow Baroo. Mine are slow too. Yeah. Uh, so I guess with the, uh, since you said orange is your favorite color, you like the, uh, orange cross tricks. Yeah. I, yeah, I, I really liked the sunblaze pearl color. I am so mad that I couldn't get my wilderness in that color. Yeah. I wish it was offered in that color cause I would have scooped it up real quick, but yeah. No.

[00:47:04] Is there anything on the wilderness besides the color that you think Subaru should have included as part of the wilderness package? Okay. I had a different answer, but I have this new answer basically. So I was going to say the turbo cause a lot of people say the turbo and I don't think it really needs a turbo. Like it'd be cool if it had one. I don't think it needs it, but my biggest gripe with the car is okay.

[00:47:33] On the adventure wagon, the defroster for the windshield goes the entire width of the dashboard from one side of the windshield to the other. On the wilderness, they have like the gauge pod thing up on the top of the dash. Oh yeah. Yeah. And the defroster is behind that and stops. It's like a foot wide defrost. Oh yeah.

[00:47:59] And it's like, it's so annoying because when I'm sitting there, you know, having to defrost my windshield and on a cold day, I got to wait longer with the wilderness because it takes way longer to do it. And it annoys me because yeah, there are speakers, you know, kind of near the edges of the windshield, but then there's like a foot of space on each side of the defroster. That's just empty. I'm like, why couldn't you just have made the defroster go that whole, I don't know, but I feel like that's the one thing I find annoying about it.

[00:48:30] Yeah. And somebody that lives in a cold climate who gets frosted windshields more than we would down here. That would make sense. Yeah. Because we don't have to use ours too often down here because it doesn't get too cold, but yeah, it is nice to have something that works a little bit better. Is there anything on the wilderness that has surprised you about just maybe it's capabilities

[00:48:54] or functionality or like, uh, even like just the, uh, controls on the inside or anything or the thing that pokes in your back whenever you're trying to sleep? I thought I was going to need to use X mode more often than I actually do. Oh, that's good. When, uh, when I took it off roading for the first time about a year ago, um, John sage the cross track.

[00:49:22] We went out for a trail ride on his birthday and we were in Thompson and there was this deep, like super deep puddles, super long. I think it was like, I don't know, had to be like 10 feet or more long. And I thought I was going to have to put the car in X mode. Nope. Wilderness went right through it. No problem. No X mode needed or anything like that. So, which I mean, I guess for a puddle, you don't really need X mode, but you never know. What about the snow?

[00:49:49] I guess that's another thing too, is sometimes with a drive, with our driveway, the plow will come through and leave a big mound of snow at the end of the driveway. And then every time I'm like, Oh, put it in an X mode and you know, I'll get out in the snow and it's the most anticlimactic didn't need it. Yeah. But I'd turn it on anyway type situation. But, um, I don't think I've been in deep enough snow yet to really need X mode. But I want to try it in a lot deeper snow. Yeah. Yeah. That's good.

[00:50:19] So you mentioned Wicked Big Meat. How many times have you been and have you put the adventure wagon in the show? So this will be my seventh year going to Wicked Big Meat. Yeah. My first year I went in 2018. That was also when I first. That was after watching the Between the Lines documentary. And I noticed Mountain Rue had a booth there and I was like, Oh, I can talk to Mountain Room and get, you know, join up with them. And, um, so 2018 was the first year I went.

[00:50:48] It's the only year I don't have a sticker from. I have all the Wicked Big Meat stickers I've been to on the rear window of the adventure wagon. But 2018 is the only year I don't know. And 2020 because we didn't have Wicked Big Meat 2020. But I haven't put the adventure wagon in the show at all. I don't really consider it show quality because it is still 2005 at the end of the day. And it's got, it's got its marks of a 20 year old car. I grew up in car culture.

[00:51:17] That might bring attention to it because of that, you know? It's possible. I grew up in car culture. So I know many times it's always about like the cleanest car and the adventure wagon is not the cleanest, you know, isn't one of those. Um, but there's a good chance this year that it might be at the adventure one booth. Oh, nice. See how it, uh, we'll see how it turns out. Yeah. Might happen. I know it's like people would like to get their car in the show because, you know, they,

[00:51:43] they just want to have that experience, but also potentially have it, you know, judged and maybe win something, but also know it's kind of tough because you have to be at your car a lot. And, you know, if you want to talk to people about your car and, you know, you have people coming by and stuff. So it's tough running a booth at a show. Cause I did, I had a podcast booth at CB Fest, California in 2022.

[00:52:10] And, you know, I got out and walked around and talked to people and saw a lot of stuff before it officially got started. But like, once I got in my booth, it was hard to get out. There were times when I'm like, Oh, I'm going to go check out some stuff and go say hi to some people. And then somebody would come by to hop on the mic, which was cool. I mean, it was great that I was able to do that, but it's, uh, it's tough when you've got to stick in one spot for the whole time. Yeah. I, uh, I don't mean it like it completely ruined the significance of Subaru events, but like

[00:52:40] once you've kind of been to one, you kind of been to all of them. And, um, That's true though. So, and I mean, the location is different, but like I've been going to Wicked Big Me so often that for me, car shows and car events, I need to do something. So, um, like last year I was at the adventure one booth, but years prior, I actually recorded the show. Like I videoed the show, made some event coverage videos. And in fact, the last year I did it, I did it for Subie events.

[00:53:09] That's awesome, man. Which was neat. Yeah. Yeah. Since then, no, I've been focusing on adventure one. I like events like that running a booth. So I don't mind sitting at a booth all day. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I see what you're saying, but it's, it's, uh, it's nice though to be when you can get around and talk to different people because being in one spot, not, you know, everybody that you know, that's there might not be coming by the booth, you know, they might be going and doing other things.

[00:53:37] So the ability to move around is nice, which is what I liked about Subie Fest, Texas this last year is I had gotten my, my road wireless pro. So I had a booth, but I didn't have to stay in the booth. And that was really nice to be able to be mobile and walk around and talk to people that, like that made a huge, huge difference because the year before I was at my booth and I was really

[00:54:01] only talking to the local retailers that were like in the Dallas area, they came to the booth and were talking to me and stuff. But this past year it was nice because I could talk to people and, you know, I got, was able to go up to the signing booth with Travis Pastrana and got him to say, this is Travis Pastrana at Subie Fest, Texas or something like that. And, uh, you know, I got to talk to Rihanna and, and other people and it was just really cool to be able to walk around and see people and get them on the mic.

[00:54:30] Yeah, that is cool. That's a cool opportunity for sure. Yep. If someone were to say, Hey, we're going to give you a brand new Subaru to add to your collection, which one would you choose and why? I would probably pick the Outback Wilderness. So before I learned about the Forrester Wilderness, I liked the Outback Wilderness for sure.

[00:54:56] I haven't been in a turbo Subaru too many times and I for sure haven't driven one. They're fun. Yeah. So, so I've heard there are a lot of fun. I did almost test drive, uh, an Outback Wilderness when I bought my Wilderness, but I'm glad I didn't cause I don't think I would have bought mine if I had, if I had tested the Outback Wilderness. That seems to be the, the fan favorite of the three is the Outback Wilderness. So.

[00:55:27] Yeah. And you have, so I think the, the Forrester and the Outback have a front facing camera for when you're going on trails, but the Crosstrek does not. They didn't put it on the Crosstrek. Yeah. Unfortunately, but I, so like an Outback to me is, is like, I don't know. It just seems too long because I love the size of the Crosstrek. I like smaller cars and I like, I love hatchbacks.

[00:55:57] So for me, like the Crosstrek is a perfect size, but the Outback Wilderness, that's something different. I love the Outback Wilderness. There's just, and every single color I've seen too, looks really good. And even though it's, you know, longer and bigger, it is definitely a car that I would consider because it just, they look so good. Yeah. Whenever I'm in the, the Wilderness Facebook group and, um, whenever it's, it always comes

[00:56:26] up in any given month. Someone's like, Hey, I'm looking at a Wilderness, which one should I buy? And I think I always answer with, if you want more power, you get the Outback Wilderness. If you want more headroom because it's taller, you get the Forester Wilderness. And if you want a nice compact size, you get the Crosstrek Wilderness. I think that's kind of like, that's really the biggest difference between the three of them. Yeah. I mean, really it all comes down to what's going to fit your lifestyle best.

[00:56:56] You know, if you're somebody that's really tall and you want to sleep in the back of your car, if you plan on car camping, the Outback would be a good choice, you know, but if that's not as much of a concern that, you know, that's a good point about the headroom and the Forester. But it also comes down to which one appeals to you more as far as the way they look. If, if it doesn't matter what you're going to be using it for so much, it's, uh, cause

[00:57:20] like, I know a lot of people like the new Foresters, but I just, I don't know, the new body style doesn't really do it for me. It does for a lot of people, but I just, I still like, I love the Crosstrek more than any of the other ones as far as something that's going to be off-road capable. The one thing I like about the new Foresters that I've noticed is they're longer. Not, not by much, but they're longer.

[00:57:49] And to me, I'm like thinking, oh, it's kind of more, are they going back to like, let's make it a wagon again? Which people like to argue that with me that like the second generation Forester is not a wagon. It's a wagon. Okay. Um, no one's given me a good argument that it's not a wagon, even though people like it's an SUV. It's not a wagon. It's a wagon. But anyway, I see where you're going. I just, I don't like the taillights. I think the taillights are very ugly on the new one.

[00:58:17] It's, I don't know if it's gotta be those chrome accents in the taillights. I'm just not a fan of it. Um, the wilderness I think makes up for it, which I almost considered maybe trading in my wilderness for a newer wilderness, but after new Forester wilderness, but after like thinking about it a little bit, I'm like, is this really an upgrade? Is this really, I feel like it's kind of a sideways, I mean, I think all the styling features

[00:58:44] they put on the new Forester wilderness are the things I wish were on mine because there aren't a lot of gold accents on the outside of the first Forester wilderness. It's like just the roof rack and the emblems and that's it. Yeah. There's nothing else. They don't have the toe, the toe cap, toe point caps on there like the, uh, and the outback wilderness do.

[00:59:08] Although I did think about down on the front bumper, there's that silver trim piece at the bottom of the Forester wilderness. And I thought about painting that like a color close enough to the, uh, to the wilderness gold, either that, or I know they had the body armor four by four winch bumper. And I thought if I could get one of those and then get shackles for it and have those painted the same wilderness gold, that could work too.

[00:59:38] So I've been trying to find ways of getting more gold on the outside of my Forester. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all, all the wilderness trim packages are nice and I know some people, I know there's like, you know, cause especially on the Crosstrek, you got the big plastic trim piece along the bottom of the door panel and that's not as appealing, but I mean, it's, it's all part of the look of it, you know? And so it's kind of intentional with that.

[01:00:05] And I know a lot of people don't like that, but I, and I'm kind of like, I like it more than I don't like it, but I just think, I think they look cool. But you know, they're all fun vehicles. Yeah. We, we found out the other day that the emblem, the wilderness emblem on the Crosstrek wilderness is not straight. It's angled. Really? Like intentionally? Yes. And it's the most annoying looking thing ever. It's just like, why did you do this?

[01:00:35] I haven't noticed that. I'll have to check that out. But yeah, we have a guy in the adventure one groups. His name's Eric and he has a Crosstrek wilderness and yeah, he found that out and he was like, this is weird that it's at an angle. Is this normal? Should I fix it? And they were kind of looking at him like, no, that's, that's it. But yeah, it should be level, but it's not. Oh man. Yeah. So speaking of Subarus and other people's and stuff, if you could drive somebody else's

[01:01:03] Subaru for a day, whose would it be and why? I've always said this and I think this is one of the most interesting Subarus I think I could drive, but it's Brian Lipke's Forrester Bruby. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because even though it's another second gen, I feel like the build and how it drives would be so different from the adventure wagon because it's turboed and I think this is lifted hard

[01:01:28] in the mine, but I think it would just be such a unique experience to drive Ruby to see that difference between Ruby and the adventure wagon. Yeah. He's done a lot of work on that and he seems like he continues to do work on it, but yeah, it's a, it's a very nice build. There's a lot of really, really nice, nicely built Subarus out there. And so I commend people who just keep going and going and have created something like, cause

[01:01:57] you get these, these cars out there that are kind of almost like iconic within the community, you know, and like very kind of like big names and very recognizable and stuff. And as you know, it's, it's like, it's, it's such a fun community too. Cause we've connected with people all over the country, sometimes all over the world. And just for love of a car brand and the ability to go off road. And even some of the people that are sticking on the road and doing tuner stuff.

[01:02:27] And it's just a, it's a lot of fun and it's a, it's a really fun thing to be a part of. Yeah, it is. It is very cool to be, to be a part of this culture. Yeah. So how did you get connected with adventure one? And then how did you end up becoming an admin? So I knew nothing about adventure one until I kind of joined in a weird transition period of admins. Um, I was first invited by Sydney.

[01:02:56] She went by squid track at the time. I think she eventually traded her cross track in for a Tacoma. Okay. But I was invited by her to help with photography and videography for the group. Uh, but nothing like came out of it right away. Cause they were in that weird transition period. And I don't, um, I think at the time Nick wasn't like, he didn't have his plan yet of when he wanted, I could be wrong, but nothing really came out of it. No one reached out to me afterwards and was like, Oh yeah, we're thinking about doing this

[01:03:26] video thing or this video. But, um, I was still more active at mountain rue at the time. Not a while later, most of the older admins except Nick and Adam left, but I was still kept on. So I was brought into the new crew of admins. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. And so what do you enjoy most about like being a part of adventure one? And then as an admin, like what is your role and what are some of the things that you do?

[01:03:55] And then lastly, like what do you have any plans for the group? Yeah. So I, I think we have a really great group right now. Um, we've been growing every day, getting new members, getting new followers. So we're definitely out there in the community. When I was in college, I worked in student activities. So I did a lot of events, you know, for students and helped plan and run those events.

[01:04:20] And I think adventure one has been a great way to do that same thing again, because it's a lot of the same. My official role as an admin is photographer and videographer. So I don't feel too busy as a photographer and videographer though, because we have so many members that are really great photographers. That is just kind of like every time we do a trail run or something or some sort of event, everyone's taking photos.

[01:04:47] And I don't feel like I have to be there taking photos every single second because I know people are going to be taking photos or videos. I'm hoping to tap more into video this year. And in fact, I'm not going to say too much. I'll just hint at it, but we have a special project that's coming soon. Maybe to YouTube. Okay. We'll see. Okay. This is a bit of a hint. Okay. All right.

[01:05:15] As far as like, I mean, since you have two Subarus, I guess it can, uh, I don't know, maybe you could just use the adventure wagon or both of them. But what would you say about one or both of them best matches your personality? Um, I would say, I think those goes for both of them. I think I would say it's kind of like being prepared for anything.

[01:05:40] I'm like a hundred percent a planner and the way I built my cars, I think reflects that they're just kind of ready to go ready for that next adventure. And I think that's for, it's the same way for me as it is for those two foresters. Good, good, good answer. And what would, if you could describe each of your foresters in one word, what would it be? Uh, for the adventure wagon, I would say versatile.

[01:06:07] It can do so many different things and I think it does them all pretty well, including breaking. It does that very well. It does that very well too. So, uh, for the wilderness, I'd say functional, mostly in the sense that it just works with all the issues that the adventure wagon has had the last few years. It's good to have a car that's just works every day. Yeah. It's nice having a second car too.

[01:06:32] So, because like, as Pearl's getting up there and miles, you know, I mean, she's been doing great. Like I haven't had any major issues and, but, and I'm still paying on her, unfortunately, but I just had to like get a longer loan so I can make it affordable at the time. Yeah. It's, you know, once she's paid off, I would love to look into getting a second car and just use her more kind of like what you're doing with the adventure wagon, just for the

[01:07:00] kind of fun stuff and then have something else that's more reliable. And I, I think that if I were to get another new car, I think I would have to get another Crosstrek and unless like, it'd be nice to get a BRZ too, but also need something that's like really affordable, you know, cause it'd be nice to still have something like kind of like what you have with the Forester. It's a daily, but it's also something that can still go off road. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I don't know.

[01:07:27] We'll just have to see where things go in the next couple of years, but I just, it would be nice to have something faster because it's just, but, uh, you know, having, being that mine's a manual, it, it definitely get makes such a difference in the driving experience. I mean, I just, and I think about it like every time I'm driving that I'm just like, I love shifting gears. It's just such a fun experience.

[01:07:54] And, and I had been wanting a manual for a long time anyway, cause I'd had two Ford Rangers before, like two cars before this one or three cars before this one had two Ford Rangers in a row that were both manual. And, and I love driving those too. And then after that I had a car that was an automatic and another car that was an automatic. And then now this again, and I was so happy that they made them in a manual, but yeah, I don't know. Let's see what happens.

[01:08:23] But so how would you say that owning your Subarus have changed your life? I mean, I don't think I would be where I am right now without them. Um, with adventure one, my YouTube channel being on this podcast, which that's very meta. Um, it's changed. It's changed a lot. I think I met so many great people. It throughout this outlet, some that I've met in person, others I met online that I want to meet in person.

[01:08:53] Um, I just can't wait to see where it takes me next. Yeah. And that's like, that's such a cool feeling. And it's awesome when you find out that you're going to have the opportunity to meet somebody in person. That's, that's like one of my favorite things about this, you know, especially when you, cause like I live so far away from everybody else. I mean, you, you, we have like our Houston crew here that people that I don't see often enough, but we try to get together and we can.

[01:09:21] Um, but when you've been chatting with people all over the country and they're really far away, it's, it's hard to meet up with them. But, you know, I've been blessed that I've been able to go to different events. Like I went to Boxer Fest. I went to SubiFest, California. I drove up to Madison, Wisconsin for Subaru Flat Fest. Uh, me and my son went out to Washington for spring break for his spring break a couple of years ago.

[01:09:52] And then I went out to Nevada for, to Moon Rocks for my 50th birthday. And, you know, so I've been to a lot of different places and I've been able to meet a lot of different people. And so being that I do the podcast remotely, it, you know, you would almost think that I wouldn't really have a chance to, to meet too many people, but I'm glad that I have. And I've mentioned it several times before, but I'm like over 60 people that I've actually met

[01:10:21] in person that were on the podcast. And that's, that's a pretty good amount. So it's been a, it's been a fun journey, but yeah, meeting people in person, that's like one of the best parts of all of it. So do you think that you will always own a Subaru? Uh, definitely. I will absolutely at least own the adventure wagon. That's not going anywhere. And I kind of keep it as long as I can. Hopefully I can do that. Yeah.

[01:10:48] We'll see. But yeah, I think it will for sure. Yeah, that's good. Well, is there anything else that you wanted to talk about or mention about your journey or about either of your Subarus that I didn't ask you? I don't think so. I, well, okay. There's one thing. Okay. It was kind of a, what this podcast inspired me to do. Oh, nice.

[01:11:17] As I, you know, I was listening to the podcast and, you know, you've had guests on and you've said yourself that like, you don't really know as much about like building Subarus and modifying Subarus, you know, as much as you could. And, um, as someone who's grown up working on cars and knowing the inner workings of cars, I felt like it was a great way for me to help out the

[01:11:46] community more by sharing my knowledge. So I had taken a huge turn on my YouTube channel at the time I've turned again, but, um, at the time I started making videos about, you know, building Subarus for overlanding and how to do it and what, uh, what you should know when building your Subaru for overlanding. So that was inspired completely by this podcast. That's awesome to hear, man. Yeah.

[01:12:14] That's cool. Yeah. It's, uh, I know I have people that'll like compliment me or compliment the podcast and it's hard for me to take a compliment just because, you know, I have people like saying all these great things and I'm like, like, yeah, I'm just like a regular guy who had the idea to do it, you know, like what's the big deal? But like so many people are like, no, you don't understand. And I'm like, I know I don't because I'm not on that side of it. You know, I'm not on the side of the people listening to it and getting to

[01:12:42] hear the stories. Yeah. I get it and I understand it, but it's hard for me to like feel that side of it, you know? Yeah. I, I had the same thing on my YouTube channel. I got a comment recently of someone saying like, Oh, your videos are so, are so well produced and cinematic. And like, you can definitely see your passion coming through. I was like, great. Cause I don't, I don't, I don't see, I write a script and I'm like, is this, does this make sense? Like, I don't

[01:13:11] think it makes any sense. And then I record it and people are like, Oh, it's such a great message. Like, I guess it made sense. Yeah. I mean, there's been many times when I will release an episode and I'm like, I hope people still like the podcast and are going to listen to it. Yeah. That's so silly, but you know, it's just, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, they say people that are creative or not that I would say that I'm creative or anything, but you know, they're like your,

[01:13:37] your own worst critic and everything. But, uh, people are still listening. So I'm still producing. Does it show you like per episode, how many people are listening? Yeah. It, uh, I mean, it has like a number of downloads on Buzzsprout, but, and it also breaks it down. Like Buzzsprout has like a lot of metrics. So it breaks it down by type

[01:13:59] of device like iPhone or Android computer. And then it breaks it down by like, I don't know. It just, it has like a, Oh, and then it breaks it down by like, uh, Apple, iTunes, Spotify, and all the other devices. So, and then it has the locations of where people are listening. It's been in, it's been listened to and I think pretty much every continent

[01:14:25] and it breaks it down by like countries and cities. And it's just like a long list, which is really cool. And seems kind of crazy that people are listening to it on other, in other parts of the world. Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen any analytics more intimidating than YouTube analytics. Cause it has that, but then it has like more. And then you're, you're posting a video and like, all right, is this going to get more views than the last video? Are people going

[01:14:52] to watch more of the video than the last one? And like, it's, it's way too much. I think people get really crazy over YouTube analytics. I've calmed down over the years cause I've been doing YouTube for so long. Yeah. It's definitely intimidating. Cause you have like all those metrics you were talking about and then like five other sections of metrics. It's a lot. Yeah. I stopped looking at how many downloads each episode gets. Like I would look at it,

[01:15:18] you know, like throughout the day. And it's just like, I have to just not worry about it and just know that people are listening to it still. So I just go about my day. Yeah. So this is the part of the episode where we get to know you a little bit better, but who is Kyle as in like, you know, describe yourself. Kyle as in the background, I'm just a 28 year old dude who loves filmmaking, photography

[01:15:43] and the great outdoors. Also star Wars. I just realized, you know, in the background, got my Lego AT-ST in the back. I see that. I love working on my cars myself and I'll never shut up about it. I've been navigating the difficulties of life and the world with autism. I have diagnosed autism, which isn't too hard, but it has its moments. So. I would have never guessed. So I guess that's good. It's the plus of high functioning autism is you never really know. Yeah. So where, where were you born?

[01:16:14] I was born in Newton, Massachusetts, but I've been living in Southern New Hampshire since 1998. So I know more New Hampshire than I know Massachusetts. Okay. What is a favorite memory from your childhood? I think this kind of fueled my love for the outdoors, but I grew up in Boy Scouts and, um, or scouting, whichever term people prefer nowadays. My favorite things we did were our

[01:16:43] summer canoe trips. We did a lot every single summer, went to a bunch of different locations, but, uh, when I was in high school, we settled on this lake on the New Hampshire main border called Umbagog Lake. It's this huge lake and you could go to like different sites. There's like little islands in the, in the lake that have like camping spots on them. And, um, that's, we would always go back after that point too. And we'd always do like a multi-day,

[01:17:14] multi-night camping trip. I think we'd start canoe trip. We'd start on like Thursday and then go to Sunday. And every day we would move to another campsite. Oh, that's cool. Down the river, that leads into the lake and then through the lake. So that's definitely a, definitely a great memory from my childhood. Yeah. We, my son was in Cub Scouts and we used to go camping all the time. And since he hasn't been

[01:17:39] in Cub Scouts, we hardly ever go camping now. And I've got this really nice gazelle tent here in my closet that's been used like three times, I think. And I keep saying, I want to go camping more. It's just, we don't plan it. And, and I like going with multiple people too. Not that I don't think that we would have a good time going by ourselves, but I like going camping with other people because I'm so used to that with the Cub Scouts, with there being like a bunch of people there and you sit

[01:18:06] around the campfire and you just talk and cook food. And I don't know, it's just, it's fun. I think, I think it's more fun with more people. Yeah. I've been looking at gazelle tents cause I've been thinking about my camping situation for the wilderness. I'm thinking I might do like a tent and I've been looking at the gazelle ones. Yeah. They're so easy to set up. Uh, no more tent poles and trying to bend them and make sure you get it through the slot and all that. Man, it's yeah. And it's nice because you can take the bottom off and,

[01:18:35] you know, clean it if you need to. And I haven't done that yet, but probably should at some point, but yeah, it's a, it's a nice tent. What is it you do for a living? So if my video and photography wasn't enough in my off time, I also do videography for work. Um, I work for an auto parts company in their video studio where we make like education on tutorial

[01:18:59] videos for two YouTube channels, certainly a lot of work, but it's nice to have something in my field, full-time job and everything has its ups, has its downs, but yeah, overall it's not a bad, not a bad gig. Okay. Is so, so what you're doing now, would you say that that is kind of a dream job or do you have a dream job? It's definitely not my dream job. It's a little too corporate for me.

[01:19:25] It's not as creative as it could be. Um, I think definitely my own YouTube channel and adventure one are what I want to do as my dream job in the future for sure. Yeah. And it seems like that's very possible and attainable. So that's good. What sort of hobbies do you have or what else do you enjoy besides driving your Subaru and exploring? So I guess most of my work are my hobbies. So filmmaking and photography are kind of my hobbies,

[01:19:54] but I guess I don't do photography like paid photography or anything like that. So it, that's definitely more of a hobby and video games would probably be my top, my top hobbies, but okay. Yeah. All right. What is something that makes you want to get out of bed every day? Uh, not by choice, but work. I work, I work early in the morning. I like get in to work at 7am. So I'm usually up early in the morning. Um, so that's kind of the biggest driving factor.

[01:20:24] Yeah. Probably work works the biggest factor. Okay. Well, let's say it's the weekend and something that makes you like, you're laying in bed, but you want to get up. It's like, I want to get up now cause I want to go do this or whatever. I'd say car events, filming YouTube videos, anything like that, anything that's exciting in that regard. That's definitely going to get me out of bed. Okay. But it's something that makes you want to stay in bed. I know a lot of people cause it's winter time. A lot of people say cold and I would,

[01:20:54] I was going to say that, but I think for me, because I work early, it's how dark it is in the morning. It's better now. I'm like, by the time I'm leaving for work, the sun's kind of coming up, but especially in like the shorter days of the year in like December and January, it's miserable. Like, you know, it even in closer to the first day of winter, sometimes I'll leave for work in the dark and then I'll go home from work in the dark. And it's just like,

[01:21:23] yeah, that's so weird. And also whenever I, whenever I get up in the morning and it's still dark outside, I'm like, ah, it's just, I'll go back to bed until it's bright outside. Yeah. No, I like, yeah, that's same, same here. But what would be your best bit of advice to give to someone about anything? I would say it's never too late to start.

[01:21:49] That is very true. It's better to start now instead of regretting all the time you spent thinking of like the missed opportunities in the past. I think that's something that I'm kind of living by now as I take more, more, uh, as I try to put more effort into YouTube and hopefully Instagram soon. I don't post that much on Instagram as I would like to, but hopefully,

[01:22:14] you know, growing my brand, obviously I would have loved to have done it when I was like 21, 22, but I'm 28 now. It's not too late. I can still do it. So. One of the things that is kind of going off on a tangent, something that I was thinking about a couple of years ago is, you know, people talk about, oh, you work, you work, you work, and then you retire. And then like you go enjoy retirement. And I was thinking like,

[01:22:39] what if you never retire because you actually enjoy what you do and you do something that you do on your own time. You do something that, you know, of course, this is something that if you have your own business and something that you can maybe do remotely, you're just something that you really, really enjoy. Why would you retire from that? If you're earning an income too, and it's something that you enjoy, you would never really retire.

[01:23:04] Right. I agree. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. There's so many, I'm, I'm in a group of, it's like a YouTube channel I follow that mostly does like YouTube help things and growing your channel and stuff like that. And, um, I'm in that group, not necessarily to get help with growing a YouTube channel. I think I've done it enough years that I think I could figure that out how to grow it, but there's so many new people that come on and they always have a lot of the same questions and

[01:23:32] everything that I had when I first started. And it's just, it's nice to help people out and like, tell them like, yeah, this thing that you're thinking of, I thought of that too once it didn't really work. So don't, don't do that thing. But yeah, that's, it's nice to have those communities that sort of help out and to get that inspiration from other people. Yeah. And that's exactly the way the Subaru community is because you, there's so many new

[01:23:56] people that come into the community and they buy a new Subaru. They've, you know, especially people that find out about the community and that are kind of becoming an enthusiast and, you know, they start connecting with people and you're kind of shy at first and you have questions, but you're not sure who to ask. And then you get brave and you like finally ask somebody and then they respond and you're like, Oh wow, they actually responded and they're helping me out. And then you find out

[01:24:23] like, there's just so many people out there that are willing to help you figure out how to get through a mod or, you know, what to start with. And, and it doesn't feel as intimidating and they help you by letting, you know, like what you were saying is like, Oh, I've tried that doesn't really work or try this. It works really great. Or, you know, I've heard that product's not that great, but this one is better. And so yeah, the community is just so great for that.

[01:24:50] Yeah. I think one of the things that I see a lot in the adventure one group is someone, we do have a section on our discord called, um, garage talk and mod help. And, um, you know, a lot of times people will put in there like an issue that they're having and then I'll read it. I'm like, I had that issue before. I know, I know how to fix that thing so I can help them more easily with that, which is nice that we can all help each other out for sure.

[01:25:17] Yep. Definitely. Well, thank you so much, Kyle, for taking the time to record with me and be a guest on the podcast. Yeah, absolutely. I had a great time. Good. I'm glad you did. So, uh, yeah, we'll get this episode out. I think it's, it'll be like in a week and a half, but yeah, I enjoyed having you on and it's nice learning a little bit more about you and your builds and kind of where you're going with them. And especially the, you know,

[01:25:43] the 2005, that's like a very, very special forester. So that's nice to hear. Well, take it easy. I hope you have a good night and we'll keep in touch and, uh, it's nice talking to you. Nice talking to you. Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Sue B and you podcast. And thank you, Kyle, for taking the time to be a guest and record with me. Of course, if you're not doing so already, go give Kyle a follow on Instagram. His Instagram handle is

[01:26:12] the create outdoors. You can also follow him on YouTube and check out his videos there. I hope everybody has a great week. And as mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, be sure to tune in on Wednesday for a bonus episode where I talked to a guy from SOA about Overland Expo 2025. That's going to be very interesting. And it's going to be great to hear

[01:26:38] about our favorite car brand participating in the Overland Expo events at the five locations. So be sure to tune in, check it out. It's going to be a good one. And again, I have an announcement to make on that episode. So you can also go to Subaru.com slash Overland Expo to get a little more information, especially the dates and the locations. So be sure to check that out. Thank you

[01:27:03] all so much. Hope you all have a great week and go out there and do Sue B things. Much Sue B love. Raph. The Sue B and 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 with music by Luke Ruiz in another room in Houston. You can find the Sue B and you podcast

[01:27:29] wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple podcast, Spotify, and many more to support the podcast. Please head over to patrion.com slash Sue B and you podcast. 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 Sue B and you podcast online at Sue B and you podcast.com or by email Sue B and you podcast at gmail.com. That's all for this week.