22 Acres of Meier's Creek Brewing Company

In 2016, 22 acres of farmland located outside Cazenovia, NY belonged to a different brewery with different goals. Fast forward to 2019 when that brewery was replaced with Meier's Creek Brewing Company and the result was some of the finest IPA's and sours variety in Central New York. So prepare to be Chasing Goosebumps and give Maximum Effort  because It Takes Blue To Tango. Hey, Don't Act Like You're Not Impressed. Okay, enough puns before we get a call from Berry Manilow.

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Transcript

So hi,  it's been a minute.  We've been busy.  

We're always busy. Always busy doing something. This is the problem. There's no time to breathe. That's 

right. 

When we were like, Oh, we're going to have this great wide open summer and then every day just stacks up with things to do. 

Right. Um, we're, we're going into a very special subject for this episode. 

Uh, we actually started off with a beer earlier on the porch because it is currently 80 degrees here in Buffalo and it's, and the sun's going down, it's almost down. So it's gonna be a spicy one tonight. 

It was beautiful though. 

Yeah, it was really nice. We, uh, we started off with, uh, tangible objects.  And that's from Myers Creek Brewing Company.

That's going to be the subject of our conversation today. 

That was the one that we were supposed to take a picture with a Rubik's Cube. 

Yes. Because 

they have it on the front of the beer can. 

But you have one, but it's elsewhere located that's not easily accessible, right?  

Yeah. I'm sure it's somewhere.

Okay. So it's somewhere.  It's somewhere. 

You know, those things where, you know, you have them and they're somewhere, right? That's where it is.  

So tangible, uh, tangible objects is a hazy IPA with Matawika, uh, and yeah, easy for me to say Matawika and, uh, mosaic hops. So Matawika hops, because I like me some, uh, New Zealand hops.

It's a New Zealand flavor. And aroma of fresh tropical limes.  And that's what you, that's no wonder I 

loved it so much.  

And then mosaic, obviously we know that's floral, it's tropical, it's fruity, um, and a little bit of an earthy characteristic. So I liked the earthiness of it. Um, 

I liked the fruitiness.

Yeah, it was light. It was nice. It was good. It was super refreshing. 

And the, uh, the art is great. It's got this, um, what would you say? A beer brewing designed.  Kind of a Rubik's cube like all of the individual colors have like symbols from brewing. Yeah  So I like that a lot. Yeah art is always fun. Can't I love it?

I love it We got some episodes that are coming up like  when we when we go when we go back to the Canadian invasion  We'll be talking about another brewery where we can  Really explore can art. I mean, I think a lot of  think a lot of people When they go to buy certain beers are sometimes attracted. 

Well, that's what we've talked about before.

How many times you go to like pick a pack at Wegmans and the thing that stands out to you the most is a 

right. 

Your favorites, right? So like your favorite breweries or whatever, you will always see because it's like eye catching to you. And then secondly, can art, you'll say, Ooh, Oh, What is this beer? It looks so pretty.

I remember you got, look at this is so cool.  

I remember you got an IPA one time that had a dinosaur on the label and you loved it. Only because I 

wanted the diet. I could care less what the beer was. I wanted the can when it was gone. Yeah, it happened to be good beer. It was good. But  

yeah. And then when we went to brood and bottled not too long ago, um, I have a can, it's still in the fridge that hasn't been drank yet.

It's, it's hazy world order. Um, which is a wrestling theme  beer, but I haven't drank it cause I've got a, uh, kind of a tick tock ish idea for it that I've got to 

make, I just 

got to figure out how to make it come to fruition. 

You and your wrassling. 

My wrassling.  But yeah, so that was before, but now we're drinking out and I'll make sure you get the enunciation down on this.

What are we drinking now?  

I'm Ron Burgundy. Yes, that's 

right. 

Did I do it properly? Did I tell a 

prompter? It's a grapefruit Westie with Chinook and Simcoe hops. Uh, and so what we will say about this, because we are limited at what we're allowed to say about this beer, uh, because of our fine friends now at Myers Creek Brewing Company, is that. This four pack that we picked up is from the very last run of I'm Ron Burgundy, right? 

So we will not be seeing that anymore. Thus. That means one of these cans will be saved for the collection shelf  

So 

there will be no more. I am Ron Burgundy  to be produced.  Yeah, but it was a good run Yeah, you know  So they you know, I can tell the fine folks of  San Diego, you know You  Bye and good night. 

Hilarious.  

So Meyers Creek Brewing Company, we had a great time out there, uh, actually over your birthday weekend, took a little, uh, uh, trip out to Syracuse. So the majority of that trip we're going to talk about in another episode, but we wanted to carve out Meyers Creek because we had such a fun experience.

It 

was okay. So are we just going to get right into how gorgeous it was when you pulled up to it? 

Yeah. Well, you, we can. Yeah. I 

was, I was shocked. So I had no idea. I've never seen pictures. I'm not, I, we're on Instagram, but like, I feel like I'm not on Instagram. Right. You're really into socials where I'm just like a pop in for a minute, pop out.

I don't know. Maybe I just, I, I don't have the attention span for screen time after I sit in front of one all day long. No, 

I get it. 

I think that's my problem. Right? Like as much as I want to see stuff, I just, I can't.  So anyways, I had never seen anything, just heard because you added to our list of stuff.

Right. 

You know? So I was like, all right, cool. And you're like, oh, there's two of them. We're going to go to the one that's kind of the farm first, whatever. So anyways, we pull into this place. Incredible. 

Yeah. The 

building is beautiful. 

Beautiful. 

Yeah. And there was like, uh, hops  

when you're driving in. Right.

Yep. To the left as you drive in. And then this 

humongous building. 

Yes. 

And I don't know where you, uh, wrote in here, talking about it, but I mean, 

so, yeah, there's a lot of things to be said about it, because Myers Creek wasn't always Myers Creek has only been Myers Creek since, um,  2020. Uh, so the big information here, if I can get this to scroll correctly, cause you know, technology, um, yeah, so, okay.

Oh, I love this part. I love this part right here. Is this where you always 

say fat fingers? Yes. 

Fat fingers. And why am I not using my mouse? Because I probably knocked it on the floor. I don't, I don't know one of these days when we do a video component, this podcast, it's going to, they're going to die, right?

It's like, you guys are such  amateurs. Yeah.  

Well, at least they know we do this in one take. So  

that's right. You go back to 2016, it used to be known as Empire Farm Brewery. So Empire Farm Brewery was owned by Empire Brewing Company, which had a brew pub that was in the city of Syracuse. 2016, they opened the empire farm brewery, which is at this location.

If you're going to GPS it, it's the same place where Myers Creek is now. It's 33 Rippleton road in Casanova, New York, uh, was at that time it was recognized as the largest farm based brewery on the East coast. Um, but in August of 2019, they found themselves 10 million in the hole. 

Which is so crazy 

in just, yeah, in just three years time and it was wild and they declared bankruptcies.

So in 2000, in November of 2019,  they closed, but it wasn't until, um, Feldmeier and the, the word Feldmeier is the name of the company, but Meyer comes in obviously important here. So Feldmeier Equipment Company out of DeWitt, which is a suburb of Syracuse,  Owned was still owed about 300, 000 for the work that they did on the place.

Um, so with that, they just decided to go into the bankruptcy auction and spend 3. 44 million. And, um, I mean, I think that's fair. They got 10 times their money back pretty much. 

Yeah. 

Yep.  And so then as a result, they were able to get the, uh, the property, um, the land and the equipment. Um, and then obviously, you know, like we know that, you know, working in real estate, they rolled the building into an LLC and then, uh, then Myers Creek brewing company was born from that.

Uh, so then. They didn't open until August of 2020 because obviously everything was going on with the brewing industry, the COVID 19 pandemic, fast forward. Here we are. And you know, things are just, aren't the same anymore, but. For August 19th, 2020, they finally opened the doors there. And then the brewing facility is itself the tap room just outside of the lakeside town of Casanova.

It's about 25 miles Southeast. Would you say, I think is where it is. Yeah. Yeah. I would say Southeast of Syracuse, uh, in the legit heart of New York state. Like if you were to drop a pin in the center of New York state, 

really, I, I actually never looked at it. Pretty close to Casanova, yeah. 

That's pretty cool, right?

That is neat. So all of the brewing and the bottling takes place on site, as well as they have 16 taps there. It's a three patio, or a three season patio. I don't know why it can't be four, you know, but they also have the beer garden there. Beautiful beer garden that we experienced.  Floor to ceiling windows, amazing views.

If you're on the outside looking in or vice versa. So, 

you know what I imagine? I mean, it was a gorgeous day. So we sat outside, but I thought to myself, like, isn't it really lodgy looking where those huge windows, if it's snowing outside, how absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous that has to be. Right. Cause all that open land behind it and you can watch the snow falling with those gigantic windows 

on the backside of the property, the land drops off.

So there's an upper patio and have a lower patio area. And then the hill drops way down. 

Right. So I just thought about the snow. I know. Horrible to think about. We finally have come into summer in Buffalo, but I'm already like, it would be so pretty with snow. 

Yeah. Well, like they said, they said, you know, there's a view of Casanova Lake, but it's a better view during the wintertime when the leaves aren't on the trees.

Well, right. So we saw it when we walked out there. You could see it. It's kind of like if you're in the back of the property, it was off to the right. Right. Yeah, but I can totally see how if the leaves weren't there, you could really, really see it. Right. So, 

um, yeah, so it's, they, they have a variety of, um, elevated American fair lunch, uh, dinner options, and then it's 22 acres that they sit on again, beautiful, beautiful space that they're on.

And then it features the hop fields that we saw in the front and apparently there's barley fields, but I don't remember having a conversation about barley fields there. And they also have an active AP area, uh, to people who don't know what that is. That is a place where you not only keep bees, but you do it specifically for the collection of honey. 

So they're Honey Kolsch, which we also picked up. Mo, Mo,  Mo Money Mo Kolsch. 

No. 

Is that what it was called? 

I don't think so. 

I don't know. 

Go get one. 

It's in the, no, I ain't getting up right now. Um, but I think that's, I'm pretty sure that's what it was called. So,  so then there's a path down the hill and it connects up to the, uh, the Berlin game trail network that's there in Cazenovia.

So there's walking, hiking, and apparently during the winter also there's snowshoeing down in that area too.  So that, um, you know, 

wait, did you talk about the disc golf?  

Oh, and they have a disc golf course. That's right. 

That is the thing you were like the most excited about. 

That's right. That's right.

Because you're like, oh, you sell disc golf? They have disc golf. And she's like, er, disc for golf. And then she said, oh yeah. And then we saw when we went to the parking lot. 

Yeah, there were cages down, there were cages down the hill there.  

I can't believe you forgot about that. That was like the thing you were so excited about.

I was very 

stoked about that. 

I know. Oh, you're right and I'm wrong. Moe honey, moe kosh. 

Okay. I, I, you know, I just, it was one of those things I'm like trying to think of it as like. I don't know.  Did I have it right?  Yeah. So our point of contact there was Janie, who is, uh, who is one of their marketing heads there and, uh, you know, she, and it's kind of funny cause I don't know, we looked lost or something because we get there and she picks us out. 

Are you, are you Jason's Sabrina? Yes, we are. 

Possibly because we were at the end of the bar with no beverages. 

Right.  Right. Plus we told her we were on our way. So,  yeah, but we, uh, we got the opportunity to talk with her for quite a while. Um, we, they took us, she took us into the tank room, massive, massive tank room, um, 60 barrel systems back there that they use for their, uh, distribution production.

And that's where we learned about the, uh, the Feldmayer name. Uh, originally it was that all the tanks are from Feldmeyer and DeWitt and that Feldmeyer is actually the owner of,  of, um, Myers Creek. So that was really cool to, uh, to learn.  Um, and then she took us back to the cooler, which was probably the best experience.

I love when we get to keep secrets. 

So cool. 

Yeah. So we got to take some pictures of some cans that were coming out that weekend. 

Yeah. That we were, we had to like hold in until the release date. It 

was Kentucky Derby weekend. Yup. So they had, that's always my birthday. They had a Lucha Libre. That was 

coming out on my birthday, Cinco de Mayo.

Cinco 

de Mayo. Yep. And then, uh, they had a Deadpool themed beer. 

Yep. That we saw them taking the picture for Instagram. 

That was so cute. I even commented, I'm like, I was standing right behind you when you took the picture.  Um, yeah, so we got the opportunity and then, you know, the, what the only agreement was that we hang on to them until they released it.

And then you could put it, I followed minutes behind,  see them pop up. Yeah. So it was really cool. Um, you know, then one, uh,  uh, let's see here. And then like you were saying in the beginning, you know, what a great.  What a great space that they're in there. And there were a lot of like originally they only had one person working the entire floor, but they were getting ready to bring in their regular crews for the day.

And then all of these families from the Syracuse university graduation showed up and 

just filled the place. But you know, it was funny because. No one was irritated about it at all. No, it was snow. It was just a beautiful day. And if it took like a little longer for your beer to arrive, nobody was caring because people were, I think the big crowd was for graduation.

So I think families were just chatting and talking and congratulating. And you saw all these people coming up and shaking hands and, you know. You know, other people that 

really didn't know each other, right. Other 

people who were graduating, who knew each other, but their families never met each other. And like, it was kind of neat to watch actually.

And we didn't figure it out until everybody was wearing orange.  Yeah. And then we overheard some conversations and we were like, Oh, Syracuse university graduation. That's what's happening. 

Yep. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. There was a, but they were a well oiled machine, man. Yeah. They were  all cylinders with as crazy as that place got.

So fast out 

food, rolling out drinks, suddenly there's tons of staff. It's like they, they made a phone call. It was like all emergency personnel, please report  

bring an apron, bring an apron.  

Yeah. Yeah. 

Well, we had, we had such a great conversation with Jane. He learned a lot about the business and then, you know, just being able to do some research on the back end about, you know, where they came from because she was talking to us about the early days when it was empire.

And I remember even in the days before the podcast, when I would, You know, get some of the Empire beers and I'm like, okay, they're, yeah, they're all right, you know, and I, um, But then we get into Myers Creek and we kept hearing about how Myers Creek had these like solid IPAs and these really good sours.

Yeah, and then we had a 

couple of tastings at some beer events that we went to and that's what really got us excited about Like we have to go visit this campus. They were 

a must. Yeah, they were definitely a must. Um, yeah, so we, we definitely had a great time on the Casanova campus. If you get an opportunity to get out there, I mean, I, I don't, I can't say enough about it.

We were so excited to try so many beers. We had two flights. Yeah. 

Yeah, 

because we couldn't even decide  

Yeah, like I said, we ended up bringing home like this  tangible objects, I'm Ron Burgundy and We did a 

multi four pack. We did your four of I'm Ron Burgundy. I'm 

right 

And a four pack of the Kolsch because holy cow  Yeah, I'm really loving kohl's this year.

I don't know if everybody's just making them really good this year. You're having a good time. Yeah, I am, which is surprising because it's not usually something where I would choose. But when I was just away in Ohio, I also ordered one that was like a lemon. Yeah.  

Was it, um, Warped Wing? Was it? No, it wasn't 

there.

It was at the, um, which we did go there, but it was not there. It was at the Irish restaurant we had dinner at. Oh, 

okay. 

And it was actually from a local, um, brewery. So what I thought was cool was the place that we stopped at, all their beers. They didn't, obviously they're just an Irish place, but instead of having, which they did, the Harp, the Smith Wicks, the everything.

They also had. All these different local beers on tap. So I thought that was really neat. Okay. I wasn't prepared thinking that we were going to talk about Dayton, but Oh, that's okay. We actually aren't. I know, but I was super excited about this beer. 

I just like the fact that you've gotten into Kolsch's, and what makes that more exciting is the fact that they have that apiary on site, and that's where they're getting their honey from.

It was 

North High Lemon Kolsch. 

Oh, okay. All right. I remember you saying that name. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, that was quite nice. 

I find pictures quickly. 

Yes, you do.  You have 20, 000 pictures on your phone and you can find things quicker. And I'm like, gosh, where was that? You're like  spinning the thing like I'm  Spinning the big wheel and the price is right going.

Please stop at a dollar. Please stop at a dollar  It didn't stop at 

a dollar. Oh 

my gosh So, uh, so Myers Creek also has a second, uh,  It's located, so they call it the inner Harbor tap room. And it's at a seven 20 van Rensselaer street. And it's up on the tip of Onondaga lake. 

Yeah. Can we talk about real quick?

Is it not in your notes on how we got there? 

Oh yeah. Well, let's say it's well then it's in the notes, but you go, you tell us, you tell us about it anyway. 

So we love hiking and we decided that we are going to go hike. What is it called? 

It's the Empire State Trail. 

Yeah, so it's just like a city hiking trail really right?

The Empire State 

Trail is a 750 mile trail. The Western Terminus, I like this one because you don't know this one. No, I don't know anything about this. I brought this fact to the table. I was just like super excited. The Western Terminus is located at The Western Terminus. at Buffalo Harbor State Park right across the road from Tift Nature Preserve.

Okay. So when we're looking out over the water from the Knoll. 

Yeah. 

That's where the, the Western terminus of the East, the Empire State Trail is right. It starts there. Right there. 

Oh my Lord. 

And it goes all the way to Troy, New York. Wow. On the Hudson Valley. 

Okay. Well, we, we did a little piece of it.

Including this little five mile stretch that we did.  So we 

decided we were going to park in like, um, whatever, just a lot. in the middle. Yeah. We were next to 

the Niagara Hudson building in downtown Syracuse. 

Yeah. And then we ended up walking 

about five miles 

to go to the other one, which was, I loved it.

Yeah. It was really cool. I mean, it was a 

beautiful day and I love to be outside. Oh, you know, 

when we went to that other episode, we'll talk about all the breweries we hit along the way. Cause there were some surprises and there were some really great things that we saw. It was Kentucky Derby day. So we were kind of searching for like.

Derby cocktails, which was funny. We didn't find any,  

but, um, we'll get into that another time. But the point is, is we walked there. So it was neat to be able to, I feel like sometimes when you, when you drive and just park right by your destination, you never realize what's really around it. And for us not being local, right.

I loved being able to like walk and then walking up to it. 

Right. 

You know, I didn't think it was going to be there. Like we come up to this building and it's like for lease, for lease, this big, beautiful building. And I'm like, is this the place? And you're like, yeah, it's around the corner. And it's like right there on the corner. 

Yeah. They, uh, so there's a group called the, uh, the core development group. Um, they're, a project they're called the Iron Pier Development and it's right on the inner harbor area. So there's a huge hotel down at the end with a bunch of docks 

and 

then the inlet goes all the way out to Onondaga Lake, which we 

passed that, right?

We walked between them. 

Yeah. We walked 

between the parking lots, I think is where the, yeah, kind of comes through. Yeah. Yeah. 

So it's, it's an area that's under development right now. Um,  The aerial photographs was really interesting to see because we walked by these gigantic parking lots that we found out were connected to Destiny USA, which is a massive outlet mall up there. 

Um, Yeah, which was interesting that you need that much overflow parking for that mall,  whatever, whatever. But there's, but there's some, a lot of like fenced in lots there that haven't been developed yet, but then here's this iron pier development complex. And then they decided, Hey, we want to have something with, you know, food and drink.

So whatever they did in bringing Myers Creek in there now, bam, you have the, uh, the inner Harbor, um, I mean, they, in turn that went in, in 2018. Oh, no, I'm sorry. The complex itself opened in 2018 and then they put the tap room in in 2022. I think it was January 22. Yeah.  January. Well, it has a 

super long, huge bar like the other one.

So that's cool. Lots of bar seating and then a bunch of tables too. So there's plenty of room in that one too, even though it's smaller, right?  

Yeah. So they got more, more than a hundred. High end apartments there. And then the tap room was the latest edition. And then I know we got into a conversation about Syracuse's development because they, they've, they're really doing some things and you found out that they have one of the lowest tax rates of any County in New York state.

Right. Which is 

crazy. 

Um,  So that, yeah, it seems like it was put there for the appeal of the inner harbor. And it's, you know, it's mostly vacant on that side of the harbor, but you can tell that there, because even in the aerial views, I saw the building that's next to it, which is like, it's still being done. 

Um, they're doing all the interior work on it now. But in the aerial photos, that building's not there. 

Oh, okay. 

So that second building is, you know, is getting ready to get filled in and ready to go. But yeah, we had the, uh, that, you know, trying to, again, that Kentucky Derby experience. So we went to the Inner Harbor one.

We had the Deadpool beer, excuse me, the Deadpool beer. And we had the Lucha  beer as well that they did for Cinco de Mayo.  

It wasn't out yet. 

No, 

it didn't come out until the next time. Did we not have it? No, we did not. 

Oh, we never had the lychee beer, guys.  I was wrong. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. So, we sat at the bar.

Now, listen, they, Myers Creek doesn't pay us anything or, or give us anything to, you know, say nice things or, or whatever. But one thing that we can be is honest. Like, I, I don't have anything bad to say about either location. It just seems like the Inner Harbor, you location, just,  I don't know. They just, for some reason, they just didn't have it together when we were there.

Well, okay. Here's my opinion.  I feel like it was the country versus the city. 

It could be, yeah. 

So the country is everyone's nice. Everybody's welcoming. Da, da, da. It's just the way the country vibe is. Then you go to the city and what do you, what, what is the city?  It's a bunch of yelling. It's a bunch of, you know what I mean?

Like it's hustle bustle. Like you have to get people's attention. Like that's just the difference between the city and the country. So I feel like it kind of, you could almost feel the city versus the country immensely. 

I just, you know, we walked in, we kind of, so we had to, we had to use the restroom first thing, cause we'd been walking a few miles, like we said.

And so we sit down at the bar and you, you know, there's three of us, 

many years.  

Yeah. And then there's like six people that are milling around behind the bar, but nobody's communicating. Everybody seems like they were walking on top of each other. Mm-Hmm.  . I just didn't understand why there needed to be six people be behind the bar and then, which none of them were beer pourers, and we were just sitting there.

Right. And nobody was talking, saying anything. Right. 'cause they don't 

pour beer. 

And you know me, I'm not one to flag somebody down because should I have to flag you down? Except for I did . Well, you listen.  Yeah. You know, you'll, you'll point things out to people in a second because you ain't dealing with that nonsense.

I let it go for a little bit and then a girl walked by and I said, can we order a beer?  

Yeah. I just didn't understand like why there, you know, again, why there were six people behind the bar and nobody on the floor.  And that was the thing was a lot of people who were trying to close out, they were walking up and going, Hey, can we like, 

get a, yeah, so there was some sort of disconnect going on.

I don't, I don't know. I don't know if it was like that day. I don't know.  

It's not, it's, I don't know. It's not a negative thing. I mean, I would go back there again. It's just, for some reason, it just seemed,  it just seemed very off. No, I'm not going to say, I can't say anything bad about Meyers Creek. 

That's what I'm saying.

The beer is great. 

You know, their selections are, are great. And then everything that you ever heard about them, IPA sours, they're on top. And 

I mean, here's the thing is even local breweries that we go to here. Think about like,  say I've gone to brewery a 15 times. Well, there's also going to be 13 of those times that are going to be great.

And two of them that are not, you know what I mean? It's just going to depend on who's your staff. What kind of day are they having? Do they give a, you know,  Crap that day where they like, I hate my job. I don't want to pour your stinking beer today, you know what I mean? Like, you know, there's always those the same place that we love to go Sometimes you show up and you're like, yeah, what is happening today?

Yeah. 

You know, so it could have been one of those for there. 

I tell you the next time I, next time we get out there, that's going to be one of my stops because I just, I loved everything about Myers Creek. Every selection that they had, there was nothing that I was like, meh, nothing. Yeah. I mean, we 

had those two flights and I don't know that there was one beer and there have been places that we have gone to where I tasted them like, meh, it's all right.

I don't really like that one, you know, or whatever. And, um, cause they can't all be winners, but I mean, we had two flights and they were all great beers. Myers 

Creek did everything from scratch too. Cause one of the things they didn't get in the bankruptcy sales, they didn't get, they didn't get any recipes that all went with empire.

That's kind of good. They had to do everything from scratch. 

That's Probably why the beer is so great. 

Um, yeah, in my research, I think their very first beer they ever put out in 2020 was an IPA. So it does not surprise me that they,  yeah, you know, and we're doing right now, we're literally in the dead center of our IPAs for days series.

I'm barely getting started. We've talked about, uh, we just got done talking about double IPAs. We talked about IPAs themselves and we talked about how they came from English pale ale that were like half done, put on a boat. To go to India, hence the India pale ale. And then that 

is a fun 

fact. I 

didn't know that.

Yeah. 

Well, if you listen to the episodes, you, you know, you look, you'd learn,  

you know, 

available wherever you listen,  you're a little busy. 

I create these episodes with you, but it's so funny because I end up, I'm like the worst with it. So I don't listen to anything until one day I will be working at home and I'll turn it on and I'll listen to like.

Eight hours of episodes. You really can't, 

you'd have to listen like, you know, cause you're just working all the time. I mean. 

Well, I know, but sometimes when I feel like I'm just doing mundane things and that's what will happen is I'll just listen to it, like a bunch of them. And then one of ours will come on where I'm on and I go, Oh, that's what I sound like. 

Cause no one likes hearing their own voice.  

It took me a few episodes to understand it, to realize I need a co host real bad.  I don't mind going solo once in a while to do something like a fun subject that I like, but then it just sounds like him. And then there he was sitting at the bar drinking his beer  alone  for the rest of his life.

Oh my God. Just kidding. So dramatic. 

So, so yeah, so I definitely would go back out there. Or it would be. It's definitely on the list to had a, an amazing time 

in 

a couple of weeks. We're got, we're going to kind of break down that whole, that whole weekend. There's so many visits. Oh 

my gosh, there's so much.

We can't even talk about it now because it would be like  

two hours putting up on the end of what we need to do here, but, uh, you know, one of the, cause I, I like his, um, One of the comments that we received about the podcast is people like that. We kind of break away from beer for a moment and we get to talk about like different, uh, different subjects.

And one of the things I brought up to you yesterday was that we just had a, like a huge military anniversary, which is kind of important for us without giving away logistics and breaking military rules. But both of our kids are like on the move  doing things in their careers. Respect.  Um, so yeah, big thanks.

And it's like, it's just seems like in the last month they're both like, all of a sudden they're just lurching forward with a new, new things in their careers. So it's, uh, we're, we're excited for both of them. But then the story popped up here just in the last few days that I told you about last night, that was really cool.

So, I mean,  you know, we all remember.  September 11th, 2001. Remember everything that happened that day. Absolutely ghastly, horrible. I mean, you know, we've You know, uh, what's that 20, it's going to be 23 years this year since that happened.  I got 

pregnant three weeks after that. 

Yeah.  My son, the aforementioned son that's doing all the great things, he was only four months old when this happened.

Well, Kieran is part of that whole like September 11th baby boom. 

Oh. 

Because a lot of people got pregnant because they were like, Oh my gosh, that's why Kieran's class was like so overflowing all the time. He gave birth to a patriot baby.  

He had a freedom baby. 

Right? September 11th happened. You're like, Oh my God, what's happening?

Hurry up. We must have children. I don't know. I don't know what we were all thinking, but three weeks later I was pregnant.  

After the, uh, so at that day, after the attack happened on the Pentagon, um, there were two jets that were scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, which is located outside of Baltimore, uh, and not that far away from all from downtown Washington, DC.

Um, so. Those two planes were scrambled because there was one other plane that we know that they had lost contact with and it had turned around somewhere over the Cleveland vector and was heading back across Pennsylvania. And the biggest fear from the government was that that plane Plane was heading toward the White House  So the two jets that were scrambled they were two f 16s scrambled out of again Andrews Air Force Base and at the time it was lieutenant colonel Mark Sassaville and first it was first lieutenant Heather Penny.

So Sassaville, we're just gonna use because you know, we come off of the  We know that they all have call signs. So his call sign was sass and and in Lieutenant Penney's call, sign was lucky. Hmm. So SAS and Penny are in the air,  and 2001  was a different time in the military because we were in a peace time where we kind of really pulled back our reins and we weren't showing so much hostility.

Like we weren't,  we didn't have a need to flex too much muscle. 

Right. 

And unfortunately we got relaxed. 

Right.  

So there wasn't a single plane.  at Andrews Air Force Base that was equipped with missiles  when they sent those two planes up. So SAS and Lucky, during the conversation that they had in route to intercept flight 93,  which they, uh, they only knew its approximate location because it had turned off its  transponder, was that they had decided that since they had no missiles, they were going to become the missiles. 

Um, SAS was going to attack the cockpit  by just basically ramming The F 16 into the front of the plane and Lucky was going to hit the tail of the plane and there was no way this thing was going to reach Washington. And they were going to become the weapon that day. Um, so the reason I tell you this is because, uh, just this past week,  now Lieutenant General,  uh, Mark Sasseville retired from the Air Force after  42 years  and he got to fly in his plane. 

At Joint Base Andrews, as it's called now for the last time,  which is pretty 

incredible, 

pretty incredible. What an, what an incredible career, but, um, you know, they're  quite the decision for them to do that. And he had admitted in the interview last week that  he didn't tell his wife for days, what had happened that day, like with the decision he was faced with.

You can't, I mean, you can, but you can't. Like.  I mean, here's the thing as a spouse for somebody in the military, you know, that anything could happen at any time. 

Yeah. 

And in me, I wouldn't want to know it. 

No. I, I 

wouldn't. 

You 

came home today. That's all I care about. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to know the eminent danger that you were in, you know?

Yeah. 

Um, yeah. So then it makes you more scared. And then a few years later he admitted that that's when he, cause his kids were very young. They're not going to understand. So he told his kids a few years later.  about what had happened that day and so that they could better understand it. But he retired last week, um, as a, uh, lieutenant colonel.

That's a three or I'm sorry, a lieutenant general. So that's a three star general after 42 years of service and major.  Major Heather Penny, who retired in 2016, was at his ceremony,  as well as, you know, obviously his wife and kids. And, uh, what a, what an incredible career he had. At the time that when they got, when they were scrambled that day, he was the chief of weapons and tactical for the F 16s, uh, instruct, he was also an F 16 instructor pilot for the 113th Operation Support Flight out of the District of Columbia Air National Guard. 

And, uh, he was stationed at. Andrews Air Force Base. He was also the director of operations for the 121st flight squadron. Um, also, uh, District of Columbia, uh, Air National Guard. So he has flight proficiency in the T 41 and the T 37 and the T 38. They're all training planes. And then obviously the F 16, which he flew that day.

And he was also an accomplished 747 and 727 pilot as well as a flying C 3 Bravos. So he had quite the, uh, quite the resume.  

I know some of those planes after going to the Air Force Museum,  

you got to, you got to go out to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and spend some time at the Air Force Museum out there.

Yeah. Yeah. Like you're showing me a whole bunch of pictures. I know, but I'm 

super excited when you said some of those, I was like, Oh, I know what that looks like now. 

Yeah. Yeah. So it's, yeah, what a, what a great career for him. And then I thought that would be a cool way to close this out because, you know, with everything that's going on with our kids and then, you know, just a great, a great story that  could have ended so differently.

You know, he closed out that interview. He was talking about that, you know, while he was ready to do what he needed to do. The heroes did what they felt was necessary that day when they, when they took over that plane. So, yeah, so, uh, I don't know. I got, I've got big thanks for somebody like that. I, you know, I wish there would be a day in my life that I could shake his hand.

I mean, for anybody who decides they want to be in the military and do any of these crazy things. I mean, my kid's aspiration is to be a pilot and he wants to fly an F 16 and it kills me. Yeah.  Because my biggest fear is flying, and somehow my child wants to do that for a living. 

Yep.  Yeah. 

In the military.

In 

the military. Fighter jets. And then fighting, and then fighting commercial beyond that, he wants to. 

Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. 

That's great. 

But. 

I like it. 

Yeah. Yeah. So kudos for these guys. Definitely. I mean, that takes some guts.  

Yeah, that's I, uh, to be, to be the person, you know, the two people having that conversation.

Right. And to 

like, say your piece without being able to say any, like, I love you the last time to anybody in case that was that, but I guess this is, you know, the, that's, that's what happens in the military. You know? Yeah. But that's amazing. 

Yeah. Um, career. Yeah. Then, uh, so that, that, you know, that'll close us out here.

And then, you know, we got a couple of weeks. We'll, uh, we have, um, episode, uh, or series 5. 4 of barely getting started. That will come next week. And then the following week we're going to sit down and go over this entire. Wild Syracuse, uh, trip, um, all of the wild cards and fun places that we got to stop and yeah, just things 

we just found while we were there 

and yeah, 

cause that's what we do.

Yeah. And then I get to complain. Then I get to complain one last time how I missed William Shatner. 

Oh my God.  I bet you guys can't wait to hear that. Yeah.  

All right, guys. Hey, we will talk to you in two weeks. Uh, in the meantime, um, I don't know, stay, stay hard, stay hungry. 

I don't know. I don't 

know. We, we've got to work on this closely.

We have nothing. Three, we're on our fourth year and we're still.  

I don't think we have to have something. Still fiddling around with this thing. 

All right. It's fine. It's fine. 

All right. 

Goodbye. 

Goodbye. So 

long.