CARNY TO CONGRESS
Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.
https://carnytocongress.com/
CARNY TO CONGRESS
CARNY TO CONGRESS EP 13
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Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.
Good morning. Welcome to the Carney to Congress podcast. Your host, Adam Botana, along with my great co-host, Jake Demolino. Good morning. Good morning, Jake. It's just you and me, buddy. It's just me, me and you. You and me. Back to our roots, man. Back to our roots. Got our different cams here. We got nugget running around. Got a little wide cam. Hey, everybody. What's up? See the lower half? The Cuban half? Medio, medio. I always always drag a good joke, joke about that in Tallahassee, right? Because they're like, you ain't Cuban, you white. I go, no, I'm half Cuban. Like, what half? I'm like, medio. Kind of thing. You know. Carney. Carney brain. Cuban. So, but yeah, oh, I hear thunder, Jake. We're fine. We should be all right. We should be good. Um, but yeah, we're we're down here at the marina. It's kind of hazy. Out of Saharan dust. I got a hat on because Jake said my hair was too messy. Girlfriend likes my hair though. Likes it. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01Got that Morgan Wallen look going on right now.
SPEAKER_00That's what it is. Uh-huh. I think the big gold chain. Just cut into a little mustache. You know? I went to one of his concerts, man. It was pretty good. Ain't gonna lie. It's in Gainesville to come out with a the uh Harley Davidson Gainesville shirt, you know, American. I was I was impressed. I was impressed. It's a good time. Can I tell you a little Morgan Wallen story, I guess? Come on, I seen him when he was on like whatever show it was. I'm like, Jesus, he looked like a dweeb.
SPEAKER_01The voice. The voice, yeah. He's on the voice. Um it was right during COVID. It was March 20th, I think, of 2020. And this is crazy that I remember it so vividly, but he posted a cover of him doing like Simple Man by Leonard Skinner. And anybody who's ever attempted to play the guitar knows how to play Simple Man by Leonard Skinner. And he did it so like flawlessly in like his style before, like I didn't really get into his music till like 2025, probably.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but he started selling out stadiums. That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01You start really start listening, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'll get one song does Miami, it's pretty good. It's like this I always like the ones that are not like super country, yeah. Well, he's more he's more, you know, in tennis shoes, you know. But he's got like some good ballots and stuff like that. But Miami's a good one, it's a good, good one. I don't know. It's just got a good good rhyme to it.
SPEAKER_01I've learned how to play uh quite a few of his songs on the guitar. Really? Yeah, my favorite one, I can't I think it's picture or something like that, or uh Seven Pictures or Seven Summers or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But a lot of his stuff is really fun to play with him as he's singing. His whoever his guitar player is is phenomenal. He's really good. Like because it hurts my fingers even trying to play it.
SPEAKER_00So no, no, he puts on a hell of a show. We were we were in Gainesville, we were there the first night, uh, and it was great. I mean, he put on a show, he was there two and a half, three hours, and the place was packed. It was it was good. I mean, hell of a show. I mean, I've been I got dragged to a Taylor Swift concert one time, and you loved it, you know, hell of a show. I mean, really good. I mean, she's good, man. It's I was like, okay, you know, I'll listen, you know, I'm not gonna say, but it's screaming, a lot, a lot of girls screaming, like from this big to like, you know. I mean, she got all genres from the seven-year-old to the 70-year-old. You know, everybody was there. Uh, but just great show. I love how she took care of her guys, the roadies and stuff like that. Give all the truck drivers an extra hundred grand. It's a tip. That's crazy. That's that's a big tip. That's that's that's I mean, you always appreciate people that take care of people, right? You know, I was just before I got here while I was late, um, like just went over because we're getting ready for the carnival business, right? We're gonna do the carnival the summer. And usually I hotel it when I'm out there. And um, so we we go like three, four weeks. I'll be I'll be up in Michigan for two weeks and then Mississippi for about two weeks, roughly. We're open like a total of 20 days. Uh, but I hotel it, but I'm gonna use uh my folks' bus this year, and better than to stay in a hotel. My mom's like, use it. Beautiful. I mean, this thing is is big, it's nice. So I'm gonna be pulling this concession trailer, cinnamon roll trailer down the road with this big ass bus. And what I love about it, it's we're right by the way station. Because growing up in the carnival business, uh, I was gonna probably tell you some stuff, we used to duck them. So, you know what a way station is? I sure do. Okay, if uh uh this is I think we're past statute limitations. So I know a few lawyers now. Uh but uh growing up, man, we would uh it always, you know, the DOT would pull you over, like, oh come here, come here, come here, Carney, come here, come on over here. We're gonna we're gonna check you out. We're gonna we're we're profile. I I was racially profiled. We were racially profiled. So I mean, we always be ducking them, going around, you know, way stations, ducking around, because they had log books, and we got more legit as we got older. But now when you're pulling a like you like to get a license, like a like a boat, right? To get a CDL, you got a medical card, you got to go through drug screening, you got to do all this stuff. You're you're driving this 80,000-pound semi down the road, right? So my you go out and buy a uh a class A motorhome, okay? It's a bus, tandem axles, 45 foot long, uh, 600 horsepower. You don't need nothing. You just say, here you go. You know, that's the old RV lobbyists working their magic, right? Because I mean, somebody spends that much money. It's like a yacht, right? Right. You don't need, I mean, you you do need a captain's lot, you do need a captain to a certain tonnage, whatever, but you can go buy a yacht and drive that thing right under you. There's no, you know, boats too, same thing. Uh so but what's great is I'm gonna be pulling this concession trailer, the seminar roll trailer. I think it's pretty big. So that's like another 22 feet with a hitch, it's 25 feet. So it's like 45 and 25. That's a lot. I think we're gonna be over length. But we're going right by the way station. Not even pull in, like I said, pull it. Nope, just just because I'm RV, just pulling that baby right down the road. So just smile and you know, I used to just hold my breath, just drive by, you know. My buddy's like, you need logbook and you know, and uh triangles and you know, like all kinds of stuff. Like, nah, we good. So now we're just gonna just ride on by. Pull into the flying J or the the new one, the new truck stops now are the loves. Shower number 427 is now ready. So I mean, if you haven't lived until you took a shower, the flying J's.
SPEAKER_01It's a little but you do know that Buckeys is pretty much the big They don't allow semis. It's a big one.
SPEAKER_00They don't allow semis, no semis allowed. Really? No, I like buckies. I I stop at them, they'll let RVs, no semis. I didn't know that. Uh-huh. That's the first thing I look at because you bring in equipment. Like we I grew up driving equipment, right? At 14, I was driving semis and trucks and stuff. Uh, but yeah, no, no semis at Bucky's. No go. Huh. So it's it's different, right? You know, um it's just uh I mean it's and I mean it's tough getting in there, but them Buckys are serious. Their sandwiches are pretty legit. I like their they're like their uh barbecue. It's it's it's not bad. It's not bad. It's like wawa. People are like, oh wah. Like I went over there and tried it. It wasn't bad. It's not that bad. I think Buckeys. Bucky's barbecue sandwich, pretty good.
SPEAKER_01I just got a Wawa by the house. Yeah. Yeah, they just opened up in uh North Fort Myers right next to that Publix. Nice. And uh tried it? I've tried just about everything. I've got about 2,000 points reward points already. Um I mean it's better than 7-Eleven.
SPEAKER_00No, it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I would bad gas recently, too.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. It is better than 7-Eleven. Um I was waiting for Larry's ice cream cake for his birthday. This was in June. And one of my club members has a royal scoop, really good ice cream up in Astero. Check it out, the Winnekis have it. And it's crazy, Jake. I go in there and they're like, oh, uh, I think it was it's not Morgan, but she said, oh, she'll open it, our manager, whatever. Okay. She'll be there at like 10 o'clock or something or 10:30. So I roll in there at 10:30, nothing. You know what? She'll be here soon. They open at 11. I'll just wait. So I go over to also check out Wawa. So they got like some honey, barbecue, honey, bacon. It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. Wasn't wasn't, you know, it was okay. And I go back, and it was their daughter, and which is crazy, she's like, my height, Jake. And now these members, they've been with us a long time, probably 10, 15 years. And I remember I remember when you were on a boat just dragging your dog around, and she was like this big, you know. It's crazy. This is going to college now and stuff. So, and uh you see members, kids grow, you're like, damn, big. But anyways, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01I got a I think he's like 17, uh little cousin, and um he's like 6'4, 230 or something. And I'm just like, what do you what do you eat, man? I'm like the tall one in the family, but every time he walks in, I'm like, all right, man, I'm gonna go because I don't make me uncomfortable. I'm not super tall, but I'm like 6'1-ish, probably a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00I'm a 5'11 and three-quarters. That's you know, I got my dad in me, right? He was 5'8, uh, 5'9, 5'11, 34. My brother, 6'2.
SPEAKER_01My dad's 5'8.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. This is you know, my Cuban, that's the part the Cuban, the Cuban, the Cuban legs, short, long torso. Um, but yeah, no, I would I would have loved to have been 6'1, but nice. I'll take I'll take 5'11, 34. I think so. Thank god.
SPEAKER_01Until you have to take a cheap flight.
SPEAKER_00You know, you know, thank God, you know, I'm cuddly. You know, thank god for chubby chasers, bro. That's all I gotta say. You know, I'm glad glad there's chubby chasers out there because it it works out. You know, they need something, they need a good hug. You know, I don't know. This message is brought to you by chubbychasers.com. There's farmers only and there's chubby chasers.com. Don't don't Google that. Yeah, we should buy that. We should buy that. Domain and redirect it to carny to congress.com. That would be yeah, you know what? That would be pretty good. We're gonna do that. Yeah. See if it's out there. Hang on, let me check. See if it's see if it's even available. Do a quick check, real quick. Yeah, chubbychasers.com. Can we we can agree on the spelling? Carney is with an E or with a no E. Talk about that. I know. It's I mean, there was a movie named Carney.
SPEAKER_01Because I I found out that that there's a language, there's a Carney language. Kia Zarney. Pig Latin. Is that what it is?
SPEAKER_00Same thing?
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00But every time I look at it, my mom can like speak it and stuff. She does that something in my pocket here. It's driving me nuts. Poking me. Poking you. Poking me. Um, yeah, my mom could speak it. Kia Zarney. Kiazzarney? It's like uh some kind of pig Latin or something. I don't know. It's uh yeah, you can speak it.
SPEAKER_01Every time I went to look it up though, it was spelled C-A-R-N. Y. Y. I think.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow. Self-deprecation. It's the best thing to do. Just letting you know.
SPEAKER_01All right. I am currently looking it up right now. Chubbychaser.com.
SPEAKER_00I've got a map. Chaser or chasers? Chubber uh chasers plural.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's taken.
SPEAKER_00I would imagine. How about er? No plural. Chubby Chubby Chase? Chubby Chaser? Yeah, they're both taken. Yeah, I'd imagine that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01Uh are they for sale or is it you can buy Lazy Chaser for $1,500. Um, chubbychaser.us is um eight bucks. Not bad. But no one wants like those weird random domains. Yeah. They don't, I mean, they're cool to own, but they don't really work.
SPEAKER_00No. Dot com, man. Dot com. BW Boat Club.com. And Carney to Congress.com. Carney to Congress.com. Two great ones. So we uh we're launching our new reservation system. Julie's doing a great job. It's about ready to murder me and several members. It's tough, right? I mean, nobody likes change, but we're just getting there, like, oh, we sent an email out. Oh, that email didn't go out. So it's fun. But members, we have a new online reservation system. We'll be active in August. So we're we're getting there. We're trying to get everybody over. And she's like, well, people don't just change. I'm like, yeah, that's because you gotta hound people to, you know, do stuff because they're busy or they just don't put it, you know, priority or whatever. You have some people are gonna just do it right now, boom, done. Um, but yeah, no, so what were we talking about? Oh yeah, so that's I was that's why I was late. I was I was going over the bus to uh because we haven't storage, right? So I'll bring it over here and we'll clean it up here in a couple weeks. But a guy came out and uh just like gave me a tour of like showed him the jacks and hydraulics and and all the stuff, like generators and shore power batteries, and like it's like a yacht. This is what it is, it's like a penthouse on wheels, pretty much. It's like a one one and a half bath. Pretty cool, it's nice. So you learned the difference between the hard water and the no, no, no. It's it's black water. What is it? Black water and gray water. There you go. So I knew you'd know. I grew up on it. So we never called it black, we called it Doniger. That's a carny word. Donner. So it's a Donerker location.
SPEAKER_01Donaker.com coming in soon.
SPEAKER_00Donerker location. That's like Donaker. That's a that's a that's a slogan we use on the road. Doniger's a it's like a sh location. You have to bleep that. Beep, the Doniger location. Mark it. So just beep, just there. Uh that's uh that's some carnal language. The lot. We call it the lot. We don't say we're going to the fairgrounds or we're going to the to go the lot. You're on a lot or off a lot. You know, uh, a mark. Mark is a is a normal person. Mark is a, you know. Used to be back in the day. Uh, you go back, because like it's circus kind of sorta-ish. Guys would put chalk on their hands and they'd mark 'em. You know, this guy's interested in the girly shows. So back in the day too, we had girly shows. Before before you had uh Houses of Ill Tribute, you know, you had girly shows. You could go to the fair and you could watch a girly show. And that'd be a girl doing a can can or whatever. And uh but you'd mark 'em. That's how they just put chalk on her hand and mark them. Uh what else is there? Other languages. Uh there's all I mean, there's all kinds of joinees or guys that work inside food concessions or games, agents or games, Rye Jocks. Be a Raijock, he works a ride. Girls always love the Rye Jocks. I don't know why, but they just love the Rye Jocks. And all that, that's all like changed, right? There was there was guys that were on a road that grew up with my dad. There was a guy called Bongo Jimmy. He had like a legit chimp. It was his pet. And his and he looked like his, I mean, he kind of looked his Bongo Jimmy. And it was pet was his uh this chip chimpanzee. He had him on the road with him. And it was it was a great, great guy. Old old Carney. There was uh another guy called Runn' Bear, he used to run all the root loads, you know, because those guys had to run all night. Again, that's changed. A lot of stuff has changed in the car industry, right? We rely on uh because we can't get Americans to work anymore. I mean, it's tough. It's tough life. You know, it's to go out there for a couple weeks is great, it's fun, but to do it like as I mean, you got a lot of people out there that just don't want responsibility. They want to, you have a place to stay, you get them a bunkhouse, you know. You watched uh landman how they said, we'll go to the bunkhouse. Well, it's a little different on the road, right? You've got a like we used to have them, it was like a trailer that was 45, 50 foot long, and it had 10 bunks in it. Each room had a, you know, you had two beds in there, you guys could bunk up in there, and then you had like a community shower. And for our guys, we would always get like a porta potty um and just park it, you know, put it right outside and lock it up so the guys could use it. It was clean. You know, I lived in the front of the bunkhouse and mine, I had like a little like slide out, so I had like a little living room, and over the fifth wheel, that's where my I lived in there. I kind of kept an eye on the help, kind of kept an eye on them, make sure they weren't too crazy or doing crazy stuff. A little independence for them, you know, when I was like 13, 14, 12. So different. Um, but yeah, that was a bunkhouse. And but you can't get employees to work anymore on the road. It's tough. You get kids, like right now. What I do, Jake, for my two fairs, it's tough because you're not everybody else there, everybody else, everybody else on the road, um the road, they use H2Bs, not HB1s, that's separate. That's not like what Google brought over. These are H2Bs or HB2s, or I think I was messing up, but it's so they're agriculture, so farmers, right? So the carnival business is has a lot to do with farming, uh, but they bring them over, South Africans, Puerto Ricans, uh, Guatemalans, Mexicans, they come over, they get a seven-month work visa. These are good people. They come over, they work, they do a good job, they go home. And if they're good, they come back. And that we're trying, and there's like 10, I think it's, I think I'm gonna say it's 50 to 60,000 H2Bs, but now we're fighting oystermen, we're fighting um oyster men to get them, we're fighting because you get allocations, right? Everybody gets allocations. Oystermen, construction, lawn care, because they're good workers. They come over and the Department of Labor tells you how much to pay them. And since we travel, every week is different. So like at Memphis, they're making, you know, 16 bucks an hour, 18 bucks an hour. Jackson, Mississippi, might be 12. You know, it used to be they come over, you pay them $650 a week, flat rate, and it was pretty much, you know, uh, there was no overtime around salary. Now you have 40 hours, you got overtime, you got time and a half. So, I mean, it's all changed. And the Department of Labor tells you how much to pay them, you know, because you actually have to go out and, you know, run an ad saying we have this, you know, job available, nobody signs up for it, then you're allowed to get this allocation to come over. So, and also, too, right now in the carnival industry, I spent some time in DC trying to lobby, uh, just because that's my family's original business, to get performance visas. So, there's something called a P visa. So, like circuses or performers, they come over for three years at a time, four years at a time. So, we're trying to work out, say, hey, we we have performance, performance pieces here. How about, you know, let them use that? We'll see. We'll see what happens. You know, we're working on it, it's in the it's in a bill in in uh DC. It's in the base spill, so that's you know, it's different. I mean, it's a different animal than Tallahassee. Remember going up there, there's a couple things you're like, whoa. A little different in uh DC versus Tallahassee, and we we just lost Lindsey Graham. You know, aortic rupture, I heard, something like that. You know they're checking him out good too. 71, same age as my dad. Oh I guess he was alone in a house. Somebody called and said, hey, he's got our kind of issue. So they had to break down the door to get in there. And they were a performance CPR, but he was he was long gone, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, between him and it looks like I think Mitch McConnell isn't he's alive, but he's not doing too well. He's got pneumonia right now.
SPEAKER_00So at least it's not I mean that's that's close numbers too, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I remember the first time we went up to Tallahassee as a first elected, we had COVID. In the House we had a a majority, but it wasn't super. But in the Senate, it was still like a mix. And they were really, really because the Senate's a little older, right? That's an older crowd. It was called the upper chamber. You know, pretty much the house is a barbarian at the gates. Those are the people. And the Senate is like um, I would say, we've been around, we've we've been there, we understand, but you know, we're we're still figuring it out. So that's the the you know, lords and the you know, the the the people, people's house, lords, you know, all starting in England, right? House of Lords, House of Commons, House Republican, you know, the the House of Representatives, Senate. Um, so you you know, you do have that, so it's checks and balances, and it does work. But yeah, they were always concerned about the numbers because it could happen real quick. You know, if you lose two or three Republicans and all of a sudden you don't have government, you know, it's it's uh, you know, there's some gamanship that happens in that to process. So it's you always gotta be kind of be careful and see where that is. But I think we'll be good in the house. You know, we um you got a lot of people talking about property tax, and so my colleagues are like, I don't understand. I I'm glad we have it on the ballot because that's gonna motivate a lot of people to come out and vote. People. that probably wouldn't vote because you don't have Ron DeSantis on a ballot. You don't have Donald Trump on a ballot uh come November. It's gonna be you know in a primary is gonna be fine. We're got you know sixteenth year coming up here pretty soon. Um I I would imagine Byron Donald's talk about the hate just to just gonna deviate like a little winchy there. Like you look at his Facebook page and like I'll post something man the this the the bots on Facebook are just blah blah blah blah you know but I mean that's the fishback pay to play. You know when you have as many comments as you do likes you know there's a lot. And I mean you look at my page you know then and they try to rage bait they try to shut you down you know and uh try to try to you know I mean I had one one person I remember one time I wouldn't hear a bill about turtles like gopher turtles like I like gopher turtles they're they're good I like them you know my grandfather always told me don't ever just throw the turtle in the water in Florida because it might be a gopher turtle and it'll just drown. Always take the turtle you see it outside the road just don't chuck it in the water put it by the bank let it decide if it wants to go in the water or not. And if his head's is you know his tail in that that's a snapper. Just be careful. Don't you know don't don't mess with that. But yeah my grandfather says just put the turtle at the bank if it wants to go in the water it will not because gopher turtles are protected right you throw them guys in the water they'll you know they they drown. Not good. So but yeah I wouldn't that you know to have a bill in a house you got to have a Senate and a house sponsor right and uh this bill was ran by Anna Escomani who I consider you know a friend a colleague in the in the process Democrat she's a senior this was her last year I think she's running for mayor of uh of Orlando um we don't agree a lot of politics we don't agree a lot but you know she we would work together but she had this bill but there was no Senate sponsor and the amount of hate like they were just calling and you need to put this on to not respect and I just start poking at them you know like ah no ha I'm right here and they just makes them explode yeah and just like okay it's fine you know but and and it and I've told members it's different right like I got a pretty tough skin like I I I kind of feed off it you know like if I get a bad door when I was door knocking like it motivates me to scroll a little bit more. Um but like I but you got some members that just live and die by it. Social media is the worst. Because you think about it 20 30 years ago to to get a an audience with a a member or like I work in a community so I tell people all the time you want to come over to Baywater, I'm here. Come over talk to me. You know, we got boat rentals and boat club but you want to come over talk to me you can talk to me. You want to meet me in my office sure um but sometimes you got these people that you know they'd send you a letter you know it goes to your staff and the staff reads it goes to you like hey this is a concern and people just keep sending stuff and then all of a sudden they start you know and they just but now with social media they can reach out and just write to you and that vibrates in your pocket and you read it. Then I tell members like don't don't read the comments it's not worth it. You know if you're looking for gratification on social media sad life. Yeah it's not just don't do it. That's not what you need to do. You know get out in your community and see what people want work. You know, have employees get a feel for what needs to be done in your area you know look around and see but you have these members that just want to get on Facebook and post picture after picture after picture after picture. Like I mean there is a mind game to do it like if you're if you're worried about somebody running against you like oh that person's everywhere. But let it naturally happen because Facebook and social media it's not gonna do it for you. You can get some tweets and stuff like look at I I went viral with a cinnamon roll video. No politics authentic like you say it was me playing with a kid with sugar boom you know and it just we were in Midland Michigan we're looking at and now it's starting to get close to that again it's starting to get hits on that again. So we'll make a bunch of videos on that and it's as fun as me making cinnamon rolls. People love watching me spread butter you know you're good at it.
SPEAKER_01Yes yes done done millions of them you know like you need gloves I'm like it goes into a 350 degree oven you don't need gloves your hands are sanitized you know uh so you ever seen a chef wear gloves no no no you know but that's the thing like in a I've thought about it you know maybe I'll start I'll start wearing them depends it depends on the area you know depends on the crowd some people you know but I don't know we'll see you don't smoke cigarettes so it ain't like you got something nasty on your hands no and you're just working in flour and sugar all day and it's a lot easier to work with flour when you're using your hands and not gloves.
SPEAKER_00Yeah it's tough so it's tough to use gloves and like if you're cooking you're dealing with meat and stuff it's different but you know baking that goes in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes that baby is is well cooked and then when we serve them we have tons so you don't touch them. Man I'm looking forward to I'm getting I'm just taste I can't wait to taste one now. So but yeah I'm gonna hop in the bus, drive up to Michigan it's gonna probably cost me some diesel fuel for sure. But it'll be nice to be up there and I'm just looking forward to hanging out there for a couple weeks in Michigan in August. It's nice and cool most of the time seeing like northern lights and it'll get cool there like you wearing sweaters at night 50s you know drops you're like dang in August night tonight it's not bad. I mean it's more temperature just dropped about five degrees yeah definitely definitely I felt it yeah I feel it I feel it well folks we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsor Bay Water Exclusive Boat Club Hey this is Adam Otana thanks for tuning in to the Carnity to Congress podcast brought to you by Baywater exclusive boat club the only family owned and operated boat club in Southwest Florida. We have over 60 boats down here in Bonita Springs you want access to pontoons deck boats water slides bar boats we got it at Bawater. Come on down and see us we're two miles west of 41 right on Benita Beach Road exit 116 Alpha 75. Give us a call at 239 49505 again that's 239 49505 or look us up online or just Google BW Boat Club BW Boat Club BW Boat Club dot com. And we're back so Jake is marking that one there come on down see us over here at Baywater. We've got plenty of boats we've got the best ratio we've ever had right now in our club uh we've got a lot of boats not many members come on down see us we got pontoons deck boats and our consoles if you're listening to this show right now you're probably a local 70% of our membership is here four or five months out of year so if you're here in the summer you're tired of buying that boat you're tired of that COVID boat you bought you're tired of it not working tired of it not uh starting up for it you're tired of the rats chewing on it you're tired of the seats looking all moldy and broken come down to Baywater we'll get you taken care of you just show up have a good day come back walk away we got Sherry's ship store opening up here pretty soon we got our coffee maker in there cappuccino lattes we got our water machine we're gonna have cups for sale we've got bottled water sodas beer and wine and we might I was at the city today talking about Omar's tiki bar about restrooms what kind of restrooms new restrooms we're gonna have here hook up to sewer and beer and wine maybe do liquor one day punch to go be good times I can't wait to crack a beer here with you Jake you know that will be just a little coarse light silver bullet monumental what kind of beer you like um it's a great question the other day when I was at Alfie's for the 4th of July they brought some kind of beer and it was like the lightest cleanest make ultra it probably was some kind of so clarify what's Alfie it's not Alfie Oaks Alfie Townsend yeah and everybody's like oh Alfie Oaks no no Alfie Townsend Alfie Townsend so we got more we got more uh more views than he does yeah but he's he's been doing it a while he's gotta he's gotta figure it out his radio show is probably bigger than ours though yeah we'll catch up to him again yeah we'll get there we were we were probably as big as he was one time we're getting there this is fun it's fun I like doing this show and getting out there and Leland did a good job last week you see all the views we got from him from Leland yeah like pleased to come back yeah fishing fishing tips we're gonna have Captain Billy we definitely have to have beer I invited him tonight with his you know definitely have to have beer definitely have to have beer um invited him tonight uh but it's Tina's Tina's birthday so happy birthday Tina just let you know so uh but yeah so it's it's a good time hanging out some traveling coming up right now running around out of that but uh looking forward to it Jake it's gonna be fun it's gonna be fun got um we got some some burt what do you think of that you ever heard of that Benita sterile rails to trails I have not not not not that I can think of up top my head no so there's our old railroad seminar railroad that comes down here at the south end of the county still active north end right up there right on Lico you'll see some gas you'll see some stuff up there south end that trail hasn't hasn't been used in a long time so Bonita Estero and Naples are purchasing it and making a rails to trails so it can be like a paved bike path so you can actually get off 41 and actually bike I think we're kind of like in a difference right we're we're starting to change like take Bonita Beach Road you got four lanes right here right it's kind of relaxed it's not too bad you cruise around 40 maybe 45 and then you got some people doing like 70 past you like you go out east on Beach Road that's what we call around here Beach Road. You go out east you go through by the dog track it goes to three lanes and people are doing like 70 because this is like a freeway and it's not it's not safe right it's crazy you got lights and you're like smashing on the brakes and our culture is all about you know cars and stuff but I think we need to step back like bring it down like you go downtown Bonita it's two lanes you're going like 15 there's kids there's like 4th of July we're talking about with pack they close it down it's great. But it was you know it slows you down. But like here like I'm I'm almost tempted to say go down a two lanes like down here because people fly trying to get over that like there's been cop cars here for the last three years. I got to be giving out thousands of tickets because people are just hauling to get around somebody to get before the merge right and it's just they're hauling over this bridge. So I'm almost sometimes like bring it down uncertain areas not not when you're going to work you know I I understand we're we're I think we need a I think we need a toll road limited access from Fort Myers all the way down to Clark County if you want to get on total you can that'll alleviate a lot of 75 and if you don't want to pay total you get on 75 but give us a four lane toll road from Fort Myers through Lehigh all the way down to Naples limited access that means you don't develop on it. You know it's just a toll road goes through you build it over the bayou make it over the bridge so you're not hurting any animals or anything like that. I think that's good. I think we need that um they're gonna add some roads some lanes to 75 from I think Golden Gate all the way up to 82. I know they're talking about uh express lane both ways and two extra lanes that's three extra lanes that'll be that'd be huge I'd be good uh but I think we need another like a toll road just a just a separate altogether you know something or a bypass.
SPEAKER_01I gotta be honest with you one of the things I regret and I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately is selling my electric bike I had an electric bike and uh we could take that thing to work? Yeah I ain't got it. Yeah and the thing is it's like I didn't really even know how to use the dang thing until about a day before I found out because it had the the throttle on it but you got a pedal but I thought you had to pedal you do I mean you can pedal but like apparently if you push down on the thing it would go into auto mode and then you could just take off in it man and that thing would zip I was popping wheelies on it and everything. It was great but I sold it so had a basket on it and everything. Yeah how far do you live from work now uh miles quite a bit I mean I'm I'm not North Fort Myers off Bayshore and they're uh at uh gate gateway high school you know where that is yeah that's where that's about as far as we are right there so you're going with the traffic too so you're fighting traffic there'd be no way I can do that no not on a bike no but you get into work late you're rolling in at nine o'clock must be nice now but traffic right it's traffic right it's not that bad it's not I show up and I was like I'll be there buddy I'll be there like I called him before I did I called Jake and I'm like yeah I'll be there like 15 I'm like dude what the he comes up rind up in his hoopty I love my hoopty man it gets me from point A to point B and it costs it's not this much a month it's nice um but yeah I do uh kind of roll in a little later than I'd like to but most of the time I stay till about 5 30 yeah six o'clock sometimes and then I'll even go home you work through lunch too do you take a lunch I don't I have pretzels yeah and I I bring cup noodle cups because we got the bun water I can just take it in there fill it up with hot water be right back in my studio yeah I pretty much live in that thing. No I mean that's what I mean lunch lunch for me is like I go 20 minutes and like it's slow season you know you go get a decent lunch right uh but most of the time it's like quick I mean it's bad enough sometimes you have the 7 Eleven and get the little roller dogs I love them I love them those buffalo chicken ones with the with the pretty good with the chili and the cheese on them that's uh that's like that's that make you patter your nose right there you're gonna have to buy some toilet paper for sure the roller dog you got a roller dog in his place oh man that's why it's been Wawa's been my number one spot for the past how's the roller dogs there are they pretty good I don't think they even have them I don't think so no I know Nuggett likes the roller dogs right who's got the best roller dogs though is loves gloves they do oh I've a I've ate there because they got the little uh the taquitos with like the bacon and eggs in them yeah something like gas station hot food it's not that bad man it's not bad but you did see you were in Alabama right like we go to Mississippi that's what you eat that's I mean that biscuit's way better than down here in Florida that biscuit they just know how to cook in Mississippi there's a place in Alabama I used to go to called the Slit Lizard I might have talked to you about it before and uh it was a little barbecue place and it's just something about it there was also a place called pizza it just it was just called pizza and we called it Lacey's pizza because it was an old man who worked there named Lacey and this was in Carbon Hill Alabama and he made the the best ham and cheese sandwich he imported the bread from France or something like that something crazy.
SPEAKER_00Crazy yeah and uh everything else is pretty much a secret I don't know man a ham and cheese sandwich every once in a while is just it's just it takes me back. You know mayonnaise some public ham and cheese.
SPEAKER_01He would take a whole like ham leg or whatever and he would shred it. So he'd take the and it would just be like this shredded meat and uh he had this butter garlic sauce he would put on it with some cheese. I think he's since passed but he did record on how he made it so it's the the video exists but there's something about it man and plus he was using one of them old cast iron tops so and the seasoning on that thing was probably from 30 40 years.
SPEAKER_00You know what I like too is a steak like you get like a strip or something you take it home. Like I like to slice it not too thin like thicker a lot of mayo and salt and pepper on bread cold not even hot cheese just it's good. Something about the mayo and the salt and pepper no wonder I went to the doctor doctor's like you're walking you're doing good you know I was like I'm gonna do the full body skin he's like nope don't do it too too young. All they're gonna find is nodes in you and they're gonna tell you to come back and biopsy you're gonna have more radiation. Nope. I was like while I'm walking to he says that's not bad. Try cardio we need 20 minutes running like this this chubby guy's gonna be running it's gonna be rough it's gonna be rough swim yeah swim yeah 20 minutes get the elevator heart rate right so I'm gonna try it I get my 10 000 steps what am I at today am I at today? Let me see let me see you check your steps uh 9284 uh I don't even know how to do that is it on your watch yeah it's on your watch how do you check uh well it's on your apple steps yeah just to go with steps like last last month I'm at an average of 9444 for the a day this year this month I'm down eight 8900 almost nine gotta bump it up a little bit but I mean that I mean it accumulates over the whole I mean that's 120 miles I walked in June you know it's 2000 calories that's 50 hours of walking I have no data because you turned it off like step you got your steps on your heart thing oh I'm at 5,000 steps today.
SPEAKER_01There you go. That's just I guess me walking I mean you've seen out 6000 square feet you've got to walk all the way to the side of the break room get some coffee pretzels I visit that place quite a bit so pretzels pretzels yeah I mean that's my that's my pretzels and my little ramen cups I get the vegetarian ones and I don't drink the water because they've got 1200 milligrams of sodium in them.
SPEAKER_00So trying to you know what's pretty good nine bucks Publix their hot bar like they do the moho pork and two veggies for like 950. Yeah piece of corn that's pretty cheap man you know there's a cheaper than McDonald's no I get that there's a Publix right across the street from us you have a hot bar yeah not the pub sub the pub sub's good right I gotta give me a buffalo chicken tender pub sub with onions lettuce and blue cheesecumbals they've got fried catfish they've got they've got all kinds of stuff you don't have to wait in the pub sub line for the hot bar you just walk right up there yeah she'll take care of you but I usually get like the the pulp pork like it's the moho pork it's it's pretty good with the ribs I get like green beans you know try to stay away from the fried catfish I love the fried catfish but that's that's pretty good I mean and they give you some food too they hook you up for a 950 that's not bad.
SPEAKER_01One of my go-tos most definitely though is uh they sell the it's like pre-cooked chicken it's like blackened chicken and they give you like four breasts for eight dollars which you know you could probably go and buy four breasts for like a little cheaper than that but they're cooked so I don't really take them home cut them up put them on sandwiches or make some Alfredo or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Or you watch Meat Daddy ever seen Meat Dad on Instagram he's on there on Meat Dad I show you how to save money. Yeah but like rotisserie chicken yeah like you put that in the like to do the chicken and dumplings or whatever it's pretty good that's already cooked. Oh I'm gonna have to go to public so well yeah oh you know that chicken's always good too just pick up a chicken I'll eat three quarters of it but hey it's better than eating cornbread I like cornbread I still haven't made you my cornbread it's the same way my uh my grandma used to make it do you got an oven somewhere over here nope I have one in my house Larry's probably got one in there it's probably got an air fryer nah man it's just because I I need my cast iron or it won't be the same yeah no no I agree gotta use my cast iron we're hungry that's what's going on yeah I'm gonna do some hot wings or what I'm thinking about it some pizza what do you what do you think pizza maybe we'll go over there and get something to eat what do you think about all the pizza drama in southwest Florida pizza drama there's just so there's these if it ain't good none of it's good what what do you mean like I like Docks dox has a good Chicago thin crust pizza dock's beach house I'm I'm fan of Bonita right Docks Beach yeah grandpa's in bonita that's that's okay yeah you ever had Uncle Rico's Uncle Rico's no way no where's that St.
SPEAKER_01Carlos Park or what nah it's right off 41 in uh Fort Myers it's right across it's like before the the mall and stuff on the right okay uh coastland not coastland yeah I don't know what it would be called what is what is that mall called up there anymore Edison yeah the place got rough yeah it's a little old a little old run down uh like I'll go over here to Enzo's now they switched like I'll play cards every try to do it a couple times a month went there and got three pizzas it was like $90 for three pizzas I'm like damn I
SPEAKER_00Good pizza, but damn. I got like me a good, you know, sausage and mushroom. It's different. Or you do like olives, a little bit of olives with some pineapple. What about just regular cheese pizza? Regular cheese pizza's okay. It's pepperoni on there. A little bit. Just like straight cheese. Oh man. I do. Papa John's. You know, I mean, it's okay. Um, let me think of a good pizza joint here. I mean, I'll try something new. Grandpa's like, I go down there, grandpa's is okay. Oh, you know what I like is uh I tried that as a new float, because you know, Bonita's got two Michelin recommended, not Michelin Star restaurants, Michigan recommended restaurants, Bohemian, which is started by a couple girls from Hillsdale, Michigan. Couple sisters. You start with Downtown Coffee Bar, now they got the Canary Club. They make like a pizza down there. It's like a, I don't know, it's like some fruity stuff, but it's it's damn good. Goat cheese and beets or something. I don't know, but it's good. It's good. Different. I know you're looking at me funny. I know you're looking at me funny.
SPEAKER_01I ain't never been in nothing Michelin ready, Michelin Michelin tires, but it well, that's where it started. I know. You know, I know the story.
SPEAKER_00But uh it's a great story. Yeah. No, I mean that's that's pretty good. Uh let me think. But like I like Doc's pizza. It's cash only, it's way to go.
SPEAKER_01Great place. Uncle Rico's has the best pizza in all of Southwest Florida.
SPEAKER_00I'll try it out. Try it out.
SPEAKER_01Uncle Rico's. There's a couple that are really, really close, but I won't get into that debacle.
SPEAKER_00Well, is there like something going on? People are like fighting over it?
SPEAKER_01No, I wouldn't say that people are fighting over it. And it's like, I'm just offended because I've been screaming Uncle Rico's for years for a long time. And then all of a sudden everybody's on it. And I'm like, all right, I get it. I understand 100%. The thing is with Uncle Rico's, is this he's he he has coined the phrase Florida pizza. Okay. It's not New York pizza. Is it like a foldable pizza? Nah, it's you know, nice crisp bottom on it. It's got a nice snap to it. If you go, if you don't want cheese, get the crazy uncle. It's got like hot honey and cheese. You'll love it.
SPEAKER_00You're meat lovers. I go to we go to Chicago and do that deep dish.
SPEAKER_01Or it's the angry uncle. I can't remember what it is.
SPEAKER_00Uno and all that, Gerardelli or whatever. Or whatever the hell it is.
SPEAKER_01Ah meh. Maybe you're just not that much of a pizza guy. I don't know. That's alright.
SPEAKER_00We used to sell it. In the road, we had a pizza tent. Pepperoni and sausage. Um carnival. Carnival stuff. But yeah, pizza's not mad. I like pizza.
SPEAKER_01What about the uh the best steak you've had in the town? Best steak.
SPEAKER_00You know, I would have to say consistently good. Now, not it's a chain. People are gonna be like, what do you mean? He's about to say Ruth. Yeah. And Astero. Peter does a damn good job there. He's the guy's been there from the beginning. He's not the manager, he's a smalier. Good dude. But just, I mean, good bar. I mean, it needs a little. I mean, it gets used, right? But it's it's a nice place. I like that place. Ruth Chris got a good steak. They put the butter on it, good filet. I'm a strip kind of guy, too. Um how you want it cooked. Medium rare. 100%. I do like Flemings, it's not bad. Another chain. Uh, as far as a really good steak, I like uh sea level here in Bonita. They do a pretty good steak. It's not bad. It's different, right? It's a different, it's like a it's not like a steakhouse steak. They put the sauce on it, they make lays and all that. That's good too. They got good fish over there. That's the thing we get in fish. Like I was over in East Coast this past weekend. We went to a Shures, I think it was called. I don't think it was the name of it. Like, oh, we got a you know, a sea bass. And it's just like a I don't like the end of the tail, right? Like if I want a piece of fish, I want to I want something that's got some, you know, it doesn't get dried out, right? Like a decent like give me 14 ounces of grouper by grouper. Like, you know, give me a nice piece of fish. Like I want a good, like a snook. You know, you gotta get them in slop. Like that's a deep, I mean that's a thick piece of meat you get out there. Um I don't want a like a you know, like a steak. Uh, but you know, this little stuff, eh. I'm not a like a brandzino where they bring the whole fish. Nah, not about it.
SPEAKER_01You know. So I can't even really ask you, like, which who's got the best fish because it's really like who caught it most recent.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean, that's the thing, like, right? I've had members bring back king mackerel where people are like, oh, that's oily, you know. But you any fish that's fresh is damn good. Like I had this king mackerel, he bought me this steak, and it was like it was a good steak. And uh I threw it, he's thrown in an Italian dressing, threw in an Italian dressing, put it on a grill. That was solid. That was solid. You know, because it's a white fish, it's gonna eat it today. You don't eat it tomorrow. I tell our members, you're gonna eat the fish tonight, keep it. Don't throw, don't fill your freezer because that just destroys it. It's not not worth it, right? You know, um, but a good steak, I'd say Ruth Chris is good. There's some other places I like going over to uh Jimmy P's getting a steak and you know cooking at my house. You know, that's pretty good. Um, it's different, but a lot of butter over there with Chris. It's damn good.
unknownMan.
SPEAKER_00We've been there, right?
SPEAKER_01Did I take you there one time? Are we going with Chris? I don't I've never been to Ruth in my life, I don't think. Check it out. Try it out. I think the last time I uh I had a stake was probably me throwing it on my little 10-inch cast iron and just what, three and three or four and four, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00Four minutes. Yeah, I mean you learn. I tell you what, I did I did a I did a picana. So that's like the top sterloin. And it's the one that has a fat cap. It's a fat cap, right? And it's that's like the Brazilian steakhouse style, right? You gotta cut it and you well man, that was good. But it it's it's simple. What you do is you salt it, a lot of salt, sea salt, and you throw it on a grill. You flip it and you slice off it, but then it's you know, it's so thick, you gotta throw it back on the grill and resalt it. And that's what they do. You slice and it's I was the sterling has got like that top store's got a different bite than it does like a like a uh filet or something like that. So everything's a little different, right? The strip. It's a Kansas City strip. You tell them, Nugget. You tell them, or remember's coming back late. See at Baywater, you can come out. This is this is playing early, but you can come out late. You can stay, watch the sunset, do some good, good uh fishing after hours at Baywater. You're allowed to do that. We don't have like a uh you know, a set time. You gotta get there. So, but folks, we've been we've been chatting a lot about food, Jake. I've been hungry. We're getting there pretty close to the end here, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, everybody, happy Sunday morning and uh good luck finding breakfast this morning because I know that's what you're gonna be wanting after listening to this.
SPEAKER_00Some brunch there for sure. Blueberries, that in Naples are something good right there. So, folks, thanks for tuning in. We'll catch you next week, uh, Jake. As always, thank you, sir. Of course. Carney to Congress.com, Carney to Congress Podcast, brought to you by Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, the exclusive club of Southwest Florida. Hey, this is Adam Otana. Thanks for tuning in to the Carnity to Congress podcast brought to you by Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, the only family-owned and operated boat club in Southwest Florida. We have over 60 boats down here in Bonita Springs. You want access to pontoons, deck boats, water slides, bar boats, we got it at Baywater. Come on down and see us. We're two miles west of 41, right on Bonita Beach Road, exit 116 office 75. Give us a call at 239-495-0455. Again, that's 239-495-0455, or look us up online, or just Google BW Boat Club, BW Boat Club, BW Boat Club.com.