Shed Geek Podcast

Building Community: The Texas Barbecue Bash and Shed Hauling Journey

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 4 • Episode 103

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Join me, Sam Byler, along with special guests Caleb Miller, Karl Schrock, and Mervin Vargas, as we embark on a mouthwatering journey through the world of Texas barbecue and the unique shed hauling community that has grown around it. Discover how Caleb's spark of an idea ignited an annual tradition, bringing together truckers and haulers under the sizzling Texas sun. Hear how Caleb and Mervin's chance meeting laid the groundwork for this event, and Karl's reflections on his early involvement with the bash, creating a network of camaraderie and support in the process.

As the barbecue fires up, we dive into exciting plans for expanding the bash to Texas. The buzz is electric as we consider logistics, the role of sponsors, and the potential for similar gatherings nationwide. From the possibility of a West Coast expansion to leveraging local enthusiasm, we explore how these events can unify the community and offer support across the industry. Our chapter on collaboration paints a vivid picture of the challenges and triumphs of hosting such an event, with a focus on inclusivity and family-friendly fun.

Finally, we reflect on the essence of these gatherings: community, faith, and unwinding from the daily grind. By easing off the competitive pressures and prioritizing relaxation, we aim to foster an atmosphere where connections flourish. Listen to our musings on creating a welcoming space, drawing from local talent, and engaging families in meaningful ways. With a heart full of gratitude, we extend our thoughts and prayers to those navigating the challenges of the road and life, committing ourselves to building a stronger, faith-driven community within the shed industry.

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.

To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.

To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.

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Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber

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Sambassador:

All right guys, welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Sambassador Friday Fun Days. I'm your host, Sam Byler, and I am here with none less than the whole Texas barbecue crew. So, we want to talk bash stuff a little bit. This episode is going to be geared around shed hauling a little more about where the bash is headed, and these guys here are the guys that, in my opinion, started it all.

Sambassador:

I know Caleb was posting on Facebook a couple years, I think, before Jason called me up. Jason actually called me up and said hey, I want to do something up here in the Northwest like what those Texas guys are doing, and we didn't even really know what y'all were doing. All I knew was Caleb was parking a whole bunch of rigs out in the field and they were having too much fun for me not to be there. I'm not even sure that I knew Mervin and Karl back at that time. So, I've got Caleb Miller, carl Schrock and Mervin Vargas on with me today. They're the guys that head up the Texas barbecue. Caleb, you were always the one that kind of was pushing it out there to start with. Was this your idea, or where did this idea even come from to start with?

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, I think it was my idea In the first couple of years or, like, I guess, the first time we got together, I just started calling people and I don't even remember how many calls I made started calling people and I don't even remember how many calls I made just, hey, would you guys like to just get together one day and, you know, have some barbecue or just hang out?

Caleb Miller:

You know, the barbecue thing kind of came a little bit later, but I was just like, just, you know, come hang out, bring your rigs, just so everybody can look at you know, look at everything. Um, that's just really what it started with, because I was just like, hey, I don't know, I mean, I mean I knew a lot of guys, but I was like, you know, I was trying to get people, I didn't know to come to it, and my whole thought was that, you know, when we go down the road and you see somebody broke down, I mean we go all over, at least you like know who it is that's broke down and, like you know, you're more likely to help each other when that happens. So that's kind of the whole let's. Let's get together and get to know each other wait a minute, you guys.

Sambassador:

You guys are in Texas, and you run semis and you break down. I thought that was the secret to the whole shed hauling gig was to get to a semi. So, you're gonna break down anymore, no comment. Uh, so did you know Mervin and Karl? Before you started doing this, you said you were riding down the road and you didn't really know anybody. Where did you get to know them?

Caleb Miller:

I don't even remember how I got to know Mervin. I probably got to know Mervin actually when he started coming to these things, I'm not sure. And Karl, I honestly do not remember the first time I met Karl he probably started coming to these things too, but I don't really remember when. When he started to come um back, when you know, when we started it, you know they were well, Mervin was with Leland's then, so he would bring Leland's trucks and win the best show award, all this, and that he'd have like how many people voted for his truck. And then when he got his own trucks and he for sure had everybody voting for him.

Sambassador:

So Yep, Karl, do you remember when you met these guys?

Karl Shrock:

Well, I think, uh, trying to remember the first year that I was actually there, but I started in Leland's in January 5th of 15. And so, I don't remember when the first bash was, Caleb, do you remember? Well, it was nine years ago, because this was our ninth.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, this is ninth. It would have been, I think, August, either August or September. We kind of screwed around with the date of that same year, so I don't know if you came that time or not, but we started. You know, originally we did it and either August or September I think it was maybe September, but we kept bumping it back because it kept being so hot all the time. So, we just kind of figured out that October is best time for Texas.

Sambassador:

Yeah, no kidding, still gets hot sometimes, oh yeah.

Karl Shrock:

I don't remember if it was that first year or not, but if it was, like Caleb said, Mervin was still driving one of Leland's rigs and at that point I was transportation manager. So, if the fleet went, I probably went, maybe even took a truck. I don't know, I can't remember. It was a long time ago, but just through, I guess through that. I'm like Caleb, I don't really remember how we got connected, but it's been a pleasure working together.

Sambassador:

Mervin, you got any input. One of you guys should have a memory

Mervin Vargas:

That's how I got to know Caleb.

Mervin Vargas:

I would hear I was his name, Caleb. The other guy used to help you. I'll step. We're praying all bread. Brett Brandon. I knew Brandon and kind of threw Brandon, I think Caleb was. When they called me about going I said yeah, we'll go, but I know who this Caleb was. I knew Brandon was, but I know who this Caleb guy was and that's where I met him and then from there it's history. You know, that's where I get to know him that is.

Sambassador:

That is crazy, that you guys actually know each other because of what Caleb started doing and it's the main reason we push these things is to walk across the street and get to know the guy across the street, and Caleb nailed it. How many times have we heard stories about somebody's broke down and it actually ends up being what we used to think was our competition? I don't even look at it that way anymore. That comes and helps you, because you just grew a friendship from getting together and hanging out and eating some barbecue.

Mervin Vargas:

Yeah, on my way back from last trip North Carolina, I had to take a leak pretty bad, so I pulled over. And then I heard a hiss over there under the trailer tires. So, I was over there on my knees checking it out and all of a sudden, I heard these jakes and I look up. Here comes a shed hauler and he is locking. I even smelled brakes, and he pulled over. So, I had to run into the truck and get in the CB to tell him no, I'm good, you know and here. He knew me and I have no idea who he was. Our, our cbs were a little bit. I don't know if it was his or mine, but I tried to ask him who he was and I couldn't understand, but he sure knew who I was. He called me by name, wondering if I was on my way back from North Carolina and where I was headed on. Man, who is this guy?

Sambassador:

Where were you at on 49

Mervin Vargas:

uh between uh Shreveport and Texacana?

Sambassador:

oh, I got you okay, yeah, wow, that's good

Mervin Vargas:

He was driving the truck that Kurt has used to have and he sold, it, went to West, to the West coast, and now it's down here. But he bought it from somebody on the West coast. I got you.

Sambassador:

So, Karl, when did you transition? You said back then you were, uh, what'd you call it? Transport manager or something like that. When did you transition out of that? And what keeps you tied into this bunch? You always show up, you always got a smile on your face and you're always helping with everything it's you can't get away, can you?

Karl Shrock:

well, uh, I, uh, yeah. I just enjoy hanging out with the haulers and I. I used to drive truck before I got involved in the shed industry. I drove truck. I hold live birds um chickens, oh I guess and I uh, that was rather stressful.

Karl Shrock:

That was actually more stressful than hauling wide loads, if you ask me, because if it's hot, 80 degrees, 80 humidity and you got 16 week old birds on, you ain't stopping, you're going, and if you stop, you're killing birds. So, it can be 500,000 miles, don't really matter. You got to keep rolling and I came to Texas and started working with and I came to Texas and started working with Leland's, working with Mervin and that whole bunch. And if they have a problem, what do they do? They pull over. And I'm like boy guys, y'all are spoiled. You can just pull over and fix whatever's needed, really enjoy and connect with Caleb's vision of the barbecue and connecting people, learning from each other.

Karl Shrock:

There was a lot of for a couple of years there. There was a lot of well, my rig's not nice enough, or I don't want to bring it because it's not pretty enough, pretty enough, or and we, we tried hard to simmer that down a little bit by saying look, that that's not. The point isn't to have a pretty rig. Obviously, we want a very professional looking rig pulling into our customers, but we're here to learn from each other. Everyone does something a little different. We can all learn from each other and if we're humble enough to admit that we're all further ahead as an industry and I just I really connected with Caleb's uh vision with that and so I just I enjoy coming helping uh putting it on. I enjoy trucks, so even though I don't drive anymore, it's I guess if it's once in your blood, it's always in your blood. It's always in your blood. You know how that is.

Sambassador:

Oh yeah, I'm just sitting here and I'm agreeing with all of that. You know I was in sheds before. I was in trucking, but then trucking took over for years and even building houses took over from sheds. But end up back in sheds and yeah, now I'm not trucking, but I mean, obviously trucks are.

Sambassador:

They get in your blood and they're, it's just, it's part of you. Even when you get away from it, you always have a soft spot. You're driving down the road on a trip, you see a nice rig and you still pay attention. You know, you still see those and it's like, oh yeah, that was a nice rig. Or you hear jake going, it's like, yep, that's so I. I get it, I understand that, but it's just um, you guys, if you guys fight, you fight very well in private. Um, because it's it's. It's such a pleasure to see you three guys work together. I know all of you fairly well now and literally from the same thing. I think Vargas showed, showed up. Didn't you come to Montana? I did, yeah, and I think that's kind of where we first. Caleb, where were you at? I met you at one of these, was it there?

Caleb Miller:

I mean, I was in Montana. I think we met the first time at one of our family reunions out in South Carolina. You got invited to come over and hang out with us one evening and sing and this and that with your wife. Yeah, that is true.

Sambassador:

And I think Montana would have been soon after that, because I remember that now that you say that man, that first Montana one. Josh Linder and Paul Starnacker came in from North Carolina. Y'all remember that, yeah. And then Keith Stalsfus came all the way in from Pennsylvania. Abner came Trying to think who the other? There were some oddball pieces. Texas, you guys brought a big crowd. The Miller boys came, that's where a lot of all those like they came from all different places.

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Sambassador:

Just an interesting little tidbit about what's going on in North Carolina and all that stuff. Right now, on the Tennessee side of it, in Irwin Tennessee, there's a huge old hickory plant that was there that got hammered. They lost over 200 sheds and that used to be Josh Linder's plant. He has since moved out to the West Coast somewhere and he's like I think he's like a sales regional sales guy or something out there. I'm not sure what he does. I think he's like a sales regional sales guy or something out there. I'm not sure what he does.

Sambassador:

Um, but I used to stop in that plant all the time and see Josh, and the other day I was watching a news clip and it actually showed that building and all the, all the huge doors were blown out of it. There's trees inside the building, there's mudded, crashed up cars inside it and sheds are all gone. I mean there's muddied, crashed up cars inside it and sheds are all gone. I mean there's. You can't find there was, like it was. Just it was crazy. Um, anyway, it was interesting to think about. Oh, yeah, I've, since Josh is on the road I don't see him. There's much anymore. But yeah, Paul was out there for that one, and you know most people be like I don't remember where I met Paul. Paul's been around forever and it's just cool to see that.

Sambassador:

Um, so let's switch a little bit from the from the background side of Texas barbecue to. I asked you guys a couple years ago already if you guys would be interested in uh running together with the Bash one year, because it just doesn't seem right to go to Texas and not have it with you guys. You guys can figure out who takes turns or where you go from there, but how do you guys feel about teaming up with the? And I mean, you can be brutal, you can say, oh well, it's kind of weird or whatever. But what's your feelings on teaming up with the bash next year? What are you guys thinking is going to happen? Have you had a chance to talk about it at all yet? Caleb, you can go first. You're kind of the guy that's more or less in charge.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, we've talked about it a little bit, but we have not set a date, which is what we really need to do today to get together about that. We have talked about different stuff like that, but I'm excited, I think it's great. I mean, it was like the same thing when we got back to Montana that you were talking about. When I found out about the one in Montana, I'm like I'm going like this Great, somebody else got this good idea as well. Like they, just like this is great, but the more we can do this the better, and it's been amazing how big that has grown. So, like. For me, it's like, yeah, it's a lot of work here and there or whatever, but at the same time, it's like we can get that many more people to come to one of these and maybe they'll come.

Caleb Miller:

Just because it's in Texas, who knows?

Sambassador:

Oh, absolutely Merv.

Mervin Vargas:

Oh, I'm excited about it, a little nervous, but excited

Sambassador:

man, you're an old hand at this by now. We should. It's. You know, I get it every year. It's like I start stressing out the last two weeks and it's so dumb because it's like is anybody going to show up? Is anybody going to show up? You know who's going to Come? On, man.

Sambassador:

The good thing about it is it's bigger than all of us. All we got to do is throw a date out there and a place out there and the whole thing just kind of rolls on its own, even sponsors. Now I wanted to make sure I wasn't thinking about doing it right now. I was going to do it more towards the end. But the thing that makes it work for me that's huge is the sponsors To be able to poke an email list, write out a nice little script, kind of where my heart is, what I'm feeling, or whatever, and to hit send and know the response. I'll get back immediately from some of those guys immediately.

Sambassador:

It's incredible, like there's no feeling that matches that feeling of knowing that you have people, people that are in this industry have your back when it comes to doing something like this, even Karl's Bunch, I mean. They're always there, you know, and they're always there on your things. You know and you think about it. We're, we're not just doing it. You know the Oklahoma boys. They throw a great one. Um, nep is getting to where he throws an incredible one. In Indiana, Martin and Joe are doing a job, a great job down in Georgia. Um, we've talked about starting one in North Carolina. Again, the Pennsylvania boys have talked about doing it. So, it's, it's not like it's just once. You know one thing every so often, it happens on a regular basis, and these guys always, always step up big, and I think that's what makes it easy. You started saying something.

Mervin Vargas:

I was going to ask a little bit off subject, I guess why does it never happen again in West Coast?

Sambassador:

Well, I think it's more because, okay, so, like Utah, we knew that was going to be a smaller one, just because you don't pull the traffic.

Mervin Vargas:

But it was like one of my best ones. I meant more like the barbecues.

Sambassador:

Oh yeah, why is nobody doing an annual barbecue? Yeah, that's, yeah, it's so you have to have a local person. Somebody local has to decide to step up and say, hey, I think I can do this. Um, I personally I think it's because there's a couple of those West Coast guys that show up. If we're, you know, on the western half of the Like, if it's they showed up in Utah, I think they would show up. I'm hoping they'll show up in Texas. They said they're going up, but I think I think you have to.

Sambassador:

You have to kind of come and show up and be a part of it before you realize, um, oh, I got a visitor back here. Never mind, like. So, it's a little bit like I tell people about the Tennessee, North Carolina issue right now. You have to be there like it doesn't really get into you until you actually show up. I've got new guys.

Sambassador:

North Carolina was incredible on the feedback I got from guys that were saying I had no idea it would be this, I don't know. They didn't really use the word fun, this, real Like that I would actually have guys that would come up and talk to me, that I could actually talk to other guys. I kind of thought I was just going to show up and be on my own. Um, I think until well. First of all, you got to come get that buy-in. I would give a shout out that I'd say you know the Bryce and some of those guys out there, or Sydney, some of those California guys. If they would step up and throw one, we'd all go. I'd love to go to Northern California.

Mervin Vargas:

I'll go.

Sambassador:

So maybe we just need to start pushing them dudes a little bit and be like hey, if you throw one, we'll show. You know, we had to do that for North Carolina. You know, Michael wanted to do one and it was like, just do it, we'll come. So maybe I guess that's my answer to that is the fact that you know and I, you know they asked, you know, hey, can we bring the bash out here? And I'm like, well, if somebody shows some effort, why wouldn't we? But without effort it's kind of hard to do.

Mervin Vargas:

You'd go.

Sambassador:

I would go Okay, Caleb would if we wouldn't interfere with his pool business, I guess.

Caleb Miller:

I'd probably go.

Sambassador:

I mean, obviously it depends on what time of year what?

Caleb Miller:

time of the year do you go to Northern California? I would hope so, like probably wintertime.

Sambassador:

I don't know. I don't know either. Well, they get snow if you're out in the mountains. Oh, okay, Well.

Caleb Miller:

I've been to California so yeah, I'd mountains. Oh, okay, well, I don't know, I've never been to California so yeah, I'd go.

Sambassador:

Oh, you got some connections out there, don't you? Don't? Some of the shed industry guys bounce back and forth in your circles from out there? Well, I think Mervin has some too.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, Mervin, I don't know that I do.

Karl Shrock:

I'm not off the top of my head to know that I know anybody out there, really. Yeah, we have some drivers out in that area that pull for us. Justin Hostet, our host transport.

Sambassador:

There you go. I couldn't think of him.

Karl Shrock:

Super good guy. Runs a great company, great hauler. He pulls for us for some of the Oregon. I've tried to get him to come to Texas. He thinks it's far for some reason. But yeah, I would love to be able to go out there. I absolutely would participate.

Sambassador:

Yeah, that's a good idea. So you guys have, where are we going with this thing? Um, you said you're going to work a date up, I'm guessing. I mean we're hoping sometime in october. Have you guys talked anything about, I know, caleb or mervin. One of them told me that they think they have an idea of where we can maybe have one. Any any testers or feelers or hints you want to throw out there about what you're looking at?

Caleb Miller:

so, I am looking at a place and they're supposed to get back with me. Um, it's, uh, would be right, right around the temple area there and uh, it's like a 50 acre property. Um, they have, uh, rv hookups already. It's an antique tractor show association ground and so it's. It's. You know, it's only a couple minutes off and barely even a minute or so off the interstate and, uh, close to you know, a big city there where there's plenty of hotels and stuff like that, so that that part is really nice.

Caleb Miller:

The only bad thing is like we'd have to put up a big tent, you know, for everybody to be able to eat in. They have a pavilion, but it's not super large, but I mean it's got sectioned off areas for, um, like spectator parking, I mean like acres and acres, I mean it's grass, but I mean, yeah, they get rain there and people pull in there anyway. So, it's been there for years and years. They actually have a tractor pull track, so they use it to pull these old, antique tractors. I don't know if they have a sled that would be available or not, but I was like that might be kind of cool.

Sambassador:

We had a sled lined up. The guy from Pennsylvania will bring you a sled. We had him lined up in Tennessee until the floods hit. I'm almost scared to even mention the word pull anymore, because every time we mention it we end up with a flooded field we can't use. That was even in North Carolina. We had that bottom field that we were supposed to be able to use until it turned into a mud pit. I guess we could have had a mud bog with the mules.

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Sambassador:

So, this place, you know the tent thing isn't. I don't mind the tent thing. What caught us off guard in Pennsylvania was the wind. Y'all remember how windy it got in Pennsylvania, and I mean it was well. Not only that, it had rained a ton, there too, we turned that place into a mud hole, but it still worked. Tents are expensive but as long as you know the budget for them, you can make it work. That was one thing that made it nice about North Carolina was, every time we were talking about the budget where we were going to spend money and stuff, it's like, hey, at least we don't have the tent expense, but if we know going into it, that we have it and we have a little bit of surplus. This time, Texas with the tent I'm thinking of flag hall and instead of having you know the building there, just have a big tent. I don't see much difference. I don't see, you know, I can see that being just as fun.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, yeah, I think I think it would work okay, but obviously Worried about you, know, they said well we got know they were like well, how much of this yard would you like to use?

Caleb Miller:

I was like the whole place and I don't know about that. And we got a lot of. You know they still have like old tractors sitting around there. But you know we don't want parts to go missing and I try not to laugh, but I'm just like you know we literally were going to have at least $10 million worth of trucks coming in here. I mean we really aren't going to care about some old tractors, so I don't think that would be a problem. So yeah, I'm waiting to hear back.

Caleb Miller:

I did find another guy that knows somebody on the board he actually works, and so I got to get with him to. I told him I said you need to ask that guy, I need to follow up with him yet to see if we've heard anything about that. But yeah, as far as the date, um, I've we I've been kind of in my head, just kind of being kind of keeping it the same time of the year as we do our taxes one, just because it kind of seems to be the best time to come to Texas. As far as weather, I mean, obviously you never know, with rain that can always screw you up, but other than that it's. You know, usually October is not extremely hot anymore and it's most of the time not extremely cold, so that's kind of what we're shooting for, or I am anyway. We haven't really, you know, made any definite plans yet on any of it.

Sambassador:

Yeah, I've literally just been going off the fact that it always seems to be pretty close to the third Saturday in October. So, you guys need to let me know different as soon as you figure out if that's not what's happening, because that's kind of where I'm stuck at right now. But let's brainstorm a little bit. So, the bash is still geared pretty heavily towards competitions and stuff, and I know you guys have kind of backed off of that. You want to get back to the relaxed field that we want everybody to show up to hang out to have a good time. Um, what are we looking for? I'm wide open. I really like having all those other goofy little competitions going that some of the sponsors were able to get involved with their people. I never got any feedback from you guys on it. The sponsors loved it, they felt like they were more involved or whatever. Do you guys have any? What are you guys stewing on as far as what you want to see happen?

Caleb Miller:

Go ahead, Mervin.

Mervin Vargas:

Why you throw me under the bus. I my personal feeling about the whole thing. I hate those competitions. So that's kind of why I guess all three of us kind of I don't know if every all the other guys hate it, but we kind of agree that we don't like them, so we stay away. So, if you ask me, I would go with no competitions.

Karl Shrock:

But if there is competitions that I'm more willing to help with, there is a good side of competitions, and I think they have served their place. But probably part of the reason that the three of us for sure got kind of tired of competitions is, year after year after year Like we mentioned, we just did our ninth. Like we mentioned, we just did our ninth If you always have the same competition every year by year, three, four, everybody's standing there knowing what's going to happen next and they're like, okay, we've seen this before and the crowd starts going back into the building and you kind of lose interest. And sometimes it's hot in Texas standing out there. It kind of got old. So, what we actually did is we had that feeling.

Karl Shrock:

But if you remember, Sam, we put out a survey and asked people what did you prefer competitions or relaxed? And it was a resounding. We love the relaxed environment. Just get together, eat good barbecue our, our guy Richard, that does the barbecue, does a really good job with the food and let's get together, relax, eat barbecue, connect and call it a day. So that's kind of why we have went to that. It does get old to do competitions and it's a lot of work, but if that's what people want, I don't think any of us are afraid of the work that's involved.

Sambassador:

So, we can. I'm all for this. I would love so. In Utah it was a little bit more like that. We still had some, but we kicked back. Jason and I actually talked about the fact of how cool it is to be able to hang out more, not to have something always going on. So, if the four of us would take a boat right now, it'd be a unanimous vote that we can take a year off. We're going to Texas. This is what we're going to do. We ain't going to do any competitions. We might even bring some entertainment in or something. Nobody has to organize all that. You guys would actually be in favor of that, correct?

Caleb Miller:

Yes, oh yeah, going back to when we first started these things, um, I wanted to. I thought, oh yeah, you know, let's, let's do these things. Not, I wasn't doing it in a competition way, but I was just like you know, there might be ways of loading and unloading buildings that might be, you know, faster watching somebody else. That was my whole thing. But you know, we got buildings lined up and everything, and then nobody wanted to do anything. Yeah, sure. So, I was like, okay, well, I mean, I'm inviting these guys to come hang out. They don't want to do this and I'm not going to push them to do it. And so, we literally brought buildings two years in a row.

Caleb Miller:

When we first started there and nobody was like man, I was like, hey, you guys want to go? You know, do this, you know, do some mule races or something. And you know, I'd rather just, you know, sit here and hang out and stuff like that. So, I was like, okay, fine. So, we quite even started having buildings show up and uh. But then, you know, after the bash thing started happening, people started really, uh, wanting to, you know, do it a little bit more. So, then we actually got, we, we got people to for the first. You know, couple of years, but the longer we went on with it, it was hard to get people to sign up. Um, I, I know that the bash thing is, you know, there's some people that really look forward to that. So, yeah, my book is, you know, don't do it, because I, like, you know, just being able to chill, but it's also one of the things I'm always about, hey, if there's people that want to do something, but it's also one of the things.

Sambassador:

I'm always about hey, if there's people that want to do something, we'll make it happen, you know. So that's yeah, yeah. So the thing that the thing that stood out to me in North Carolina was we had like three semis sign up for the semi, and that was after Pennsylvania had a bunch of, but for whatever reason, in North Carolina there was only like three, maybe four, that had signed up for the semi-delivery competition and then I was able to maybe drag one or two in. No, I think I had two signed up, my drug, two more and I ended up with four. But after it was over, with the guys that had watched the semi-competition, they were like, if we would have known you were going to make it so much more fun and less stressful than Pennsylvania was, we would have signed up and done it. And I'm like you never know, we are going to switch it up, we're not going to keep it the same. I am 100% behind the idea that we'll do competitions again. But if we go to Texas, we're going to do it Texas style and we're just going to kick back and hang out and eat and have good food. And if you want to do competitions, we'll have them back again, but let's just take a year and just forget about it.

Sambassador:

That was one of the main things I wanted to get discussed today was, if it would be cool and we'll throw it out, I'll still do like Karl, cool and we'll throw it out? I'll still. I'll do like Paul says. We'll throw it out there and be like okay, guys, here's your chance. What do you want to do here? You want to go to Texas and eat good barbecue, or you know?

Sambassador:

Of course, they said the best barbecues in North Carolina and you guys just think you have good barbecue. Yeah, but maybe we should have a barbecue cook-off. I can almost see it. I see a cow. It keeps blurring out Terry Black, Terry Black, that's the best barbecue. That's just good. Oh, it's just good. You're not going to pull a Richard Miller and tell me it's the best barbecue. You know what we could do, that we could get four or five guys come in with barbecue. We could sit there and eat barbecue and we could all be judges and we could solve it once and for all where the best barbecue is this year, the way we did it this year with the challenger and the uh, the big granddaddy diesel uh meal that Cardinal came out with.

Karl Shrock:

I think that was really neat and actually productive for everybody to see what those machines are able to do. That was educational. So I want you to hear me, I'm not against anything like that. Like, if manufacturers or trailer manufacturers want to show off their equipment for educational purposes, that's, that's perfect. Like I think I think that's a good thing and I'd support that a hundred percent. But that's a very different context than going around trying to get people to sign up to do something that they're not sure that they actually want to do. That's where it, like Caleb said, it got to, where people didn't really want to do it anymore.

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Mervin Vargas:

Every barbecue I go. I've went to almost every one of them, I think every one of them, but it's the same thing. You see, the guys that are running it just out there just begging and begging. We need more. Come on, sign up, sign up. So that was one of the things that made me wonder why in the world we do it if we have to like drag people into it. So, um, I was in my mind we should switch that to more like games, you know, I don't know, like playing a cornhole or stuff like that. Make a competition out of that, and then, while you're doing that, you're associating and visiting and getting to know the driver that you've been passing for the last year didn't know who, oh, that's you, and so on you know, we were actually supposed to have, like I had two guys volunteer to do a cornhole tournament and for some reason it fell apart.

Sambassador:

I don't know what. I never heard for sure what happened. But, um, I was like, like they came in there like, hey, would you care if we did like a cornhole tournament, uh, Thursday night, then, you know, sometime on Friday, before we close out with a winner circle or whatever. You know, we have like the finishing four teams, you know, finish up where everybody's watching. I'm like man, yeah, oh my god, center area was lit up with lights. You can go as late as you want to go. Um, I know the weather threw a kink in it a little bit, but we had already decided we could move it inside if we needed to. But that's, yeah, that's a fantastic idea. Let's, we can pull some stuff. I'm not that good at cornhole, so I'll probably sit there and watch them or give them a bunch of grief, but yeah, that's stuff you could do.

Mervin Vargas:

We can do companies against companies, you know oh oh yeah, I'm all about that.

Sambassador:

If you don't have a company, you just get to recruit your own company, or what.

Mervin Vargas:

Yeah, go buddy up Like hey, you and I, let's do it.

Sambassador:

Yeah, we might even get some sponsors in on that deal.

Mervin Vargas:

Well, yeah.

Caleb Miller:

You got to be like you know some of these different manufacturers, or you know, oh, like you offer them, you're on their team, or something like that. Yeah, there you go.

Sambassador:

Yeah, that's a great idea. Hey, you mentioned Cook does a fantastic job out there. Is he planning on being on board for a bigger crowd? Because we've always got Jonathan. You know that comes in and helps too. What are you all looking at? Because we've always got Jonathan, you know that comes in and helps too.

Caleb Miller:

What are y'all looking at? We are he's looking at, or he's open to the idea of being able to do it. We have decided that, you know, we are going to have, you know, not just, I guess, Jonathan coming to do the stuff that we would like to have more of a Texas-themed stuff, yeah. So, yeah, we haven't, you know, made up, you know, whatever, we're not setting a stone on anything, but we, we discussed that that, hey, we really don't need somebody to come from Pennsylvania, come to Texas to cook food, like we've got good food cooking people here.

Caleb Miller:

Well, I'm sure, I'm sure he'd appreciate a break too. So, I so I mean, that's kind of what we were looking at, you know talking to and we were actually talking to Richard, our guy, and he actually was recommending some kind of big guy that does huge events Nice Would be good for it. But he did say you'd have to get on his radar really, really quick because he books way out ahead. But he does Like the whole city of Austin, what do they have? That stupid festival, I don't know what, that music festival thing, and he'll be the workers there and stuff. So yeah, he's nice.

Sambassador:

Cool, so we can give us something to work on. Yeah, anything. Any of you guys want to get out to the? I mean, we're less than a year. That seems crazy. It's like I don't know. You know, I thought moving it every 18 months would make it a little bit easier and free it up, and it rolls around just as fast. I don't know how. What do you guys want to put out there to people that individually, all together, what do you want people to know that? Why should they come to Texas? Obviously, you guys don't twist anybody's arms. You're like show up or don't show up, we don't really care, we're going to have a good time.

Karl Shrock:

Just give me your best one minute commercial that you got the reason I uh, I enjoy working with Mervin and Caleb in doing the Texas bash is because we always have a theme, and Mervin actually came up with the idea of this last year. It was, um, excellent customer service through serving others. I think it was something like that, and we didn't really spend a lot of time on it. But our heart and our passion is to make the industry better by collaborating and bringing a better experience to the drivers, the manufacturers, the customer, everybody. And it's not focused just on the driver or just on the manufacturer or just on the RTO company. We care about every aspect of it.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah.

Mervin Vargas:

Go ahead. On my part, I say don't be scared to come, don't question it. I was surprised, you know, even I know, years ago it was worse. And it's this the industry is. I don't know what's the right term, but everybody's afraid to go because what is so-and-so going to say and what is this going to mean? And if I go and I'm seen with you, my boss isn't going to. You know, get rid of me and all that good stuff. And this is to come and learn. This is not to come and poach, because I I had a, uh, a manufacturer owner said that he was not sending his drivers because he knows that they're going to come talk to me.

Mervin Vargas:

And I'm like man, what does that? Got to do with anything? He said, well, then two weeks later they'll be driving for you. And I'm like well, that's a whole other problem you need to deal with. But anyway, it's not like that.

Mervin Vargas:

I mean, I look at it more to get to know each other better. Like I said, you know there's, you see, a rig. Man, I've seen that rig, I don't know how many times I pass it. Who is it? Who drives it? And somebody said, well, that's his rig, you know, and point over it. So, then I go and talk to him like, hey, you know, I introduce myself. I see you go up and down. Which rig do you drive? Well, I drive one of the ones that I got, but sometimes the gray one or this, oh, that's you. And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's me. And then you get to talking, and then what lots you run and oh, cool, cool.

Mervin Vargas:

And so out of those conversations sometimes you get a phone call six months later or so, hey, I'm so-and-so. I'm like, oh, shoot, uh, you gotta refresh, because I don't remember. Oh, we met at the bash or the barbecue. I was wondering if you can help me out. I was like, well, if I can, I sure will. And ends up that we can help each other, you know. But that connection gets made at these events. So, it's not, I'm gonna go because I got a perdiest struggle. I not going to go because my truck isn't compared to so-and-so's. I'm not going to go because I don't have, I'm not in the industry that long, or you know those kinds of things that I've heard. So just leave all that aside and come.

Caleb Miller:

Yeah, what I really like. That has happened and it wasn't, you know, like on purpose, I guess, but I mean it was on purpose in some way or another. But it's become a big family get-together. I mean, like you know, our kids are hanging out and you know people and we focus on that. You know, trying to have stuff for the kids to do my wife has been really instrumental in that. You know, having a craft table for the kids to do something. You know, not having everybody bored like let's, you know let's, let's get everybody involved and with all the kids, um, um, door prize that we give away and everything it's. I think I think in Texas we have kids that are telling their parents that they want to come, you know so that's awesome, I love it, you know.

Sambassador:

So that that part I their parents, that they want to come, you know.

Caleb Miller:

So that's awesome, I love it, you know. So that part, I really love that. The whole community, the family effect that that we've had and it wasn't necessarily that we were trying to do that, but it just kind of came about and it's become like a huge, you know, a huge success because of that. So I would love to have that, you know, resonate on down through the bash part of it and, you know, a huge success because of that. So I, I would love to have that, you know, resonate on down through the bash part of it. And you know, hey, bring, bring your families. Like this is a good, you know, because we're all in this together. Like we're not, it's not just drivers and manufacturers and whatever. Like our families are a huge part of this, you know. You know we're on the road and they're at home. You, it's all about having everybody hang out and making everybody work and it all work together with everybody.

Sambassador:

Yeah, cool. So, the drift I get I'm going to try to wrap this up here before we get so long. She'll make us two episodes. The drift I get here is we're going to go to a more relaxed format. I've always said families are welcome, but it's never really been focused on, so to speak, for the big one, because we do have a lot of stuff going on all the time. And after the kid got run over in Montana, Jason and I probably got a little more anal than we should have been about having kids around, competitions or stuff. But hey, we don't have competitions, it doesn't matter anyway. But yeah, so more relaxed food and bring your families and, like Merv said I can't stress this enough Put aside all those feelings of I don't think.

Sambassador:

I don't think because you don't, you don't know until you actually go and look at the people that keep coming back year after year. There's a reason that you know all of us enjoy doing this. There's a reason that we're gluttons for punishment to put these events on and stress ourselves out. It's worth it, it's worth coming, it's worth buying a plane ticket, it's worth driving, whatever it takes to do it. I really look forward to working with you guys over this next time. I had asked you guys a question. You guys still haven't answered me. I don't know if I'm going to put you on the spot here and ask you, but I had asked if you guys just want to take this one over and Jason and I get a break, or if y'all want a break and you want Jason and I to do it. I didn't get any feedback on either, so I'm assuming we're just all going to go at it and we'll come up with whatever we come up with. I love the idea of doing a theme. Excuse me, let's keep it as much Texas focused. It's just going to be a bigger Texas barbecue. Jason and I are here to help you. How ever we can. We'll do whatever you ask us to do Other than jump up and down and dance on stage. Probably not going to happen, but hopefully we can even get Jason back out of the closet.

Sambassador:

He's donkey chalky. You guys keep praying for Jason man. That dude's come a long way and had a rough road with when he had that accident and banged his head and then banged it two more times since then. He's kind of like an injured football player. I want to put him in a bubble and you know him. He's not going to slow down. He's going to keep doing it Next time he hits his head. He's not going to slow down, he's going to keep doing it Next time he hits his head. It's not going to. I mean, it wasn't good the last time he did. So, you guys keep praying for him. He's wide open and he needs to slow down a little bit. I guess Not sure what it takes to get somebody to do that, but yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Sambassador:

You guys start planning, keep me, keep us in the loop. Whatever we can do to help you. Um, that's what we'll do. Um, all you sponsor guys out there, huge shout out to all you guys for what you do and helping us to make to where we can do this, anything any of you guys want to say. Yet, in closing, you, you guys, good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, cool, appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for coming on today. I know it probably feels like I don't know what we did. We just kind of didn't, but it's to get the word out there and to start at least letting people know what we're doing and where we're going will help a lot, don't forget.

Sambassador:

You can follow Shed Geek on YouTube. You got the Amish call in number where you can call in and listen to it. We're on Spotify, we're on Apple, whatever it is. I don't do that heathen stuff so I don't know how you listen to it on there. And then the newsletter. He always wants me to make sure I let y'all know about the newsletter.

Sambassador:

I'm going to do something. I don't do a whole lot on here anymore. I'm going to close this in prayer. It's a cold, rainy day here. My heart's bleeding for the people in Tennessee and Carolina. I can't just say Western North Carolina anymore the way everybody else does, because now that I've been to the Tennessee side and I've seen the devastation over there, eastern Tennessee hasn't ever been as bad as Western North Carolina does. It's just incredible how you go up one little river valley and the further up you go and the narrower it gets, the worse it gets. You're like the bottom. You think this is as bad as it can get. And then you just go up another valley and it's all over again. So, it's all right with you, guys. I'm going to close this in prayer. And then you just go up another valley and it's all over again. So, it's all right with you guys. I'm going to close this in prayer and then you guys go have a fantastic, great day. Appreciate you guys so much.

Sambassador:

Thank you, lord, for this opportunity that we have to work together, to talk together, to plan together and, ultimately, everything we do to bring honor and glory to you and to bring people to you, not just for a future later, but for a future that starts today.

Sambassador:

Be able to show people what life can really be all about. And, God, I can't think of a better place I like doing life than with these guys, with the shed industry guys, the hauler guys, the builders, everyone that's involved in this industry. Yes, we all have tough days. We all have days when we wonder what we're doing and what other people are doing, but at the end of the day, to be able to honor and glorify you and to lead people to you, that's what it's all about. God, I just pray protection over everybody in this industry, wherever they're at today, if they're traveling on the roads, that you would grant them your protection, your peace, and that we would always remember to do to others as we want done to us. Pray for the people in Tennessee, Carolina Mountains, as they're on a cold, rainy day and a lot of them aren't prepared for it that you would just continue to drive us forward in all we can do to help them. Thank you for your salvation to each of us. Thank you for your blessings, amen.