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Recreating the Dumb and Dumber Aspen Road Trip

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PADDY:

Howdy, pals. While you’re listening to this I am at a small cabin in the woods with my family. Hopefully, I’m not so sunburnt I need to apply aloe with a paint roller. That’s right, I am on vacation. Which is why we’re dipping into our archive for this week’s episode. It’s one of my favorite stories I’ve ever reported on because it involves a buncha things I love: friendship, doing objectively fun and simultaneously dumb things with said friends, and 90s pop culture.

Way back in 2021, two motorhead friends were joking around about famous movie road trips. Ya know, those buddy films where a pair of pals set out on the road for an adventure. But there was one cinema-fied road trip that they became obsessed with: a 400-mile minibike sputtering from a cornfield in Nebraska to a little place called Assssspen. Yes, the road [00:01:00] trip from the 1994 classic Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels comedy, Dumb and Dumber. And this obsession transformed into the audacious idea to actually go out and do it. From the minibike to the costumes to the locations, this wasn’t a hilarious 3-minute movie montage. This adventure was a down-to-the-last detail recreation. And when I heard about it, well, I just had to find out about how the hell they pulled it off. And how they had so much fun doing something so very very dumb.

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It’s always just kind of been up there in a pedestal as one of the most ridiculous motorcycle trips of all time. And I remember it was very vaguely, it was like a, oh, it’d be cool to ride a mini bike like they did in Dumb and Dumber

ZACK: at, at the root of this was a genuine curiosity of what it would be like, what, what those characters would have gone through if they had tried to ride this, this clapped out, uh, little death trap for hundreds of miles [00:02:00] across the, the American West.

Yeah. And. And we

PADDY: were pretty sure we knew. That’s Ary Henning and Zach Quartz. And they love motorcycles, like really love motorcycles, like a directs your life and career kind of love. Ary and Zach work at Revzilla, an online motorcycle gear retailer where they write and edit RevZilla’s Magazine, common tread.

They’re also the co-hosts of the Common Tread XP YouTube web series, which is to say Ary and Zach get paid to test and review gear and dream up insane moto adventures. They’re basically professional road trippers, which is absolutely a requirement. If you’re going to recreate arguably the most absurd road trip in movie history, what are some of your favorite trips that you guys have done together?

We

ZACK: got this, uh, Russian sidecar, a Euro old sidecar, and we rode it from Los Angeles up into the Central Valley, California, where it was hotter in the hinges of hell. And we bought this really weird [00:03:00] old two stroke motorcycle that airy fixed up on the spot. And then we rode the, the sidecar and the crazy old

ARI: motorcycle back to Los Angeles.

We rode American V Twins from Casper, Wyoming. Back to Los Angeles. Uh, we road tripped from Mobile, Alabama. Up to Birmingham to race, uh, vintage bikes. We’ve ridden, uh, sort of like vintage sport bike across,

ZACK: uh, Southern Australia.

ARI: We’ve ridden motorcycles all the way down the length of Baja, which is pretty awesome.

Yeah, and we traveled around Thailand via sidecar selling hamburgers. Which is also awesome.

ZACK: We rode from Anchorage on the south coast to, to the northernmost point in the United States, refueling on the fly. So Airie had a airie, built a system on his motorcycle that he, he could pump gas into the gas tank, uh, as he rode.

And I did it sort of top gun style out of the back of a truck. I pumped gas as I rode, which do not try at home. For the record

ARI: that was. Adding fluids to the bike in order to remove fluids from ourselves. We use, uh, Texas catheters.

PADDY: What’s a Texas catheter?

ARI: Uh, is that just a funnel and a tube? No, it’s a little adhesive [00:04:00] attachment and a tube.

ZACK: Yeah, it’s ba it’s basically a condom with a tube that goes out the end of your paint

ARI: leg in our case. Which is brilliant. Which is brilliant for road tripping, I gotta say like,

PADDY: yeah. My God. It’s a lot, it’s

ZACK: a lot harder to go to the bathroom riding a motorcycle than we thought it was going to be. It really was like a psychological challenge, but eventually nature called hard enough.

Yeah, we, we built a, um. A five seater motorcycle. We stretched a motorcycle so that it was 11 feet long and would carry five people, and then we, and then we put pontoons on it and turned it into a motorcycle, which, uh, could have ended pretty

ARI: poorly if we, if we hadn’t, if we hadn’t only been six feet from shore, it might have been a bad situation.

You

PADDY: guys are quickly becoming my heroes right now. This is amazing. If Ary and Zach aren’t your heroes yet, just wait. Because the sheer audacity and stupidity of their greatest adventure will definitely win you over in [00:05:00] the spring of 2021, they set out to recreate the iconic road trip from Dumb and Dumber, the 1994 film starring a not yet super famous Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.

In case you’re one of the sad, unfortunate people who hasn’t seen it, know that it’s become a cult classic. The movie was written and directed by the Farley brothers and is credited for launching their careers.

SFX: You just wanna go to Aspen and find that girl and you need me to drive you there, right? Am I right?

Yeah. Am I right? Am I right? Lord? So sad. A lot. Partner. Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world.

PADDY: Guys, guys, guys, in addition to ridiculous gags and toilet humor, the heart of the film is an epic adventure. The two main characters, Harry and Lloyd travel across the country to return a briefcase loaded with cash they found in an airport to its rightful owner. And because they are [00:06:00] very, very dumb, they have no clue that this money was actually a ransom payment.

But because they are brave and very, very dumb, they end up driving from a cornfield in Nebraska to Aspen, Colorado on a mini bike, which is an incredibly tiny motorcycle powered by a lawnmower size engine. In both Hollywood and real life, this is the kind of odyssey that is only possible if you’re with your best bud.

Ary and Zach have known each other since they were little kids. Both of their fathers race cars all over the US and the boys often accompanied their dads during long road trips to race tracks all across the country.

ARI: When you’re a child at the racetrack and your dad basically gives you lunch money and then says, I don’t wanna see you till four or five o’clock, you’re, you’re pretty self-sufficient.

So when you see other children of your approximate age group, you gravitate toward them. It’s, it’s like when you’re at a dinner

ZACK: party, when you’re a little kid and there’s another kid there that’s your age, you’re like. Well, we’re stuck here together, so I guess you’re my friend now. Yeah, we’re, I mean, we’re friends now.

Um, except for Rie Night [00:07:00] happened consistently, you know, again and again, like multiple times a summer. Um, we would, our dads would take us or we would, you know, we’d ask to go to the races with our dads and then we’d get there and, and a lot of times, you know, like we didn’t have email, we didn’t have any.

Connection. We didn’t, we didn’t talk to each other. We would just like hope, like I remember going to the track and be like, I hope Ari’s there. I don’t know. I don’t have any idea. Yeah,

ARI: I’d ask my dad, I’d be like, do you think Zach and Tim will be there? And he’d be like, yep, they should be. And that was, that was it.

This is adorable. Heartwarming. I just wanna say

ZACK: we, we sometimes, we’ve gone through portions of our life where we spend more time with each other than anyone else. So sometimes, sometimes the relationship does. To take on a strange tenor.

ARI: I mean, we just, we just came back from an 11 day trip where the only time I was away from Zach is when I was in the bathroom.

So, and even then, and, and even then, I was thinking about him

PADDY: today, Ary and Zach live together in a tree fort. They built in the woods and sleep in matching race car bunk beds. Okay, that’s not true, but it feels like it is. What is true is that if any two dummies were going to squeeze onto a mini [00:08:00] bike for a ridiculous 400 mile quest.

It’s them, the amount of

ZACK: skill that you need to do that versus the amount of kind of creating your teeth and getting through it. That ratio was good for us because there are a lot of, uh, movie scenes with motorcycles where it’s like, well, we’d like to test that, but we’re not skilled enough. So

ARI: people, people have now suggested lots of other, uh, movie motorcycle scenes and we’re like, yeah, you don’t understand Jumping a Harley down into the aqueducts of Los Angeles, Allah, Terminator is not really something we’re cut out for.

Yep, exactly. And it just evolved. From there to becoming an obsession. I mean, I think we, we, we thought about it and talked about it for five or six years before we actually got an opportunity to do it. Yeah. And then when we did, we doubled down and made a replica of the bike, wore replica outfits, just tried to figure out what they would’ve done if they’d actually done it.

Uh. Yeah, we went a little, we

PADDY: went a little obsessive on it. That is a massive understatement to open their web series episode, documenting their travels ary, and Zach filmed this perfect shot for shot recreation of [00:09:00] perhaps the most memorable scene in Dumb and Dumber when on an empty road in Nebraska.

Harry explains to Lloyd that he has traded their van for a mini bike.

ARI: I can get 70 miles to the gallon with this hog. Just when I think that you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this

SFX: and totally redeem yourself.

PADDY: Ary and Zach’s love of the film is so over the top that they built an exact replica of the minibike, wore the same clothing.

That the characters wore in the film and painstakingly researched the route Harry and Lloyd would’ve driven. They even made sure to start the trip in early spring, which put them at risk of nasty weather, but again, was true to the movie In Dumb and Dumber. It takes about three minutes of screen time for Harry and Lloyd to put.

Put their way to Aspen. But in real life, Arians Act set off to roll 400 miles of twisting back roads and mountain passes on a single speed vehicle that is roughly the size of a [00:10:00] children’s bicycle with a one gallon gas tank and a pole start motor plus with a two of them on it. The top speed was a blistering 32 miles an hour.

Tell me about the bike, about making it, testing it. Deeming it road

ARI: ready. Um, thankfully living in southern California, the minibike scene is still somewhat vibrant and there’s a couple of companies that are making frames and we did some research and it looks like it’s literally the same frame kit that they use for the movie.

Uh, and like the same wheels, like, I mean, we just tracked it all down online, basically just did a bunch of research.

ZACK: Yeah. Like literally the same stuff. I mean, it’s, it’s been been produced since 1960 or something like that. And it’s almost certainly what they used for the, for the movie bike. And I mean, it wasn’t like we were like, oh, we found something that looks similar.

It was literally identical,

ARI: the obsessive attitude. Extended all the way, like even with paint colors to get the frame right. We got like three different paint colors and we’re comparing them and, uh, the, the turns of electrical tape on the uprights are the same. The reason we [00:11:00] blew through so many tires is ’cause we were insistent on using the same rubber that they used in the movie, which is totally inappropriate, but we stuck to it.

How did you like test it? You know, check the box, like it’s road ready

ZACK: air. He jumped on the frame when he finished welding it and was like, all right, it seems like

ARI: that’s gonna hold. That’s how we test things that we fabricate Patty, we jump in them in the shop and we say. That’ll probably do. Yeah,

ZACK: and I mean, we’ve never had anything break so far, so.

Arie predicted that we would be very excited for about the first 10 minutes of the ride. And then we would, then the, the novelty would wear off Uhhuh and that was accurate as we set off. It was so cold, um, which was not the plan, you know, we thought it was gonna be 60, um, but instead it was 27. And when we first set off, we were kinda like, ah, we’re doing it.

You know, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re finally doing the dumb and dumb road trip. And then sure enough, I mean, five miles down the road, we were just like. Holy crap. I can’t believe that we’re gonna do this for another, you

ARI: know that we’re only one 100th of the way into this trip. Yeah, exactly.

PADDY: Being cold was just the beginning.

As Rie and Zach would quickly learn [00:12:00] following through on an awesomely stupid idea, well, it can hurt. It can hurt like hell. That story after the break.

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MIDROLL

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not surprisingly riding a mini bike belt. Buckle the butt crack with your best pal for 400 miles. Well, that’s a pain in the ass. Literally,

SFX: you all right?

You’ll feel better after a moose burger.

PADDY: Riding that bike looked like what scientists or maybe doctors would call painful as shit. Can you compare it to anything?

ZACK: I mean, if you just set a a two by four between two sawhorses and then said, sit on that longitudinally for 10 hours. And then have it vibrate.

Have it vibrate. Yeah. Don’t forget the vibration. I mean, it was just terrible. It was just really [00:13:00] uncomfortable. Um, yeah, just like

ARI: a lot

ZACK: of,

ARI: lot of vibration and a lot of vibration. It’s, it’s not a, it’s not a comfort machine and it’s one of those things where you’re uncomfortable, but. You, you apply that discomfort over the course of 6, 8, 10 hours and it’s kind of exponential.

And we had a hard time standing up. I remember getting off the bike was the problem.

ZACK: I remember Arie got off and then I sort of slowly stood up and then he looked down and he was like, is that how much seat you’ve had? The whole time. And he, but he, I think he was taking up a little bit more of the seat than he realized.

And because the, because the sissy bar is back there, which of course was important for aesthetic reasons, but he couldn’t scoot back any more than he could. Like he just had, as the room that he had, he was stuck. And so I, the amount of seat that I was left with was just very minimal, just what I had. And it was, I think it was, it was less than maybe even I realized until, until it got

ARI: pointed out to

ZACK: you.

Yeah. And it was like, yeah, just. Brutal. Yeah.

ARI: It’s not, it’s not a, it’s not a means of transportation that I would recommend for covering great distances.

PADDY: In addition to the pain of [00:14:00] riding the mini bike, there was the fact that the thing broke down. A lot

SFX: Aspen or bust

PADDY: ary and Zach only made it 27 miles before their first mechanical issue.

SFX: Ah, oh no. You know, when I was ready for a break anyway,

PADDY: the bike ran rich and got pretty godawful mileage. I

SFX: don’t think we’re getting 70 miles per gallon.

PADDY: Air kept breathing in fumes. It’s so

ARI: obnoxious.

PADDY: Back

ARI: there. I’m starting to get a headache. I can smell it.

PADDY: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not, it’s not pleasant. The bike was held together with nuts and bolts and bungee cords and rubber bands.

This is gonna be a really long trip. The tires were five inch lawnmower tires that wore out super quick.

SFX: Ah.

PADDY: It had sketchy brakes or like non-existent brakes, as in they had to use their feet like Fred Flynns down.

SFX: I’m not prepared to stop.

PADDY: Ah, the drive train deteriorated. I

SFX: think we lost a bolt from under there, so this thing’s flopping around

PADDY: and everything was vibrating so much.

It was actually shimmying off the bike.

SFX: It turns out the whole no suspension thing’s a of a problem,

ZACK: but wait. There’s more. [00:15:00] Ari was recovering from a separated collarbone while we were on this shoot. So the high five that he pulls off in the opening scene,

ARI: uh, took a lot of Advil.

ZACK: Yeah. Spare a thought for his, um, the tendons holding his collarbone onto his shoulder because he was, uh, only a few weeks out from that entry.

Oh, wow. There was a, at one point we were like, oh, what happens if the tire blows? And I was like, I don’t know. Like I don’t. I don’t think it would be that big a problem. Like I think I could wrangle this thing and not tip over. And Ari was like, if I hit the ground with my shoulder in this state, it’s gonna be a seriously

ARI: bad situation.

I had a lot of time just sitting there in the back doing nothing, thinking about all the horrible ways that thing could go sideways into under an 18 wheeler or into a guardrail or off a ditch. And it was just, uh, it was, it was a lot to bear. You

PADDY: guys had a lot of like mishaps on this thing. I. You seem to kind of like handle it though, like super well, how did you guys do

ARI: that?

I mean, we always have what we call dumpster fires along the way of any of these trips, but yeah, you just, uh, you just kind of deal with it

ZACK: as it [00:16:00] comes. I mean, it probably goes back to the road trips we did with our, our dads, our families. I mean, the, uh, that’s an aspect of road tripping period. You, you just sort of have to be ready for that stuff to happen and, and it’s not, uh, easy to be.

Calm or have the instinct to persevere. Uh, I think Aries especially good at, at sort of like being in a situation and being like, well, here are our options. Like, this is what we can do and let’s try the first thing. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll try the second thing. Um, and that’s a, like I said, a good outlook to have with any, with any road trip.

You know, it’s good to, good to think about what might happen and what you need to be prepared, prepared for. And, and oftentimes, uh, you know, the best stories

PADDY: come out of. When things go wrong, calling upon the road trip. Lessons learned in their youth allowed Ary and Zach to withstand the mini bike beatdown and breakdowns, but the boost of inspiration that you need to get through an uncomfortable saga, those came from the folks they encountered on the road.

Folks who love [00:17:00] Dumb and Dumber just as much as they do.

ZACK: Within the first a hundred miles probably. This truck passed us towing a trailer full of horses. Uh, and it was a crew cab truck and the rear passenger side window was rolled down and the, there was a guy kind of like dangling halfway outta the window.

And as they went by, we were going 30 and they were going 60. And as they went by, we could just hear the guy yelling, dumb and dumber. And then we got over a rise in the a crest in the road maybe. I don’t know, five miles later and the truck was pulled over and our assumption was that, oh, this is where they’re taking the horses to this pasture that’s off on the right, this endless pasture.

Uh, and then we saw the guy like jump outta the back and pull out his phone and he just like, they literally pulled this truck and trailer over.

ARI: He’s like pumping his fist in the air. Yeah.

ZACK: And he’s recording on his phone and like as we go by, he’s like screaming. He’s like,

ARI: yes. Oh yes.

ZACK: And I think that was like the, the first of many interactions we

PADDY: had.

Yeah. As it turns out, that was the first of many ary, and Zach met tons of diehard fans of Dumb and Dumber on the [00:18:00] road, many of whom had what seemed to be an uncontrollable reflex to quote one-liners from the film when they spotted two guys on a minibike at times. This came from the most unexpected source, probably the best was

ZACK: the police that In Walden.

ARI: Yeah. Yeah, in Walden. That’s right. We were out there in the morning and we were kind of shooting some shots, uh, before we departed. Some establishing shots and the police showed up. Uh, and you know, they were, they were polite, but they were like, Hey, you can’t, we got a call in that someone’s riding like a mini bike on, on Main Street, like, you can’t ride this thing here.

And our director was like, oh, no, officer. Like it’s, it’s uh, it’s street legal. And he, he walks over and looks at the license plate and just kind of takes a pause and looks back at us. And he is like. Where are you guys headed? And one of us said, Aspen, and he took another long pause and then he is like, where the beer flows, like wine.

No way. Yeah. But like after that, the cops were just like shooting off quotes

ZACK: left and right. There were a handful of moments like that where people were just, um, stoked on it and, uh, ostensibly excited about what we we’re doing.

PADDY: For sure. Cheerleaders along the way.

ZACK: Yeah. Yeah.

PADDY: And yet, amazingly Arian [00:19:00] Zach.

Were not given the heroes welcome in Aspen that they most definitely deserved. You guys are pretty damn excited when you make it to Aspen.

SFX: Woohoo. We made it to Aspen.

PADDY: But then you pull into the center of town and there’s like, there’s no band, there’s no parade. There’s no like celebratory festival.

There’s no one there to like greet you with the congrats. No movie magic here folks. What were you feeling and thinking when you got to Aspen? Thank God it’s over.

ZACK: We got to downtown Aspen and no one would even look at us and probably because we looked like hot garbage, like we were covered in road grime and we were like cold and windburned.

Yeah, just beat up brutal. I mean, we looked terrible

ARI: and dumb And Dumber is like a, a smear on Aspen’s record that I’m sure it would prefer. Was forgotten. So when people saw us, I’m sure they immediately knew what we were doing. They’re like, God dammit, these jerks, like [00:20:00] ruining, ruining the, the real estate here, ruining the vibe.

One couple walked

ZACK: by sort of, you know, tall, lean, good looking couple that you’d expect to see in Aspen and the, the guy was. Sort of like looking like, sort of looked over at us and was kinda like, he seemed curious and I, I I, I could sense this energy from his, his girlfriend or his wife, or who, the woman he was with, being like, don’t, don’t, don’t look at them.

Just come, come follow me. We’re walking, we’re walk. We’re not stopping. They’re gonna ask us for money. Attention. Yeah, exactly. There’s no, like, there’s no celebration. Nobody cares that you’ve struggled through this motorcycle journey or, uh, you know what, it’s taken you to get there. And, and I think that that’s the case with almost every.

Road trip, right? Like you, you get to this place, everyone’s just living their life and you have to kind of take

PADDY: in that moment yourself. The trip was over, but the guys now had a story to tell. When they did talent, they got a reaction that was beyond their wildest dreams. The 30 minute video of their adventure exploded in popularity On the common Tread XP [00:21:00] YouTube channel garnering 1.5 million views, along with a pile up of giggle induced compliments.

And here’s the truly crazy part. The video also caught the attention of dumb and dumber writer directors, the Fairley Brothers. Ari and Zach received an email saying that Peter and Bobby Fairley wanted to schedule a Zoom call with them. Them and Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, they had a lot

ARI: of questions.

They were very curious and, and, uh, really, yeah.

SFX: Yeah.

ARI: Um, and also, you know, complimentary. They, they seemed to enjoy it enough to, to actually reach out to us, which I, I find still, I find amazing that they all took the time out of what is presumably very busy schedules to, to get together and basically just hang out with us for half an hour.

It was remarkable. Um, it, it was, yeah. I think we were all kind of smiling painfully hard and. I know that when I was done with the meeting, my wife asked me why my face and neck were so red. So like, clearly, clearly there were some, uh, bodily reactions going on that I couldn’t quite control ’cause I was so excited.[00:22:00]

ZACK: Yeah, I mean, I laughed so hard watching that movie and, and I watched it so many times and I enjoyed it every single time I watched it. And so the idea that we could create something. With a, a few thousand bucks and a and, and a week of our time, uh, that would make them smile and would make them laugh and would make them shake their head, uh, in appreciation.

Uh, was just like, uh, it, this is like a, a, an unbelievable and, and incalculable amount of. Of, uh, reward for us. It was just

ARI: so, so cool. Initially, we were concerned that, um, that that Bobby’s assistant was reaching out to us, uh, because we were infringing on copyrights and that we might be getting a, a cease and desist order or getting sued, but it was quite the opposite.

ZACK: It was cool that they appreciated it as an homage to their art. You know, like they, they, they worked hard on this thing that they did, and, and they understood that the reason that we did it was that we love it too. And it wasn’t like, oh, you guys are trying to ride our coattails, or you’re trying to kind of like.

Take some slice of our pie. They were just, they were so [00:23:00] genuine and, and, uh, and it seemed like they really enjoyed the opportunity to reminisce a little bit about filming the movie because for them it was such a seminal piece of their career. And it was gonna, before Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels were super famous, so they, they, they could be more casual than, than, than Jim Carrey ever could in any shoot after that.

And, and it was sort of their, I think it was their directorial debut. Um, so it just, there there’s just so, so much stuff that was meaningful to them. And, and it was fun to hear them talk about it in such a fond way.

ARI: Did they ask you about the mini bike? Yeah, actually they did. Jim Carrey, uh, expressed an interest in riding it, and then I think he expressed an interest in owning it.

What did you say? I, I basically, by all means, like I was told him where we

PADDY: were. I was like, come on down, take it for a spin. Yeah. Chatting with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and the Fairley Brothers is a pretty great trophy to set in your road trip award case. But for Ary and Zach, the journey had a deeper meaning.

They had set out to do something that seemed almost impossible and humongously dumb, and to see if they could still [00:24:00] laugh when it totally sucked. By all measures, they pulled it off. First of

ZACK: all, it was an idiotic mission, and second of all, we were in more pain than we normally are on a road trip. But we, we did have fun.

I mean, our shoots are, um, pretty punishing from a, from a logistical and, uh, and hours a week kind of, uh, standpoint. But, um,

PADDY: I was super excited about it. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. At first it’s almost like. Oh my God, what a smart idea. Second. Oh my God, what a stupid idea.

ARI: But I don’t think there’s anything that just like eclipses it in terms of.

Stupidity. Stupidity isn’t easy, man. It takes, you gotta work at it. It’s a good recipe for us. Yeah. Yeah. It’s

ZACK: been working so far.

PADDY: Are you guys gonna take the bike on any more road trips or is it like, no. Fuck. Goodness.

ZACK: No. Jesus. No.

ARI: Are you kidding me? What are you high? Oh, we, we wanted to just like ghost ride it off a cliff and Aspen and walk away.

SFX: I can’t believe we’re really doing this on a mini bike from [00:25:00] Nebraska.

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PADDYO OUTRO

This episode originally aired in 2021. Zack Courts and Ari Henning are still friends who are still very much obsessed with road trips and motorized everything, and still making videos and hilarious, thought provoking media for Revzilla. You can watch their Dumb And Dumber road trip recreation on RevZilla’s YouTube page. It is amazing. And unsurprisingly, it’s my favorite episode of their highly popular Common Tread XP webseries.

And sidenote: You lovely listeners, we want to hear from you. Send us your guest nominations, show reactions, podcast thoughts, maybe even your favorite joke, or your nana’s sketty sauce recipe via email to Outside Podcast At Outside Inc Dot Com. We make this show, but it is your show. And we aim to please you and your ear holes.

The Outside Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Paddy O’Connell. But you can call me PaddyO. [00:26:00] The show is also produced by the storytelling wizard, Micah “my wife tells me that yelling while complimenting negates the compliment” Abrams. Music and Sound Design by Robbie Carver. And booking and research by Maren Larsen.

The Outside Podcast is made possible by our Outside Plus members. Learn about all the extra rad benefits and become a member yourself at Outside Online Dot Com Slash Pod Plus.



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Travel Journals

Stunning 191-mile UK road trip filled with seaside towns and golden beaches

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Complete with winding coastal roads, vast sandy beaches, quaint fishing villages and captivating castle ruins, this incredible route shows off the very best of Britain’s natural beauty

With reports revealing 71 per cent of Gen Z plan to visit viral travel hotspots, a travel expert has opened up about their favourite UK road trips(Image: Tony Atkin/Geograph)

A captivating coastal road trip tracing the north coast of Cornwall and Devon has been named among the UK’s most sensational driving routes by a travel expert.

Insights manager at Away Resorts, Dan Doherty, crowned the the Atlantic Highway as the fourth-most scenic summer drive the UK has to offer. With reports revealing that 71 per cent of Gen Z plan to visit viral travel hotspots, Dan has compiled a list of five unforgettable drives.

For anyone yearning to explore the UK’s coastline this summer, the Atlantic Highway promises an unforgettable adventure. The 191-mile stretch, officially known as the A39, stands out for its intoxicating blend of sea views, charming coastal towns and rolling Cornish countryside. It comes after beachgoers are left stunned after rare sea creature spotted off British coast.

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The Atlantic Highway passes through the charming fishing village of Port Isaac(Image: Western Morning News)

Dan said: “Running along the north coast of Cornwall and into Devon, the Atlantic Highway, A39, offers a blend of sea views, historic towns, and rolling countryside. Stretching from Barnstaple to Newquay, this scenic route passes dramatic cliffs, golden beaches, and surf towns like Bude and Padstow.

“The road offers glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean at various points, especially between Tintagel and Port Isaac, both steeped in legend and local charm. It’s an ideal drive for summer months, with plenty of stop-offs for icecreams and coastal walks.”

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Traveling along the A39, drivers journey through a tapestry of breathtaking landscapes and quaint seaside villages, each offering its own unique allure. The route sweeps past pretty fishing villages like Boscastle and the vibrant culinary hotspot of Padstow, famous for its charming harbour and spectacular seafood.

Each of these coastal gems is perfect for leisurely strolls, sampling local treats and soaking in the captivating views. The final destination, Newquay, is the surf capital of Cornwall, boasting vast golden beaches that make it a favourite for families and thrill-seekers alike.

The Atlantic Highway passes close by the ruins of Tintagel Castle — the perfect place for a pit stop(Image: Getty Images)

Travel expert Dan’s top five most scenic UK drives are as follows:

  1. North Coast 500, Scotland
  2. Cheddar Gorge, Somerset
  3. The Lake District’s Kirkstone Pass, Cumbria
  4. Atlantic Highway, Cornwall and Devon
  5. Snake Pass, Peak District

Dan added: “With the rise of staycations and a growing appetite for more flexible, weather-proof travel options, road trips provide the perfect way to explore at your own pace. Whether you have a day or a week to spare, scenic road trips are the perfect way to explore the UK’s natural beauty.

“From spontaneous detours to peaceful viewpoints, travelling by car lets you enjoy the journey without the stress of crowds or fixed schedules. These routes offer the freedom to roam with the comfort of staying close to home, making them ideal for a relaxed and memorable summer escape.”

So whether you yearn to explore ancient castles, fancy fish and chips in picturesque harbours, or simply wish to savour the sparkle of sunlight on the waves while you cruise the coastline, the Atlantic Highway delivers a sensational summer road trip showing off the timeless beauty of Britain’s shores.

Do you have a story to share? Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk for a chance to be featured.



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Silver-haired travelers blaze trails with epic trips – Travel

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A couple about to set off on a road trip in their SUV in Jinhu county, Huai”an, Jiangsu province, as part of a self-drive event featuring more than 100 vehicles. Organizers announced self-driving routes, recommended sites and convenient driver-friendly infrastructure at the activity. [Photo provided to China Daily]

It’s lunchtime. Liu Zhen and her travel buddies pull over at a highway rest stop in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Using an induction cooker powered by a new energy vehicle, they heat up a pot and cook a simple yet nutritious meal — rice mixed with vegetables and salted meat — to ease the exhaustion from the long journey.

For this group of six, mostly in their 60s, this is just another day of their adventurous road trip across western China. A month ago, the three couples set off from their hometown in Southwest China’s Chongqing in three SUVs. Since then, they have driven over 7,000 kilometers to Xinjiang, passing through the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu.

“The most stunning scenery is always the kind you encounter unexpectedly,” Liu says. “The highlight of this trip for me is when we catch sight of some beautiful landscapes from the car window. We stop, hop out, and enjoy the view.”

Among all the scenic spots they encountered, one in particular left the deepest impression on Liu — the sight of horses galloping through a river in a wetland park in Zhaosu county, part of northern Xinjiang’s Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture.

“It was breathtaking, and we took lots of great photos,” Liu says. One of her greatest pleasures on the trip has been sharing those photos online.

Their entire journey revolves around their vehicles, which are equipped with portable water boilers. They refill at highway rest stops and prepare meals on the induction stove using ingredients bought along the way. When night falls, they transform their SUVs into cozy bedrooms by folding down the back seats and laying out a soft mattress.

“This way of traveling may be a bit tough, but it is economical and offers much flexibility and freedom. You travel as long as you want,” Liu says.

She adds that Xinjiang’s well-developed highway network and driver-friendly infrastructure have made the trip much easier. “The roads are wide and smooth and easy to navigate, and self-driving camps are easy to find. Plus, the well-equipped rest stops enable us to refresh and recharge,” she adds.

Silver-haired travelers are becoming a growing force in China’s tourism industry. According to data from the China National Committee on Aging, seniors now make up over 20 percent of the country’s total tourist population.

Many retirees are embracing self-driving tours as a rising trend. According to zuzuche.com, a Guangzhou-based self-driving tour platform, during this year’s five-day May Day holiday, the number of outbound self-driving tourists aged 60 and above increased by 6.5 percent year-on-year. The number of senior tourists choosing domestic road trips grew by 27 percent.

Liu and her companions are all members of a self-driving club in Chongqing, which organizes group trips. Among the over 400 club members, most are seniors.

For Liu’s friend Tu Jianping, road trips are nothing new. Over the years, her SUV has taken her to explore the plateaus of western Sichuan and traverse the border regions of Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Heilongjiang province. Next year, she and her husband plan to tackle the high altitudes of Xizang autonomous region.

“The children have to go to school. The young people have to work. For us retirees, we have savings and plenty of time on our hands; and this is our time to enjoy life,” she says.

By the end of 2024, China’s population aged 60 and above exceeded 310 million. As living standards and health improve, the country’s growing elderly population is driving a booming consumer market.

According to a plan on special initiatives to increase consumption, released earlier this year, China will develop industries such as antiaging and senior tourism to unleash the potential of the silver-haired consumer market.

Tu also keeps a habit of documenting her daily travel experiences and sharing them on WeChat Moments.

In one post, she describes driving along a section of National Highway 216, which runs through extreme terrain, including deserts and high plateaus: “Outside the car window, visibility is extremely low. The swirling sands seem alive, at times gathering into towering dunes, at others dissolving into a haze of dust and fog. My heart is clenched tight, my palms grow damp.

“The road ahead is but a slender thread, leading us into a 600-km stretch where the altitude soars beyond 5,000 meters. Our drivers’ eyes gleam with the thrill of adventure, but my heart remains as restless as the howling wind outside.”

For Tu, writing down her daily reflections isn’t just about sharing with family and friends — it’s a gift to her future self.

“I want to preserve these memories in words,” she says. “So that when I’m too old to move, I can still travel through them, reliving every moment as I read.”



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Discover farm-fresh local foods during Savour the Field!

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This post is sponsored by the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network. Cover photo courtesy of Ferme Butte & Bine.

An event coming up later this month will be a wonderful opportunity to meet farmers, buy local foods direct from producers and enjoy a scenic country drive—all within a 90-minute drive of Ottawa. (Most spots are much closer!)

Savour the Field has almost doubled in size this year, with 28 producers participating. “Savour the Field is more than a food event—it’s a regional hyper-local movement,” says Eric Collard, executive director of the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network (EOAN), which is organizing the event.

Photo courtesy of Les Fruits du Porier Permaculture Farm.

Savour the Field has two parts. On Friday, August 22, and Saturday, August 23, you can visit farms, food producers and artisans east and south of Ottawa. The locations stretch from Navan (right within the Ottawa city limits) to Bainsville, not far from the St. Lawrence River and the Ontario–Quebec border. Along the way, you’ll travel quiet backroads past pretty farms and green fields in Prescott-Russell, Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry and beyond.

And on Sunday, August 24, there’s a special farm-to-table meal—more details on that later in this post.

Visit farms, beverage makers, artisans and shops

All of the Savour the Field participants will be opening their doors to visitors from 9am to 5am on Saturday, August 23. Use the event’s AI-powered itinerary builder to plan a route reflecting your tastes and interests, then drive yourself from site to site at a leisurely pace. Some spots will also be open on Friday, August 22; the Savour the Field website will have information on those closer to the event day.

Depending on the location, you’ll have the chance to meet farmers and makers, sample local foods, and enjoy unique experiences during your self-guided visit. Here are just a few of the places, producers and products you can discover. (Check the event website for the full list, including addresses!)

Photo courtesy of Flora Kitchenette.
  • Fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry products and more—including apples, berries, duck, sausages, honey, cheese and flowers—will be available fresh from local farms and producers.
  • At Flora Kitchenette in St-Eugène, chef Bee makes gorgeous dishes garnished with edible flowers. And at Martine’s Kitchen, French-Canadian-Indigenous fusion fare is available.
  • Did you know that pizza grows on farms? Well, pizzas don’t actually grow on trees—but at Fraser Creek Pizza Farm in Summerstown, they make wood-fired pizzas from homemade dough topped with ingredients from their farm and nearby fields.
  • St-Albert Cheese is famous for its cheese curds, but you’ll also find a restaurant and a big boutique stocked with local products at its headquarters in St-Albert.
  • At Garden Path Homemade Soap in Vankleek Hill and Les Jardins Écologistes Grégoire in St-Albert, you can buy all-natural body-care products.
  • Local beverages are available at Brauwerk Hoffman in Rockland, Broken Stick Brewing Company in Hammond, Vankleek Hill Vineyard in Vankleek Hill and Vignoble Clos du Vully in Navan.
  • If you get hungry while travelling from place to place—and who wouldn’t?—you’ll have lots of chances to buy snacks and meals, including coffee, bakery treats, smoothies and more.
Photo courtesy of Fraser Creek Pizza Farm.

Enjoy a field-to-table meal in the great outdoors

But that’s not the end of the local food adventures you can have during Savour the Field! On Sunday, August 24, organice Springfield Farm in Apple Hill will be hosting a Savour the Field Meal. Guests will enjoy an an Indigenous farm-to-table meal outdoors, created by Chef Jonathan Lazore from Akwesasne.

The star dishes of the meal will be traditional meat and cornbread, accompanied by Indigenous refreshments. Everything will be made with ingredients from nearby producers. It doesn’t get much fresher than that! Musician Alanna Sterling will be providing live entertainment, and there will be fun activities for children, too.

Photo courtesy of Springfield Farm.

“I’m very excited about the Sunday farm-to-table meal!” says Sylviane Dutrisac, president of the EOAN and owner of Ferme Butte & Bine. “Grab your friends and go discover all the bounty Eastern Ontario has to offer.”

The Sunday meal is a once-a-year opportunity, so you might want to snap up tickets quickly if you’re interested.

For more information

You can learn much more about everything happening from August 22 to 24 on the Savour the Field website.

Looking for more tips on things to see and do in and around Ottawa? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.



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