Erik: [00:00:00] And she grabbed me sitting at the blackjack table Doc, and I turned around. She's there 

Matt: and we could not have asked for a more perfect... . And the crazy thing was we were literally almost in somebody's driveway.

Narrator: You are listening to EMS with your hosts, Erik Axene and Matt Ball. 

Matt: That on? Like Schoolhouse Rock when you were a kid, did you ever see this? Oh, of course I did. Yeah. 

Erik: My [00:00:30] daughter just did a schoolhouse rock play. 

Matt: Oh, really? 

Erik: They were doing the, the, uh, conjunction junction. 

Matt: Yeah. Really? Oh, that's cool. 

Erik: Yeah. And, and the bill, the, the bill going through the government, you know.

Matt: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. All that. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah, that's, it took me way back to Saturday mornings. They did a whole play on that. 

All of the different popular episodes from 

Matt: Really? 

Erik: From Schoolhouse Rock. Schoolhouse Rock, yeah. The, the, the students acted them all out. 

Matt: The young, the people that are listening to this, that are less than 50 are going Schoolhouse rock. What the heck's? I [00:01:00] know they're thinking of the, oh, no, that was, uh, the movie with, uh, Jack Black. What was that? Was it, uh, I can't remember. 

School of Rock maybe that he did. School of Rock. Yeah. 

Erik: Well see when we were kids Oh yeah. When you and I were kids. Saturday mornings were a big deal with all the cartoons, right?

Matt: Oh, yes. Cereal. Your, your froot loops or whatever bowl of cereal in front of the TV watching Saturday morning cartoons. 

Erik: Yeah. Mom and, and dad sleep. All the kids watch cartoons. You know, 

Matt: that was absolute heaven. 

Erik: What do kids do today? I'll tell you, my kids, I mean, they, they would, they're playing video games or [00:01:30] they're Yeah.

On their phones or whatever. 

Matt: Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah, but we won't get into that topic. No. So we're here to do the follow up of the last time Uhhuh. Uh, we just put this podcast out, but it was filmed, uh, back in the summer. Mm-hmm. I had no mustache at that time, so I've regrown the stash. But, uh, we were talking about our world record trip.

Yep. That was like the initial conversation. And that was the initial idea 

Erik: mm-hmm. 

Matt: [00:02:00] That you and Dr. Grange had. Yep. And a lot of things that we have now successfully completed. 

Erik: These jackets really are, these are our jackets. They're really nice. They're very comfortable. 

Matt: Well, yeah. We're 

Erik: you got the, that's our patch.

Yeah. This is a, this is the symbiosis patch here. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. 

Erik: Balls. 

Matt: Balls. Yep. Not Flame Rider, which we'll get into that I guess. But, so in the, well listen to the first podcast to hear all the, that was where the initial, it was gonna be a patient transport. We were, at that [00:02:30] time, we were actually gonna have a patient, we were gonna go from California to Bangor, Maine.

Mm-hmm. Bang, Bangor. Bangor Main. Yep. Bahaa. Yep. And uh, so we are now on the other side of this. 

Erik: Yeah. So we, um, I. Man, we had so many things and, and, uh, it was a great idea, but it morphed when the team worked together, we kind of, it, it turned into its own beast, 

Matt: right? 

Erik: So as far as the route goes. We changed the route [00:03:00] because of a new client in mm-hmm.

Hollywood, Florida. Mm-hmm. And then I, when I was putting the route together, I thought, Hey, why don't we back up 135 miles from San Diego and start in Hollywood, California? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Yeah. Hollywood to Hollywood. Yeah. It made more sense and you could see on the patch, and that's, that's kind of it turned into the theme with the oldest licensed ambulance in the country.

Oh gosh. That's been an adventure too. 

Matt: You, well, now let's be careful you can talk about that saying Yeah. The, yeah. So what you're referencing [00:03:30] is. There was lots of social media posts and stuff along the way, and I think I was actually the one that said I was being interviewed by Tucson Fire Department.

Yeah. And I think I actually, because I had heard that at one time throughout this process, that this was the oldest registered ambulance in the country. Well, licensed. Licensed, okay. So I don't, we still 

Erik: don't know the difference between license. I don't know. 

Matt: So let, let's just to clarify to anybody that's listening, we did not realize that.

You know, like anything, there's little niches of people that do things and there is groups that are very [00:04:00] serious about, yeah, their classic ambulances. 

Erik: We talked to Bill this morning in Alabama, outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He's, I guess he's written three books on ambulances or something like that.

Anyway, he's. But he was very friendly and excited to talk to us. Yes. And so we had, 

Matt: everybody's been pretty cool about it. Yeah. Nobody, 

Erik: but before you tell the story though, we were in a very old, a 53-year-old. Yeah. 19 Cadillac ambulance, 

Matt: Cadillac. 

Erik: Superior. Superior. Superior ambulance. Yes. Not a media or whatever it is 

Matt: the and for the.

Listeners, [00:04:30] just to clarify what that means is that the chassis was a Cadillac chassis, a limousine. 

Erik: Chassis, yes. Yeah, A 

Matt: limousine chassis. And then the superior was like the Braun or Road Rescue, or Horton Fraser, or Horton or any one of the type of companies that retrofit 

Erik: the chassis to put the box on.

Right, right. So 

Matt: just to clarify. 

Erik: Yes. So that's, that's the the thing. So we had said oldest licensed ambulance in the us Yeah. Uh, I don't 

Matt: know if 

Erik: that's, I don't know if that's accurate. Yeah. But that's, but what it was [00:05:00] officially you've learned now I think, 

Matt: well, I don't know if, here's what I would say to be, uh, safest is 

Erik: it's just an old ambulance.

Matt: It is one of the oldest. Licensed ambulance. It is licensed in the state of California. Dr. Grange, who's your friend? Symbiosis, 

not just licensed like DMV or DPS license, right? This is actually licensed to be right, an ambulance 

and I, if I'm correct. Again, Dr. Grange, owner of Symbiosis Ambulance Company. He is the owner of [00:05:30] the Cadillac Ambulance.

He has all the proper documentations through CHP Uhhuh, and if I remember right, one of his texts says that, and maybe it was just the one guy from CHP said this is the oldest ambulance he knew of in California. Yeah. That was licensed to still operate as an ambulance. 

Erik: Yes. 

Matt: So. I think that's accurate. 

Erik: And there are other ambulances that are older than the 19 seven.

Like the Ghostbusters Yes. Type. That's a 1963 Cadillac. Yeah. And uh, they may be registered [00:06:00] with some ambulance society or maybe registered in some other way, or maybe registered, like to drive on the roads. I don don't know. I don't know. But there are older ones. Yes. Either way. You know, one of the highlights for me in our trip was just driving through towns.

Oh yeah. Turning on the siren and watching people smile, take pictures. I mean, it was driving 

Matt: up and down the road. People drive by and take pictures. Yeah. Made everybody smile. Yes. 

Erik: That was so fun. 

Matt: Yeah. So, alright, so let's back up. So the idea morph, that was the original idea with you and Dr. Grange. Mm-hmm.[00:06:30] 

It was. Their thing and for everybody else. Eric, you're an idea guy. You love big ideas. Mm-hmm. You love spontaneity, you love adventure. Oh yeah. Throw caution to win. Let's jump in this 53-year-old ambulance and let's go break a world record. Right. And I'm more of a sequential planner guy. Yeah. And smart.

You give me anxiety when you get, when you come up with all these ideas and so through. This was originally gonna be done last fall. We were gonna try to do it in the fall. We were 

Erik: gonna try [00:07:00] to do it in the fall right before the winter came. Yes. We were gonna try to hit it up 

Matt: because we were going to the Northeast and we 

Erik: talked to remember the the, mm-hmm.

What are they called? The calendar girls or the, yeah. 

Matt: Firehouse dolls, I think is 

Erik: the, yeah. 

Matt: This was at, for clarification, this was at an EMS conference and the Yaar group of Firefighter women. You 

Erik: remember when I brought them over to the booth? 

Matt: Yeah. Yes. I actually should 

Erik: tell that story. 

Matt: What? Remember that, uh oh.

Am I gonna get in trouble here? No, no, no. 

Erik: This is, this [00:07:30] was me. I was on the, I was, I was, I, I was, I was out looking for a client somewhere at another booth, and I saw, um, these, um. Girls wearing these girls. These girls, they, well, that sounds terrible. I, I was at this, at the, um, the booth where I was going and these girls were there too.

Yeah. And so, so they were carrying, they had a pug, a dog. Yes. So I said, oh, I love your dog. And I pick a dog. And then, uh, and I thought to myself, Hey, you know, it'd be cool to have 'em at the booth. And so I said, would you guys like a stuffed [00:08:00] sloth? 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And they're all excited about sloths. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so we were at the other end of the conference hall. Mm-hmm. So these girls. 

Matt: And for con context, these are all, they're first off, again, they're all firefighters. They're all firefighters. Fire, very nice girls. They're all firefighters. Super nice, super smart. And obviously very, they're attractive girls.

Yeah. That's kind of the point there. 

Erik: And so 

Matt: they're the girl version of the male firemen calendar, basically. 

Erik: And some of these social media pictures that came out I had to explain to my wife. It's like [00:08:30] both. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so we brought 'em back to the booth. And they're from Bar Harbor? Yeah. Or no, one of them was.

One of 'em was because, yeah, 

Matt: one was from like Montana or something. Mm-hmm. But they were from. Different parts of the country. 

Erik: And I told her we'd be doing this in October and she's like, oh, you should be fine. Yeah. The weather doesn't usually hit that early in the, you know, and 

Matt: they got all excited when they saw Danny Springer at the booth.

Erik: They sure did. Yeah. Six foot seven 11 or whatever it is. Yeah. 

Matt: Gigantic arms chiseled Greek God chiseled face. Yeah. Shout out to you Danny Springer. Prosper fd. 

Erik: But anyway, [00:09:00] so that's what we thought. We thought we were gonna head up that direction, but then we ended up flipping it back south. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. So.

Well, and that idea came way after that. 

Erik: It did. 

Matt: Yeah. 'cause you, like I said, you were hot to trot when we were going to hot to trot. You were ready to go. And we were, some of us who are more the concrete sequential people were like, whoa, whoa. Pump the brakes here, cowboy. Mm-hmm. Like there's a lot of planning and you're like, ah, planning manning, let's do this.

I know. And I think, talk a little bit about Guinness. They're very, we [00:09:30] realized pretty quick to obtain a Guinness Book of World record. 

Erik: The Guinness people are more like you. 

Matt: They like me on steroids. Yes. You thought I was sequential. 

Erik: Oh man. Rigid rule. Following people. Very rigid and they have to be 

Matt: sure to prove that you actually did it.

And so every single time we stopped. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: Uh, Jacqueline, who works for Symbiosis, ambulance Company and Michael. Yep. Yep. Uh, 

Erik: shout out to Symbiosis. Great company. Yeah. Jacqueline 

Matt: did a phenomenal job [00:10:00] keeping all of the documentation. Which was extensive and a lot of work. Um, but had to get, literally if we stopped for gas, she had to get a witness that we stopped at that gas and, you know, yeah.

Wherever New Mexico at such and such time. And had to have a person. What was cool though is that it was easy to do that. 'cause every time we stopped, people would come up and start talking to us. Uh, but yeah, very stringent rules. 

Erik: Very strict. So you and I had a, well, [00:10:30] you know, we kind of butt heads. In Las Vegas?

Matt: Well, it was on driving to Vegas. Driving to Vegas? Is that what it was? Yes. Yes. It was the 18 or whatever hour drive from here to Vegas. 

Erik: Yeah. So at the time. You were, I'm sharing this idea. 

Matt: Mind you, this was late September, early October. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Was it that Yes, it was definitely September, yes. You were wanting to do it like in a month?

It was definitely September, Sept. Yeah. Okay. And we had a month to do it. Yeah. And, and, uh, and, and in retrospect that can see why you were a little stressed out about it. 

Matt: What are you trying? [00:11:00] 

Erik: But for people that don't know us though, that they, uh, there's a, there's a, a process we go through. 

Matt: Yes. 

Erik: And I'm typically the one that will come up with the idea.

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Sometimes crazy, sometimes unrealistic, most kind of crazy. Yeah. And let's 

Matt: get tased. Let's io ourselves. Let's hold rattlesnakes. 

Erik: Yeah. And then you guys are the team. Mm-hmm. I'm, I'm really glad that you have your skillset, but at the time, it was like, Matt, you're not hearing me. We're doing this. 

Matt: It was, I almost heard, listen, I'm the boss and I'm telling you this [00:11:30] is what we're doing.

And I, and I hate to hear that you would never do that. I hate, I know, but 

Erik: I like on one side of me, I hate to hear it, but the other side of me is like, yeah, I really wanna get my idea through. Yes, I really want to be. Uh oh. No, we heard 

Matt: your idea. 

Erik: I know 

Matt: it was the fact of the execution of the idea to do it the right way, and that was the time crunch.

But there was other factors. We weren't sure the timeframe that Jeff and Symbiosis wanted to do it in. And how lots of questions flexible they were. So there was a lot that was up in the air. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah. And that's, and that's part of [00:12:00] the, the, we'd call it the Rock Tumblr, where Yeah, we have an idea. Okay.

I'll have an idea. Yeah. But you guys get it done. You're part of that 90% of the Rock Tumblr thing, and I'm involved in the Rock Tumblr too, but Right, right. We as a team make these things happen. Right. And that's, that's the beauty of it all, I think. Right. But we are very different. 

Matt: Oh yeah. The way that we, I'm very random.

Oh yeah, yeah. I'm very concrete. Yeah, yeah. Very sequential. 

Erik: How's that work out? Like you could see, uh, on day to day too. Mm-hmm. It's not just with ideas. 

Matt: No, [00:12:30] that was a big, I would say that was probably the biggest one, that it was where I felt like there was, in the whole team, there was more. Tension when you first brought it up?

Yeah. Back in the summer. I remember sitting at your kitchen table and everybody kind of going. Yeah, we're not doing that. Like Jason, everybody was just kinda like, uh, yeah, no, that's, they're not, we're not doing, you guys just kind of, because I think you were at that time wanting to do it like in a month.

Yeah. And it was like, well, there's probably more to it than that. 

Erik: And I think that's really what it was. Yeah. I mean, it, it [00:13:00] was less the idea, more of the timing. A hundred percent. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: But I felt like it was more the, at the time, more the idea that I was, you were focused fighting to. Get it to survive. You know, I wasn't, I didn't wanna let this go.

Yeah. What a great opportunity. Uh, and then, uh, I hear you. And we ended up doing it. Yes. And we ended, and we're not 

Matt: for, we're only like two weeks out. We just got back. We just did it. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah. And, um, and it was so much better because of our team. 

Matt: Oh, a hundred. Well, and the symbiosis team. 

Erik: And the symbiosis team, yeah.

Matt: Which [00:13:30] we worked obviously together, did the trip with them. 

Erik: Right. But on our side, we did most of the planning for the video content that we filmed. Correct. Which is coming out in the liability series. Right. Which had we not really put the planning and time into Oh yeah. It would've been a train wreck.

You know, we can what, for example, we had thought we were going to film on the deck of the aircraft carrier. Right? Yep. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And, and we. Sequentially and had tried to plan those things and Jason was right. He said, this is never gonna happen. And the 

Matt: extremely concrete military, very concrete 

Erik: [00:14:00] military talking to me.

Yeah, Mr. We'll figure it out when we get there. And then 

Matt: Tucson that you talked to, we won't talk about that. 

Erik: What was the Tucson? Don't remember. Oh 

Matt: no, that's 

Erik: so embarrassing. 

Matt: It's just funny. 

Erik: But when, but. But in San Diego, we ended up filming some great stuff on Coronado Island. That was awesome. Train the seals or whatever.

And then you're right in Tucson. We get there to the fire. Well, 

Matt: well, we should back up and go from the beginning. 

Erik: Let's go from the beginning. Yeah. We 

Matt: fly into la Very sequential. See, we fly. Well, so, so there's a time squirrel. Let's start in Hollywood, [00:14:30] Florida. No, we, so we flew into La Uhhuh, drove up Yep.

To Holly, uh, Hollywood. Correct. We were in Hollywood. We met with Yep. Met with your childhood friend. 

Erik: Yep. Photographer. Yep. Extraordinaire. Ralph was Uhhuh. Awesome. Great guy though. Oh yeah. Just fit right in with a team. Oh, a hundred percent. In fact, the symbiosis team thought he was part of our team. Yes.

But we, they didn't know that. We just met. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Well you didn't just meet. Yeah. You guys did we, 

Matt: well, I had met him once. I've been to his house, remember? That's right. You were, yeah. 

Erik: Yeah. And he. Yeah. That's cool. [00:15:00] Yeah, I think you guys both broke stereotypes of each other. 

Matt: Oh really? 

Erik: Yeah. Yeah. How so? It's funny you both, so you had told me it's like, uh, your perception of the average Californian Oh, was different when you actually met Ralph.

Yes. And then his perception, the average of the average Texan, 

Matt: well, I'm not to be safe or to be fair, I'm not a native Texan. 

Erik: And he's not a native Californian. There you Well then, but you know what though? It's like. People are great everywhere. Oh yeah. It's just, we're just a little different flavor, but don't 

Matt: let the media and all the craziness.

I know. Just get to know people. There's good people [00:15:30] everywhere. 

Erik: So anyway, we got to know each other in, in Hollywood there at that, that, uh, Hollywood grocery store. 

Matt: Yeah. What was it? Uh. I don't even remember. I've got a picture go. 

Erik: No, uh, camp 

Matt: Geller. Not Geller's, but like, can't remember, Gilbert's or something like that.

Anyway, 

Erik: so we got, we met there and then we decided to go find a place. That's right. What was it? 

Matt: No, go ahead. Oh, yeah. Well, I, I'm trying to be sequential. We met with sym symbiosis struggling. I remember we had to find a place first. 

Erik: Yes, we did. 

Matt: Because obviously the Hollywood sign is very. And this was on a Saturday.

Erik: Yes. 

Matt: So we knew [00:16:00] there was gonna be, and I mean there was people everywhere. 

Erik: I was actually a little discouraged at this point thinking, oh, how in the world are we gonna do this? Yes. Busy traffic, all these people. And then we, Ralph told me, he said, uh, Eric, you're not gonna find, you can't get to the sign.

It's all, it's all Yeah. If you get up to the Griffith Observatory, which we talked about going to Yes, yes. You're gonna be waiting in line just to get into the parking lot. Yeah. And it was like, oh, what are we 

Matt: gonna do? And remember we were driving in, so we rented a van, obviously. Mm-hmm. Yep. And we were driving in to meet with Ralph.

Mm-hmm. And we came up that one street and there was a [00:16:30] box truck in front of us. And as soon as he turned Hollywood sign, yeah. We had this beautiful view with, uh, just this view. And it was like, oh. And we all said like. We could come back here and just block the road and take it here. 'cause it's his perfect 

Erik: view.

I heard the angels singing when I saw it. 

Matt: Oh, 

Erik: and then the infused with a little bit of hope. 

Matt: Yeah. And 

Erik: then we drove off and remember you were driving I think. Yeah. And uh, we drove off in the van. I'm thinking we'll find a place. 

Matt: Yes. 

Erik: And I think most of the team sitting behind us said, keep going straight.

And then [00:17:00] you and I said, no, what 

Matt: you said, and I just did it. You were the one that said, Hey, let's turn up here. And I was like, okay. 

Erik: I don't know. You've gimme too much credit. Oh no, 

Matt: you did. But 

Erik: we drove up that turn and I remember it seemed to be a little bit of It was tight. Yeah, it was very tight. Big van.

And uh, you know, this was a 

Matt: neighborhood for context. Windy. 

Erik: Windy road. Yeah. This 

Matt: was a California, Hollywood, California. Residential neighborhood. We were not on commercial streets, no very tight walls. It's hills. 

Erik: If it was easier to turn around, we probably would've turned around and got [00:17:30] back on that road.

Honestly, just kept going, but we just kept going straight, 

Matt: kept going and kept going. And then all of a sudden we came to this Y. Mm-hmm And I think it was actually Ralph that said, Hey Matt, turn left here and let me get out and look. Ralph's calling me right now. Is he really? That's so funny. Yeah, his. But yeah, I think so.

Ralph said he, because again, Ralph's a photographer and has, even Devin said numerous times in this trip, he's got an eye. Oh man. Yeah. And so I made the left and he's like, Hey, drop me off and let me [00:18:00] look. And we could not have asked for him or, perfect. Perfect. And the crazy thing was we were literally almost in somebody's driveway.

Erik: We were, 

Matt: yeah. And so we parked the van. 

Erik: I was a little nervous. People would be mad like I was too. Get outta here. You know? They were 

Matt: super friendly. Nice. Yes. Everybody was great that, remember that family came out Uhhuh in that beautiful house where their living room just looks. Yeah. At the Hollywood sign.

I couldn't imagine how cool that would be. Yeah. Yes. Everybody was, people started. Mm-hmm. Like, but I'm sure probably in Hollywood [00:18:30] they're used to filming 

Erik: people. And that was my favorite moment of the trip actually. Oh, I dunno if I shared this with you. It may have been later because you. You had to, you had some things to do.

So you took off in Dallas, but that's later on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But when we were waiting for the ambulance to come mm-hmm. And they turned the siren on around the corner before we could see it. And then it came around the corner. Yeah. To me that was, to me, that was such a highlight. That was cool with the Hollywood sign behind it.

Epic. So we filmed good content there. That was the start of the journey. Mile Zero. Yep. And we, we, we probably [00:19:00] filmed a bunch of footage. Photos, yeah. Clips. Oh yeah. Content opens all that intros for about an hour there, and then we took off from there. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And we drove south. Yep. To San Diego. Yep. Um, and that was the beginning of the journey.

Matt: And to be clear again. Mm-hmm. The rules were very strict and whoever was gonna be listed on the world record. 

Erik: Right. 

Matt: They had to ride in that ambulance the entire trip. Yes. 

Erik: Yep. And I was And so that 

Matt: was you, Jacqueline and Michael. 

Erik: And Michael, right? Yeah. [00:19:30] And then we left one spot open so we could bring people in.

So you and I filmed some stuff in the, the front driving, um, and people could rotate it enough. Right. So that was smart. That was your idea actually, I think you talked to Jacqueline. Uh, before the trip. That's right. That was your idea. Yeah, I called. Yeah, that was really, yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. Yep, 

Erik: yep. Yeah. 'cause I 

Matt: think we were gonna have, Jeff, I think, was gonna ride in there at, or Dr.

Grange mm-hmm. Was gonna ride in there too. And so anyway, it worked out really well. 

Erik: Worked out really well. And 

Matt: see that's another thing, it's like, I didn't think of that, 

Erik: I didn't think about the problem of drivers. [00:20:00] 

Matt: Well, because for context, yeah. I mean you could put three people in the front of that thing.

Mm-hmm. But that would be tight and that would not be really comfortable. Be comfortable. Yeah. And then you can have two in the back, two uh, two up front, two in the back comfortably. Relative comfortably. Uhhuh. Yeah. So yeah. So then we drove down to San Diego, Coronado Island. Mm-hmm. Beautiful hotel. Yep.

Took a walk on the Coronado, San Diego Bay or whatever they call it. That was cool. 

Erik: And we hadn't really met the other team yet. And so. 

Matt: Well, no, we had dinner with him. Yeah. But the [00:20:30] night before, 

Erik: but I know, and we were kind of getting to know each other. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And at this time we were a little bit like, oh boy, I hope they understand exactly what we're doing here with filming, you know, time and, 

Matt: yeah.

Erik: I think. I think we could put that to bed now though, because what we were nervous about it ended up working out great. Oh, everything. Somebody else's team, everybody. Everything worked out well. Worked out fantastic. That was so, such a blessing. Anyway, so yeah, San Diego filmed on the beach. Great content there.

Military theme. Mm-hmm. High risk trauma patients. Yeah. Oh, the theme we should And Hollywood. [00:21:00] Um. Oh yeah. Behavioral emergencies. Behavioral, yeah. So those high risk situations when you're doing things that you never learned in paramedic school or medical school. Right. Dealing with crazies. 

Matt: Italian being Hollywood, acting.

Acting people acting 

Erik: differently or weird. Yeah. Inappropriate 

Matt: or whatever you wanna call it. So trauma San Diego. Yep. And then we headed to Tucson. 

Erik: Headed to Tucson. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And when we got to Tucson, um, we found out very quickly that I had miscommunicated, uh, to the POI or P-I-O-P-I-O-P-I-O, yeah. Public 

Matt: information [00:21:30] Officer.

Erik: Yeah. Oh, that 

Matt: was a son. That was still me, but we drove, it was you and I drove the am Well, you drove it, but we drove from the ho uh, uh, hotel over to Central Fire Station. Yep. Big shout out to Tucson Fire. Phenomenal group of guys. Very cool. They have, I think it was 19, they, if I remember correctly, they have a truck, they have an engine, they have a hazmat rescue, a battalion chief, an EMS captain and an ambulance all at their central, I think that Correct.

Erik: Plus some other administrative staff too. 

Matt: Well, they, yes, they have, their admin building is there too, but I'm saying on [00:22:00] shift. On shift it's like 18 or 19 people. Wow. Yeah. I mean there was beautiful station just kept coming out. I'm like, oh my goodness. How do you feed 19 people a day? Yeah, we were anyway, but all of them super cool.

Erik: Oh yeah. And really cool. And this is our first problem. This is our first mechanical problem. What I was gonna say with this old ambulance. Yeah. 

Matt: We got ready to leave and you started it up. 'cause we pulled it up in front and they took all the pictures and did all things 

Erik: well 

Matt: and we immediately noticed.

Well you noticed, I guess first, 

Erik: well actually I noticed it when I pulled into the driveway. 

Matt: Yeah. It's [00:22:30] crazy that it operated fine all the way there. 

Erik: It did. And you were 

Matt: driving fine. 

Erik: I it and when we pulled it in, backed it into the back lot. Yeah, no problem. No problem. And then I pulled it out to park it where Devin told me to, for, for photo ops and whatever.

I, I pulled it into the position and I noticed something changed. Yeah. It's like, Ooh, there's something different here. And I thought to myself, oh, maybe it's 'cause I was just going so slow. Yeah, right. But then when we. We're leaving that I, it was when you started, when you started, there was a 

Matt: sound like you could hear, like, that didn't sound like that a minute, which 

Erik: we later learned was the, the sound of a, [00:23:00] the grinding of gears inside the, the power steering pump.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. 

Matt: And in true firefighter fashion, you know, captain Moss, I believe it was mm-hmm. Came out, you know, and all the other guys came out and we're popping the hood and they're all under trying to diagnose it with us. And 

Erik: they knew right away. 

Matt: Yeah. And they hooked us up with, Hey, go over to this guy.

Mm-hmm. And I mean. I mean, we kind of anticipated there would be at least one problem in a 3000 mile journey with a 53-year-old vehicle. Yes. Yep. But it could not have happened at a better time. 

Erik: It couldn't, [00:23:30] and if you remember when we were driving from San Diego to Tucson, like the whole trip, we're always a little behind schedule.

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And we were in the middle of the night driving. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Through these. 

Matt: Oh yeah. 

Erik: Desert. So yeah, literally nothing there, literally 

Matt: nothing for miles. 

Erik: And, um, you know, we could have had, and we actually ended up finding out with a mechanic in Tucson. We had bigger problems. Yeah. It wasn't, the power steering obviously was the most obvious problem, but we had a bigger problem.

We were on about five of eight cylinders. Yeah. And, and we were overheating. [00:24:00] Yes. And we were only. A few hundred miles into the 3,200 mile trip. Yeah. So if we hadn't had this power steering problem, we would've been driving slow. A whole lot slower. Well, we were, remember we weren't going over 70 the first 65?

65, yeah. And then we were able to hit 90, no problem on after this. Well, so 

Matt: yeah, C and C automotive. I believe it was in Tucson. So if you're in Tucson, CNC Automotive, Tony, Tony area. I hope he hears this. Oh, for sure. I mean, so good. And did it fast. Really fast. We pulled it over there. We said, okay, well let's go eat.

[00:24:30] We went to a restaurant, all of us sat down, ate lunch, we got back, you know, it was an hour and a half or whatever. Yeah. And then it was about another hour, but we were on the road by like two or three. 

Erik: And, and Tony's guy that was working on, yeah, you could see this guy. He knew his stuff. Oh man. I mean he's like brain surgeon of the, of the Cadillac.

Yes. Steths the 

Matt: scope out. He was listening, but they, when they fired that thing back up, it was like, oh, 

Erik: per like a kid. Wow. Yes. And I was, it drove different, I mean, it was, oh. 

Matt: Like you said, we were cruising at 80 No problem after that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So [00:25:00] those guys did a fantastic job. Yeah. 

Erik: What a blessing.

So like you said, what a blessing had happened, where it happened. Yes. If that happened in the middle of Desert 

Matt: Circle, that would've been bad. 

Erik: Yeah. So we're such a, and we wouldn't have ever met the Tucson guys probably, you know? Who knows for sure. Maybe we would've, but, uh, and actually maybe we would've been on time.

Yeah. Who showed up tomorrow, the next day anyway, so after Tucson, we headed on to El Paso. That's right. Um, and through dust storms, was it there, the dust storm the next day? It was, yeah. We 

Matt: started as we were coming into El Paso, and then the next day was, was really when it was trying to [00:25:30] route us from El Paso down.

They shut the freeway down. Yeah. At some point, one of those cities, literally when we would look it up in the map, it was rerouting us into Mexico. 

Erik: Up to Colorado. Yeah. Like isn't it a 30 

Matt: mile, like a 30 hour drive? Yeah. It's really silly. Yes. But yeah, the wind and driving an ambulance, a box van and that, that old ambulance.

Yeah. I mean we were getting blown all over the road. Yes. Everybody was, it was, uh. That was intense. So yeah, we, it was a fairly easy ride over to El Paso, got in late 'cause of the hold up with the repairs. 

Erik: Yeah. I gotta back up a [00:26:00] second before we take a break here. Um. The, uh, back in Tucson, the theme was sepsis.

Oh yeah. And so we were planning on fabricating a breakdown. That's right. 

Matt: That in the desert, 

Erik: we didn't have to 

Matt: fabricate it. We really had a, we actually had a breakdown. That's right. That was, that was cool. I forgot about that part. And, 

Erik: and that was not the only problem we had. We had other problems, which could have been even worse.

Um, uh, later on we'll get to it, but 

Matt: yeah. 

Erik: Uh, so, and then we had, so El Paso was, uh, uh, documentation. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: Um, so [00:26:30] sepsis in Tucson, documentation in El Paso. And we filmed 

Matt: that. We were talking about going to the border wall. That's right. But then we were on time constraints because obviously from El Paso to Dallas is a pretty long drive.

Yes. Yeah. And we were gonna do it the night before, but because of the holdover, we couldn't do that. Yeah. But then we ended up going through that border crossing. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: And I'll tell you what, let's take a break and then when we come back Yeah. You can tell 'em what you were getting me all worked up about.

Oh, that's right. Tell 'em you were gonna do at the border crossing. So let's take a break. 

Erik: Alright. 

Matt: All so parts. I'm old [00:27:00] fashion. 

Erik: I'm old 

Matt: fashioned. Yeah, that's okay. That's I'm, I've, I've grown to deal with it. 

Erik: Oh, 

Matt: geez. Just kidding. Just kidding. 

Erik: I'm, I must really annoy you. We talked don't, we talked about the, don't, you don't, the random sequential stuff.

Matt: Yeah, we did in part one, 

Erik: which hit us at the border. Yes. Or, or not the border. It wasn't the border. Well, it was a, it wasn, there was a, an immigration check or probably something. Yeah, I don't 

Matt: think, yeah. We weren't actually, we didn't actually go into Mexico. 

Erik: But that was kind of a cool thing though. I didn't expect to see that.

I was expecting the, and honestly, a little disappointed. We didn't go to the wall like I was hoping. Yeah. But we couldn't because of the schedule. And so 

Matt: we [00:27:30] filmed, I got in the front of the ambulance with you and we filmed with the GoPros for the content. 

Erik: Yep. 

Matt: And we were talking about the border wall and being, being 

Erik: refusals.

It went really well. Yeah. 

Matt: It was really cool. And then. You know, all of a sudden divine intervention, border crossing, we pull into a border crossing. Well, it wasn't a, what was it? A, it was a B? Well, it was a, maybe it was an immigration check. 

Erik: Doable. The sign said document, yes. Have your documentation ready.

Yes. It was perfect for what we were filming. It was absolutely 

Matt: perfect. 

Erik: And so then. And we're like two 

Matt: cars back. [00:28:00] 

Erik: And then I said to you, and again, this is kind of a microcosm of what you and I deal with all the time. Uh, we kind of didn't, well, we butt heads a little bit. I had this idea like, Hey. Let's see if we can stage a like a vehicle search.

Matt: No, I think you said something. Yeah, you said something about getting them to search our vehicle. 

Erik: Yeah. And so you're probably imagining something that I would do because you had some experiences before. 

Matt: Well, I just know that border crossings, they don't play around at border crossings. I was going [00:28:30] through the border in Canada a long time ago, and.

Uh, and again, it's the Canadian border, right? It's the Mexican border is probably a little bit more strict than you would think than the Canadian border, you'd 

Erik: think. But I've had my vehicle searched up on the Canadian border. 

Matt: Oh yeah, they definitely, so, yeah. And I had a guy that I was with crack a joke with the, uh, border agent Uhhuh as we were crossing.

And she did not crack. She did not laugh. What 

Erik: did, what did she say after he jumped her head? Well, so we 

Matt: pulled up and there was three of us in the vehicle, and she says, you know. [00:29:00] US citizens. Yes. Anything illegal to declare in the vehicle. And my boss, who was kinda like, you, kind of a joker, he goes, oh, nothing but this outlaw in the back here.

And she did not smile or ha ha, she got a very serious look on her face. And she said, sir, this is an international border crossing and we do not take, uh, we do not take. Uh, jokes or illegal activities, seriously. So I will ask you one more time, do you have anything illegal, including your passengers in your vehicle?[00:29:30] 

And Gary, my boss, whoa. He looked at her, he goes, no, ma'am. And she goes, go ahead. So, yeah, uh, that was. That was funny. Well, 

Erik: like most of those folks, they, they, that's their job. They've gotta be really strict inside, you know, she's thinking to herself, she's busy. She's idiots. Yeah, exactly. So, well, that's what we were doing.

Yes. And that's what I was about to do. Oh gosh. And you are just so, 

Matt: I was like, here, I, because we were already on a time crunch, remember? Yeah. And I'm like, if you make them mad, they will pull our vehicle [00:30:00] over and search this. And there was 

Erik: one RV in front of us. Yes. That was it. I remember behind that RV, breaking Bad was in front of us and I was hoping they'd.

Matt: Smell some meth in that. 

Erik: And I'm thinking to myself, what can I do to get this vehicle searched? Oh gosh. 

Matt: And you're just giving me, I'm like, they're gonna kill us if we get pulled over to the side. But we didn't. We didn't. It was great. Yeah. Uh, so we got through that checkpoint. And then fought our way, what, 600 miles from El Paso to Dallas?

Yeah, 

Erik: 604 miles. That was the longest, I think, part of our trip. And, and it was [00:30:30] uncomfortable sitting in those, those, uh, jumper seat jump seats? Is that what you call em in the back? Uh, when I wasn't driving. Um, but we made it through the dust storm. Yep. At part, like we mentioned earlier, we thought that this literally the road was closed.

It's gonna take us 30 hours around, but we got through, 

Matt: we called your wife, remember she was here in Dallas. That's right. And we thought she'll have better internet connection and get probably more detailed report and Yeah. 

Erik: And she was talking about the road closure. It was a town that started with an RI can't remember the name now.

Matt: Yeah, it was a, it was off of, [00:31:00] Ooh. Yeah. I can't remember. No, it wasn't groom. That's off of 40. 

Erik: Anyway, it was closed, and so we were nervous. We're gonna get rerouted, and then the, we had to get to Dallas. Yeah, because that following day, at 11:00 AM we had to be at the A MR headquarters for a Shindi weed plan.

That Chick-fil-A was, 

Matt: well, it was actually 

Erik: the next day, but it was the next, sorry, it was the fourth. Kidding. Oh yeah, right. It was the fourth we were out. This is March 4th at the time, and this is March 5th. We have the big shindig plan. Yeah. [00:31:30] You know, multiple fire departments coming and a lot of folks.

Yeah. And uh, so we, that was one of those hard stops we had have, I was gonna say, yeah, we 

Matt: had to be there. 

Erik: So if we would've had to take, have taken a 30 hour rero, we could've done it, but it would've been all through the night. Yeah. So, but fortunately we didn't. 

Matt: Yep. We got home. We 

Erik: got home. We slept in our beds that night.

Matt: Yeah. I got home about 11, midnight, something like that. Yep. And then hit a MR. Big shout out to them. Had a really good time with a MR. Arlington. Arlington Fire Will, Hendon 

Erik: was such a hero in pulling [00:32:00] that together, helping us out and uh, um. Getting his, his, all of his staff was so friendly and helpful and it was all set up and ready to go.

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And it was just perfect with the way the ambulance pulled in. Shout 

Matt: out to Chick-fil-A too. 

Erik: Yep. Chick-fil-A, they provided food, 

Matt: right? Yeah. 

Erik: They provided us food for free. Free, 

Matt: yeah. A lot of food. 

Erik: A lot of food. Yeah. For, we had for about a hundred people. So it was really, really cool that they did that.

Um, and then, uh, prosper, um, [00:32:30] lent us their nice podium to. Speak from and introduce and present awards. We did the Es well, you did the escape room. 

Matt: Yep. Yep. That was a lot of fun. Got to meet them. And 

Erik: Uhhuh, do you remember the name of the person who won? 

Matt: I don't, it was, I don't, I do remember that they were, but he killed it.

Totally. Well, she killed it. It was a guy and a girl. Yeah. And he, so they had a, she was a paramedic. He was an EMT Uhhuh. And we started off this case, I don't wanna say it the case, because we do this case quite often. Yeah. But when you, the first thing [00:33:00] was coming up with a different differential diagnosis based on the presentation, Uhhuh.

And this EMT kid goes, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, whoa, isn't it like a minute or something? That's when they, A 

Erik: minute in, 

Matt: well that was about 10 seconds in. I basically, so I read them the scenario, you know how it goes. Yeah. Uhhuh, I read them the scenario and I, okay, the first part is I need at least five differential diagnosis based on this scenario.

What do you think could be going on with your patient? And this guy goes, well, based on that, it could be this, this, this, this, or this. And I was like. [00:33:30] Okay. I was like, you're the, are you the world's smartest? I mean, I was like, holy cow. I talked to 

Erik: one of these that was actually in going to medical school.

Oh, wow. Uh, it might have been this person. I don't know, maybe, I don't know. Well, he 

Matt: had just finished paramedic school, but he hadn't passed. Oh, okay. His reg, he hadn't taken his registry yet, and so he was still a quote unquote, EMT. Very smart. I was very, all everybody that came in there and did it was, 

Erik: yep.

Matt: Super sharp. Good, good EMTs. Good paramedics. 

Erik: So that first gate, you know, they, they had to get the differential. Yeah. The list of things. It could be, [00:34:00] and they had to, I think, get five of the 10 on your list. That's right. And then they could move on to the next stage. That's right. But I think, 

Matt: well, it was in the next stage, 

Erik: Uhhuh, 

Matt: where I said, okay, this is whatever's going on.

And then the paramedic goes, oh, she's, this is what's going on. She's this uhhuh and smoked it. And I'm like. I don't, I guess I'm gonna have to give you that time because you we're done. And then she's like, this is what's going on and this is what I would do if she did this or that, or mm-hmm. And just absolutely nailed it.

Erik: Well, that's cool. Well, good for them. They, they killed it. Uh, because I remember people walking outta that ambulance with you that were [00:34:30] super excited, slapping me high fives. 'cause they did it in four minutes. 

Matt: Yeah. Which was a great time. It was typically, 

Erik: yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. So. 

Erik: Well, but everybody, you did a great job proctoring it.

It was fun. You handed out the awards and then we were on the road again. 

Matt: That's right. Well, you were. And then I had to stay a hundred. That's right. I had, I had stuff I had to do here in Dallas 

Erik: and you know, you are such a core member of our team. We, we talked about you all throughout and, and at the end we thought it just didn't seem quite right with you out there.

And we talked about flying you out to Nashville and joining us. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, but, [00:35:00] uh, you, you have a lot of cool stuff happening and exciting things, adventures in your life that Yeah. You had to, uh, to do. And so, but the cool thing is that, uh, we handed the baton off to aj. That's right. Uh, firefighter and Prosper of Yep, yep.

Uh, who's works with us sales 

Matt: guy. Yeah. 

Erik: Yep. He took over for you. Yep. And he did a great job. Yep. So, so, yeah. So from Dallas, we drove on to Little Rock. Right. In between Dallas and Little Rock, it's in the middle of the night. Yep. And, uh, I think we were a couple hundred miles outside of Little Rock [00:35:30] and I lost all interior lights.

Uh, the fuse busted and we tried to fix it later, but. Um, you know, I'd never really appreciated that is how much you really enjoy having gauges, especially when you're afraid of your vehicle overheating. I couldn't see how fast I was going. I couldn't see, well, yeah, I guess you get 

Matt: a chase, you get a lead vehicle and then, you know, okay, I'm not speeding.

'cause they're, yeah. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah. But it, but it, but yeah. You know, it kind of, it's, it actually I think was a good reminder for [00:36:00] us in and for our own health is just to, we need to keep track of these gauges as we move through life. Yeah, sure. Whether it's your BMI, your weight, your cholesterol level, your blood pressure, mental health.

Yeah. All these things stressed. Are you happy? Or your 

Matt: peace, whatever. Right? Yeah. There's so many, now we're getting really philosophical. 

Erik: Well, we talked about this many times before and I think that the personal responsibility we have to monitor our health. Mm-hmm. I was thinking about that as I couldn't see the gauges when you, when if you've suddenly lost the ability to know mm-hmm.

How you're doing. You feel it. Yeah. I think we [00:36:30] take these things for granted, so it's important to. Maintain those things for sure. Yeah. Anyway, so we were, we did get to Little Rock. Mm-hmm. We tried to change the fuses. We ended up not having interior lights. The rest of the trip. We, we, I didn't know they sold fuses at gas stations, but we found some.

You didn't know that? I didn't know that. You know everything. How did you not 

Matt: know that? They don't, that they sell. 

Erik: I was surprised really, that they had Oh no. Fuses for sale. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it's such a common 

Matt: thing to break in. 

Erik: Well, what was funny though is the first gas station that we looked at, Jeff went asking for fuses [00:37:00] and they said, no, we don't have fuses, fuses, 

Matt: fuses.

We don't have no stinking 

Erik: miles fuses. No stinking fuses. And so I thought to myself, yeah, why are you asking for fuses? The gas station. The next gas station. Yeah. They have a little 

Matt: automotive section in the 

Erik: I saw that and I didn't realize it. You know how I am. I sell my vehicles after 5,000 miles. I've never had an old vehicle.

Anyway, so, so they had fuses. We try, so we got up under there, tried to fix it. Now in 1972, ambulance, it's another thing that. Really surprised me. The fuses are different. I would imagine they're like the old glass tube [00:37:30] fuses. And they have those too, at the 

Matt: Oh, that now, that's surprising. Yeah. 

Erik: Yeah. And so we bought these, um, these fuses, 30 amp fuses and 20 amp fuses.

But they didn't fix it. No. Something else going on. Yeah. But anyway, didn't have interior lights for the rest of the trip. 

Matt: Oh wow. 

Erik: So Little Rock was cool. She get a 

Matt: headlamp on. We 

Erik: had a flashlight and I got up underneath the dash with Jeff and we, we figured it out. See if I'd been on 

Matt: the trip. I actually have a headlamp I keep in my backpack.

Erik: Well see, I wish I did a rechargeable 

Matt: headlamp. 

Erik: It was a pain to try to, [00:38:00] oh yeah. Anyway, but we got it done and um, we realized we're not gonna get it back. And actually it was cool there as, uh, we have some film footage of. Um, police, um, 

Matt: oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Erik: That was a cool coming up. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Getting, you know, are we legal or not?

And I was a little nervous because we didn't have any dash lights. No. But we also lost our taillights. Oh no, I didn't tell you this. I 

Matt: don't 

Erik: know. We lost tail lights, so I had no rear lights on the vehicle. Oh. The brakes worked right. But I didn't have tail lights and [00:38:30] so we were illegal. Are you sure 

Matt: you had the lights turned on?

Erik: Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Thank you. Uh, so what we did is we had the chase vehicle right up behind us. 

Matt: Right, 

Erik: right. Makes sense. Uh, they so makes and then we followed behind the van. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And anyway, so that, that worked out. So you stayed 

Matt: in the middle of the rest of the trip? 

Erik: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 

Matt: Anyway, a lot of the trip you were leading?

Erik: We were. And 

Matt: then what? I guess when we wanted to go fast, that's when I would get in front. Yeah. With the van. 'cause I could hit the cruise. 'cause the ambulance doesn't have crews. No. So when Eric was driving, it was, we were [00:39:00] actually joking about this when Eric was driving. We'd be going 55 for a mile or two and then we'd be going 85 and then we'd be going 60 and then we'd be going 75.

And we were, Devin and I were laughing because that's, I, we were, I think it was coming into Dallas. 'cause it's like. Bro, we gotta like pick a speed and stay with it. So that's when it got dark. We weren't filming and so it was like, just get in front, I'll hit it on 80 and we'll go. That was funny. Anyway, 

Erik: you know, it's funny, I, 'cause I'm by myself in the front of this vehicle.

I can't see anything. I can't see how fast I'm [00:39:30] going or anything. No, no, no, no. It's just. This is after Dallas. I'm sorry? Before Dallas, I had spit on. Oh, okay. Yeah. I, I, uh, get into my music, music with you. That's 

Matt: great. 

Erik: Well, because Jacqueline and, well, yeah, Michael. Michael, they're a couple, right? Yeah. So they, they didn't wanna separate.

I did sit with Michael quite a bit. He's a cool dude. We learned a lot about each other. Super nice guy. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. So Little Rock, we, yep. Memphis onto Memphis. And, uh, we got to Memphis and Little Rock 

Matt: wasn't a film stop. That, that that wasn't a, that was just kind of a. [00:40:00] Distance 

Erik: thing. That's right.

Yeah. We just, we needed to have a, a spot there. But then we went through Memphis, the home of Elvis. Yep. And we talked about heart attacks and strokes. Yep. And filmed there at his mansion. Yep. Got some footage of the little Marie, his, his plane. Yeah. Um, and that was good. And AJ and I took care of that one, and, and we had a lot of fun.

Mm-hmm. Introducing the number one killer. Mm-hmm. Cardiovascular disease. That's right. So there's a lot of high risk stuff there that we can miss. I'm real excited about that lecture. 

Matt: Yeah. It's gonna be cool. 

Erik: We ended up [00:40:30] using part of that content at the end. Mm-hmm. And we will talk about that later. Um, but then, uh, that day we didn't stop in Memphis.

We drove through, we stopped at a Taco Bell for, for lunch there and went on to Nashville. Yeah. And we stopped in Nashville. Yeah. And we filmed in Nashville at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Yeah. And, um, that was, that was good. And Nashville was airway. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: So you use our vocal chords to sing Sing, yeah.

And the vocal chords. You know, that's what you're looking for when you're intubating, right? That's right. So, so that we thought that was a good connection. Yep. [00:41:00] 

Matt: That's where I was jealous. 'cause I've never been to Memphis or Nashville 

Erik: and we would've, so I was really jealous that I would've 

Matt: loved to have 

Erik: been, oh man, you know, we missed you.

So go up there sometimes it didn't seem right. Not having that ball there. Ah, so we, we in Nashville and then we headed south Yep. Through Macon, Georgia. 

Matt: Yeah, that was again, kind of more of a distance stop because for those that don't know, Hollywood, Florida is just north of Miami, so it's way down there.

Erik: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. And, and we, uh, we had a, it was a good stop, but we were ahead of schedule now. Yeah. And so we [00:41:30] uh, once you dropped 

Matt: off the dead weight, you guys were making up good time. 

Erik: Well, I think Jeff really wanted to see his, his, which is really neat. You know, the theme for this whole trip had a lot to do with EMS education.

Mm-hmm. Well, Jeff and I, Dr. Grange was, was kind of my er. Emergency medicine teacher. Mm-hmm. Like a mentor to me. Mm-hmm. And it taught me so much about what I've used in my practice since. Right. But he wanted to stop at his university, which we were driving through, basically. Okay. [00:42:00] Okay. And we stopped at his university and the president of the university came out who used to be his favorite teacher, this math teacher.

And, and he was so. Uh, I don't wanna say tickled, but you know, his teacher was excited, just so excited his student came and, and Oh, the 

Matt: president, I thought you met Jeff was Oh, Jeff was too. They were both, they were really 

Erik: excited and introduced me and helped me to understand their history and, oh, 

Matt: is this the University of Georgia?

Erik: No, this was, uh, south. [00:42:30] Southern University. It's called Southern University, and it was outside of Chattanooga. Okay. On our way from Nashville South. Oh. Was in Tennessee. Okay. We took a Yep. On our way down to Macon, but we stopped at the university and had a really nice time. He signed the poster, we gave some patches.

Oh, cool. And I. We the, but the cool thing was though, was to see how all of us have these teachers in our lives that make a big difference. And we were discussing how the things that we like about teachers isn't necessarily the content. Right. Because the content is the content, it's the way it's delivered.

Matt: [00:43:00] Yeah. 

Erik: And Jeff was talking about how his teacher made it fun. Yeah. And I'm like, this is exactly what we're all about. Yeah. Yeah's, it was kind of a neat break. Yeah, for sure. Like unexpected. Uh, special break for us. So as our team was kind of just observing Jeff right, and his, this relationship he had with the teacher, but at the same time we're, that's what we're, that's our business model, right?

It's our philosophy. Yeah. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Um, anyway, so from, from Macon, Georgia. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: We drove south. Yep. And, uh, hit [00:43:30] Orlando. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And we stayed in Orlando. Um, and we went to the Orlando Fire Department. Mm-hmm. Chief Fernandez. Yep. And Chief Salazar, they're fire chief down there. Yep. Um, special, special fire department.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. We've met them before and dealt with. Super. Nice. 

Erik: You know what's so cool, speaking of, you know, with the whole thing with Jeff and the educator, chief Fernandez. Down in Orlando, we met at a conference in Tucson and he came to me at a social, and, and he came right up to me and he's like, Hey, you're doing something special here.

Mm-hmm. We need this in [00:44:00] MS education. Mm-hmm. I'm just super impressed. I just want you to know that. Yeah. You know, I'll never forget that. Yeah. And so we've, we've kind of stayed in touch. Yeah. And so to be able to go to his department. And bring him some gifts and take a tour of their beautiful department.

Mm-hmm. It was really beautiful. Loved it. 

Matt: Well, and that was, remember the very first conference we ever went to was EMS World in 2002. Yeah. And we were right across from Orange County Fire Rescue, which Orlando is in Orange County. That's right. Florida not, I didn't realize there was so many name similarities between, there are, between [00:44:30] Florida and California.

Maybe we should have gone from Orange County to Orange County. Well, I think, well, yes, we kind of did. We did. Yeah. But uh, but yeah, we met the Orlando guys there too. That was kind of one of the first, it was we met their chief and everything. Yeah. Super nice guys. And their 

Erik: four medical directors 

Matt: came by.

That was, that was Orange County Fire Rescue. Okay. Yeah, I think that was, those were those, I think we met the medical director for Orlando too. 

Erik: I did learn though, or maybe they're all, it's actually Orange County EMS. Oh, okay. Orange County EMS is the kind of the big group that's 3,500 firefighters and paramedics.

And they 

Matt: run EMS in [00:45:00] Orlando? 

Erik: Correct. Got it. Okay. And so then, uh, they have, um, Orlando City is where we went with Chief Fernandez. Yeah. Yeah. And they've got. I don't know, a thousand or something. Yeah, it's pretty big. A lot. It's pretty big. Yeah. Um, and they may be one of the biggest ones in Orlando ES.

That's right. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Um, but Orange County EMS is got all sorts of, um, agencies under their umbrella, so 3,500 total people. So, and that, and, and we have the opportunity to talk to those medical directors. Yeah. And I even have met with. The, their [00:45:30] office of medical direction. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and then they're just tip of the spear folks.

Yeah. They, and they're interested in our content because they see the value in optimizing education. Oh, yeah, yeah. All facets of it. Yeah. Which is so fun for us. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: So Orlando was cool. 

Matt: Yep. And then we made the fi You made the final step. 

Erik: We did, yeah. So this is it. We're coming down to the end, and then about 200 miles out of our final, well, no, we gotta stop because.

So back in San Diego. Mm-hmm. Such a disappointment. Oh, the, with the [00:46:00] aircraft carrier, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, throughout the whole trip. Jason, you're trying to, well, you know Jason. Yeah. We haven't talked about Jason. Yeah. But he's super organized on point. Yes, he is. Get or done guy. 

Matt: He was the guy that was going, let's go at gas stops, we gotta go.

Yeah. And I 

Erik: appreciated that. Absolutely. Because I'm not that way. You gotta have somebody keeping you on. If he wasn't there, we'd still be on the trip right now. 

Matt: We'd still be at the Hollywood sign. 

Erik: Hey guys, let's go to Alaska anyway. So wait, are we 

Matt: going south or Easter? What Doesn't matter. 

Erik: Oh man. I'm so [00:46:30] glad for you guys.

'cause if, if, if we didn't have you, this trip would've not gone so well. That's such a, such a truth. Anyway, so, um, we, uh, Jason had been making fun of me the whole way. It's like, man, this alligator wrestling thing's not gonna happen Eric, because the guy Rick Kramer, by the way. Yeah. Awesome guy. Yeah. Um, and, uh, he, he and out there in, in, uh, Arcadia, Florida have this, this wonderful business.

Rick Cramer, you gotta look him up. Uh, take you out on these tours. You can go [00:47:00] all sorts of. Alligator hunting while boar hunting, uh, iguana hunting. I mean, this is really a special thing. Yeah. Well, Rick Kramer and I, I knew, I told Jason, I said, Hey, listen, I met this guy. I talked to him on the phone. I can tell he is a man of his word.

I, I just in talking to him. Yeah. But, um, Rick and I are very similar, I think. Um, he didn't return a lot of my calls. 

Matt: Right. 

Erik: Hey, I love him. Yeah. But he's a man of his word. Yeah. He didn't need to talk again. Yeah. I mean he told me we've already talked. I don't think he told you three [00:47:30] times. Right, right. I probably bothered him with all the calls.

Why are you calling me again? Well, I was only calling 'cause Jason was worried. Yeah, let's confirm. I was worried. I already confirmed. I could tell Rick Kramer's a man of his word. I knew it was gonna happen and it did. He texted me, be here at this address at 3:00 PM on the ninth and we'll be good to go.

Well I 

Matt: remember when you got that text. 'cause we hadn't heard from him in like two, three days. And I think that's when Jason's like, well, Jason's 

Erik: nervous. And 

Matt: then all of a sudden you got this text like, okay, I guess this is still on. But 

Erik: even then he's like, no, 'cause we hadn't paid anything. Oh yeah. And it was.

A certain amount of money to hold our spot. Yeah. Yeah. And [00:48:00] online it's thousands to do these things that can be, you know, yeah. And, and it's expensive. Yeah. But when we did. Do this adventure with Rick. I can see why people spend a lot of money. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: But anyway, uh, I was in the hotel doing the elliptical, working out early in the morning, and I got this about, I think it was about six 30 in the morning.

Rick and I talked on the phone to confirm things that day. Yeah. And so we knew we were good. Yeah. And um, even then, Jason's like, I don't know, [00:48:30] but we got out there Arcadia, Florida. And shout out to Culver's too. Oh yeah. We ate at Culver's Burgers. That's cool. Amazing foods. I mean, 

Matt: they're concretes. Oh, well 

Erik: you probably didn't 

Matt: have concrete.

Erik: No. 

Matt: What's that? That's the, I think that's Culver's. Isn't that the, don't they have the like the shakes that they call like a concrete or something? Oh, maybe I didn't have a shake. I didn't have a shake, but no. Yeah. 'cause you're Mr. Healthy guy. No, no, no. Ralph would've a shake. I have think he did have a shake.

That's my guy, dude. He had a shake. 

Erik: I remember being jealous. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Uh, I 

Matt: think [00:49:00] they call him concretes, if I remember correctly. If I'm wrong, I apologize. Custard 

Erik: they got, they're famous for their custard. Oh, maybe that's what it's, I don't know. 

Matt: Concrete cu. 

Erik: Yeah, but they're burgers though. Are amazing. 

Matt: Oh yeah.

No. Yes. 

Erik: Burger of the Year. Yes. Of over a bunch of competitors that you've heard of. Yes. They're Burger One. Their Butter Burger. Anyway, we all got 

Matt: very good, Culver 

Erik: Good food, so we stopped. But they 

Matt: were a sponsor. 

Erik: Yes, that's right. They were a sponsor and they helped, uh, fund of the whole trip. They did.

They, they were so generous and they didn't want credit. They just wanted to help us because they believe in first responders. I'm giving you credit. [00:49:30] Yes, we are. Um, but we, we had our fun with the alligators. Yeah. Tons of fun. Yeah. We went out, uh, and, uh, and I was actually, I, I mean, well, don't give too much away.

Matt: I, 'cause it'll be in a lecture. 

Erik: I did a fireman's carry on an out. I saw an, an eight foot alligator 

Matt: I saw coming out of the water like Crocodile Dundee. 

Erik: It was amazing. So it was fun, fun trip. But, and again, the theme there was medical errors. Right? They can come back and bite you. Right. So that was the theme.

Um, anyway, we, um. We've got about a 150 miles or so to get to Hollywood, [00:50:00] Florida. So yeah, we drove there and we ran outta gas. Yeah. 

Matt: Oh, you ran outta gas? Did you not 

Erik: hear this? 

Matt: No, I heard something about something smoking and other things, but I didn't hear about running outta gas. 

Erik: Yeah, it was a gas leak. Oh, a gas leak.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. And so we, um, I literally had to push the vehicle, uh, into position of gas station. 'cause Dennis 

Matt: said, you've gotta push it. 

Erik: So I wasn't in the vehicle when it moved about a hundred feet. Oh, don't tell him Devin, but you were in contact. Devin got into steer it while I pushed it, [00:50:30] so That's funny.

Anyway, so, um, we, uh, we, we made it, we filled it up with gas and it, we, the gas needle was going down fast, filled up again. I mean, it was, we made it. We made it. So you just 

Matt: couldn't find 

Erik: the leak just kept, we have video footage of gas leaking out. Oh, wow. While we were driving. Well, remember 

Matt: that one time? I wonder.

No, it couldn't have been then. 'cause that was that paint that was on the road. We thought something was Ralph and I, it was, what is it? 

Erik: It was 

Matt: paint. Yeah. Yeah. It was terrible. I felt so bad. I thought it was water. Yes. Yeah. We're looking going, what is that? It looked like [00:51:00] smoke at first. Yes. When we were driving across the, I felt so bad because he's got 

Erik: this super expensive Cadillac ambulance and I'd drive right through the the paints cloud.

Oh, they were so bummed. They were wiping it down. I felt really bad. I thought it was water. Why would they be doing water anyway? That doesn't make any sense. It was definitely paint. Yeah. 

Matt: Anyway. All right. So 

Erik: Florida, we ba it, 

Matt: you got, you got the gas in, you make it to Florida. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. We did a great lecture, uh, on there, a CE credit.

But before we did that though, we got there. The news media was there. Well, you'll [00:51:30] see, I mean, the city 

Matt: was there. 

Erik: Miami, the largest news affiliate in Miami was there. Yeah. To cover us. What a It was pretty overwhelming actually. Yeah. And, uh, they're all lined up with the American flag from the aerial ladder and, and, uh, they, uh, got in and.

And, uh, had a ceremony. The, the adjudicator. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: You have officially broken the ness. World record for longest ambulance journey. Yeah. 3,200. So we didn't, 

Matt: it wasn't a transport, 

Erik: it was a journey. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. It's a journey. 

Erik: Yeah. And it then, you know what, it [00:52:00] was amazing. Didn't matter what it was to actually hold a world record.

Now we made it and we did it and encouraged so many people along the way. 

Matt: Now you had a little, what was, what happened on your forehead? I never got that story. 

Erik: Start here. This is my CPAP line, 

Matt: but that's my what? What was the, what happened there was that, did you bang your head? I mean, make it sound something like the alligator tooth accidentally hit.

That's what it was. Okay. We were 

Erik: wrestling. Really what 

Matt: it was was you were changing. My head was in its 

Erik: mouth. True story. I will tell you the true story, and [00:52:30] actually on the news, they kind of alluded to that. Why do you have a. Uh, a sta strip on your forehead. And it really, I got a head laceration and, and the news folks ran with the whole alligator thing.

But the truth is, um, and I, I, I didn't stop them, I just let her run with it. Oh shit. I was making my bed in the hotel. Did you, did I tell you this? No, I didn't 

Matt: know I was, 

Erik: I never wanted to ask how. Well, we got a few minutes [00:53:00] left here. I'll tell you the story. So, oh, it's 

Matt: that long of a story. 

Erik: I was sleeping on a prison mattress.

Uh, 'cause we were in a room with two queens and there's three of us. So I got the rollaway, and this rollaway was a prison mattress. I mean, it was springy metal springs. I mean, really a terrible mattress. Oh, I've been there. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And the guys actually felt bad. Ralph wanted me to sleep with him and his queen, but no, I'm not doing that.

And so I, it's two large men, so Right. The mattress is in front of me, Uhhuh. And they give you in the [00:53:30] closet, like the bag? Yeah. Plastic bag with the sheets in it. Yeah. And there's a lamp right there in front of my face. While I'm making the bed down here. Well, I went to whip the, the blanket to, you know.

Yeah. Spread it out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, somehow when I whipped it, it caught the, the lamp and went bam. Right in my face. And I like, anyway, Ralph falls off the bed laughing at me. AJ didn't laugh at all. He was like, came up to me and there's a blood coming down my face like, doc, you're [00:54:00] bleeding. That's 

Matt: why Ralph and I are kindred spirits.

'cause I'd have been laughing too. He's fine. 

Erik: Yeah. He. 

Matt: Oh, that's funny. 

Erik: It wasn't just a belly line feeder. It was pretty good. It was a just, yeah, absolute. You couldn't, he could not hold it. 

Matt: Oh, that's awesome. 

Erik: So I am bleeding. Okay. Put the stereo strip on my head. I carry meds and Yeah. Yeah. Bandages with me.

'cause this happens all the time. Gook. Yeah. Anyway, so. That was, uh, part of Hollywood, Florida. But the, the one thing I will end with here as we finish this up is so cool is that [00:54:30] Hollywood, Florida Chief ral, his crew, amazing tour of the most amazing department, old, most amazing antique firetruck I've ever seen in my life.

Uh, there in a, a bubble. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. 

Erik: Don't touch. Amazing. Yeah. Um, but I will say this, the reason we did this trip was to highlight how important EMS education is. Mm-hmm. And we learned something very special there. I was teaching some patterns, EKG patterns mm-hmm. That we miss that are, are heart attacks, but we don't.

Right. The OMI thing. Right. And, uh, [00:55:00] I taught those patterns to these, uh, firefighters and, and uh, what was so special is this is new literature. Nobody's expected to know all these things. 'cause this literature came out in November, just a few months ago. 

Matt: Yeah. We did a 

Erik: and um. It was so fun teaching them things that they are now looking for in Hollywood, Florida.

So I'm in Las Vegas playing blackjack with my brother and one of the Hollywood firefighters was there and she was getting married and she grabbed me sitting at the hot blackjack table doc and I [00:55:30] turned around. She's there anyway. And I was, I was thinking to myself, it is amazing, these people. That's funny.

And she's found, uh, two patterns. She caught it. Yeah. And uh, we were. Just to me, I was thinking, I just taught them. Yeah, just a few days ago. And here they are. So that's great. Small world. We love our partners, we love teaching. So when you watch our our stuff, you're learning things and you're getting better at what you do.

And your communities are safer. 

Matt: And we are in the record books officially, Guinness Book of World Records, long as Journey by Ambulance, thanks to all the sponsors and fire departments. [00:56:00] Amazing. And, uh. We'll see 'em on the next one 

Erik: and we got episodes coming out, so be safe out there. 

Matt: That's right.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to EMS, the Erik and Matt Show. 

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