meanwhile in lake-town

Brandon is preparing to go back to work. Collin took a train. Bilbo isn’t pleased with his situation.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

train, thorin, bilbo, dwarves, dragon, men, town, weird, day, drive, starts, great, chapters, union station, sitting, eat, interesting, place, walk, mountain

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:05

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon, Colin Aaron. On this week's show. Meanwhile, in Laketown of I, O Oh, hi, today,

Brandon  00:22

it is indeed.

Collin  00:25

Yep. Yep, it definitely is.

Brandon  00:28

Sorry, it wasn't the other day. But I have electricity. So that's exciting.

Collin  00:34

That, you know, one of the prerequisites to a lot of things. Turns out there's electricity. So crew knew how long you guys were out for how long?

Brandon  00:45

Maybe an hour. Okay. Just long enough to be inconvenient. Really? Perfect. Yes. So, yeah, that's fun. I don't really know why. Over the Borsato tower was just like, Oh, what about know?

Collin  01:07

What if we didn't? You didn't have any big storms or anything moving to the area? Well,

Brandon  01:11

not at that time today have been like earlier, like the day before?

Collin  01:16

Oh, just a lightness after? Yeah. I don't know.

Brandon  01:20

The price broke somewhere. Who knows? Yeah, yes. It's been very weather he. All right. Ben. Deniliquin. Insane. Yeah, lots of weather. He lots of storminess.

Collin  01:37

Lots of craziness, right.

Brandon  01:41

I was watching. There's I believe we've discussed this slightly before. But there's this phenomenon where like, storm chasers are now live streaming from their cars. Yes. This is very interesting, right. The setups are kind of insane. Right. Some of them have like multiple cameras, those that have like remote rooftop mounted cameras, like multiple cameras, like dash cams, and roof Kansas stuff. Anyway, I'm watching this dude. He's driving down this road. And I was like, Wait a minute. Hold on. And then his little GPS thing told him where he was. And then he drove past like, a church. And I knew exactly where he was driving, not like 45 minutes away from my house. And I was like, Oh, boy. Right. I was like, Wait a minute. I've been to a funeral in that church. I know exactly. Where this dude is. Wow. Wow, that was kind of hilarious. Yeah. The odd either situation. But yeah, he was driving very close. He's driving around the county. I live in hanging out. You know, it was really funny. So yeah, that was exciting. Something, that's for sure. Oh, great. Yeah. It's been very whether he been whether we were you as well.

Collin  03:18

I don't know. Now up up by us. It wasn't all that. Bad. We did have some we are we are bracing for it because the State Fair is in full swing. So the you have to the way if you talk to a local if you want to know when it's going to rain in August, during the State Fair, right. Look for the salt look for the sold out shows. Oh, yeah, of course. And that's when you can even it's gonna rain. During Sure. And honestly, for the past number of years that I've been there, that's that's kind of been true. No, it's not a bad way of doing it. It's

Brandon  04:02

Have you made your butter sculpture yet for the concert

Collin  04:04

did well, so the local parks department put on a a local butter sculpture? We did not answer that, but we did look at the entries and and yes, that it was for a certain age group and they had size limitations and things like that. And, you know, you see the Will you see what was entered in here like that, that your you know, Suzie did not carve that. Can we just be honest, everybody, everybody seems like

Brandon  04:36

any any other competition with children, like if their parents did it. Right. And so you know, that's how you know, you look at them. This always upset me. Not like upset me greatly. Right. But like, during in like Boy Scouts, especially specifically Cub Scouts, right when a lot more people are involved in this kind of things. You have all this stuff, right? You have like the pinewood derby. You have your dad and lad cake bake. And you're looking at some of these entries and going. There was no child involved in the making of this at all. Does it look janky? Enough? Right, like you just know that the child would was maybe in the room. They were breathing the same air. But yeah, yeah, they were nearby. But there's no way. Like your seven year old did not do this. Because it's impossible.

Collin  05:40

Yes. Yes. So we saw the Yes. And yes, we saw the posts. And we were like, Well, okay, we all. We all know how that went. But it's fine. Fine. So the, you know, the rigged butter carving. But everyone has it looks like that good time. So we have not ventured out yet. This is the first weekend of the fair. We usually wait till the second week. Before we go, and then we'd like to go the last weekend because that's when everything's really cheap. And yes, time Yeah. And you'd think that most people like that it'd be really cool. But here's the thing out of towners, they want to come in when all the big shows, all the big exhibits are going nobody wants to see the the blue ribbon

Brandon  06:31

you know, whatever ham,

Collin  06:34

the on the last day, you won't see it on the first day once it's been dubbed the best smoked ham. So it's everything is old hat by them so you can get in. And on the last day of the fair after five o'clock. Everything's it's free to entry, which is wonderful. Yeah. Now the bad part is, is that the trams do not run as true. So that's not good. But that is, but it's at least if you're like, so I was talking to some friends. So they've got young kids and they're like, I don't know what we're gonna do. Or blah, blah, blah. And I was like, last day after five, okay. You like it's zero commitment. You go in through the Western or the southern most entrance. It gets you access to the air conditioned art building the Children's Zoo, like farm thing, and you can see them judge rabbits and then you can just leave. Just right there. So parenting half pack for the Missouri State Fair.

Brandon  07:38

Last day free stuff. Yeah, go for it. Hey, it's great. Yes, yeah.

Collin  07:44

Especially if you're like, Oh, I just want to go get like if the only reason you want to go to a fair is get a corndog. And like, ride a Ferris wheel.

07:52

I mean, that's true. Why?

Collin  07:55

Why go any other town?

Brandon  07:58

really fair? Yeah. Really the best part of the fairs the food anyway. Right. Like, I know that fair. rides are questionable. At best, at best, right? At worst there on the news. And? And for not yet. Right. So it's best not to chance the fair, right? Really. But the Fair Food is always excellent. So that's really what that you want to go. Do you want to like, play some lame games, or you're going to lose all your money. And then you want to eat giant corndog swords? Yeah, it's really fun. Okay, too obvious. Yeah. But like, pretty much. Pretty much that and

Collin  08:48

I will say one of my favorite aspects of the state bear here is that they have stalls for booth for food that you can go and eat. And they have the the permanent structures of, you know, this is the, I don't know, whatever the whatever, whatever. Like they're, they have buildings on there that are inhabited by companies that come in, but then on the main drag they have, where you can come in and pull in your little cart. And that's where people sell their lemonade, or their ice cream or their whatever they are all night. But what's cool is that we have a local restaurant that I absolutely loved. It says Mediterranean cuisine. And they have a stall there. And so what else my favorite places to eat? State Fair is a local restaurant that I could go to the time it was the rest of the year.

Brandon  09:44

It was it's proven right there. It's

Collin  09:49

and who doesn't want a Euro with extra feta like who just

Brandon  09:52

doesn't mean that's a good question. I don't really know who'd

Collin  09:56

been with that with with locally sourced meat. Ah, this isn't stuff they're getting shipped in. They've got like one supplier from a farmer who does the roasting and does that like everything, that's what they use. So it's like, Okay, I'm gonna go get this.

Brandon  10:14

They had our we had the food truck Friday thing on the first of the month again last week or whatever. And it was so hot that my our friends just we like went and got food and they came back to the house and ate it and hung out and stuff. Because Excellent. Gross, it was like way too hot outside. It was like that that day, it was like 105. So but we were really bummed because one of the trucks that was there last time was not there. And they have like, homemade chips. Right? Like potato chips, not French fries, British friends like American crisps. Okay, that's what that they're like homemade, like kettle chips. They were so good. Like we went and Susan and I decided to eat there. They have like other wraps and stuff, which, you know, sounded really good the last time we were there because it was like kind of warm. And that sounded nice. And they were super good. But then they had chips like it as part of the thing. And the chips are so good. We just went back and bought like a bag of them. You could just buy a bag and like a big paper sack. It was like a couple bucks for this like huge sack of

Collin  11:30

sounds amazing. And it was very upsetting.

Brandon  11:35

But the egg roll lady was back. So that made up for it. Because

Collin  11:42

that sounds wonderful. So yes, but yeah,

Brandon  11:48

it's always a gamble. Right? But it's nice when you have the ones that you know. And it's a it's a it's one of those like decision paralysis situations too, right? Where you're like, I want that in that in that. But I know I like this. So I'm just gonna go for

Collin  12:06

it well, and so yes, if you

12:07

are if you want to eat your way

Collin  12:10

through the fair, obviously, you have to go back multiple days. And that's hard for, for a lot of reasons.

Brandon  12:18

Oh, yeah. Getting the fair multiple times. Yes.

Collin  12:23

Yes. Which is just I don't I don't know. One of my

Brandon  12:28

or you need to find a day that's not too hot and just go like, all day. Yes. Right. Get there early, and then just hit the big highlights. Yes.

Collin  12:38

And and you can they don't I don't think they have. I'm just Oh, okay. Someone's going to write in and correct me. But I don't remember if they have breakfast on the fair grounds. Exactly. They may have one or two places. But yeah, there's a lot of just other stuff. So and they're tucked in all corners. The other thing of like one of the apparently one of the best burger shops is actually the small little hut over by my voice at my door was closing on me. Oh, no, that's not now good. Over by the horse stables that was originally installed, just so that like, the farmers wouldn't have to go other places. And so it's just like, here if this is this is for you and everybody,

Brandon  13:23

to you. So that's what they hide all that stuff. It's sneaky. They do search for it,

Collin  13:30

too. Yeah, you've got to find him. And like I said, it's not all on the main drag. We stay on the main drag you're gonna miss. So that's that stuff.

13:35

So yes, that's,

Collin  13:40

that is our plan to go and do that. And hopefully it will cool off a little bit or at least the humidity can go away like I'm not. Well,

Brandon  13:49

I mean, I don't know about that there. But tomorrow, not tomorrow. Monday is actually supposed to be not too bad. With Monday, Tuesday, and then it's like, Ah, just kidding. We're back again for more heat. Yeah, no, it's yeah. So anyway, we

14:07

got that coming up this week, which we're excited about. And we're all the you know, we've only been there five years. So we're not locals, but it is funny to just just automatically know that like, oh, when the fairs in town, no locals, nobody who lives there. That's what I'll say, like, drives on the same roads. we

Collin  14:30

invert, oh, over to the to all of the side roads, the back roads. There is on the north side of town. There's a street called Main Street and it was the main street you could imagine. But it's so underutilized,

14:48

except

Collin  14:50

right in the street does span the entire west to east expansion of the city. So what people do is Wherever they are, they go north to Main Street over as far as they need to over as far as they need to, and then they just dropped down. So people live their main street during the fair because you're like, where are all these people? Oh my gosh, actually the main street actually busy. And we stay off all of the major highways and we just drive through this. It's, you know, it's like a business road. Kind of think of it that way. Yeah, on the north side of town. So it's, it's funny, though, because we're just we went affairs in town, we gotta go to the grocery store. Well, go north to Maine. Gotta go. Gotta go the long way. Did I tell you about our train adventure? Well, only

Brandon  15:41

through pictures. Right. So I saw some of the highlights of the training adventure. But yes, Gail us with the train adventure. I know, all of our European listeners are going to be laughing hysterically. But here in the United States, taking a train. Very difficult. Especially the Midwest, right? Yes. Not many trains that don't have coal in them. No. And so our cars, anyway, yes. I.

Collin  16:13

So I have exactly one other memory of being in a train. And this is the one that we took as a family to Chicago. Probably my memory St. One. Yes. Same one. And I distinctly remember eating in the dining car at the amazing

16:26

pizza.

Brandon  16:27

Do you remember the pizza was really good. Okay. Yes. I don't know if that was just my child's brain or if it was actually good, but I do share this memory of the pizza. Car. Okay, good.

Collin  16:38

Okay, so it's not just me now. Yes. If you were to go back in time, I'm sure. Mom and Dad were just horrified at what we were eating and like the quality and whatever, whatever it is. It's fine. Okay, but this is the memory I have. I don't remember anything else. I don't remember why we didn't like I don't remember where we got on. I just remember being on a train.

Brandon  16:57

I think we went to where we since we went to Chicago. I think we went to

Collin  17:02

St. Louis. Was it? So I didn't know if because the train stop stops many. So there's an east to west train. It just travels to Kansas City to St. Louis. St. Louis, to Kansas City. And then you can there big hubs there, obviously that you can then go to training go to place, but I was like, Did we really drive all the way to St. Louis, or do we catch the train somewhere before got to St. Louis, but that doesn't make any sense. So I think we just went to St. Louis. And then I think we

Brandon  17:29

did too, but we could consult, there is a person that we could ask eventually.

Collin  17:33

I don't know what you're talking about. So it's lost to history. Yeah. So now, and we had to we had to drive three hours to get to a place where we could get auditor

Brandon  17:45

then yeah, it's adventure. Yeah, I also remember we sat next to a trainer, maybe?

Collin  17:52

Was it the trainer? Or was it the clown guy? Because the

Brandon  17:55

client, he gave us a pin? Like a like not like a riding pin? No,

Collin  18:00

there's like it was a button on the pulpit. Yeah, I thought that was because we

Brandon  18:04

still have that somewhere. Probably dad's house because I used to collect it. Yeah.

Collin  18:10

Or clown or I thought we had met like a famous clown either on an airplane or on a train. Okay. So I remember the train stopped a lot. And just like sat there in the middle of Illinois. Yes. So there are four or five stops. Not that I've looked into this, but there are several stops.

18:32

So now now, I live five minutes from a train station, five minutes. Five. So, like, why wouldn't we do this? And we go to Kansas City all the time. And it's the same time really, to take the train to get to Union Station, you know, not downtown Kansas City. But I mean, close enough there abouts. And was like, why don't we just do this? We're just going to try but here is the one problem.

Collin  19:06

Trains are not in their heyday anymore in the United States, unfortunately. So we, you have exactly if you want to go from where I live to Kansas City, you have exactly one time there's a train from there to Kansas City, and it leaves at noon, and leaves at noon ish. And it arrives at two ish. If you want to then go back to where I live, there is exactly our train to take you care and that leaves it for your kids.

Brandon  19:40

So you have to wait for the it's best to wait to the next day. So if you want to do morning trains for you know, if you want to do like anything like other than

Collin  19:51

quickly walk around Union Station and run over to the Westin and then back like you can't do anything else besides this. So like yes, you have Two hours on the train, you have two hours at the location, then you have a two hour train ride back. And it's it's from 11. And you get back, you leave at 12 ish, and you get back at six ish. So it's a six hour day. And our little train station, there's like, no attendance, there is nothing. And if you talk to the locals that 15 years ago, this was not a place that you really want it to be like. They, the city had completely abandoned this. And only within the last, like 10 years or less, it, they did a big revitalization of it. They clean everything up. It's very nice, very well lit now.

Brandon  20:42

And you just you just show up and there's no ticket attendant,

Collin  20:47

right? You can't buy tickets at the station, you do have to buy everything online, which is a little frustrating for sure. But we waited train came on, we jumped on, and they do not wait. Like, we have got up. And we're like stepping into the car. And we were already moving like there. If you are when the drain is they are leaving you like just straight up. And we went back to we had just bought some

Brandon  21:21

sorry. We got coach tickets. But here's the thing.

Collin  21:26

All the coaches are basically pretty brand new. Oh, yes. So they have like, just the individual seats, the two but the two on your side. Some car for the back had two seats on the left two seats on the right. Other cars had two on the right, one on the left. And then they had seats that we're facing each other and had a little table in the middle of them. We were unfortunately unable to find that setup, because it was just four and I was like this is perfect. Well, you could find that because there aren't that very many, which is okay. But we wrote these chairs that look really nice. They've got nice big headrests on them. They don't feel the greatest. But there's like copious amounts of legroom and especially when you're used to traveling in a standard plane. Right where you're like, Well, how many people are just trying to jam onto this?

Brandon  22:21

All of them all. That's the answer. Yes. And here's

Collin  22:27

the thing is that this train left St. Louis, three hours before or something like that. That more? Yeah. So he had been traveling all morning. It's collecting people. And this train had quite a few people on it, like quite a few. And they didn't all get off at Union Station. They got off it just little points along the way, which was kind of cool, which was neat to see. It's like oh, people are like, actually using this and like making their life work

Brandon  22:56

in this manner.

Collin  22:58

The one of the coolest parts of this is out in the Midwest, a lot of these towns have old train stations and they've

Brandon  23:09

some towns have

Collin  23:11

kept revitalizing them. So kind of you go into parts of town that you can't get to with a car, and some of these. And so you just see things from a whole new perspective. And having two younger kids. It's also just very nice to get up and walk around. Right? This is

Brandon  23:29

yesterday, right? Like, just take a stroll down the car. Like that's really handy.

Collin  23:35

This is what we did. Many times in cuts to just spoiler alert here. Lillian's takeaway of Did you like it? She was like, Yes, I was like, What do you like most about it? And she's like, you can walk around?

Brandon  23:48

This is the least surprising answer. possibly imagine, yes. Don't have to sit still. I feel this Lily. I understand.

Collin  24:01

We could just wander hither to there and yawn and go one way or another. It's, it was nice, because then we could sit down and post all everybody packed something. So I had just had my backpack. And I did take our two way radios just in case we were at opposite ends of the train and want to talk to each other,

Brandon  24:17

our secret agent

Collin  24:20

but both the kids packed their own bags, so they had books and they had notebooks to draw and some coloring and pens. We did. We did advise Noah to not take any stuffed animals, given the fact that he left the last one at the left TV studio at the TV studio. Yep. So surprised me to me whenever I'm sitting next to Noah and out he pulls that same stuffed animal puts it on the window of the train. So he could so that the animal could watch all the adventure.

24:58

This is

Brandon  25:00

What this is listeners is Noah taking after his father as a young child. So I really this is

Collin  25:08

this is really bad. Real bad.

Brandon  25:13

As long as you know where this behavior comes from, he's like, Yeah, Nate.

Collin  25:17

It is this is built into the process. And if

25:21

we ask you, because

Collin  25:22

So Noah has Teddy, which is my teddy. And so Teddy is getting kind of rough. And so we're trying to take Teddy less and less places, but no, really, really loved Teddy. So it, it did make him sad. He was sad that he could not bring Teddy on this, but I was like, Ah, no, like we had he needs a little bit of retirement. So, so no brought this other animal so that he could tell Teddy about his adventures.

Brandon  25:53

Okay, that works. It works. It

25:54

works. And

Collin  25:57

yeah, the the, the book old bear probably didn't help any of this psychology that we're dealing with. Oh, my

Brandon  26:04

gosh, I forgot all. Yes. Holy cow. That's a that's a book. A deep cut

Collin  26:16

for you. Yes, a one that we read quite a bit. Yeah. So we we had all this great stuff, too. We didn't want to bring their e readers in. We did have them bring their phones. But it was for this specific reasons. We weren't going to have them do this originally,

Brandon  26:38

until my daughter said.

Collin  26:42

Can we take our phones so that we can take pictures and videos of our trip?

26:48

And I was like,

Collin  26:49

that's an amazing use of them?

26:51

That's a good idea. Fine. Yes, yes.

Collin  26:54

Yes, you may. So we did have several moments where was like, Okay, we're gonna get phones, let's go walk the cars and take pictures of stuff that we see. Or, you know, that kind of stuff. And so yeah, we did that a few times. You know, two hours on a train goes by pretty fast. When you're got when you're doing so much. And, and then seeing all the cool stops and the people getting on and off. So like it really passed by without much of a of an issue.

Brandon  27:22

And man, like this

Collin  27:27

train thing it might catch on? You know, it's

Brandon  27:32

who knows, maybe someday? Who knows? Someday?

Collin  27:34

I might actually get some wind behind the sails. Man, it's so nice. It's so Daisuke.

Brandon  27:43

I know. Right? Yes, I can take a train to places, right. Like if I had these like, oh, I need to go to parchment field train. The way be great. No.

Collin  27:55

And, and there is an aspect of, of just having, I mean, truthfully, just having one train make this run and back isn't really enough to make it truly fit into people's lives. There's a scale that it has to be at. Yeah, to make it work. Because I was even thinking like, how nice it'd be to just be like, Oh, well, let's just take the train, end have dinner, right and come back. But it's like, you just you can't do that you just physically you've got to if

Brandon  28:21

there was more than a train, right? If it was one of those, like, you know, every few hours a train was running, you know, that would be really, you know, that's a big thoroughfare, if I mean, if you're talking between St. Louis and Kansas City, like I don't like that could potentially be a much more popular train line. Right? Like, where's that expansion? Governor? Where's that at? Oh, no, no, no, we

Collin  28:54

need the interstate to be 17 lanes wide.

28:56

It's fine.

Collin  29:00

Oh, so we we got in and Union Station in and of itself isn't experience to come in it again.

Brandon  29:09

It is a little bit. Think about that one, though.

Collin  29:12

Like, here you go about he's looking here. This is this is this. And it is a little sad to me to realize like, oh, this whole thing was for trains at some point. And like that whole main atrium was the waiting area. That's just where people waited for trains.

Brandon  29:34

And some of those wings, those big long wings on the side. Those were where you would go down to get on the certain tracks. Right? Yeah, you go down to the platform. Yeah, that's the platform. Thank you. That's

Collin  29:46

the word I was looking for my point. It's okay. I'm kind of an expert about this stuff now. So you

Brandon  29:52

say my train of vernacular and I really don't really just get them all the time.

Collin  29:57

So now that it's like how After Science Museum has like movie theater, like there's a just, I don't even know like there's so much going on in this building that's not trains and Amtrak is just shoved over into this little tiny corner. Kind of makes you sad. And you do have to get to the platform. You you actually go outside the belt. Oh, right. Okay, walk on this elevated metal platform. It's nice, it's covered. It's fine. But like, it's, you walk all the way out there, you go down some kind of terrifying stairs, or you can take the rickety elevator, I took my life to my own hands with stairs, and you wait, just like straight up just at the platform. That's where you get on a train. So it's a little bit different experience as opposed to being inside and all this stuff, but you know, it is what it is. It's going to

Brandon  30:51

be okay. And we while we were at Union

Collin  30:56

Station, here's sometimes you're reminded of just like how much money there is in the world. Somebody had rented out. So when you went to Union Station, right, you went to Union Station and you went to the off switch thing in Union Station. Yeah. Okay. That's the main thing. Yeah, the Holocaust. The that synth big central exhibition hall, right is where it was?

Brandon  31:23

Or was everywhere. It was no, it was off to the side. We had to go like, it was like a whole wing.

Collin  31:28

Okay, yes. Okay, so that whole wing Ready, ready, rented for winning?

Brandon  31:32

Holy cow. Big space.

Collin  31:36

Gorge. And here's what I was most impressed by. They have thought of this. This Union Station, they had floor to ceiling.

Brandon  31:48

That's a tall ceiling to double sided

Collin  31:51

curtains. Oh, wow. to that. I mean, this was thick, like super thick material. And it was obviously to do some sound deadening and stuff like that, but like, floor to ceiling, this massive, massive space to block off the wedding that was happening on the other side. So that was pretty cool to see. Then we ran over to Crown Center. And did our adventure quick adventure there. So the last time we were there, we had actually scoped out a few stores. And then this time we came in and we were like, hey, ah, pick some stuff out guys. You know, let's Yeah. Then I carried them back to the train station. Fine. But yeah, we set to overhead gelato. And I think I sent you that photo where we had gelato, which was wonderful after being outside the heat. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then we went back and we got on the waiting for our train and took it back and on the way back so on the way there we had written coach, and then on the way back, I was like, Ah, why not like it would be at the end of the day, we'll just upgrade it was not that much more expensive to get into business class. So I was like, let's just do this. Like let's just try it for a whole year. And as much as I was impressed with Coach, I was not impressed with this class. Oh, really? Really? Because and they know how it's supposed to work Amtrak Come on. You got this bell. This is this is because this is business class from like, early 90s.

Brandon  33:33

They haven't upgraded this one yet.

Collin  33:36

Upgraded this one yet. Like you just walked in and you were like, oh, oh, my 1980s curtains like oh, like, Oh, no. Yes. Everything was very soft, dark and a little bit of oppressive. Just hell, like cozy or whatever supposed to be very old and not updated.

Brandon  34:00

So maroon was there. Yeah.

Collin  34:03

And like deep navy stitched. Oh, well, you like on an airplane, how they can put that bring the carpet up to the walls and stuff. Yes. Okay. That was all wrapped up stuff you could very much tell like, here's one thing that I did note is that business class reminded me so much more of an airplane where they took all of their cues for how they use space, things that they do the bathroom. I was like, Oh, this is an airplane bathroom.

Brandon  34:31

Back in back in coach.

Collin  34:35

They were like, Hey, we're kind of on a train. So what if we did

Brandon  34:39

a bit different? What if we had more room in the bathroom and like, Oh, that was

Collin  34:45

the other thing in the bathrooms, back and back and coach. There was just a little button that you pressed on the wall and then the floor to ceiling wall moved in retracted back into a little cubby to expose the bathroom. Then you stepped in you push Another button and it just started. And you didn't have to take anything like that. It was great was a wonderful experience. And the back of the drive the drive, the trainer at home was was way more subdued. Very, very sleepy. Also Also the 1990s

Brandon  35:19

business class.

Collin  35:21

What you right, you're right out right, like righteously. But we did got got a snack on the, in the dining cars, which have that experience. And then just kind of wrote it the rest of the way out. And man it just because it was one of those things of like, all the excitement on the way there, it seemed like to take forever for us to get there. And then on the way out, oh, we're home. So it was kind of it was neat, because we could see like, hey, we always like at the end of our street where we live from our house, we can walk down to a corner, we look north, and we can actually see the trains pass. They're up a couple blocks, we can see the past. So we could we I had my bump pulled up and I'm like, Hey, we're going across our street. So we we waved at ourselves, you know, that street, but then that it was neat to you kids could see it

36:08

from that perspective.

Collin  36:09

And, you know, got off. And we all really enjoyed it. And so the way I am I'm like, okay, great. We survived a two hour train ride. How long does it take us to get to like New Orleans from here? That far does it dies? It does, I guess because what you do is you go from Okay, so it's not important you go to St. Louis, and then down know some of them go from St. Louis, up to Chicago and then back. Oh, it does add a bit of time. However, if you would like to go to LA, you can take our little train into Kansas City. And then on the Kansas City, you get put onto a sleeper car. And then the sleeper cart. And I didn't know this. And I still need to verify this. But I have been told by somebody who has done this exact route that he used to go with his grandma that used to go see family out in California, and he would get on your train, go to Kansas City get on the sleeper car, and then that trucks through Oklahoma and Arizona and all that. That's New Mexico and then goes into LA that when you get the sleeper car, you get three meal tickets for each inhabitant. And so like includes meals and stuff, too. Oh, wow. I

Brandon  37:25

was like, well, the I?

Collin  37:30

Fine. Okay, let's do this. The sound kind of cool. Actually. Yes. Because I'm like, because like, Well, now, it's like, you're not just here's what I really liked about it. Like, if you were trying to be, like, productive if you're trying to be a busy person, or if you are traveling and you're working on something as a business, whatever, like, you don't have to worry about driving and not being able to work. So it helps you be

Brandon  37:54

Yeah, like do things. It also provides

Collin  37:57

way more together time than a typical road trip. Because you can sit at that four person table and talk and have him play card games and not have to worry about because you're not driving, not have to worry about directions. And, or gas or any of that, Andrew, alright, so it just it takes

Brandon  38:20

getting lost, because it's just gonna follow the track. What

Collin  38:25

happens is what happens? Yeah. And it just, you know, it just rolls along. And it just takes the whole kind of amped up nature that travel is and make it takes it from this big like, stressed out Gotta hit time points. Gotta hit this guy to this, gotta miss this traffic, and just all that goes away. And for some people, I'm sure that that is maddening, because they just have to sit there and just let things happen to them. People who like to be in control. This is not a good thing for you. But if you're just like, Yeah, let's just what have we talked What if we should now I'm thinking about this stuff. But like, yeah, so if like me,

Brandon  39:03

you're like, Ah, well, yeah, but you've always wanted

Collin  39:09

it, you know, one part of the oh, let's you know, let's get some friends together and go somewhere. Well, there's a lot of time in there where you're together, but it's kind of being like at a movie with somebody where you're not doing a whole lot of interacting. Which, which, you know, some people like and some people don't, but it is what it is. So if you're looking for a better chance to

Brandon  39:29

make that happen, you know, you can make it happen.

Collin  39:36

In case you were wondering, from my house to La it takes 39 hours

Brandon  39:46

and I'll say that see that's my reaction was thinking about driving time, which would be roughly the same. I would imagine if you drove that. So yeah, that's better actually.

Collin  39:59

Pizza The dining can't eat pizza in the dining room. You can't do any of this stuff. And and if you also want to have literally the journey be part of

40:12

the journey. Right like

Collin  40:16

it can it adds it means your vacation is happening while your event. Yeah, here's the thing it to drive to LA, it takes 25 hours,

Brandon  40:26

25 hours versus 39 hours on a plane or on a train. Sorry. Yeah. Now, I will say

Collin  40:35

that if you pricing gets a little, you know, up there.

Brandon  40:42

I mean, yeah, but so.

Collin  40:44

So for here's this first family of four, not that I'm on the website or have it and

Brandon  40:48

so yeah, definitely not be doing that.

Collin  40:51

We're a family of four to ride from where I live to LA in coach for it now, again, 39 hours. This is

Brandon  40:59

$600 Yeah, but how much would it cost to drive? I mean, gas is like three and a half dollars right now in the Midwest. So in California, it's like probably seven days.

Collin  41:15

Now, if I wanted to add private rooms, okay, private rooms for for people to travel for 39 hours. This is $2,600. But again, that's a bit much. If you're driving like so you've got to drive, you also have to do hotels, which schirling stats, and, and meals and things like that. So all of a sudden, you, um, it changes it a little bit. But again, if you're going off and you just want

Brandon  41:46

experience, that's yes, that's something so it's,

Collin  41:53

again, it's because it's at this weird thing of we want to offer having train, but it's also not being really driven by a whole lot of market forces to make it a reality. So there's a demand. No,

Brandon  42:05

no, which is unfortunate.

Collin  42:08

So I was anyway, so my trip details are saved. That was our train trip, our train trip, I highly recommend. If you have access to a train you'll enjoy. You may think you enjoy training. Just take a train to train for a little bit.

42:35

Recommend Nice. Yeah, well,

Brandon  42:39

I've been much more subdued. I haven't really done anything, mostly just preparing to go back to work next week. Oh, yes. And not excited at all. So again, not excited about sitting through meetings, and all that stuff. That stuff is boring and terrible. And I don't like it. So that's really annoying. And the fact that they're like, oh, yeah, we don't want to have in service times, right. This is what this is what annoyed me already for schools even started, they talked about how we waste time and in servers, because we didn't do anything like it was our fault that we didn't have anything to do last year. Because I'm supposed to plan that. Well, no, dummy. But now, they've said Ha, we're gonna go. We're gonna have we're gonna have Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then open house Thursday night. And then we're start school the next week, which is a bit of a truncated schedule. Right. And so here's my question. Right? Oh, no. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, with open house with parents coming into my classroom on Thursday.

43:57

Right? Are you going to give

Brandon  43:59

me sufficient time to be in my room to make it presentable to people after not being inhabited for several months?

44:07

Right. Now, if the answer is no, right, then my rooms just not going to be presentable. Because I am not going in early to fix it. I'm not. Other people have already been in school doing that. Right? However, because our current administration,

Brandon  44:36

sends email after email, after email about these are your contracted hours. Make sure you are at school at this time. Make sure you do not leave before this time, blah, blah. So if contract hours are their big thing. And because they're so worried about people like skipping out five minutes early to go to a doctor. I am not coming in multiple days before the start of my contract to do anything. Sorry, not sorry. But that's, that's seems pretty. Yeah.

Collin  45:21

unfair. Funny not funny how that works, right of like, No, these are your contracted hours you won't don't don't you do this don't do this. But also you still need to sacrifice everything and make this work for us. Thanks.

Brandon  45:36

Yeah, if you want to work over your contracted hours by multiple, you know, dozens of hours per week. Go for it. We are going to applaud that behavior. If you're going to leave five minutes early. We are going to throw up about it. And we're going to send emails to the whole staff about about professionalism, Min contracted hours. No, no, it's re ridiculous. So if my room is not good, it's not good. I don't really care. In the superintendents kid is in my class, and I'll just tell him that because I don't really care for him at all, so he can know you're presentable. You had me sitting in a meeting about nonsense for five hours when I should have been up here doing school things. I can't say

Collin  46:41

that's frustrating,

Brandon  46:42

buddy. So yeah, that's mostly what I'm doing. Other things I've been doing, hiding from the heat, and ultimately from heat and severe thunderstorm warnings. That's fun and exciting. Been watching some Women's World Cup soccer that's been on. Right. Okay. How's it been? I'm only bringing this up. Now. It's been fun. It's hard to watch. Currently, because the World Cup this year is taking place in Australia. So like, TV times are a little tricky, right? hard math is run at like 11 o'clock at night. So that's not really sure. You know, I'm catching some highlights here. But if, as you may or may not know, the US women, perennial powerhouses in soccer, are out. We're out of the tournament after the first round. Did I just hear some of that? Yeah. So I've been it's the the funny part to me. Right? is listening to the coverage of this, right? People have many different opinions about this. But I was watching Tobin, Heath and Kristen press who are former US Women's National Team players. Were talking about this on the show. And they were, they were talking about this really weird feeling they had, like, they just it was weird. They like I've never watched the soccer team and had this feeling of we have so much talent, but we're not utilizing it. And all this stuff. And it was just a really odd experience. And I sat there looking at them and I got I was I remember chuckling to myself listening to their show going. You've never watched men's soccer have you? Because this is the experience of watching us men's soccer. Oh, hi. Welcome to the club, ladies. They were just like, shocked. Like, I just don't understand. Like, we have all these really good players and they just like, didn't play good. And I was like, yep, that tracks. Yep. Yeah.

Collin  48:45

All right. About that.

Brandon  48:50

That's really that's really that was my take on that whole thing. But otherwise, it's been really good. Also, I may have mentioned this I did mention this the beginning because it the beginning. I was talking about teams that looked really good. I remember quoting myself on the show, I was like, man, Brazil looks really good. They're out. I was like, man, Germany looks really good in that game. They're out too. So

Collin  49:12

okay, brands gonna stop commenting.

Brandon  49:15

Listen, this is what you gain by watching like one game because all the other ones are on the middle the night. Sure. So I had a limited dataset with which to make these comments. Now it's it's out now we were down to the I think it's four. I think it's um, who is it? It's going to be Australia, England and Spain and Sweden. That's right. That's who it is. That's your final four. Here we go. Now, there is one important soccer tradition that I have. Right. That is in jeopardy. That is England is not allowed to win. Soccer Championships because they won won in 1966. And they go on about it forever. Now, and so, if they were to win another one, that would just be the most insufferable thing of Alton. 166 and they bring it up all the time. They just talk about it, and they just go on and on and on about how great it was. It's the most annoying thing in the world, right, like old British dudes like yammering on about the glory days of 9680. Like, okay, stop. So the women definitely can't win this, because that will just add to the inseparability, right. It'll just be horrible. We'll add another dimension to it. Hey, why don't you heard it here, folks, is calling us. It's really important that Spain were Sweden or Australia when this World Cup that's really well. For brands mental health, yes. Pull it together. Other than that, I've been just hanging out doing stuff. Doing clean house a little bit here and there. Oh, oh, yes, I remember. I've also been watching a show on the internet, as I want to do. Now this show is not new, by any stretch of the imagination. But as my just undying love for the detective show, right? Because I've still been watching all the lawn orders I can find great. Sure. I have watched a detective show I have been watching a detective show of yesteryear, right? To see how the genre has changed, mostly because I like to show anyway. And I've seen it a long time. I've ever seen this version of it. I'm going to give you a hint. Anybody, huh? Because all detective shows that we know have a stinger. Right? Like Law and Order has the like, done done. Right? This show as the stinger? That's right, ladies, gentlemen. Ah, it's dragnet. Oh my god, yes. I've ever seen the 50s version of the dragnet before. So that's what I'm watching. It is Oh, hilarious. Good in like a good way. It's fun. I've never watched the I've seen some of the reboot in 67. Like the 60s version, right? Hmm. I've seen those episodes. Not all I've seen some of those episodes. I've never seen the 50s version before. And I found some episodes online. They're very sporadic. Like you can't find all of them. You can find like clusters, here and there. Right. And I mean, you don't need to see every episode of dragnet. I imagine they're broadly similar. But you can watch 50s dragnet. This is very exciting. I like it. I like Old Joe Friday. Right. It's very interesting. It's interesting to see the detective tropes that are still around, right? Like, why is cracking detective guy? People making weird jokes about things. But it's good. I like it. So you should listeners you should watch drag. I did not know. The dragnet was originally a radio program. I did not know that either. Didn't know that. I didn't know that. I was just reading about it a little bit. Because I was like, oh, man, it's just great. And so they it was a radio show. Right? And then it they brought it to TV. And Jack Webb, right. The guy who plays Joe Friday. He was the guy on the radio. And they were like, We want you to be the detective on TV. And he was like, ah what? Yes, sir. Yeah. But he like grew into it. He was like a writer of the show to like, I didn't know this. He was one of the people behind like producing the show. So but I've ever seen the 50s version. And it's just, it's hilarious, right? Like, when I say hilarious, it's just like, it's interesting that like, I don't know if it's a, like, a thing of like, the time limit because it's only like a half hour show. Right? I don't know if it's like the 50s mentality. I don't know if they it's just how they wanted to produce the show of like, it's all about beat detective work in gathering evidence all that stuff, right? But like, every buddy confesses that they did it eventually. Like there's no.

Collin  55:09

Yeah. There's like, You got Macapa I did it,

55:13

I killed it, it's pretty easy Ha,

Brandon  55:19

ha, not like every episode because not all of them are like, sometimes there's like chasing a bad guy or whatever. But like, sure the majority of criminals end up just confessing to Joe Friday that they did it, which is humorous to me. It's just so good to good. But yeah, so that I've been watching Super old Dragnet, which is great. sound sounds wonderful. It's some of the early seasons are a bit weird. Because like Season One, and two, at least some of the episodes are like, they just used, they're based on the radio program. So they use the radio, audio, and they just like, dubbed the acting. So it's a little bit you know, that it's not? It's like off a little Right. Like, that's fascinating. Yeah, not every episode is like that. Then they like Have they started, I guess, using the radio episodes. And they brought them to television. So like, it's the same thing, but it's like, you know, now with pictures, but there's a few of them. It's kind of the way that they blocked it. You can kind of tell that it's like, they're just recording this on a soundstage or right, you know, those like classic 50s Like, down in up. camera shot. That's a house. Yeah, it's like really close. But you can see that their mouth is not exactly matching the dialogue. But then some of the other episodes are like, they were definitely just shocked for. For TV only. There's no radio version. So it's pretty interesting.

Collin  57:18

And I know, one thing that we said we were going to comment on, I don't think we ever got around to it. We don't have time for it in this one. We should do it later time. But maybe we do. Did you did you have thoughts on the latest Grand Tour?

Brandon  57:31

Oh, yeah. We weren't going to talk about that. Well.

Collin  57:35

Yeah, I think we were like, oh, we'd both just watch this. And now we need a quickie. Time. But I

Brandon  57:42

will come back to that because I don't need to review that one again. Because I was like, when you said that it took me a minute to realize that I had watched another one. Oh, yeah, there wasn't it? It was I really liked it. I remember that. Yes. I really did like that. Yes. He watched that. I don't remember a whole enough about it at the moment. But yes, that was really good. Okay. Okay. With all this talk of going on journeys, and touring and adventuring, ah, D, it's time to get back to our friends in the mountain. Again, luckily, the chapters are like, real small, like, yeah. So you can tell we're hopping up here. But these were real quick. They didn't take that long to read at all. I know get back to dragnet pretty quickly.

Collin  58:49

Thank goodness.

58:56

But yeah, we,

Brandon  58:57

we start off with, we get a bit of a perspective shift. Right, we get one of those like, meanwhile, down in the lake town.

Collin  59:04

I guess it was it was it was very much of a and in case you forgot while that's going on. Yes, it was very

Brandon  59:14

Tolkien is that he is never he's not really great at the multiple perspective thing. Right. So there's two ways to do this. Right? You the way that he does it all the time, is he'll give you one full recounting. He'll be like,

59:31

meanwhile, and then you back up and you get the whole other side of the story. Yes. Right. Yes. Which pacing wise, is kind of weird,

Brandon  59:42

right? I'm looking at the two towers mostly right now. But

59:46

oh my gosh, yes.

Brandon  59:50

I also don't just love when modern writers do like every single chapter is a different person. Right because Sometimes, you need to have a couple chapters of consecutive, to make it make sense. Otherwise, you're just like bouncing back and forth for no reason. So this one isn't so bad, because it's just one little section in here. But this one is a little different than like a modern take, because like a modern interpretation of this would have been like to make these last couple chapters into like, seven, and like, have it going back and forth simultaneously. Which that annoys me when they do it too much. Right, because it's hard to get into when you're reading it, it like breaks the flow of my thoughts. Anyway. I don't know about

Collin  1:00:43

No, I, I agree. I agree. It is, like you said to do it the way Tolkien doesn't this one, it does take quite a long time to chug through everything. But the quick back and forth does change up how, how the feeling of it. And it makes it feel a lot faster than I think it needs to be a lot of faces. And it's hard to get into a good just rhythm as a reader when you're going

Brandon  1:01:09

through like that. Yeah, I think so. I think it messes me up because you're like, because sometimes you'd like there's like one little chapter. But it's like so small that nothing happens. And then you're jumping to somebody else. You're like, Well, what was the point of that? Why am I but it's because these events are supposed to be happening at the same time. You know, that's when the bounce, but it's, it's annoying, right? It annoys me. But here we have to backup we're backing up several days. Right. You know, and I like you know, he starts it off just like now if you wish like the doors to hear news of smog, you must go back again to the evening when he smashed the doors. Welcome to rage. Two days before Dude get backed up. Quite a bit. Yes, backed up. And now we get the Laketown perspective right now we know what's going on down there.

Collin  1:02:03

That's I like how their first reaction is, hey, maybe the King of the Mountain is making more gold looks like that light coming from up there.

Brandon  1:02:11

Yes, it must. Yeah, that was a very interesting way to start that right. And but I mean, these are poor people whose ruler is not exactly just on the level. So that you know, makes sense to them. But then they realized the dragon is coming. And we are now at alarm on a wooden platform in the middle of the lake, so not the best place to be. But it's a little they have some good descriptions here though. Right? No fireworks you ever imagined equal the sight that night? You know about the dragon flying down to the thing. But they had to immediately jump into action. Because you know, it's a dragon. And that's not good. There's a spot here that I was thinking yeah, but it's maybe a little bit later.

Collin  1:03:10

But I like how during the same to have, if not all hope is lost during this. Because the first thing to do is raise all the bridges. And it says the bridge is gone and his enemies were on an island and deep water too deep and dark and cool for his liking. If he plunged into it, vapor and steam would arise enough to cover all the land with the mist for days but the lake was mightier than he. So giving a little bit of balance to the story of it's not all bad. Right? It's gonna be a fight. That's the part

Brandon  1:03:41

I was looking for actually, okay, the smog is hot, even though he's like the great and mighty smiled. He's like has trepidation about water. Because he knows that it will quell his fire. Right? And he can't then he'll be even then he'll be vulnerable to attack because still take away his weapon. So he's Yes, I

Collin  1:04:02

want to get out. I want to get wet.

Brandon  1:04:03

I don't want to do that. Yes. So that was interesting counterbalance, like you said, but then the fire does, in fact, a leap from the dragon's jaws. And it starts burning down the city, right. And then we were introduced to Bard, like in passing kind of like, you know, it's interesting. It's weird how he just like is here now, right? It's like, no one had dared to give him to give battle to him and many small gets angry because they're fighting back. Right. Nor would they have except for the grim voice man. Bard was his name, who ran to and fro cheering the artisan urging the master to order them to fight the last era. So it's like, oh, yeah, who's this dude? Who is like rallying the thing right because the master of like town He is running away. Yes, yes, yes and off with as much money as he can carry with him as we find out here a little bit. But this guy Bard, is the person who jumps to action and he's now leading the men and browsing them to fight back against the drag. That's if you the interesting little snapshot on the leadership of the town here about how the master is exposed for what he is right. He's cowardly and only interested in helping himself whereas Bart is trying to save the town and the people in it

Collin  1:05:43

let's see that he's he's,

1:05:45

he's firing he it's not he's not he's not just calling out commands to he's he's sending a flurry of arrows through he is also fast. Yes. Same time. Yeah. Right. He's descendant of this long line. And he's shooting with a great you bow. And he had what, but one, one more, and suddenly, like a little something,

Brandon  1:06:09

right? Yeah. So again, here's this part where he sort of brushed over earlier this because apparently Bard speaks thrush. Because all Kingsdale can communicate with thrushes. Don't you know, this bird comes in, like starts talking to him. And he's kind of just like, okay, so it's like, Does this happen a lot? Do you speak to the birds?

Collin  1:06:35

And we should also point out that this bird was the one sitting by the door earlier where Bilbo was talking to the dwarves about what he had seen in his conversation. Yes.

Brandon  1:06:47

So imagine that but this Berg's at Hills Bard about the weak spot that Bilbo discovered on smog as he was in the cave, talking to him earlier. Right. And so he reaches down and grabs this black arrow. I had you from my father and II from old it. If ever you came from the forges of the true King of the Mountain, go now and speed well, and he fires a shot and it hits the dragon and he dies. So all that buildup in some other random dude just kills drag. fortuitous, right if you're a dwarf.

Collin  1:07:36

How were they to solve their pesky problem of a living dragon? Well,

Brandon  1:07:41

yeah, well have somebody else deal with it. Ah, right. Now, interestingly, this is a tiny bit of lore. It's a little bit today. Of all the recordings of dragons being killed in the Middle Earth legend, Darien men are responsible for slaying all of them. No elves, no dwarves? No habits. It's the race of men. That are the dragon slayers in the Tolkien universe, right. She's just an interesting little sidetracked here, like,

Collin  1:08:18

interesting has Have you run across anything that particularly talks about why that is?

Brandon  1:08:24

No, not really. I, I just come across some things saying like, yeah, that's how it is. Now I don't really know why. Or if I did hear it, I don't remember. But that is just the kind of a weird fact is kind of thrown in there. Right. I don't know if it's because men are eventually to inherit the earth because the dwarves will fade and the elves will leave. Right? But that is kind of what's happening, right? Maybe it's just that the men of Middle Earth are just gravy on reason and they don't really think about it too much. But yeah, it is only men that kill dragons.

Collin  1:09:03

Weird. Yes.

Brandon  1:09:06

Even the mighty Glau wrong. It wasn't the elves. Nope. Whoopsie daisy. Yeah, so dig into that maybe deliveries this week. Yeah.

Collin  1:09:18

Add this to my list of things to do. Yeah,

Brandon  1:09:22

but back to the business at hand. Now the town is rejoicing and they're like wait a minute. This master guy's lame we don't like him at all King barred to which the masters like wait, wait, no, no, wait, no wait stop there. So like slimy crappy is like slimy politician anything on here? He's like, No, he does he know how to do this. And what about Oh, yes. I so bad. He's Oh,

Collin  1:10:00

Yeah, why do I have all of your blame for what fault? Am I? What? Yeah, cuz now he's trying to take this energy and like, turn it towards being angry at the people who brought the dragon in the first place and let's just it's like, hey, it's not my fault. The dragon came right like it's the dwarves.

Brandon  1:10:17

Right? Do you notice? I read a rash to the dwarves he's like, but it's the dwarves fault that the dragon was even here in the first place. It doesn't matter that Bard had to kill the dragon. It doesn't matter that I had to run from the dragon. No, no, the dwarves sent the dragon. So it's the dwarves fault.

1:10:38

Obviously.

Collin  1:10:43

Bart Bard cuts through this and he was like, What do you know? What are you doing? Like, they're probably all dead too. Like, let's get over this and keep moving on and let's get be rebuilding things.

Brandon  1:10:54

Like we need to get to the shore and like, you know, get some shelter. That's really what needs to happen. Stop whining, less.

Collin  1:11:02

And very, very quickly. This is kind of a theme that'll pick up here in just a minute of bards walking around and he just hears everybody talking about well, there's no dragon and all those dwarves are dead there's just like a bunch of money sitting up there you know? There's nobody guarding it right like that's yeah

Brandon  1:11:27

yeah, so quickly in fact that like on the next page, we hear that the elves all of a sudden have the same thought because they hear news this dragon is dead also. And the Elven King is like Huh Well interesting.

Collin  1:11:44

Let's just go down and take a look right? Yeah, let's

Brandon  1:11:46

go see what's going on here.

Collin  1:11:49

But he does take a detour to help word in the people like town because

Brandon  1:11:54

you know, they asked for help. So I was true. He does a system which is going to be important here in a minute so they'll king does bring them food and helps them get some shelter and so fires going because they're soggy and it's cold you know, and that's not a good combo as we know right? You don't want to be soggy and cold and same time bad and then we end this chapter here interestingly about like the kind of a little bit of stuff about this spot where smoke has fallen they be they regard it as like a cursed area in the lake right you know they don't and people don't go over there they're gonna rebuild like town they're gonna do all this stuff but not there. I'm young read up the lake a little bit just to get away from that spot right there for ages his huge bones could be seen in calm water amid the ruin piles of the old town. But few dare to cross that person spot and None dared to die for the Shivering water to recover the precious stones that fell from his rotting carcass. Wisdom interesting right because we know that he was like covered in jewels and stuff but they're just saying that no, no no,

Collin  1:13:07

that's fine. That's all good.

Brandon  1:13:10

I don't want anything to do with that drag any nonsense right?

1:13:12

Yeah

Collin  1:13:18

yeah, and then we and then we we end last couple lines here are about armed forces now marching north and moving to towards the gate. Yes. Which spoilers? That's not gonna go well, that's not indwell No,

Brandon  1:13:37

so So now we return to Bilbo the dwarves, right literally it's what it says right literally

Collin  1:13:43

I left right now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Brandon  1:13:49

Yeah, right. It's interesting. So they don't know what's going on. Right they're kind of up here. And then we get this like really weird thing where the Thrash now comes back and is trying to tell them what happened. But nobody speaks Thrash. Yeah. And to which bolland's reply is if only he was a raven, I can speak Raven, but not Thresh straight so like weird reminiscing thing about Yeah, you know, that's why it's called Raven hill because there used to be ravens there and we could talk to them and they were our friends. Yeah, so the thrush like, shakes his head and leaves and he brings back a ring.

Collin  1:14:43

And it's so funny because you could just tell it's just a so just like, oh my gosh, buy for me laugh like it did. With him came in most decrepit old bird. I

Brandon  1:15:05

just thought this part was too funny right? Now, the thrush tells the Raven, who tells the dwarves about what happened. That smog is now in fact dead, right? This takes way too long since many pages of this It's very strange, right? Oh, yes. They they run into the mountain. Basically, that's what happens. They do all this and then they run into the mountain. The Raven does try to tell them like, hey, no, you should probably listen to these people. And you know, help them out because they helped you out by killing the dragon. To which Thorin has an angry outburst. Hmm, it's starting right. Here, like yells at the Raven tells him to mind his own business and go,

Collin  1:15:59

well, not before also running an errand for him to write. So he's like, yeah, he's like, I don't want to listen to you. But also you need to do this thing for me. And I gotta go by.

Brandon  1:16:07

Yeah, like fine, whatever. And so they go into the mountain, they run inside and they start taking stock of what's going on in the mountain, right? So while they're in there, they start digging around and looking for stuff and shoring up the door. Right? Because now door and says, We have to make sure the door is fixed. And they're like, Why? Why do we got to make the door and he starts like rambling about the enemies are coming for us and all this stuff. And, and Bilbo starts to be like, why?

Collin  1:16:41

What are you doing?

Brandon  1:16:43

Yeah. Like, why are you being so weird, man? Why are you being so strained? Right. But they they do that they fix up the thing. And they they make it so that they can't even like, there's basically no way to even get to the front gate. And it's very like a reinforced the gate, it might make it pretty impossible for people to even come there. They also send some people down to go find the ponies and bring back as many supplies as they could find that were still around from their little spot. And they like hold themselves up inside the cave. Now. This is their plant. They they're reinforcing themselves inside the cave. For

Collin  1:17:38

all intents and purposes, they have barricaded themselves inside, right. So like, Yeah, can't very easily leave and people can't easily get in. So like it's a

Brandon  1:17:49

it's it's just a blockage. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like what smog did? Hi, attack now. It's weird, right. But later that night, they look out and they see all the men, a lot of men had come up to Dale. Yeah. You know, and the dwarves are nervous about this. They don't really like it. They even come to talk to him. And Thorin is very brusque and not very happy about this. You know? And he doesn't pay. The men are over there and they're singing, right. And they, it starts annoying the dwarves. So

Collin  1:18:41

they do anybody or anyone else produced they turned up their own music, right? They start seeing

Brandon  1:18:46

themselves and it's really interesting here you get a little little paragraph here in the middle about Bilbo. And it's interesting, you know, just like you because he feels stuck now. And it's interesting that his paragraph is stuck between the one about the men and the dwarves. Just little interesting there. He longs to escape from the dark fortress and to go down and join the mirth in the feasting by the fires. Whereas the men are all happy and excited and blah, blah. The dwarves are very dour and very light or grumpy right about this thing. And build those like I don't hobbits are grumpy. I don't want Can we have a feast too? I want why can't we go feast together the dragons dead but about feasting? I'm hungry. I don't eat this cram stuff anymore. keeps bringing that up alive. He's like, Oh, he was just cram. It was horrible. The doors start singing their song, which is not happy. Nope, we're good.

Collin  1:19:54

I mean, it ends in the worm of dread is slain and dead and ever. So our folks show Fall. You're like, oh, that's Oh,

Brandon  1:20:02

oh, yeah, you don't even follow him fell him. So like

Collin  1:20:10

this can you do that much? What do you what are you doing? Yeah.

Brandon  1:20:13

But you know, to which Bilbo is hard fell both at the song and the talk. They sounded much too warlike. Yeah. Right. So Thorin is not doing good here. He's very, like, he's like, retreating inward. Right. He's, he's seems to become his, his demeanor has become very dark. Right? He's not very excited by this. And especially not so when company shows up at the door wanting to talk to him. The Elven King in some men of the lake? Ah, yes.

Collin  1:20:54

Some people Thorin is very happy to see and interact with him at this exact moment.

Brandon  1:21:01

Yeah, right. And so he's like, why he's, you know, he's real mad because they come armed to his door. Right? And, you know, he's like, who

1:21:12

are you? What are you doing here? Go

Brandon  1:21:13

away. Bart is the other person so it's it's the Elven King and Bard. Right. You know, he tells him who he is. He tells him hey, I killed the dragon. You know, I did that. And, you know, we just want to make sure you're good. And we want to talk and see everything's okay. And, you know, we just want to see if you would help us rebuild our city so that we can start living with the dwarves and thorns like no going.

Collin  1:21:46

And again, it shows how out of place this is because from Bilbo, it says, you know, Bilbo thought that Noren would immediately Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, this is justice, his own Oh to you. And then it goes on to later and say of, he also did not expect or reckon with the power of the gold that was upon the dragon, right. The power of the goal does brooded on by the dragon, get some of this dragon power that's still left behind impacting him?

1:22:15

That's true. Right. So,

Brandon  1:22:16

this, this is where Bilbo starts to. Yeah, we start to become aware that it's not necessarily just Doron being a jerk head that there is something happening with this dragon gold that's

Collin  1:22:32

getting to him. Right.

Brandon  1:22:36

So it's starting to affect him in that way. Like he's he's starting to you know, the fact that the dragon was here in its malice, and it's greed is sort of seeped into the gold now that is kind of coming on to Thorin. Right, if you can kind of think about it that way. Right. Like it's rubbing off on him a little bit. Like Thor and he's becoming the dragon. Right. Okay, I lied small bit of lower part to the, you know, this is why, you know, in other Tolkien works, right, this this characteristic of dwarves to be very, like materialistic shows up a lot, because they're dwarves just want to have more stuff. Right? This is what they're kind of interested in. They want gold, they want treasure, they want riches, they want this so much. So is that in, you know, we find out later in his other workings that the Rings of Power that are given to the dwarves, right? Instead of like corrupting the dwarves and turning them to the will of Sauron. It just makes them more greedy. And they go into their mountains and hide. Yeah. So it's like, it kind of works out in Sarens favor, because he's like, Oh, well, they're out of the way at least. Yeah, I can't really do anything with them. Because they're so stubborn. But they're not bothering me. So whatever.

Collin  1:23:59

Yeah, yeah, they turn turn inward underneath that, and now just desire more and more. Yeah,

Brandon  1:24:05

it like turns their greed up to like 11. Right. And so that's what's happening to Thor in here kind of right. And, you know, they even bring up like, hey, you know, we the elves are helping us. Why? Why would you help us right, and he gets that makes him angry. Because, you know,

1:24:22

they don't like elves,

Brandon  1:24:23

especially the one that imprison them in his dungeons. They're not really interested in anything else Cain has to say at the moment.

Collin  1:24:29

Ah, yeah, that was that was not a good card to play. Yeah.

Brandon  1:24:38

But it's weird because he like starts talking like circularly that like some of that treasures ours and he's like, No, the treasure was smug and smug is dead and I claim the treasure so the treasure is all mine now do I?

Collin  1:24:50

Wait, that's it doesn't

Brandon  1:24:52

really make sense.

Collin  1:24:55

Well, and part of this too, is you can he's, it is the The, this is hard to follow if you're trying to think through it logically, but again, going logic is not on Thorin side been corrupted by this gold. And you can tell how he's how it's impacting his judgment. Because he does say, like, you know, I will you know, nothing will leave this under duress and why do you come to me as if an enemy or like come to fight and they're just like, hey, we're not fighting. We're just here we're just talking but everything he's, he's reading into all the wrong signals for this.

Brandon  1:25:35

Yeah, and you know, that's what happens next because you know, Bart is like, you know Thorin starts yelling and it was like, what would you do if you came here and we were dead and this was unguarded? He's like, but you're not dead. And we're not trying to steal it from you. We just want to talk to you, in thorns response to this very logical answer is, I don't want to talk to anybody who's armed at my gate. That doesn't make sense. What? That's not what he said. And he's like, and I don't want that stick an elf here, and bards like, well, the elf is my friend, and he's been helping help us. Yes. And we're working together. And so we just wanted to bring you in and add you to the working together list. And he's like, no, go away. Yes, and he,

Collin  1:26:24

this all ends as these things can do with the door and shooting an arrow at somebody who was trying to be

Brandon  1:26:32

Yeah, you know, that's a perfectly logical response, right? He's like, you know it because they're basically going alright, alright, alright, let's, we'll go away. Think about it. But know this, right? We want you to, we want to be together. We want to be on a team. It's like I'll like give me some money as a reward says, basically, if you pay me as a reward for killing the dragon, I will take my share of that reward and then pay and help distribute it to the people so we can rebuild. You don't have to give everybody money. Just give me a reward for killing the dragon. Yeah, then I'll take care of the rest. And Thorin shoots an arrow. Yes. Again, not. Not good. Yeah. And so now it's interesting here because like some of the a lot of the older dwarves are agreeing with Lauren, share his mind. Except perhaps fat bomber, because he's not really bothered with anything he does. And the Fili and Kili who are constantly remarked as being much younger than the rest of them. Right? And of course below. Yes, Bilbo, of course disapprove to the

Collin  1:27:56

whole turn of affairs had more than half of the mountain as an

Brandon  1:28:01

Yeah, and being besieged inside was not to his taste at all. And I know this already, this tracks because Bilbo didn't like being in the goblin tunnels. He didn't like being in the oppressive forest. Now this is the most impressed he didn't like being in the Elven kings dungeons, but now trapped inside this mountain with his traveling companions and friends is the most repressive environment he has encountered. So far. Full stop, which is that's saying a lot. Right? That is really kind of putting into effect the extent of this. You know, Dragon sickness has on them. Because he is supposedly among friends now. Like the whole journey. They've been warming up to Bilbo. And they've been, you know, getting along better and stuff. But now all of a sudden, they've achieved their goal. They're in the mountain, and he would literally rather be anywhere else at all. Yeah, because this is not what he thought he thought they would be happy. And they would be celebrating and it'd be like fun times. But no, they're mad. They've barricaded themselves inside the mountain. They're threatening the people that live nearby with deadly force, because he's shooting arrows at them. And it's real strange.

Collin  1:29:24

It's gone to take taking a weird turn here at the end fine. And Bilbo is not okay with that.

Brandon  1:29:29

Nor should he be my No. Right. These are very strange events in a book full of very strange events like this. Greed, this obsession that Thorin is letting sort of override his better judgment is really taking an effect on him and then the rest of the party. It's really dragging them down. It's like a dark blanket over everybody at this time, right where we stop here in this chapter. Yeah, I mean, this is

Collin  1:29:58

not necessarily his last couple chapters aren't really I wouldn't call him a true descent into madness for for Thorin. But you could he really is becoming undone

Brandon  1:30:08

by this. Yeah. Yeah. It's very subtle. Right? Like, only Bilbo is really noticing. Yes. This effect, but mostly because, you know, the other dwarves are, I think it's also affecting them as well. So they're not noticing the they're not noticing the effect on Thorin. Because it's also affecting them to, like their, you know, when Thor and saga they're like, yeah, yeah. He said, Yeah, I agree with that. And Bill was going, what? Yeah.

Collin  1:30:39

It's like, I'm not following him out. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon  1:30:43

So we're now in a rough spot here. On treasuries ground. And, yeah, it's so it's, it's,

Collin  1:30:55

I do like these last two chapters, because it now starts getting into a lot more of the like, I don't know, just a lot more interpersonal, I don't know how to describe this, why I really liked these more, or the other ones have been fine. But now, a lot more of the politicking comes into play with these next couple of like, figuring out how to make these how to cover over these grievances or make amends and all of the different parties that are coming involved in just how quickly this is also spiraling out of control. Spiraling Yeah, for sure. Like, like it really these last, you know, it just starts to go. Because you kind of whiplash or going wait, what happened when at what happened? And that's it. He said, what he shot an arrow? Are you kidding me?

Brandon  1:31:47

Yeah. Yeah, it's really interesting. We have you. I think it's because now you're starting to have the whole time you've had basically external struggles, right? Yeah. And now you're getting a lot of internal struggles right within Bilbo within Thor and within the company, right within everything, like all of those interpersonal relationships are breaking down. And that puts everybody on edge. And it's just a real weird, like spot to be in. So it makes everything more hazardous. Right, where before all the hazards came from, goblins, trolls, spiders, now the hazards come from the guy next to you. Right? From Thorin. Which is not that's like a much. It makes everything that much more uneasy, because like a giant spider is clearly a threat. Right? Thorin shouldn't be the threat. Now, because thus far he's been your friend and ally, and companion. And now the threat is coming from him. Yeah, that's a big shift. Right. And Bilbo does not like that at all.

Collin  1:32:59

No, no. And fortunately, no, again, should not have to put up with this. This is not good working environments or conditions. And he may take some drastic measures, which is hands. We'll find out. We'll find out. Next, next next time. Done. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Getting into some very good spots. Looking forward to these last,

Brandon  1:33:28

we'll have like four tasks over two weeks. Yeah, four chapters left. So

Collin  1:33:32

yes, yeah, I know that I know you okay, because you'll be busy with the star school and everything. So hopefully you get this. Maybe right here. Pretty

Brandon  1:33:39

soon. There will be I'll be able to fit those in. Okay.

Collin  1:33:43

Well remind me. I don't know, what do you want to cover? That's true. But let's talk about that offline. So let's do that. Okay, come prepared to at least cover the next few chapters. How about that? Yes. Okay. Sounds like a plan. Tada. I like it. Very good. Okay. Love you. Bye bye.