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Speaker 1: Welcome to this country Life.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trot

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Speaker 2: lining and just in general country living. I want you

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Speaker 2: to stay a while as I share my experiences in

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Speaker 2: life lessons. This Country Life is presented by Case Knives

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Speaker 2: from the store More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network,

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Speaker 2: bringing you the best outdoor podcast that airways have to offer.

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Speaker 2: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate.

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Speaker 2: I've got some stores to share. Gravel roads and treasure.

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Speaker 2: The gravel road was the first step toward anything. It

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Speaker 2: was our connection to everything we did outside of life

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Speaker 2: on the farm. The back door and the front door

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Speaker 2: were symbolic of how you traversed the planet. Out Back

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Speaker 2: always meant one step at a time, either by me

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Speaker 2: or a horse.

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Speaker 1: Front door was the same.

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Speaker 2: Except you could also add a vehicle or tractor to

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Speaker 2: the short list of conveyances. I'm going to give you

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Speaker 2: my thoughts on what they've meant to me, But first

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Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you a story.

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Speaker 1: It was late and my curfew was looting.

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Speaker 2: I'd been running around town with a bunch of my friends,

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Speaker 2: circling the Sonic Drive in on the south end of town,

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Speaker 2: turning left on Main Street, negotiating a traffic light and

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Speaker 2: two stop signs that would have me on the north

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Speaker 2: end of Maine, where the Kroger parking lot would serve

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Speaker 2: as either a rally point to stop and visit with

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Speaker 2: my friends, or the turning point where we'd reverse our

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Speaker 2: drive and do it all over again, a mile and

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Speaker 2: a quarter round trip of driving through town, hanking the

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Speaker 2: horn and our friends as they passed in a seemingly

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Speaker 2: endless parade. A teenager mostly in their parents barred cars

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Speaker 2: and trucks. It was the Saturday night ritual of growing

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Speaker 2: up and going to school in war in Arkansas. I

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Speaker 2: have no idea if it's still the same, but one

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Speaker 2: can hope that there's something of a similar innocence taking

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Speaker 2: place now. Occasionally we'd meet uptown, make a plan, and

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Speaker 2: then convoy or rendezvous down a dusty or muddy timber

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Speaker 2: company road to a predetermined destination where firewood brought from

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Speaker 2: someone's home or wooden pallets that had been liberated from

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Speaker 2: behind the farmer's co op would be set a blade

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Speaker 2: guked at till such time we ran out of fuel

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Speaker 2: for the fire, or the attendees had to start making

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Speaker 2: their way towards home to beat the inevitable curfew that

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Speaker 2: to folks like me weren't a mere suggestion.

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Speaker 1: There was no be home around.

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Speaker 2: An appointed time at my house, a luxury some of

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Speaker 2: my fell sophisticates enjoyed. I blamed my older brother Tim

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Speaker 2: for his laxadaisical approach to life and the curfew clock

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Speaker 2: that filtered down to the rest of us. Had he

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Speaker 2: set an alternate precedent eight years earlier, I may not

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Speaker 2: have had to watch the ticket of the clock so

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Speaker 2: stringently myself. But that's probably an unfair accusation thrown toward

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Speaker 2: my older brother. After all, I was the one who displayed,

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Speaker 2: on more than one occasion my utter contempt for authority

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Speaker 2: outside of my own.

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Speaker 1: Starting about the time I skipped school in the.

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Speaker 2: Sixth grade and hopped the liberty train to the other

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Speaker 2: side of town for a death thumbing my nose at

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Speaker 2: the man or, more accurately, West Side Elementary School and

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Speaker 2: my mama, both entities who for some reason didn't trust

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Speaker 2: me to be at any appointed places delegated by whomever

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Speaker 2: happened to be in charge of my health and welfare

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Speaker 2: at any.

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Speaker 1: Given moment on my own. Now I knew better than

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Speaker 1: any of.

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Speaker 2: My sole purpose in life was and is to have fun,

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Speaker 2: regardless of the location or circumstances of my presence at

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Speaker 2: any particular event or place. This is still how I

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Speaker 2: naturally try to operate and the reason my wife has

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Speaker 2: learned the unique ability to roll her eyeballs around her

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Speaker 2: head so fast that it makes me dizzy. It has

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Speaker 2: been my plan every day of my life that as

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Speaker 2: soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning,

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Speaker 2: my schedule is which every way the wind blows, not

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Speaker 2: in Not In my professional life, obviously, I had deadlines

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Speaker 2: and appointments, court training, shifts, to cover folks, to supervise

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Speaker 2: all the mandated things we all have to endure. But

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Speaker 2: the rest of it, to be honest, has more or

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Speaker 2: less been by the seat of my breeches.

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Speaker 1: Alexis what you want to go on a trip for

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Speaker 1: a few days?

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Speaker 2: Sure? When do you want to go? I don't know.

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Speaker 2: We could leave this afternoon. Are you crazy? I can't

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Speaker 2: leave today to go out of town for a few days.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, how about tomorrow?

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Speaker 1: Then, Brent?

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Speaker 2: Are you drunk? What about Bailey? Well she can go

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Speaker 2: with us, she has school, you idiot?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well, she's smart. She can afford to miss

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Speaker 1: some that's huge. The one that I roll, the thing

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Speaker 1: would hit its peak.

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Speaker 2: I swear I've seen them spend so fast that something

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Speaker 2: I've said.

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Speaker 1: That you could light a kitchen match off of.

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Speaker 2: I say all of that to set the foundation of

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Speaker 2: how that all ties into me telling the story about curfews,

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Speaker 2: a gravel road, my whimsy called out look ONLD life,

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Speaker 2: and a constant issue of living on the razor's edge

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Speaker 2: between freedom and absolute lockdown. I spent a little too

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Speaker 2: much time at the fire with the rest of my

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Speaker 2: associates and was cutting the time close when I finally

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Speaker 2: drug up and bid farewell to my fellow brothers and

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Speaker 2: sisters of the Saturday night fire. Fortunately, the fire was

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Speaker 2: at a dead end timber company rode only a few

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Speaker 2: miles from my house. I knew exactly how long it

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Speaker 2: was going to take me to get there, and if

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Speaker 2: I was one second early, it was as good as

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Speaker 2: being home an hour before curfew. However, if I was

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Speaker 2: one second late, I might as well have been a

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Speaker 2: wall from the service. There would be consequences and repercussions.

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Speaker 2: As I slid into the driver's seat of my truck,

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Speaker 2: the truck I'd bought with money made from haul and

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Speaker 2: hay trapping and working at the sailbarn. I calculated how

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Speaker 2: much time I needed to make up to roll into

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Speaker 2: the driveway, with a modicum of time to spare at

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Speaker 2: my watches, I started my truck.

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Speaker 1: I suddenly had.

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Speaker 2: A feeling of impending doom and maybe a little regret

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Speaker 2: for not leaving a couple minutes earlier than what I

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Speaker 2: had had. I really needed to stay those extra few minutes.

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Speaker 2: What would I have lost or missed out on by

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Speaker 2: going wheels up a little sooner. Nothing, not one thing.

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't have missed anything, But how.

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Speaker 1: Would I have known if I hadn't stayed.

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Speaker 2: I pulled out onto the highway with little fanfare and

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Speaker 2: made tracks toward the Hoss end, working math in my head,

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Speaker 2: still driving safely. I felt confident, bar in any type

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Speaker 2: of calamity, that I'd be crossing the threshold of the

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Speaker 2: kitchen right on time. It was almost like I hadn't

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Speaker 2: paid attention to the sixteen previous years of calamity that

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Speaker 2: had befallowed me right up to that moment in my

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Speaker 2: short existence.

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Speaker 1: Had I not been paying attention?

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Speaker 2: No, No, I had not like me, who mostly lived

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Speaker 2: for the here and now, can find themselves in situations

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Speaker 2: just like this, and I happened to be a highly

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Speaker 2: decorated veteran of it. Glancing at my watch, I could

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Speaker 2: see that I was ahead of schedule. I'd apparently aired

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Speaker 2: on the side of caution, and I was going to

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Speaker 2: have plenty of time, maybe even a minute or more

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Speaker 2: to spare. Dang, I could have stayed at the fire longer.

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Speaker 2: I turned onto the highway, onto the Gravel County Road

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Speaker 2: that would carry me the last mile and three quarters

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Speaker 2: to my sanctuary before the clock struck. Times up and

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Speaker 2: my coach turned not into a punk and pull by mice,

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Speaker 2: but more like a light blue, short wheel based Chevrolet.

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Speaker 2: I would be watching sitting in the yard as I

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Speaker 2: boarded the school bus with the rest of the unfortunate

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Speaker 2: souls who had to experience that big yellow chicken house

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Speaker 2: on wheels too and from school. But that wouldn't be

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Speaker 2: my eight for fortune favors the bold and I had

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Speaker 2: boldly gone where I had gone many times before, right

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Speaker 2: up to the edge of the cliff, and lived to

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Speaker 2: tell about it. This was shaving up to be one

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Speaker 2: more chapter in my semi charmed life right up to

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Speaker 2: when it wasn't a door. Deer hopped out of the

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Speaker 2: woods and loped along the road right in front of me.

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Speaker 2: It was like she just appeared in the road, and

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Speaker 2: I never had time to touch the brakes. Fortunately I

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Speaker 2: didn't have to. I wasn't going that fast and she

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Speaker 2: was easily maintaining her lead. As we both cruised down

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Speaker 2: that road toward home. I looked down at my spedometer

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Speaker 2: and that guy wasn't even trying, and she was doing

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Speaker 2: twenty miles an hour. I'd always wondered how fast the

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Speaker 2: deer could run, so I took the opportunity i'd surprisingly

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Speaker 2: been afforded and applied pressure to the foot feed and

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Speaker 2: started incrementally speeding up. She matched my speed perfectly and

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Speaker 2: was kicking rocks on the hood of my truck as

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Speaker 2: we both passed thirty. She was like a deer colored

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Speaker 2: missile as she tracked down the left hand road of

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Speaker 2: the gravel road, flinging rocks on the windshield and over

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Speaker 2: the cap of the truck. Woods roping on the left

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Speaker 2: side of the road, and to the right was acres

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Speaker 2: of cut sewer beans. There was no ditch on either side.

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Speaker 2: At any point she could have turned her wheels in

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Speaker 2: easy direction and smoothly transitions from the gravel to the

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Speaker 2: woods or grass. I'd already started slowing down, and it

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Speaker 2: only followed her for about half the time. It took

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Speaker 2: me to describe what was happening when she hung the

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Speaker 2: hard left and sent her punched the roadside dumps to

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Speaker 2: the County had recently placed there to terminate with extreme

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Speaker 2: prejudice any deer speed tests. Apparently it sounded like when

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Speaker 2: Granny gave Jeth throw that old kabong on the knogging

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Speaker 2: with her skillet. You could have heard it on the moon.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, I gotta get home, and I think I'm

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Speaker 2: going to have about a minute to spare. I tooled

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Speaker 2: on toward the house, and my amusement at hearing that

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Speaker 2: cartoon like noise that deer made when it slammed into

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Speaker 2: the dumpster actually registered on me. Well, I didn't intend

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Speaker 2: for that deer to get injured. It was more or

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Speaker 2: less by my hand that she ran into the dumpster.

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Speaker 2: What if she was suffering, That's what I thought about,

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Speaker 2: and that's what made me stop, turn around, go back

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Speaker 2: and check, knowing I was gonna be late. The road

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Speaker 2: was so narrow I couldn't just whoop around in the road.

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Speaker 2: I either had to do a fourteen point turnaround or

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Speaker 2: jet on down to the next driveway and come back.

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Speaker 2: Both would take about the same time. So I drove

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Speaker 2: an extra half mile, turned around, quickly pade my way back.

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Speaker 2: No dear sin, I went to the blacktop. I turned

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Speaker 2: around and headed back toward the house. Maybe she was

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Speaker 2: all right. As I passed the dumpster, I saw a

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Speaker 2: why belly lying behind it. As I got closer, I

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Speaker 2: stopped in the middle of the road, angled my lights

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Speaker 2: towards where she was at, and jumped out to check

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Speaker 2: on her. She was dead as a disco. I looked

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Speaker 2: at my watch. There was no way I was going

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Speaker 2: to make it home in time now, so I feel

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Speaker 2: dressed her and I loaded her up in the bed

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Speaker 2: of the truck so she didn't go to waste when

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Speaker 2: I drove home. Now, if Mama wasn't up waiting on me,

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Speaker 2: I could slip in the door, jump into bed, and

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Speaker 2: clean that deer in the morning. It was plenty cool

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Speaker 2: for her to keep until then. But Mama was waiting

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Speaker 2: up on me. I was late less than ten minutes late,

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Speaker 2: but late just the same. She listened to my story

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Speaker 2: and even looked at the deer in the back of

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Speaker 2: the truck and said she was proud of me for

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Speaker 2: going back and getting her and not letting her go

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Speaker 2: to waste. It's good. It's a good thing. She also

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Speaker 2: said she needed my truck keys. I should have left

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Speaker 2: for home earlier, and the bus runs at seven point

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Speaker 2: fifteen am on Monday. Rules or rules for a reason,

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Speaker 2: and that's just how that happened.

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Speaker 1: I know why roads get paved.

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Speaker 2: They're paved to increase safety and to increase road longevity

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Speaker 2: by creating a smooth, durable surface that protects the base

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Speaker 2: layer from water and erosion. It also reduces dust and

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Speaker 2: accommodates heavier, more frequent traffic than gravel can handle. While

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Speaker 2: paving is more expensive upfront, it can be more cost

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Speaker 2: effective long term for roads with a high volume and

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Speaker 2: daily traffic. But it significantly improves the user experience and

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Speaker 2: public safety. That's the reason. And I hate everything about it,

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Speaker 2: except for the safety part. The road in front of

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Speaker 2: our house was gravel, so was the State high that

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Speaker 2: wound through the community. I remember when it was paved,

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Speaker 2: and that would have been in the late seventies early eighties.

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Speaker 2: Every place I loved more than any other was only

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Speaker 2: approachable by a gravel road. The lake, the river, our farm,

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Speaker 2: everything it all had a dirt and rock pathway to

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Speaker 2: what I liked most. I talked to my brother Tim

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Speaker 2: on the phone now while he's driving, and I could

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Speaker 2: hear the shutter of his truck as he cruises over

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Speaker 2: washboard sections of gravel, imagining everything he has in his truck,

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Speaker 2: vibrating from place to place as he passes through the

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Speaker 2: areas where he remains.

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Speaker 1: And we all grew up, you do have to drive

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Speaker 1: slower on gravel.

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Speaker 2: That's not necessarily a bad thing. That's fast enough by itself.

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Speaker 2: We see more when we drive slower, like a few

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Speaker 2: episodes ago when I talked about going home and Tim

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Speaker 2: and I drove down to the river and all the

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Speaker 2: places that we passed that triggered me to room and

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Speaker 2: for events from long ago, seemingly inconsequential memories that are

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Speaker 2: made at the speed of life, not light. It is

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Speaker 2: my fervorent wish that we all slow down and just

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Speaker 2: see what's happening in our peripheral Stay in front. Sight

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Speaker 2: focused is a good thing. When we have a specific

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Speaker 2: mission in a singular goal, but when all things were equal,

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Speaker 2: slowing down and looking around them treat us to a whole.

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Speaker 1: New world of fun and adventure.

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Speaker 2: My good friend John Howard and I went fishing down

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Speaker 2: in Venice, Louisiana, earlier this year. John is a notoriously

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Speaker 2: slow driver, according to his wife Brittany, and I even

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Speaker 2: poked fun at him to her on our way down.

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Speaker 2: But I've driven down there twice now. The first time

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Speaker 2: was for work in October of last year at a

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Speaker 2: meat eater event. The second was with John. It was

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Speaker 2: a great metaphor from our life. The route was the

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Speaker 2: exact same, but on the first trip we were painting

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Speaker 2: the road red to get there, to get set up,

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Speaker 2: get unpacked, and adhere to the schedule that they laid

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Speaker 2: out for us. On the trip with John, it was

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Speaker 2: more like we'd gone someplace completely different. It was like

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Speaker 2: the highway had turned to gravel and we took the

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Speaker 2: time to look around. And I didn't catch as many

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Speaker 2: fish on the second trip as we did on the first,

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Speaker 2: but it was close and I saw more than ever

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Speaker 2: on that two day trip, as compared to the five

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Speaker 2: days I spent there previously. One thing I hadn't mentioned

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Speaker 2: is bare feet and gravel. As young and I can

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Speaker 2: vividly remember us running up and down that road, racing

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Speaker 2: each other. The grass of the yard and the gravel

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Speaker 2: of the road were the same. You didn't slow down

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Speaker 2: or tiptoe across the rocks. If anything, you grabbed another gear.

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Speaker 2: Even though my transmission wasn't built for speed like others

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Speaker 2: in my family, but our feet were acclimated and conditioned.

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Speaker 2: It with stand what would have me now searching for

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Speaker 2: a morphine drip after only a step or two. But

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Speaker 2: we walked those roads to the old country store, hunting

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Speaker 2: coke bottles to exchange with mister Alma's Marx to get

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Speaker 2: enough money to buy a candy in a cold drink,

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Speaker 2: a treat for a gaggle of dusty children on a

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Speaker 2: hot summer day. The empty bottle valued only at a

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Speaker 2: nickel when returned to the store for a deposit, but

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Speaker 2: to us it was worth its weight in gold. There

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Speaker 2: was treasure along the sides of those gravel roads, and

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Speaker 2: it was hours for the taking. We would leave in

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Speaker 2: the morning as to prospect along their way to the store.

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Speaker 2: Once we'd all gathered up my brothers and sisters out

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Speaker 2: in front of the barn, and my cousins from up

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Speaker 2: on the hill. Their home had initially been my great grandfather's,

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Speaker 2: And you could get there by wading knee high grass

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Speaker 2: through the field and crossing the creek, or hanging right

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Speaker 2: on the gravel and walk down the road aways and

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Speaker 2: wait for them at the mailbox, looking for bottles that

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Speaker 2: have been discarded through the night along the way. Those

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Speaker 2: roads have been paid now for forty years. The sound

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Speaker 2: of the crunching gravel has been replaced with the hum

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Speaker 2: of tires as they roll faster along the asphalt. Plastic

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Speaker 2: bottles have replaced the glass ones, and the Internet keeps.

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Speaker 1: Most kids in the house for some reason or another.

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Speaker 2: But when life slows down, I can still see us

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Speaker 2: all there, scavenging along the dusty road, laughing and racing

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Speaker 2: and chunking rocks at roadsides, and making our way toward

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Speaker 2: the store, looking for the treasure that would afford us

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Speaker 2: a summer treat, treat we would all share, even if

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Speaker 2: it was just a bite of candy or a sip

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Speaker 2: of coc colon. Pam, Tim Chuck, Lynn, Glenda, Pat Scott,

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Speaker 2: Renee and met a Family, Treasure Hunters and as Field Land.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't heard,

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Speaker 2: we're taking the Meat Eater Live Tour more South this December. Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis,

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Speaker 2: failed Well, Dallas, Austin are all slated for Steve Jannis

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Speaker 2: Randall playing yours truly to be there. You can get

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Speaker 2: early access to tickets by signing up at the meat

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Speaker 2: eater dot com forward slash tool.

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Speaker 1: All the information's right.

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Speaker 2: There until next week. This is Brent Reeves signing off.

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Speaker 2: Y'all be careful