Rob Pope

[00:00:00] Rob Pope: Hello, and welcome to the modern adventurer podcast coming up and Sonia, and I’m like, Nope, no, makes I’m British. Just me raising sharp with anyway. Good. Cause I got planning. He just pulls out this like 10 inch butcher’s knife from behind his back and I’m just like, oh my God. You know, I sort of wondered if I’d ever get shot, but I didn’t think I’d have to get fileted.

Thanks for having me mate. Well, it’s an absolute pleasure and I so excited about this podcast because you are the first person to recreate the Forrest Gump has sort of story and it’s sort of just unbelievable how it sort of all came about. And I, what I love about it is the sort of humble beginnings and how it all started.

Before we sort of jump into that, I always like to start at the beginning sort of try and get a better understanding, but how did the sort of love of running sort of come about. [00:01:00] Episode, always ruin this as long as I can remember some of my first memories of school sport work when I was in juniors.

And then I really, really don’t know why this happened, but everybody was wearing a a school running share, which is white and blue. For some reason I was wearing a Ford t-shirt and they came from maybe it was like an air Lisa to bear attempt to get sponsorship. But since I was only seven, I doubt it.

And then yeah, like, so it just, despite the British weather and, you know, the fact that cross-country usually involved extremely short shorts and, and sort of not getting warm again until Monday morning. So I just really liked it at school. And if my school had seniors for the start, it was either that or rugby so out, but I think it was.

Because for a lot of people who sort of do these big sort of trips, sometimes it’s like, they’re absolutely exceptional. And sometimes they just want the thrill of the adventure [00:02:00] for you. Your marathon time is slightly ridiculous. It’s two hours and 27 minutes, which for anyone listening, who doesn’t need that is seriously quick for a marathon.

I’m hoping to actually have, have a go at rage against the dying of the light, AKA middle-age and next year, and trying to see if I can beat that. Cause now they’ve got all the fancy shoes out. I am. I figured I may as well have at least one pop with the rocket boots. So might as well try well before, before the body slowly breaks down.

Exactly. And so I, from the sort of start, I knew that your sort of big running journey sort of started in Australia because you’re a. You’re a veterinarian. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And you sort of working out in Australia and you had this incredible, incredible story about how you almost got to the Olympics [00:03:00] for a country.

I know you’ve been from, it was a, it was a bit weird. Yeah. But I was more than happy to switch sides. So, so much, so obviously the ashes is happening right now and likes to have all my legs to bear of cricket and of inmates are like absolutely mortified, but there’s a bit of me that sort of is rude for us.

I was at the the boxing day test once. And I think I saw like Mitchell Johnson run for the hatchery. And I was almost off support Australia, one that wicked to fall. But yeah, I lived there for about three years. And I joined the local athletics club. Cause I figured it was probably a, you know, way to meet mates quickly.

And I’d never really done that. Let’s cook thing in the UK. Mostly just because I generally like running it on my own. But I figured so yeah, meats could join a football team, but I was probably getting better old to [00:04:00] recall from any injuries and yeah, got a lot better and got selected to run for Victoria and the Australian Madison championships, which is passed at the Sydney Monmouth.

And you know, they’ll do wider events. So start at the front and after a near disaster and I suffer from very sort of. Nervous, shall we say bowels and I am before any marathon. I usually will nail a couple of Imodium to make sure nothing bad happens. And I was spent the first hour before the race at the actual cause running round, like a load of pharmacies, trying to see if I could find any Immodium ad to borrow $5 from the head coach of athletics Victoria.

And but it was all right. And I got to the star and I cracked on with the main guys. And I think I was in about eight as I ran over the Sydney Harbor bridge. And it felt like I was just all alone because the guys [00:05:00] had dropped off the front and that, yeah, it sort of struggled actually in the race, but mines to come 10th overall and every day they’re Kenyan or Japanese.

And so, you know, I knew about the Australian championship thing, but I was only considering being, you know, hopefully Victoria we’ll get a team. And so I was hoping that nobody had fronted me was Australian. And then when I saw like the list and the coach said, like I was Australian champion, I was just like, you know, I’m an Australian race.

And he said, it doesn’t matter. You’ve been here long enough. And yeah, so I got nice, shiny gold medal. And later on that day, got a phone call from the head of athletics Australia. And he said if they had a few guys away from the race, which is probably the reason why I was champion and who tried to get the qualifying time and if they didn’t, would I consider running for Australia at the Olympics?

And I was just like, absolutely. Yeah.

[00:06:00] British citizen down the train. Oh yeah, no to right man. Nice. If I hadn’t been there, I haven’t been out there now, still with the ships on the Barbie. Cracking a few tinnies is England wicked tumbled.

And so did you get the call up to the Olympics in the end or what happened? I didn’t know. Like I think I think I was fifth in line by the time they did the selection. And so I, I’d never, I’d never known if fair, what would have happened to two of them would have got injured, but maybe they would just took the top two anyway, but yeah, I should have sent some hell’s angels around to the houses and there, I either caused an injury or said that maybe they should pretend that an injury.

Good. And so after that, you obviously came back to the UK, where did this idea of recreating Forrest Gump [00:07:00] come from? So the idea that. In some sort of embryonic form for, for a while because of wants to run across the Medica for about 10 years, by the time actually started doing it. And of course, when you’re looking at routes, you know, you know yourself, you’ve done one of the classics from New York to San Fran, or that probably is the classic route to run across America, either from San France, New York or, or LA to New York.

And so actually thought about going from long beach in California to long beach in New York. But while you’re looking at these roots, of course, the specter of forest Gump is always there because if anybody talks about rent across the medic, the inevitable line is like Forrest Gump. And so I was looking vaguely at the route, not because I thought about doing it just because I like to fight about procrastinate and stuff.

And so if I can avoid doing something useful by looking at something frivolous. [00:08:00] And so I knew fully that this route that he done, there’s like five times across the Medicare 15,248 miles. But did dream about doing it. And it was only sort of after the Australia experience, because I thought sort of well, you know, I live in Australia now.

Why not run across Australia rather than medically? It’s a similar sorts of size country. And I bought a jogging stroller that was going to use state to carry all my gear across, but it never quite happened. And then a job opportunity came up in the UK that basically forced my hand to come back. But when I did come back, it wasn’t the opportunity I thought it was.

And so both me and my other half and the Dean, like we decided to quit the same job. And we had a bit of time on our hands and it was only actually probably now I have even more time to procrastinate and I saw on the. [00:09:00] Man completes Forrest Gump ruin. And I, for the first time ever, I was like, just absolutely go to the about it.

And I didn’t know why, but then I just thought, well, let’s have a little look and I read it. And then he’d only done the second leg. So I say only, you know, this is still air from Santa Monica through New York and then all the way up to Maine as well. And so that’s like, you know, 4,000 miles, but still he’d not done the first, third, the fourth, the fifth.

And so I just pretty much looked at the Dean and said, we’ve got to do this because if somebody else is thinking, you know, feeling the same sort of disappointment right now, and somebody else’s planted it. And I thought, right, let’s, let’s go from there. And I think we saw that around February and then I think we booked flights a couple of months later.

And then that was it. Yeah. We, we ha I, I suppose it’s sort of the. Important with some [00:10:00] of these things, especially when it comes to sponsorship is becoming, being the first person to do it. We’ve had Sean Conway on we’ve had mark Baymont on the podcast who both done, you know, world first. And they do talk about the importance, especially when it comes because no one remembers the second person.

It’s always, it’s always about first, first or the fastest, but the first is usually, you know, the most well-known in that sense and, sorry. Yeah, I was going to say the one thing is, is with something like this, you know, you mentioned that the first there’s a decent chance that it will be the, the only one because, you know, sort of some night, this it’s so big and, you know, survey, you mentioned sponsorships.

That didn’t really help me mostly because I I, you just from definite [00:11:00] confirmation of we’re going to go to go in, I reckon must’ve been one of the quickest turnovers in adventure history, certainly a record in terms of scale, to planning of it, you know, sort of the, you know, the scale dwarfs, the amount of prep that went into it.

So yeah, no sponsorship for me. And the one tip I would give anyone if they were going to do this would be American to be independently wealthy. Yeah. I, I think I think a lot of the times sponsorships, especially if it’s your first one, they didn’t know who you are. They don’t know if you’re going to make it.

And unless you have a track record, They’re very, what’s the word reluctant to, you know, put their hands in their pockets and say, oh yeah, yeah, here it’s here’s some money go do it. Because as you say, but I mean, he plays, especially when it’s a lone Wolf, you know, because you, you know, you, you’ve got no idea [00:12:00] of the, maybe if you’ve worked for that company, they’ll just go, oh no, no.

I know Rob he’s absolutely sound. But then like my proposition, like I did actually spend a good bit of time writing letters to like I loaded the fortune 500 companies in this. And I only got three replies back, I think from the hundred there I said, and only one of them you could tell it actually bred and it was just sort of going, yeah, this does sound really awesome.

It’s just, yeah. Again, not enough notice for it, you know, but because the proposition was so ridiculous is recreating something that doesn’t even like officially exist or certainly not in real life. They probably thought, well, if his propositions that insane, there’s every chance that he’s insane. And I’m not sure if we could trust him to be an excellent ambassador.

Now I hope that’s a bit different, but yeah, after COVID was a new adventure in terms of funding because you and [00:13:00] Nadine went out to start it, how did that all sort of come about with the funding? So we had money that we’d sort of saved up for a deposit on a house. And so that basically became a.

Payment. Well, you know, on a secondhand sort of Mo that we sort of gambled on being able to sell at the end that hopefully get that money back. Cause we got such an old one, I thought sort of all the deeper depreciation had happened, but it didn’t quite work that way. And so, yeah, w w we’ve got some money back, like I think we got just doing the half of it back, but yet it’s still not a lot.

And then of course running expenses on the way, but by the time I’d sort of you know, got to New York, probably I was sort of already out of that particular pot. And then I was reading some other sorts of pots that I had which were far [00:14:00] smaller in size. And the Dean had already had to have gone home at this point because we, well, we just didn’t have enough money to survive drive in the RV so that.

The Australian jogging stroller came out and that was in the middle of Tennessee. And that took me another 8,000 miles. It’s hell. Or we did get sort of an reunited and the Dean and I, and Jenny, our RV by the time we got back to mini and Minneapolis, because I didn’t really fancy the wild loss of North Dakota and Montana on my own.

So on one of the times I had to come back to replenish my visa pretty much. It’s like work 24 7 to just say, right, just got to have support on this top bit. You know, if only I could have either a little bit of look at my shrimp company, it would have been a lot easier. So, I mean, for people who, you know, maybe.

Watched the Forrest Gump film a long, long time ago, [00:15:00] or have a sort of, not the recollection of where abouts did you start from? Where does the sort of Forrest Gump journey. So I started in mobile Alabama. Now there’ll be some people who are fans of the film, just getting a, what it didn’t start from Greenberg.

Well, if you’re real hardcore fans of the film you’d know the Greenberg doesn’t exist, they just made it up for the film. And then, so I tried to, I looked around for leather to suitable locations that may be the middle of Alabama. You know, so I think there’s a Greensboro in Alabama, but in the book, forest is from mobile, you know, and that’s an exact, you know, sort of, and Winston green, the chap who wrote it, he was from mobile as well.

And so that was also I think, 26 miles away from bipolar battery. So Maurice and away from where the logo is from. So it was a no brainer for me. And I found the house that looked pretty much like. Well, [00:16:00] the ball’s in house and the film’s called the Mitchell brag, Manchin immobile. And I started my entire room with three miles from there to the hotel we’re staying at, then the next day began in earnest.

Wow. And so to start with, you were with Nadine and Jenny. Yeah. Well, at the very start, we didn’t even have Jannie surveyor. We flew to Houston. W we think we got a mega bus to new Orleans, and then we hired a car and drove his T-Mobile. And so we we don’t, when we go to Houston, we’ve looked at, we sort of late, you know, we put our name down for that RV, but then we hire a car that hotel that from mobile to new Orleans.

And that was a sort of a lesson in the fact that we couldn’t have gone like that for the whole trip. It’s pretty convenient and cool, but yeah, it’s such a money drain. And then we got the bus back to Houston and then Dean got into Janney [00:17:00] and we give it away, you know, all, all 31 foot of it. Wow. And so you went from Houston and then, so what’s the sort of route from there goes.

So yeah, like Texas said itself was, was an adventure, you know, sort of if somebody sort of, you know, listens to this, just go, oh my God, it looks at this and they’re like that. But you know, there’s no way I could run across the Medica. Well, first of all, You probably could, if you thinking about it, probably good or at least war.

But Texas is so great because you always get the whole of America in that sort of a, you know, 893 miles that I did on the, on the first leg from Beaumont, which is in the far east. And it’s all sorts of, you know, swamps and values. And then you go through like the mega cities, like Houston and Austin, you know, two very different cities in Texas, one’s or oil, and then one’s whole tack.

And you [00:18:00] know, where there’s a protocol was Democrat. And then you go from Austin, you go up and say the hill country, and then it changes the oil country and then the desert and you get the Guadalupe’s ma Manson’s national path, which is absolutely gorgeous. You pop out and it’s just desert all the way to El Paso then, which is an unbelievable city in itself.

And so from there, it was desert all the way, pretty much to to LA. So New Mexico, Arizona, Joshua tree, national park. And then I got some, my first ocean in Santa Monica on the PA, which if you know the film, that’s where forest reach the ocean for the first time. And Sydney’s had gone that far in food.

We may as well turn around and keep on going. And I did that. I went up through death valley, you know, so then went right to the middle of another nip of Texas. Again, I think it was only 400 miles to this time. And then yeah, through Tennessee went up to the big [00:19:00] city. So started off sort of Washington, then Baltimore Philly, Boston, well, New York, Boston, and where I did the Boston model.

And then up to Maine, which is the famous lighthouse where Barkley had finished his run that sort of, you know, let the fire and the, my bum to get going. And from there, yeah, I turned around and went to Chicago at, to have a little break then to replenish my visa and came back. And then we had north across the top and then down we reached our third OSHA cause nobody knows where forest reached his third ocean because you see it on a map, but it’s not named in the film or showed.

So I went to a really cool place called Bandon on the, on the Oregon coast. It’s just a lovely little seaside town and followed them the coast roughly down to Santa Monica, a little bit further inland. They went through odds to run through all the redwoods cause thought that’d be pretty amazing. It got to San [00:20:00] Francisco and the Dean had to go home again because of there some news we’d received.

And then for me it was the fourth leg and that took me to the, you know, the classic Midwest America. Yeah. Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and the beach, my fourth ocean in South Carolina, which is actually where they did most of the filming for forest Gump. So I ran through some of the locations, including the bridge sort of, sort of even managed to hit the ocean sort of where they filmed the Vietnam scenes.

And after that, it was just the final leg. Amazing. And for, I mean, God, I mean, that’s sort of covering all my site 15,000 miles, just there sort of how to sort of condense that. But I found in America. That it all sort of like how different that say California is from like Nevada that each state has their [00:21:00] own thing.

And like the people in the Midwest are just unbelievably kind. Did you have that sort of similar situation all over again? Yeah, for sure. You know, in terms of geography, there can’t be a country in the world that sort of matches it. You know, it’s a very, you know, you got, you’ve got bigger countries, but, you know, they just don’t really have that sort of ranging climate, you know, the 3d shape, the land.

And then of course the cities or paths had so much history, especially music and film history so that, you know, you’d be running through these locations. And then you’ll, you’ll feel like John Wayne one minute and then like seven, it was running through LA and you know, the huge storm drains. And like, I actually saw this like garbage truck that was driving down one of the storm drains and a half expected to see young John Connor on his bike, riding up the side.

And yeah, like the, the people you mentioned the Midwest and stuff, cause [00:22:00] it’s not the sort of part of America that a lot of people would have. You know, instead of you don’t tend to get many people, some in, through the air, the Wyoming tourist brochure book, you know, your apps should, because there’s just so much to see there, you know?

Yeah. It might not be the, the famous stuff, but you know, you get it and, and it’s unspoiled as well. It’s particularly nice to travel through it really slowly because yeah. Sometimes if you are on the planes and you would drive in there and you think, oh, this is really boring. There’s nothing to see.

That’s going to do an 80 mile an hour. But if you’re doing a you know, five or six, then you get to see lots of, lots of cool stuff. And of course, yeah, people will stop and ask if you’re okay, and then you’ll be in towns and people come and sit next to you in a cafe. And the whole half, a nice day thing is, you know, You would tend to, I think there’s always the British notion that it might be a bit contrived, but it isn’t, you know, when people say have a nice day, they actually intend that you go on and [00:23:00] enjoy the rest of your waking hours, you know, at the same, the next day as well.

So you can’t help but feel welcomed there. That’s for sure. I think some of the best stories sort of happened in like, let’s say the Midwest for me, you know, so many times you’d sort of stop in a restaurant, you’d be eating and you’d be like, well, where down that road is, do you think there might be a place I could stop and cam, and then the waitress would be like, oh, give me one second.

And then five minutes later, come back and go, oh, come with me. And then she’d suddenly introduce you to a group of people. Who’d be like, this is the guy speak to them. And then they’d be like, oh, we saw your bike. We, you know, we saw what you were doing. Come and have a beer with us, sit down and then they give you a place to stay.

They feed you. And then the next day they sort of send you on your way and you sort of think that’s a sort of one-off, but it happens again and again and again, I mean, he must have found that doing what you’re doing [00:24:00] it’s to the point where sometimes you would like, you’d have nothing lined up and you just go into a bar and of course you would never liked sorts of like go in there and the doors and go I’m here, everybody.

Yeah. I know what’s going to happen. Simple. You go in there and you think, oh God, I really hope someone’s gonna say, come and stay in mine tonight, rather than get in the freezing cold tent. You know, bro, it happens so often. And like, I would always like plan about three days ahead. Cause you know, you couldn’t really do much more than that rarely.

And you will look, are there any cheap motels likely to finish? No, not today. What’s the weather going to be like it’s too cold to carry. Are there any couch surfing contacts, you know, 70th, if there weren’t, you’d be like, right. And my fail safe, which are net my emergency break glass was post office lobby because the state see quite often have them open 24 hours, really remote places, [00:25:00] people work sort of crazy hours.

You know, people in America work so hard. We mode where it worked just going back on the grind, but Lisa Americans just like work way harder and they sense to really enjoy it. So they’ll go and they’ll pick the post up at three in the morning on the way back from a shift. And they almost had a a straggly bearded Englishman on the floor of the lobby, but it never happened because I would just go into a place and sit down.

I’ve never asked for that. But I would just, you know, people would ask me what I’m doing, and then I’ll say, I’ll run across America where you stay in tonight while I was going to see if I could camp around the back of the restaurant, or if anybody you anywhere. And they’d be like, nah, don’t worry about that.

Like you can go and stay with John. Yeah. It happened so much. And, and I suppose, like I remember doing my sort of research before I went out and, you know, they sort of said, oh, well, you can go knock on doors. You could [00:26:00] probably wild camp. Is that sort of what you did as well? Wild camp and knocked on people’s doors.

Yeah. I didn’t really do huge amounts of wild camping apart from sort of open the north because. Even in the rural areas, you know, there’s still quite a that you know, that down south, there’s still quite a lot of people about. And the one thing is like, people are very, very protective over their land.

There’s no right to roam over there. I was speaking to the American ultra and a John Kelly who lives in the UK at the moment. And he is just like blown away by the fact that he could just go and run across a field, you know? And he’s just said, you can’t do that. The states. And then I met a guy called Chris who was walking across America and I was with the Dean and Jenny at the time.

And he had literally. Just completed his last solo day in Arizona. And he was going to get crude all the way into California. And I said, where’s your camp? And he said, yeah, I’ll just knock on people’s [00:27:00] doors and, you know, and sort of ask if we can camp in their yard. And so the first day I was so low, I, I think I’ve just got a little bit excited and I left it way too late and it was like dark.

And it was like, you know, proper laces of midnight black. And then I knocked on this first house and the guy answered the door and he, you know, he was just like, no, you can’t. And I was just saying that subsidy you know, cause you’re not going to walk you. And then I knocked on another one, a few doors down and then based there was no answer for about a minute.

And then suddenly the blinds switched to this fellowships, like who is it? I’m like. Rob from England

because yeah, once you say like, oh, it’s Rob Pope. It is just, I don’t know. No, Rob Paul go away and well he didn’t say anything else until I’d walked way down his drive. Cause he wasn’t coming out and then nanny [00:28:00] opens the door and he’s like, what do you want? And I told him that I was like, what I was doing, what I was doing is four.

And I was looking for somewhere to stay in. Cause I put my tent up in his garden now, like obviously a medic is don’t even use the word garden. There should have been yard. So I probably confused him even more. And he’s like, if you got any weapons on you and I’m like, Nope, no makes I’m pretty sure. Just me raising sharp with anyway.

Good. Cause I got planning. It just pulls out this like 10 inch butcher’s knife from behind his back and I’m just like, oh my God. You know, I sort of wondered if I’d ever get shot. I didn’t think I’d have to get filleted. And I just said, mate, don’t worry about it. I’ll just be on the way. And he was like, well, call my wife and see if you can camp behind the local store.

And so he goes into the house, comes back out, certainly not had it. Didn’t have enough time to make that phone call and he goes, so, okay. [00:29:00] I trust you, come in. And I’m just like, oh my God. And then it goes in and he’s like, you’re home. And I was just thinking less fortunate. I’d seen his little girl and, you know, once I went through the door and it just looked like there was a, a, you know, very normal family scene there.

I thought, oh God, there’s no chapter with anybody screaming from below or anything like that. And he only cooked me dinner. Like he knows to be fed me, watered me. And then he let me stay in his his camping trailer as well. And so again, you know, it’s one of these things. Fair enough. I, two hours previously, I thought I was going to get third, but it worked out really well.

Good. And, and for, for your sort of trip, I mean, you were there for, well over a year. Yeah, let’s do the 422 [00:30:00] days of running. So and I didn’t, I didn’t have days off. There were a couple of days where I, I didn’t run nice. I lost. I lost four days to injury, five days to food poisoning and a, and a couple of days when the RV had broken it, we needed to get it serviced.

But apart from that, it was running every day. How would the legs and the fine, yeah, they slip. I have to sort of, I’m surfing a lot tighter these days and I’m than I used to be. And I’m having to do a lot more sort of self care. And I’ve been really bad at it these last two weeks, because I’ve actually been running really well and got excited and not been doing my stretching and my yoga.

And then I just got, I’ll do it next time. We’ll go for another run before a DB stretch here, and then they can make miles into a, into a run. And I just got, I’ll do the stretch in it a bit. Well, I cope that’s survived. [00:31:00] And in sort of the comparison, because you were there for over a year with the visa situation, you said sort of six months.

So what did you have to leave the country or pop up? Yeah, like my first one, because go into Santa Monica, of course, as we mentioned before, never done anything like this before. And so I had no real degree of confidence that I would do all five legs. And so there was no way I was going to go down to London and spend money on the big visa.

When, you know, I could have literally got to Santa Monica and God, I hate this more than anything, you know? And so I did the 90 day visa and then when I got there and it just sort of, right, this is definitely, we’re definitely going to continue. I came back to to London, got the six month visa and then had a Backhouse of Ben that got me all the way to Chicago and I had to go back and then renew it again in the UK.

Then that got me back to South Carolina. And then it would have got me to to the [00:32:00] actual finish if I didn’t have my bonus Paul’s, which was to see the birth of my daughter, which was the news. I alluded to an air San Francisco, I, the DNS to go home. Oh, wow. She had to fly back for that, obviously. Yeah.

Well, the thing is actually, I actually didn’t have to I could have finished the whole run and probably been back about five days before the birth. But obviously with something like this and it’s going on and it was hard, you know, sort of, I’m not going to be about the Bush there. It was really hard enjoyable as it was in, in the majority.

But you know, sort of, it wasn’t just hard physically. It was hard financially. It was actually hard mentally, but I didn’t really realize that. I was just sorta thinking that my mental hardships were due to the financial and the physical things. And so, but it was [00:33:00] actually sort of the growing realization that they’re finished would mean nothing to me because the Dean wasn’t going to be able to be there.

You know, she was there for like just under half of the whole thing and sacrificed a huge amount of self. And then of course we now have likes to have a little girl on the way and she wasn’t going to be able to see it. And so at the very least I’d have been irritated at, you know, in the poor board out for dinner when I was telling people my anecdotes, but the very worst, I think I’d have been really selfish, not to have included them there.

And so I got to a point it was about 200 miles a short at the finish just, just before Flagstaff. And I decided I though I’d already gone past the distance that forested rent at that point. Every time I went home, it was a gamble because there was no guarantee I was going to be allowed back into the country and it was getting pretty hairy.

So when I came back after South Carolina, [00:34:00] I really thought they weren’t going to let me in. And yeah, I, I flew back and I thought, even if I don’t get to come back, I’ve still done the Forrest distance and had a heck of an adventure, but we got back in and like three weeks after bee was born, she had a passport.

And we did the London marathon on the certain day and flew to flew to Vegas on the Monday to head back to Flagstaff. And then we did the last 200 miles to. Wow, God, that’s amazing. And in terms of the sort of difference between Nadine being there and on your own, how, how did the sort of, how did the sort of dynamics work in terms of like sometimes when you go with someone else, this sort of experience is completely different when your own, because you have to sort of force yourself into social situations.

You have to sort of speak people, otherwise you become almost insane in your own thoughts. [00:35:00] Why is that? How I was very lucky by chance to have those two separate experiences, because if, if I had my way, the way I sort of envisaged it, the dream scenario is we go out, we take the gamble, we buy the RV, we get to send some money.

We go to Santa Monica, we bumped into Tom Hanks, cinnabar. He just goes, oh my God, this is incredible. I’m going to put you onto my friend who will sponsor you. And then we went across the country and it was great and it was super easy. But cause that never happened. And I w I was then slowly sort of flung into the, into the wilderness, pushing a three wheeled stroller, like sad that the Dean was going home, but also really, really nervous because I tore my quad about five days before she was due to go, which was just like, not the ideal breath.

And yeah, when, when we were together, they said we, we did [00:36:00] talk to people because. I am the naturally sort of sociable type. And I would make sure that certainly, you know, we would go out and we were, I remember having an unbelievable night at the bar called crazy hours just to the east of, and new Orleans.

And this place was like, cheers. If anyone remembers the series saying, Boston’s like, cheers, but like with a Cajun twist and we got pretty Mullard in there. We only went in there to get like sort of a, a, you know, a single beer. So we could just basically park in their car park overnight. And of course that be attended to a lot more.

And when you’re running, it goes straight to your head. And these people were great, but they were, that was the source of the exception, the going out. But when you’re on your own, you’re not, it’s not the you’re not seeking social engagement, but sometimes you do want to retreat into your shelf. But you’re forced to socially engage because otherwise you are just one person on your [00:37:00] own in the middle of this huge country.

And you will basically probably I still maintain that. I wouldn’t have got across the states if it wasn’t for the American people, you know, and that, which has got a very forest message about it, you know? And so I was so glad that in the end that it didn’t work out the way I planned it, because the story is definitely better for it.

Yeah. I think that is as I say, it’s not the destination, it’s the. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I always think that with a lot of these trips is you go from a, to B and that’s always the intention, but actually the stories and the excitement always happens in between. And the sort of destination is usually pretty underwhelming.

You’ve sort of done it. You’re like, Ugh, relief. But, but you have these stories to sort of tell for years and years. [00:38:00] There’s very rarely a marching band to a signal, your arrival, to your destination, you know, and the firework display. So you imagined that you might have it going off in your head, but you know, usually it’s, you’re just there and there’s tourists taking their own photos.

And you’re just like, I’ve just done this. I’ve just done this. And then we, of course you didn’t say it because that would make you look like a complete girl, but but you want them to just go, wow, have you just gone across America? Just go about it is so true. You, you are sort of fair and usually on a beach on your own.

And you’re like, yeah, I remember when I, today it’d be like a heat wave throughout the entire time. And then I got to the beach, it was cloudy. It was freezing cold. I was on this beach on my ain and I was like, Oh, great. The home really just want to get out of here.

Everybody loves an anticlimax and that’s why you’ve got to enjoy the actual, you know, the [00:39:00] process of getting there anyway, because if it was just, you know, if you forgot all that, now there’s about, I mentioned the torn quad and earlier I mentioned the Boston marathon. Now my original plan was to well, it wasn’t an original plan, but it’s formed on, on the way out.

And I thought, hang on. Like I managed to persuade Boston to give me a, an entry to the mammoth and they tasted it wasn’t cheap, but I thought it’s just gonna, it’s going to be such a good experience that it’d be worth Devin. And I thought if I get on my toes, I can actually run and arrive to Boston on the start line, you know, actually get there for the day at the most.

And then I tore my quad, which put me about sort of them. Well, it was two days a complete. And then I was walking for a good three or four days with tiny bits of run-ins thrown in. So maybe delayed me by about five days. And I still could have put my, put the foot down and got there maybe on time. But then I was going to be going through [00:40:00] all these cities like Steve, you know, like Washington DC, and I wants to run at the Rocky steps, but I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that.

And if I was obsessed with this donate, eh, destination, at that point in time, I would have got and again, nobody had been bothered because they were all there for their own Boston marathon experience. So now it’s just thought, why does that rush? You know? And so I got, as far as New Jersey, And the local runner picked me up and we drove to start Boston.

And then I eventually would travel back and resume from New Jersey. But even just that journey, w w w where there, the guys solid, that makes sense. It was a story in itself. And so, you know, you shouldn’t get obsessed about the figures and, and timescales because they’re very, very important. The only people generally give a monkeys about some arbitrary timescale or a raw I’ve got rive on July the fourth.

It’s only you, nobody else. Really? It goes, oh, [00:41:00] July the fourth. That’s nice. Yeah. I think we’ve spoken a lot on the podcast about how no one cares. Yeah. May maybe mark Beaumont had to stay on his schedule that like, because yeah, 80 days was a fairly figurative thing, you know, you have to make sure he got there, you know, and obviously, yeah, yeah.

The data’s spare. Cause he could have spent some time on the beach. I don’t think he was in the mindset to do that though. No, it probably would have cramped up. He probably would’ve cramped up and that would have been it it’s okay. Yeah. No, I think that’s literally what we said. Like no one cares and they should make mark Beaumont

because you are breaking a sort of time record. But if you’re not, if you’re running across America or cycling. You know, down in Africa, mark, Beaumont’s probably broken the records. So unless you’re going to try and beat him, which I think when we had him on the podcast, he was sort of speaking about how he’d get up [00:42:00] at 4:00 AM on the dot he’d be on his bike.

And he had cycled pretty much till 10 or 12 o’clock at night nonstop. And that in terms of a sort of adventure, it’s not really, it is an adventure in itself, but you don’t, you miss all those moments with the P fortunately he he’d had the the one where he did it so low as well. So he actually doing both of them.

So he can, he can tick both boxes for, Hey, read my th th the record that I add to beat was of course, Forrest ran for three years, two months, 14 days, and 60 and hours. At that I smashed that. That’s why everyone wants to hit. So forest completely there, mate. So for like Ben, because he finishes, where does he finish?

He finishes like in the middle of nowhere and then just turns around again, I think I’ll go home [00:43:00] 1 63 highway, 1 63 in monument valley, just over the border in Utah. And then that’s where they survive or, you know, dreamt to finish it. But I didn’t really think that I would have the opportunity to finish there just because, you know, you know, it talks about that.

The kindness of the American people being late, the ginormous in get me across. I think look played as big a role as, as anything, you know, I used to have like, you know, tore my quads and I was, I was walking and making progress two days later, you know like food poisoning. I had the, I was almost on the verge of going to hospital and, and calling it quits and I managed to get away with it.

And then just like so many, like little near misses on the way that that could have, you know, been been I don’t sort of already want to think about and too much, you know I had like a huge 18 Wheeler, [00:44:00] Tennessee Jack knife in front of me and basically came to a stop about 30 foot, you know, sort of away from Anna.

What about absolutely no chance. And so I just stood there and probably looked really cool to the driver as he was screaming. But I didn’t feel cool. Cause that’s sort of interesting because this sort of diet that you must’ve had throughout, was it sort of nut bars and chips? It was basically, so we had donuts chocolate certs, Yvette loads of Dr.

Pepper, because you’ve got to stay in character and then yeah, they still have loads of fast food. I, I had to sort of get, do the fast food read generally just because it was cheap. And and when I was having my breaks, I didn’t want to be like heat noodles of at the side of the road and everything like that.

It would have been like probably cheaper. And again, if it had done that book, it would have just become so [00:45:00] mind numbing. And quite often I would use food as my little, you know, the worm on the end of the fishing pole to sort of make me go a little bit, eh, you know, further that day, let’s say for forget here, I’ll be able to have like this specific burger or, or, you know, A nice, really nice hot dog at this gas station.

Certainly when I was going across Utah there was a bit where there was no services or anything for like 70 miles and a new, there was a gas station and gas station usually always means hot dogs. And I was like, oh, most recent. I was obviously like Miraj is like in the salts. Yeah. And that one had got there that hot dog was suitably priced for somewhere that’s in the middle of nowhere, but I didn’t care.

And for for the end, you were sort of there in Utah with Nadine and the kid. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe get some other people as well. Yeah. Yeah. And [00:46:00] then B, B a S a B E. And yeah, at least we, we named a sort of a, well, I say we named the Dean named when we’re at Idaho and we didn’t know that it was going to be a girl at that point in.

And and so she was actually going to call B leaf as in the sunshine on Leith sung by the proclaim. And it was really quite freaky because I had a day when I was either hoes, like Scotland on steroids, and I was sort of obsessing over the proclaimers and best slates the song comes on and I play it over and over again.

And then I come in and tell him the Dean, and she’s just like, that’s really weird. And I was just like, why is that weird? And she used to start because if we’re having a ball yeah. Wants us to call and belief. And I never even had that as a name, apart from the place before. So yeah, that was my only regret would be, was a girl cause like that it’d been a great backstory, but yeah, [00:47:00] when she told me she was going to call it B I wasn’t openly sure about that to start with, but I love it now.

Good. And as you say was, was a feeling like we it’s sort of slightly underwhelming, you’d sort of been back for so long and then suddenly you had two weeks left, I suppose you probably just wanted to the sort of feeling of wanting just to get it. Not rarely nice to them because it had gone on for so long and sort of, and, and everything was going fairly well at this point.

And so it was like such a ginormous goal. Like I remember they used to, they’re speaking sort of you’ve gone across America before. And they said like, he spent like the first 90% sort of almost like wishing it was over. And then the last 10% desperate to Clore it back, you know, sort of an ad for it not to be over, but it was one of the rare occasions where the climax wasn’t an anticlimax.

I had a good few of them, but [00:48:00] to be honest, I almost every ocean for me, like w w was always nice to have a good one because there was always going to be something else. So it was still, yeah, it was like a mini celebration, but it didn’t have to be like grand like so much. So like sort of. I could equate in Chicago cause it’s like my favorite Mexican city and I’ve always wanted to visit there and I saw got no money sort of, and I’m injured.

So to have, you know, maybe it’d be great to quit here, but then it was always that sort of being in monument valley then surveyed, you know, doing the bit for my team charities, world wildlife fund and piece direct that drove me on and I got to the end and I got to deliver the line. And then I got to turn around and with Nadine sort of being there, it seemed too good a time as any looking at it or did an engagement ring from a little in Brooklyn that had it posted to Flagstaff and it all came together.

So I had a little thing in reserve to make sure that it [00:49:00] didn’t end up in an anticlimax unless you called married life an anticlimax. Yeah. Marry joke. Well, at least you guys say it’s definitely one that you will remember for the rest of your life. That sort of makes. Yeah, it could have been, it could have been there remembered for a different reason if she had just said no, drop this.

Isn’t what I want. Oh gosh, I don’t know. and finished. So I don’t have this memory. Yeah. Well, I just don’t need to get a new pair of Nike Cortez, put them on and then just gone for maybe then it would have done the three years, two months, et cetera. Amazing. And, wow. And so after that you sort of came back.

So this is what year, 2016, eh, that was 2018 then. Yeah. So started in 2016, sort of. That was a, yeah, it was April, 2018. She started to get hot in the desert. When we came back, [00:50:00] we got out at the right time. Give me one sec. I just need to check.

Oh, wow. Well, I mean, it, it’s just the most incredible story and like the most incredible adventure as well. You’ve sort of been up and down. Did you have a particular favorite state? Because you’ve been nor fan self? I can’t comment on the south, but I love the north and they’re very different from what I hear.

Th th they’re different, but similar, you know, like the, the states just, you know, it is a bit crazy that we see the politics there at the moment, but like, It’s unsurprising that there is that sort of argument because even California and Oregon, you know, you’ve got San Francisco and Portland, but then in between it so super, super rural, but you [00:51:00] know, like, I don’t know why that I preferred the remote bits or the built up bits, you know, sort of cause you, you get different stories in all of them, but like I do have a real soft spot for Tennessee because that was the state when I went solo for the first time.

And I didn’t have any expectations of Tennessee apart for the fact that I got told the whole load of packs of stray dogs there that probably Savage me. And I didn’t think Dolly park was going to come out and run any miles would be so so it wasn’t really anticipated any great measure, but that was when I sort of maybe started to get the inkling that things could be all right.

And they, you know, I, there was just like an, almost like a little tidal wave. Of support that happened after I got a really cool news article and, you know, people will shake their hands and it’d be a $20 note in it. And then I’d be like, oh man, I can’t take that. And they’d be like, I think the word you’re looking for is thank you for that.

Fair enough. You know? [00:52:00] And and it’s a really beautiful state, but then, you know, I’m saying Tennessee, and then I’m just thinking, oh God, like of, you know, like Washington was really cool. And then, so his main, and then like, you know, going through like death valley and, and Nevada, I would certainly encourage you.

Haven’t been up north or you definitely need to do a Southern one. And so or I reckon the root of my like first leg would have been really, really cool to, to do on the bike. You know, you don’t even get many Hills, you get to cross the Rockies at the lowest point, you know? Yeah, exactly. I remember cycling up the Rocky.

So there’s actually the Rockies one that difficult to cycle up. Believe it or not. That’s all very gradual. It’s actually the, I suppose, right. The north it’s not too bad. Is it, you know, sort of it’s when a, decided to do the, the really evil bit in the middle of Colorado, I saw that gets smashed by snow as I was going through Wyoming, I was looking to my right.

And that was just [00:53:00] sort of seeing that it’s just that so glad it didn’t go that way. For me, it was, I’d sort of been told because my, at the time, when I went, my American geography was pretty poor and say, they’re like, oh, well, one shore over the Rocky. It’s all down here to the sea. And then you get into like Nevada and then you’ve still got the Sierra Nevada.

It’s the same waste. I’m not even going to share how much it was, but it was horrific cycling up. It was like comfort. I used to have to like stop drag my bike up. And I went up like one of the, like. Oh, in comparison to the others, like the TMS and it was brutal in comparison to the Rockies. Yeah, I did. I didn’t expect that in the bar at all.

And the one thing is it’s less severe for a runner than someone on a bike, especially a loaded bike. So I do feel your pain, retrospective love. [00:54:00] Well, I, I think there were many times where I was on my bike. Do it very glad that I wasn’t running. So it swings and roundabouts down Hills. Yeah. That’s always a joy.

Well, Robbins worst thing for me was having the stroller and like my brake slightly roped. And so I would generally disconnect them. And then I would forget about that when I was going down like a massive hail and then suddenly I’d find out it’d be like doing like sub five minute miles on legs that were not capable of doing sub five minutes.

Oh, well, yeah, it’s just, it’s just an incredible and say probably Tennessee is your favorite was what’s our, a good story other than the M one, but you had to go no, the, the near murder. Well, the, there was one of the actually sort of is probably my favorite story that did didn’t make the book. It was a really [00:55:00] cool town called Cookeville and probably no one’s heard about it, but it’s sort of in between Nashville and Knoxville, it’s where we store Jenny when and the Dean had to go home and I was approaching cook for that day.

I was with Australia and I knew there were like huge storms on the way inside. I ran past this like really like sort of, you know, almost like it wasn’t a shack, but it was a fairly small modest where the board. And there were two little girls like the play and out in the front yards. And so they rushed and got the daddy and said, can we give them an apple and an energy drink?

So they came out, they gave me that they were just really nice. We had the chat. Then I went on and this is a old role in fields, but knew I could feel this storm. And I basically got to the RV place. And my plan originally was to actually just put some stuff into the in, in CRV, take some stuff out that I now knew I needed to be so low and then go and get some food over the road [00:56:00] and then probably stay in like one of the motels there.

And so I went over and tried to get out of this storage yard, but it was a weight activated gate and I couldn’t get out there. And this is just as the heavens absolutely opened. So could see all this fast food. And I was just like, oh my God, I’ve got nothing in Australia. But then I went back to the RV.

And even though there’s no lakes to power, we still have gas. And it was like noodles and stuff that was left over there. So I ended up having this site romantic dinner for one, and that sorts of entity in sorts of would have been involved with. But and then I got a message from from Steve and the dads of these two little girls.

And they were just like, all my girls are really worried about you. They was just like, he does got an umbrella donate, daddy’s got umbrella donate. And that was just like, even at that age, it’s just, you know, the kindness was there. And so I went to sleep that night and sort of you know, in, and in the bands and the RV, like sort of free stay, which is great.

And there wasn’t, it felt like I [00:57:00] wasn’t breaking any rules if I couldn’t get out. And then obviously the pet that was still smells in the Dean’s hat and still Fiat, I was like, Why is this made the book? This is romance too many good stories. That’s the thing, that’s the problem. It’s a, usually so many sort of talk about, well, I think actually, you know, when you say that, like with Tennessee, that’s why that story didn’t get in because lights that the editor was just like, man, I’m doing it.

And just saying, this really nice thing happened, then this really nice thing happened. And this really nice thing happened. You need to have ups and downs, like tendencies, like a rocket ship to Mars. Is this just a story of amazing times? And the unit for every good story has a conflict along the way.

Exactly. And I did get chased by that pack of stray dogs, but they did, they didn’t get, get me never, never the fun has been chased by a bunch of straight Oaks. [00:58:00] Yeah, no, it’s probably even worse when you’re on a bike as well, because if you just haven’t gotten enough speed and then, you know, you run the risk, not only of.

Coming off the bike as well. I was going to say it’s probably worse for you running because it’s, you’re trying to outpace a bunch of dogs. Yeah. But I can just, I would turn around and shout at them. And I, this one actually went for me. I just basically wheeled my stroll around and says the dog like bounced off the side of it.

They just thought, you know, it was quite nice to have that there. And then that, then I could have reached my pepper spray. And if he came again, he was going to get that. But he never did. I think he thought better of it once you show your dominance. Exactly. Well, Rob has been such a pleasure listening to your stories.

There’s a part of the show where we ask the same five questions to each guest each week. With the first being on the trip, what was the one gadget that you always had with you? [00:59:00] Wow. The one gadget and stuff. I was, it would, it would’ve been my MP3 player for sure. And so one of the saddest days on the trip was when it stopped working.

And I looked down to see like what songs should have been on. And it was the Smiths. Heaven knows I’m miserable. Now, if it was, if it wasn’t for music, I think I might’ve actually gone insane. Yeah. I, I always find the music along the way. Always helps because you spend so much time alone with your thoughts and sometimes that’s good.

Sometimes they have a sort of time to sort of run away. And so actually having music sort of listened to also probably speeds up your running. Exactly. I had a rule that basically if AC DC ever came on, I wasn’t allowed to walk. So it would always happen at the most inopportune moment, like at the start of a massive hill, [01:00:00] but you know, sort of it certainly got me going, that’s always a good one.

What is your favorite adventure or travel book? So I, yeah, I thought about this, the one that maybe got me sort of thinking about the sense of the adventure is quite strange one it’s because it basically isn’t about a person’s adventure. It’s about a dog’s adventure. And so be call of the wild by Jack London.

And so it’s the story of like, sort of like a, a dog that is. Almost kidnapped to become a sled dog and then has like, this is a crazy, sort of a traumatic life in the wild. So it’s at north to the edge of a medical Yukon, you know, and it didn’t get that far north, but I did leave San Francisco from a bar called the first.

Which is where Jacqueline actually broke that. But in terms of human adventure, yet the first book [01:01:00] and probably the most sensitive well-read adventure book I’ve got is actually mark Bo monster Maddie cycle, the world. And I, I kicked myself when I met him. That sort of, I didn’t actually take the copy for him to sign because it’s so well thumbed, he would have known that I’ve read it and said it wouldn’t actually really the place to sign it for.

When you were in San Francisco, did you go to a, the Bubba, Bubba shrimp? I did. Yeah, like, so I, I I’ve been to the one in San Francisco, the one in Vegas, the one in New York. Hey, you went all to the Orleans. Yeah. And the one in Biloxi as well. So there’s a, there’s a few more than I have ticked off yet, but.

The good thing was, was a, in a couple of them. I did get free feeds as well. Oh, that’s quite nice. They must have loved your story. Exactly. I’m like cousin, they quite often will have somebody who comes around and we’ll ask you questions on the film while you’re having your dinner and stuff like that.

[01:02:00] There was, there was quite the air, the face off in the new Orleans one where the only one I fell down on was my show key knowledge of the west presidency chronology. So I think that would probably get us all. Yeah, exactly. Well, I think it got forward out five, which is probably more than most. What why are the sort of adventures important to you?

Yeah, I don’t actually think they are and, you know, sort of I enjoyed sorts of the adventure but it was the, the right thing at the right time for me and I am keen to do more things. But generally sort of the adventure, the sorts of, I want to go on isn’t necessarily for me, it’s, if I can do stuff that is good for my charities, then that, then that is great.

You know, step one would be not the thing. I want to be a cog in the thing that [01:03:00] sort of helps. And I am able to do this kind of stuff, like run a long way, and now maybe I’ve got a bit more of a presence. It might even be a bit more sort of, you know, useful for these guys. And so, but I think sort of the, has to be an adventure and every one of us, you know, you don’t necessarily need to spend all your life adventure, but I think everybody would be far richer spiritually, if they did the experience or the ultimate freedom of the, whether it’s the road, the trail, the mountains, the desert, you know, that’s one of the good thing about magic is you can experience sorts of all of it.

There’s also a little bit of a safety net by the fact that it’s so very civilized on the whole, you know, so you don’t necessarily have to go, right. I’m going to do an adventure. What, what, what am I going to do? And then some through, you know, sort of they’re the big Almanack of adventures and go I’ll have that.

Cause usually the adventure will [01:04:00] fund you. You just have to be ready to accept the adventure when it happens. Very nice. Yeah. I think what was I going to say? Remember I had on the tip of my tongue completely forgotten.

What about your favorite motivational or motivational? What is your favorite sort of quite travel motivational quote? I think this probably will be quite appropriate for, for people who travel adventures because remember adventure. Our only adventures if they are adventures, you know? So if you plan something to the nth degree, the adventure aspect is sort of, you know, then, then it becomes a holiday.

You might not think it’s a holiday because you’re really tired doing something. But if nothing’s left to chance, you’re not going to get the same sorts of [01:05:00] excitement. So it’s a quote from my granddad, which is you die. If you worry and you die, if you doubt. So why worry? Very true, worry about the things that you can control rather than things you can’t exactly, you know, and then just get on with it.

Yeah, that’s a, that’s a good one. And finally people listening are always keen to sort of travel and go on these sort of big grand adventures. What’s the one thing you would always recommend for people wanting to get stuff. Stop putting obstacles in the way of your yourself, you know, actually achieving something, you know, sort of, it’s really easy to find excuses and excuses.

Aren’t the, the bad thing that the continually made out to be. But if you find that sort of one of your excuses disappears from view, so invent another one to take it to place. Just like sort of, you know, it’s a bit like sort of, you know, shooting down the ducks in a fairgrounds, you know, [01:06:00] sort of once you’ve shut one off, don’t put another one there, cause you’ll never win the Teddy at the end.

Otherwise that’s pretty good. And finally, what are you doing now and how can sort of people follow you in the future? You’ve got a new book coming out. There it is. Yeah. I don’t know how that got there. Yeah. So yeah, becoming forest is out from all your major bookshops and online and everything like that.

I’m trying to get people to ask their local independence to shop it, to stock it so we can keep the high street alive and all that. And so the book actually comes out on February the eighth in the states and I’m aiming to actually go back out and get myself back to monument valley it stand at that point where sort of I did, or to those famous words and then turn around and keep on going baby to one final lotion.

Ah, very nice. And it’s out in the UK at the moment. It’s [01:07:00] out in the UK. I came out in October and sort of and it’s seems to be getting really well received. And remember it’s, you know, there’s something for everybody and it’s not just a running book. There’s enough for the runners in. But it’s people who are fans of adventure, general American cultures, that’s of, you know, the American people, you know, amazing sorts of travel landscapes.

So very nice photos of that. And of course, if you’re like Forrest Gump, there’s a lot, there’s a lot of forest wisdom in there, which I occasionally hope to share it on their social media as well. So you’re more than welcome to follow me on there. She’s run roadblock, Rob LA. Very nice. Did he take quite a lot of research watching the film over and over again?

Oh, for sure. Yeah, they sort of, especially the, the actual seven minute run and scene, like I’ve probably seen that brilliancy maybe 200 times now, you know, just trying to work out exactly where bits, where if I was doing filming, [01:08:00] you know, so I wants to try and recreate that scene. But you know, I don’t think you can fail.

Just love the film once you’ve actually seen. And you know, in a year when Shawshank and, and pulp fiction, where it’s contenders in the Oscar race for it to have one shows, how good is it would probably be on over Christmas. It always is nice. Very good. Very good film and well for, for people listening and people watching, we’ll put a link to your book in the annual social media, in the description below, say, click on it and have it just in time for best book ever fat.

Have it just in time for Christmas. Oh wow. The timing. Perfect. Well, Rob, it’s been such a pleasure listening to your stories and I cannot thank you enough for coming on today. Thanks so much for having me, mate. It’s been a lot of fun. Well, that is it for today. Thank you so much for watching it. [01:09:00] And I hope you got something out of it.

If you did hit that like button and subscribe, if you haven’t. And I will see you in the next video.