Barcelona Festival Chaos, Arnold Sighting, & Dad On A Box Truck: Listener Episode #23

Summary

Podcast Summary: Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

Episode: Listener Stories #23 – Barcelona Festival Chaos, Arnold Sighting, & Dad On A Box Truck
Date: April 30, 2026
Hosts: Seth Meyers ("Sufi") & Josh Meyers ("Pashi")

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Episode Overview

In this lively listener-story episode, Seth and Josh Meyers read and respond to three unforgettable tales submitted by fans about wildly memorable family trips: a surprise encounter with Arnold Schwarzenegger on an Oregon movie set, chaos on arrival in Barcelona during the world’s largest International Women’s Day parade, and a Delaware beach trip that turns into a vacation disaster (complete with a mild-mannered dad gone full action hero on a box truck). The brothers riff on these tales with humor, personal anecdotes, and their signature affectionate sibling banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Notable Moments

1. Kicking Off: Singing, Friendships, and the Value of "Rules"

Timestamps: 00:47–09:37

• Seth and Josh open with a discussion about emotional birthday videos and elaborate group singalongs at parties.
  • Josh helped arrange an epic "One Drink More" (parody of Les Misérables' "One Day More") for a friend, describing joyful rehearsal chaos.
  • Seth (05:01): Shares how “One Day More” is a rallying cry for family events and football weekends.
  • The brothers touch on the anxiety of podcast intros, combing through comment sections, and the "Karen" accusation Josh received about complaining at a golf course.
    • Josh (08:14): Reads a reviewer calling him a "Karen tattletail complainer."
    • Both agree rules are vital—especially in golf!

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2. Listener Story #1: Arnold Sighting in Oregon

Timestamps: 13:23–24:28
Story by Andrew from Oregon

• Summary: Andrew recalls childhood family trips to Astoria, Oregon—the real-life set for ‘The Goonies’—and a fateful day blocked from Ecola State Park by a Boy Scout guarding an exclusive movie shoot.
• Plot twist: Andrew’s lawyer dad and buff uncle get the family through the blockade, ending up as "extras" on the set of Kindergarten Cop and glimpsing Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
  • “Did the Terminator really need an umbrella on a 70 degree day? My mom wondered aloud.” – Andrew (16:57)
• Seth & Josh React:
  • Josh raves about the beauty of the Oregon coast and the thrill of “celebrity spottings” during family trips.
  • Both admit they’ve never actually watched Kindergarten Cop, but riff on Arnold's iconic “It’s not a tumor” line (20:30–20:39).
  • Sibling nostalgia: The brothers remember seeing movie shoots in New England as kids and compare the charge of seeing a celeb to “free showbiz.”
• Memorable Moment: Seth and Josh both break out Arnold impressions throughout, egged on by “Gary Desnake,” a recurring (fake) guest voicing Schwarzenegger.

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3. Listener Story #2: Barcelona Festival Chaos

Timestamps: 24:40–31:46
Story by Brandi from Anchorage, AK

• Summary: Brandi’s honeymoon in Barcelona starts with a grueling journey from Idaho, only to have the couple emerge from the subway into the middle of the International Women’s Day march—a massive, crowded parade.
• Chaos: They drag luggage through cobblestone streets, only to get trapped in an unmoving taxi and are eventually charged €15 for “no distance traveled.”
  • “We end up walking the rest of the way to the Airbnb. As soon as we shut the door, I broke down crying. We drank the entire bottle of wine and…had an amazing rest of the trip.” – Brandi (28:12)
• Seth & Josh React:
  • Jokes about the “running of the girls” (29:29) and the male conundrum of whether to help carry luggage in a women’s solidarity march.
  • Packing philosophies: Recounting tales of carry-on vs. checked bags, and the “wait until you miss a flight” travel philosophy.
  • Seth notes that the worst moments often powerfully define the sweetest memories from a trip.

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4. Listener Story #3: Dad On a Box Truck

Timestamps: 36:24–45:08
Story by Samantha from Vermont

• Summary: Samantha’s family spring break in Delaware goes wrong from the start—no sheets or towels in the condo, a bomb scare closes the beach, and the trip climaxes with a box truck rear-ending their SUV. Her normally passive dad leaps into action, climbing onto the box truck to keep the driver at the scene.
  • “My dad…like, hops up on the side and is like, you’re not going anywhere!” – Samantha (39:05)
• Seth & Josh React:
  • Immediately latch onto the “mild-mannered dad becomes action hero” image.
  • Reflect on their own father’s brashness confronting line-cutters in airports (41:26).
  • Salute the “righteous kill” of a failed vacation turning into family lore, and the wisdom of going home early when the trip is beyond saving.
  • Seth (43:04): “Sometimes it’s the right call. How are you gonna put it back together once…?”

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5. Broader Themes & Final Riffs

Timestamps: 43:41–45:58

• Mother’s Day Mishaps: Both share stories about accidentally “screwing up” Mother’s Day with work/travel commitments, leading Seth to muse about how sometimes the best gift is being “unimpeachably in the wrong” so your partner is justified in busting your chops.
• The episode wraps up with Arnold impressions and a quick-fire summary of the value of memories—good or bad.

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Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• Josh (08:14):
  "I love you guys, but wow. Josh is a real Karen tattletail complainer."

• Andrew (16:57):
  "Did the Terminator really need an umbrella on a 70 degree day? My mom wondered aloud."

• Seth & Josh (20:38):
  (As Arnold) "It’s not a tumor."

• Brandi (28:12):
  "We drank the entire bottle of wine and…had an amazing rest of the trip. Everything was flawless after that, and I wouldn’t change a single minute."

• Samantha (39:05):
  "My dad gets out of the car, runs up to the box truck and like, hops up on the side and is like, you’re not going anywhere."

• Seth (41:08):
  "How memorably great a bad vacation is."

• Josh (43:04):
  "Sometimes it’s the right call. How are you gonna put it back together once…?"

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Episode Structure & Listener Engagement

• Listener stories are the heart of the episode, expertly curated and playfully deconstructed by the Meyers brothers.
• Generous riffing, personal anecdotes, and running Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions keep the tone loose and affectionate.
• A musical recap at the end by “Sam,” the producer, cleverly retells each listener’s story with jokes and references to episode highlights.

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Conclusion

This episode celebrates the “memorable disasters” of family travel—reminding listeners that even the worst mishaps tend to become treasured family stories. Seth and Josh’s warmth, self-deprecating humor, and deep sibling chemistry make for a relatable and entertaining look at what really makes a trip unforgettable.

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Recommended Segments

• Emotional party singalongs & “One Day More” as a family anthem (01:06, 04:30)
• “Karen on the golf course” callout & Josh’s response (07:53–08:50)
• Arnold under a parasol on the Kindergarten Cop set (16:57–18:53)
• Being trapped in a Barcelona parade, travel chaos (28:27–29:29)
• Dad jumps onto a box truck—action hero moment (39:05–39:23)
• “Best Mother’s Day gift: being unimpeachably in the wrong” (43:41–44:18)

Tone: Warm, self-effacing, and consistently funny, with a focus on affectionate storytelling.

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Transcript

[Sufi]

Good sleep is everything.

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[Sam]

Family trips with. Family chips with a man

[Sufi]

is perfect. Here we go. Hey, Pashi.

[Pashi]

Hey, Sufi.

[Sufi]

If it looks like I've been crying, it's because I've been crying a little bit. Oh, no, no, it's good crying. I just watched that birthday video you sent me.

[Pashi]

Oh yeah. With your friend. We talked about Molly before, but yeah,

[Sufi]

I saw it and it's incredible. I mean, obviously we've established the reason Josh sings a song at the end of these is because Josh has always sung a song at our get togethers with friends. But this was above and beyond the fact that you taught everybody different parts of the best song in Les Mischievous.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Sufi]

One day more. But this was one drink more for your friend Molly. And it was incredible. But you sent me a video. Obviously it was from different cameras, different phones. Who edited it together?

[Pashi]

My dear friend Alex Gorosh, who is our director over at California Now.

[Sufi]

Gotcha.

[Pashi]

And so any of the stuff that we do on location there, he's our shooter and he's just a great director. We've worked together on a lot of stuff through the years and he. Yeah, he compiled sort of all the different phone videos he added, edited it together with the best shots he laid in the subtitles. So if you aren't picking up the lyrics, they're right there for you. And yeah, I watched it yesterday and he was like, hey, is this okay? Like, do you have any notes? And I was also crying and I was like, no, no, no notes.

[Sufi]

It's something else. It really speaks to. I'm gonna cry again. But it speaks to the kind of friend you are to people. Poshy.

[Pashi]

Yeah, well, I was not.

[Sufi]

A lot of people get. An expression of. You're a one of one. Posh.

[Pashi]

No, Sufi. Thank you. It was. It was my honor to do it and. And I was so, you know, I have talked about it here, but I was so delighted that everyone jumped on board and people rehearsed their parts on their own.

[Sufi]

Amazing.

[Pashi]

And like, I will say, and I don't know if I said this before, but we had a rehearsal. We were at in up in Ojai for this birthday party. And we were staying at this great hotel, and Mackenzie and I had this little patio that we hadn't used at all. And people were like, are we gonna have a rehearsal? And I was like, I don't know when it's gonna work out to have a rehearsal. And there were a couple people who had solos, and they were kind of clamoring for it. And then there was a little gap in the afternoon. It was like 4:30. And I could tell some people were like, gonna go take a little nap before the evening kicked off. It was a seven o' clock cocktail hour, eight o' clock dinner. And I was in the pool and got a sense that Molly was going to take a nap. And I was like, all right, 6 o' clock rehearsal in our room. And we probably had 20 people piled into our little patio. And I was like, let's just be quiet. But people couldn't be quiet.

[Sufi]

Like, yeah, it's a very hard song to be quiet for.

[Pashi]

Yeah. And rehearsal was so fun. And every, like, first time through, people were great. Like. And I was like, do we do it again? And people said, yeah, let's do it. So, yeah.

[Sufi]

I also, I mean, it is, I, I. It might be my favorite Broadway song of all time. It is also a song that I sing full throatedly. When the Steelers extend their season.

[Pashi]

Yeah. It's that it leads up when he. When we go away for our sort of our fantasy football draft weekend, it's typically like, yeah, a one day more text goes out the day before we all get there. It is. It is a true rallying call. Yeah.

[Sufi]

I remember once there was some sort of event at my apartment. It was before Alexi and I were married and she was hosting our family. And there was a lot going on. I don't think you were there, but dad was there, mom was there, and the Steelers were. If they lost, they were out. And I remember just they were losing by a lot. And then they beat maybe the Packers. But I remember, like, bringing mom and dad into my bedroom and closing the door and soft singing One Day More.

[Pashi]

Well, I'm. It's nice that you say such nice things about me and because also when I first talked about Ojai on this, on the pod, it was for a listener episode. And you were not there for. It wasn't a listener episode. It was an intro to the episode that MacKenzie was in.

[Sufi]

Oh, right.

[Pashi]

And I had to record a solo intro.

[Sufi]

Yeah.

[Pashi]

And mackenzie was very worried about, you know, am I gonna sound okay on the show? Am I gonna look okay? Like, she was, you know, just. It's not what she does. So she was a bit unsettled, and she was worried about the episode coming out, and then, you know, it comes out, and she's great. She's so charming, very sweet, and, you know me. I'm not a big comment person, but

[Sufi]

you don't like the comments. The comment section is not for you. I don't, like.

[Pashi]

I don't want to engage with it too much because then it makes me self conscious. And, like, I. I think the.

[Sufi]

I think choosing to not engage with the comment section is a very healthy choice. I was not being judgmental.

[Pashi]

Yeah. I mean, I like that people are commenting, and occasionally, you know, there might be cause to go in, but MacKenzie starts reading comments, and she sends me one about the solo intro. And apparently I was pretty ornery the morning I. I dropped it, so. And MacKenzie's like, if you need to do a solo intro, maybe I should do it with you. Maybe just to, like, calm you down a little, because I told the story about,

[Sufi]

you know, me and where people. People thought you a little bit of a Karen.

[Pashi]

Yeah. So I'll just. I'll read this review. But I was mad that this, like, fancy golf course that I'd paid a lot of money to play, there were two fivesomes in front of me and Devin. And.

[Sufi]

And for the uninitiated, a fivesome is sort of a bit of a. No.

[Andrew]

No.

[Sufi]

Correct.

[Pashi]

It's definitely. It's against the rules. And if we've also.

[Sufi]

So it's not. This is not a gray area. This is.

[Pashi]

No, it's. It's hard. Yeah. It's hard and fast. And, you know, we also. We talk about games and rules, and we like rules.

[Sufi]

We like rules. Rules are an incredible part, an incredibly vital part to a functioning society. Yeah.

[Pashi]

But TG Weiss, 67, wrote of me in my intro. I love you guys, but, wow. Josh is a real Karen tattletail complainer. Just be direct and ask if you can move in front of the fivesomes. Quite whiny, passive aggressive. Hate to call him out, but it did feel a little lame.

[Sufi]

Wow. I would say no punches pulled by DG 74 or whatever it was.

[Pashi]

Yeah. T.G. weiss, 67. I hear you, T.G. weiss. I will say we. We did say, hey, can we go through? And the five some in front was like, there's a five some in front of us too. Which doesn't. Isn't really. And I'm not looking to get in a Fight on the golf course.

[Andrew]

I just.

[Sufi]

No.

[Pashi]

Lodged a complaint with the pro shop and.

[Sufi]

Yeah, well, I personally don't think that you are a Karen in this case.

[Pashi]

Thank you.

[Sufi]

I would also say. Yeah, I don't know what I would do. I probably would have just, you know, been like, all right, I guess this is a sign we should go home.

[Pashi]

Yeah, but we really wanted to play this golf course and I could. We could have, like, driven around them, but then you miss three holes and, like, we weren't there to play 15 holes of golf.

[Sufi]

Right, right, right.

[Pashi]

It probably cost us 45 minutes on our day. I'm sorry, but Pool said, that's okay. I'm. I've rallied back.

[Sufi]

You've rallied back, but I think the important thing is no solo intros for old Pashi. That's when he takes out his axe and grinds it.

[Pashi]

I just sort of write some quick notes. I'm like, what's been happening in my life that I can talk about? And, yeah, I was rattling through them and I guess I got my hackles up. So. Yeah.

[Sufi]

Well, it's good to know. Good to know. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Yahoo. Mail now with Planner. Hey, Bashi.

[Pashi]

Hey, Sufi.

[Sufi]

Oh, man, I need to get my life organized. You know, you host a podcast, or in my case, two podcasts, or in your case, two podcasts, and it's easy to get them all mixed up.

[Pashi]

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[Sufi]

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[Pashi]

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[Sufi]

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[Pashi]

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[Sufi]

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[Pashi]

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[Sufi]

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[Pashi]

Yeah, they're good like that. Yeah, they could even check in while they're there and say like, hey, they don't have this, but I could get, you know, they don't have X, but I could get Y or Z. And you're like, oh, get me Z. Yeah, it's that kind of attention to detail that you're gonna get that you might not get otherwise.

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[Sufi]

Here we go. Well, this is very exciting. It's time for for stories from listeners. We asked our listeners.

[Pashi]

I hope they're not stories about me being a Karen.

[Sufi]

No, no. But we did say to our listeners, send in a story where you behaved as badly as Josh did on the golf course. It's not true. Yeah, this is no Karen's, but we do have stories. We love listening to them and we're very lucky to have Sam here, our producer, who's going to roll them for us. All right, so let us, let us hear our first one. Sam.

[Andrew]

Hi, Josh and Seth. This is Andrew from Oregon. As a foreign service officer living overseas, I've enjoyed the show's nostalgic focus on memories from a particular time in America when travel was basically road trips and boardwalks and backseat bingo. Here's my story. I grew up in Oregon, which in part means two things. We all go to the Oregon coast on vacation. We don't call it the beach. It's not warm enough, and we all have an encyclopedic knowledge of the movies filmed at the coast, for example Short Circuit and Point Break. This second point is important in my family because my dad grew up in Astoria, the location of the most famous Oregon film, Goonies. The goonies. Released in 1985, the Goonies was a sort of backdrop for our family trips to Astoria for a few reasons, including my grandma's long standing but unverified claim that she had been an extra in one of the downtown Astoria scenes, only to be left on the cutting room floor. Most of our yearly road trips to Astoria included visits to the jail, the Fratelli's escape from at the start of the movie, Mikey's Victorian style house on the hill, and scenic bluffs overlooking Haystack Rock, with us pretending we were looking through a stone skull to identify the location of One Eyed Willie's treasure. One of our yearly stops was actually just south at Ecola State park near Cannon Beach. Ecola State park stretches for nine miles along some of the most beautiful coastline in Oregon, once explored by Lewis and Clark in search of a beached whale. The park has sweeping views of the misty coastline, including the famous Haystack. On one visit, which included my visiting aunt, uncle and cousins from Illinois, my dad aimed the Dodge Ram van up the hill toward Ecola and our favorite viewpoint. The Oregon coast is not warm even in summer. Most people don't swim without a wetsuit and rolled up jeans for tide pulling and hoodies or the uniform. Reaching a good viewpoint on a sunny day, which it was especially with out of town visitors, is kind of the unicorn of Oregon coast activities. As an important aside, let me say that my dad was a lawyer who made his living dissecting local ordinances, and my uncle, an aerospace engineer, happened to be pretty buff due to bodybuilding during his youth. As we reached the entrance to the park, we were stopped by a young Boy Scout, which was unusual. My dad rolled down his window and the kid politely told us that the park was closed for the day due to the filming of a movie, a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. We were equal parts frustrated and thrilled. We had family to impress. On one of the few sunny days at the coast and Arnold was in town, family memories diverge at this point, some say my dad looked down his nose at the poor peach fuzz faced boy and said, son, I'm an attorney registered with the Oregon Bar Association. I know for a fact you cannot block entry into a public state park. Others say my dad looked at the boy, looked at my uncle and said, son, this man here is a stunt double for Mr. Schwarzenegger and he needs access to the set right away. Whatever he said, the Boy Scout shrunk back and let us through. We somehow found parking spot amid a swarm of legitimate extras and quickly blended into the background of what appeared to be a school carnival scene. We were captivated as the Austrian oak stood at the center of actors, cameras, lighting, and to the disbelief of my mom, an assistant whose only job appeared to be to hold an umbrella over Arnold's head. As Oregonians, we generally avoid umbrellas in favor of raincoats, but the idea of using an umbrella, really a parasol to avoid the famously meek Oregon coat sun shocked us. Did the Terminator really need an umbrella on a 70 degree day? My mom wondered aloud. We had stumbled upon Kindergarten Cop in which Arnold plays John Kimball, a hard boiled LAPD detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in small town Astoria to catch the bad guy. It of course became one of our family favorites, both because it was filmed in Astoria and because we like to think we might spot ourselves in the background. Our trips to Astoria, Cannon beach and nearby Seaside, where you can still find Pronto Pup, corn dogs, agate shops and bumper cars are some of my best memories growing up. Your show reminds me of that feeling. A feeling I hope I'm sharing with my children when we take them home over the summer from where we're living overseas to Oregon. Mine is Arnold, of course. Thanks for the awesome podcast.

[Sufi]

That was just a fantastic story.

[Pashi]

Thank you, Andrew. I think I've been to that park. The Oregon coast, if you've never been, is just jaw dropping. It's beautiful. It's so rugged. And then to add on top of that, Arnold.

[Gary Desnake]

Yeah, with umbrella, the two sons protect me from the organ sun. I will go swimming later. Where's my wetsuit? This is a tiny wetsuit. How am I supposed to fit into this? Sew together two wetsuits for my J muscles. This one is good enough for me. Later. I'm going to go to the bed. Get to the police station when they got away. No way. They shot Goonies here. Here's where they shot Goonies with Joey pants Norway. Also short circuit the mama from to mama from the train. These Are other Fatellis in the movie? John Matuszak, he was an NFL player.

[Sufi]

He was chunk. Goodies. I mean, talk about a movie that holds up.

[Pashi]

Yeah, I haven't. I haven't seen Goonies in a while. But you got kids, so you. You were watching some Goonies?

[Sufi]

Well, the first. I was on a plane and we've talked about this sensation where somebody like a row up and one like the aisle across, one row up was watching Goonies. And I was just like, watching them watch Goonies.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Sufi]

Because it didn't seem like I should watch Goonies on a plane. But then at some point I'm like, I just watch Goonies. And first of all, it's beautiful, that movie, like, because, again, it does take place in the most beautiful place. Maybe for me, you know, I like a rainy sort of like mossy. I like everything to look a little, like, soft.

[Pashi]

Yeah. Big trees going on up there. I got that.

[Sufi]

Old growth goon is genuinely scary. Genuinely moving. Great, great movie. And a fun one. Josh Brolin, a young Josh Brolin is the older brother.

[Pashi]

You know, movie I think I've maybe never seen.

[Sufi]

What's.

[Pashi]

That? Is Kindergarten Cop.

[Sufi]

I have never seen Kindergarten Cop.

[Pashi]

I feel like. Felt too young for us when it came out.

[Sufi]

Definitely was.

[Pashi]

Definitely. And so it's like. I don't know. But I bet. I bet it's really fun.

[Sufi]

I can do one. I can do one line from it.

[Pashi]

Oh, yeah?

[Sufi]

Well, can you? Do you.

[Pashi]

Is it.

[Sufi]

You got it. I know you got this.

[Pashi]

No, it's not. It's not a tumor.

[Sufi]

It is. It's not a tumor.

[Ollie Sleep Advertiser]

Oh, okay.

[Sufi]

Yeah, there's a kid in the kindergarten. I only know it from the. From the trailer.

[Gary Desnake]

Yeah, but it's not a tumor.

[Pashi]

Yeah. All right, well, sorry I delivered it so questionably. I didn't.

[Sufi]

Yeah, no, you've gotta. But you gotta believe in yourself.

[Pashi]

Yeah. I remember we were at our grandmother Addie's house in Marblehead, New Hampshire, and the witches of Eastwick was being shot. Oh, yeah. And I remember, like, Cherry walking by and we saw, like, a couple people. And it is like, it's so exciting.

[Sufi]

Or.

[Pashi]

It was so exciting to see a celebrity and be like, what's being shot here? And to stumble upon, like, to be going somewhere and then all of a sudden have it turn into, like, oh, no, Arnold Schwarzenegger's here.

[Sufi]

That's. I'm gonna tell you. I'll do you one better. I'm. I have a talk show. I meet celebrities every day when I walk down the street in New York City and they're filming a movie. I'm always like, oh, there's a movie. Oh, my God. Any celebs? Anybody see any celebs? Like, it's like you just feel like you're stealing. I don't know, like you're just like. It's like free. Free showbiz.

[Pashi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's a great park. I'm confident. I've been there. And really, I feel like Kindergarten Cop is maybe one that you could watch with your kids.

[Sufi]

Another book that takes place up in logging country, maybe Top five Sufi book is sometimes a great notion by Ken Kesey.

[Pashi]

Yeah, Ken Kesey.

[Sufi]

And it was a movie with Paul Newman that is impossible to find. And there was a clip of it. Ethan Hawke did this fantastic documentary about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward and there was a clip of it in the movie. And I actually wrote Ethan and said, you know, I've been trying to see that movie for years. He goes, it's so hard to find. And I then followed up and said, I, you know, I've heard it's not great. And he said, it's way better than you've heard. And there's one of the great movie scenes of all time. So that's kind of continues to be my, like, I don't know, my white whale of a movie that I'm dying to see.

[Pashi]

Yeah. There's a very. There's one of the most haunting sections ever. And that book. Yeah. Which I don't want to go into now, but also like that book jumps narrators like paragraph to paragraph. You can't be super casual in reading it, but if you put in the time, it sort of pays you back dividends.

[Sufi]

It is one of those not to. Not to get into. Turn this into a late night lit. But it's a very challenging book that pays off. Like, once you figure out what's going on, everything. You know, nothing has been written to confuse you.

[Pashi]

Right.

[Sufi]

It is. It's all purposeful. And you know, I'm in a book club. I'm not ashamed about that. We're reading A Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, another one that is just impenetrable off the jump. Just an impenetrable narrator. I think it's just like I had to read there's like nine different timelines in the first chapter. Nine, you know, just moments in time. And you're like, this is. And then as you read, it's four chapters by the fourth section. You cannot put it down because you're like, oh, I understand everything now. And I get what everything comes from.

[Pashi]

Not dissimilar to, like, the wire is like, totally. This is so. It's like, it's slow. It's like, I don't know. And then it's when pieces start connecting, it's like, oh, no, no, this is.

[Sufi]

Yep, yep. No, everything they've done this entire time has been for a reason.

[Pashi]

Yeah. Well, thank you, Andrew.

[Sufi]

I hope you guys thank you for your work and the foreign service as well.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Sufi]

Keeping looking out. Thanks for looking out. Yeah.

[Pashi]

We got another story. Sam.

[Brandi Graf]

Hi, my name is Brandi Graf. I'm from Anchorage, Alaska, and in 2019, my husband and I went to Barcelona for our honeymoon. At the time, we were living in Boise, Idaho, and it took over 24 hours to get from Idaho to Spain. By the time we landed, we were a little exhausted and overwhelmed, especially trying to figure out how to get from the airport to our Airbnb. Someone at the airport was really helpful and pointed us to an underground subway and told us exactly what stop to get off on. We start heading down to the subway and it felt like endless stairs. It was like we were going into the depths of the earth. We finally get on the train with all of our luggage. I definitely do not pack lightly. And we ride for a while, completely exhausted, but also excited to get to our place and finally get some sleep. We get off at our stop as we were told, and we cannot find a way out. We're wandering around this underground platform, looking at all the stairs, trying to figure out how we actually get to the street level. We finally find the right stairs, and as we're walking up, I can see the night sky, and I'm so relieved to see open air. I'm thinking, okay, we're close. We're almost there. We can finally go and relax. But then I start hearing noise, like a lot of noise. A huge crowd of people. We get to the top of the stairs and the streets are flooded with people. There's signs and chanting and singing and what looks like a full on parade. And that's when I realized we've come up right in the middle of the International Women's Day march in Barcelona, which I later learned is one of the largest in the world. So here we are, dragging our very heavy luggage, which everyone told us not to pack, over Cowboystone streets, trying to weave through this massive crowd and not bump into anyone or get in the way. And at one point, we literally have to cross the street in front of the parade. Eventually, a taxi driver Pulls over. Well, wasn't pulled over. They were just there. We come across them and asks if we're where we're going and if he can take us there again. We're relieved. Like, here we go. Maybe they can get us where we need to go. And my map is still showing we're like two miles from the Airbnb. We hop in and then we don't move at all. Like, not even a single foot. The place is so packed with people that our car can't even move an inch. We sit there for about 15 minutes and. And don't go anywhere. Finally, the driver turns to us and is like, well, sorry, this is as far as I can take you, and charges us €15 for that. We end up walking the rest of the way to the Airbnb. And thankfully, our host was incredible. He was waiting outside for us to make sure that we found our way. He had a bottle of wine ready and we got to our room the whole time. I had such a brave face on. But as soon as we shut the door, I broke down crying. We drank the entire bottle of wine and we got, you know, 12 hours of sleep and had an amazing rest of the trip. Everything was flawless after that, and I wouldn't change a single minute.

[Sufi]

That is fantastic. Now, posh, do you think the taxi driver was like, I'm gonna be sitting in traffic anyway.

[Pashi]

Like, yeah, I might as well pick up a fare if someone's willing to, you know, get in.

[Sufi]

Yeah.

[Pashi]

I also think, like, it might have been worth €15 to sit for a half an hour and have your luggage taken care of instead of having.

[Sufi]

True. That's like a wrestled.

[Pashi]

Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's. I don't think it's really a great service that. That taxi driver.

[Sufi]

No, we don't want to make him. He's. He. We don't want to make him the hero or anything. Yeah.

[Pashi]

But, yeah, coming up against a parade, I imagine when they said they had to cross right in front of it, it's that sort of running in front of a approaching train kind of a vibe. Yeah. Cuz if the head of the snake of a parade is coming your way and you got to pull luggage in front of it. Yeah.

[Sufi]

You know what they call International Women's Day Parade in Spain?

[Pashi]

What's up?

[Sufi]

The running of the girls. I would. Now, as the. As a dude, I feel like when you're in the middle of a Women's Day parade, are you like, do I help my wife with her luggage or like, Is that like. Is that. You know what I mean? Is that the patriarchy? Do I like, is the.

[Pashi]

Like, I told her not to pack

[Sufi]

this much, or is it like, we're equals? She's got to carry her luggage. I carry my luggage. I would just definitely be like, I don't know. I don't know what way to play this.

[Pashi]

Yeah, it is. Do you got. When you travel, I imagine you rarely are checking luggage.

[Sufi]

We almost never check.

[Pashi]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sufi]

That's one of the nice things about our. By the way. There's almost nothing nice about this. But, you know, now that our kids. We're buying full plane tickets for our kids. Right. I think they're only free until they're two years old. But you have, like, at this point, you have the luggage allowance for five people. Right. So, yeah, that. Which is not bad.

[Pashi]

But it's so, like, I'm very much like, if mackenzie's checking, then I'm like, all right, then I'll bring my check back to. Yeah.

[Sufi]

But then, yeah, I. You know, we know some people who are old school checkers, like Andrew Moscows. I remember. Yeah, he's. Because. But he also, like, thinks, like, being at the airport as part of the vacation. So you don't want to be, like, rolling around a suitcase thing. And now I go shopping.

[Pashi]

Yeah. This also, this friend of ours, Andrew Moscos, has a theory that if you've never missed a plane, then you're getting to the airport too early. And his wife is like, I never want to miss a plane.

[Sufi]

I want to miss a plane.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Sufi]

Also, like, I miss. I missed one flight one time and was like. It completely changed the way I operated. Whereas he's like, rite of passage.

[Pashi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, well, I'm glad that Brandy's take is that she wouldn't. Wouldn't have changed a thing. I think it is those, you know, those gauntlets that you have to go through those trials that. That make the rest of a trip like that so much sweeter. I hope it was the bump in the road and the rest of it was smooth sailing.

[Sufi]

And I think if he had been with you, Arnold would have said €15

[Gary Desnake]

for now for this. This is the. We've only got a few blocks.

[Pashi]

Really good Sufi. You've really been.

[Sufi]

Thank you, buddy. I. I was. I waited. I wanted to wait till you forgot that was part of this episode.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Gary Desnake]

Oh, no. It's a parade. Oh, no, go back down the stairs.

[Sufi]

I will say, like, horror movie nightmare style. Being in a foreign subway where I don't know how to get out.

[Pashi]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Sufi]

That like feels like. I mean, our buddy Jordan Peele should just make a fucking movie where somebody gets on a subway in a foreign country, then gets out at the end of the line and it's just like. I mean, that's kind of what the U.S. you know, where they just like go down like. Yeah, Stairs. Stairs and stairs.

[Pashi]

Yeah. I was gonna say we almost, we almost had Arnold on the pod, but it didn't work out timing wise. He had a book a couple years ago, so. But we would love to have him on and we would love to.

[Gary Desnake]

The time zones wrong. I thought it was eastern time and it was Pacific. I miss a family trips on some of the good stuff.

[Pashi]

So it turns out Sufi. We both do very good impressions of California governors.

[Sufi]

Yeah. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Good way of looking at it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Sufi]

Finally. And also, there's only one of him. So it's not like when you do an Australian impression, a whole fucking country's mad at you. You know what I mean?

[Pashi]

Yeah, yeah. I mean there are other Austrians.

[Sufi]

Yeah. But I feel like.

[Pashi]

Do you think they all sound like him?

[Sufi]

You've ever heard Bill Burr's bit? Bill Burr has a great bent, which was like, like, like he pulled off the hardest. Like a guy born in Austria, like became a weightlifting star, then a movie star, then the governor of California. Just like, like that. It's the most impressive act that anyone has ever accomplished.

[Pashi]

And he's not impressive, man.

[Sufi]

Not wrong.

[Pashi]

Yeah, no doubt about it. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors.

[Sufi]

Support comes from Butcherbox. Spring is giving fresh start vibes. Like suddenly you want to open the windows, drink more water, maybe act like you have your life together. But then all of a sudden dinner rolls around and you are, you know, all of a sudden you're back to your old habits. You're ordering takeout. But that's why Butcherbox is where you should turn. They deliver premium clean protein straight to your door. No antibiotics, no added hormones, no mystery ingredients, just real food that actually fuels your body instead of slowing it down. Effortless, glow up energy, but make it dinner. ButcherBox delivers over 100 premium protein options straight to your door. So you can continue to use it over and over again. You never get bored. Everything for 100% grass fed beef, free range organic chicken, crate free pork, wild caught seafood. It's all responsibly raised, thoughtfully sourced, so you're not guessing about what's on your plate. For us it's starting to be cookout season and it's just so nice to know that you have Butcherbox burgers ready for you. And you don't have to run to the store. You don't have to make a second choice if they don't have what you have. You've got your Butcherbox burgers. You're ready to go. And as an exclusive offer, new listeners can get their choice between chicken breast or top sirloin for a year or ground beef for life. Plus $20 off when you go to butcherbox.com trips that's right. Your choice of chicken breast or top sirloin for a year or ground beef for life plus $20 off your first box and free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com trips don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you.

[Gary Desnake]

Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney Plus. Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Sufi]

We're going to crack this case and prove where the corn. Greatest partners of all time. New friends. You are Gary Desnake. And your last name Desnake.

[Pashi]

Dream team.

[Andrew]

New habitats.

[Sufi]

Zootopia has a secret reptile population.

[Gary Desnake]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home.

[Pashi]

You're clearly working at it.

[Gary Desnake]

Zootopia 2 now available on Disney.

[Sufi]

Rated PG now at McDonald's. A McDouble is 250. So you can get your gym gains on or just get lunch for only 250. Get more value on the unfair. A three dollar menu. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery.

[Ollie Sleep Advertiser]

Hello, Seth and Josh. This is Samantha calling from Vermont, your New Hampshire neighbor calling in with a family trip story gone bad. So I grew up, I have four siblings, but my brothers are much older than me and my sister is about three years older than me. So typically our spring break would consist of my parents and my sister and myself. And we usually would go to Florida because my grandmother, my dad's mom lived there and had a house. And we would go stay with her for spring break and just swim and you know, hang out. Rollerblade. It was the 90s, so rollerblading. But for whatever reason, one year we decided we were going to go to a different place for spring break. And we had some family in the Maryland, Delaware area area. So we were like gonna go down there for, you know, change it up. So we rented a condo on the beach.

[Brandi Graf]

And

[Ollie Sleep Advertiser]

it was just like a small condo, simple, right on the beach. So we could go to the beach and hang out. We get to the condo we drove down from Vermont. We get to the condo, and there's no sheets or pillowcases or towels anywhere in the entire house. So apparently we were supposed to bring that stuff with us, which we didn't know. Whether it was an oversight on our part, I. I have no idea. But we didn't have any sheets or towels or anything like that. So we go to, like, Walmart or Kmart, buy some towels, buy some sheets, pillowcases, so we can, you know, have something to use while we're there. And to preface, my mom really didn't want to do this trip, I don't think. And my dad was like, it'll be great. So that's like strike one for the trip so far. And then the idea of staying in the condo on the beach was that we could just go down to the beach and it was somewhere that we could walk from our. Our condo. And then we get a notification from the condo association that there's some sort of, like, wartime relic being dug up from the beach that washed up and could potentially explode. So there's like a bomb warning down on the beach. And the whole entire beach is closed for the duration of however long it takes them to dig that up and get like the bomb squad and whatever. So now we are no beach, no towels, no sheets or pillowcases. So, you know, the trip goes on and we're trying to find stuff to do because, you know, we can't go to the beach. So we're trying to find stuff to do in the area. Driving around in our Suburban, and all of a sudden we get rear ended so hard in traffic by a box truck, and like, all of us slam forward. I whiplash the truck, tries to pull away and leave the scene of the crime. And my dad, who is probably the most passive man I know, like to make him. I've probably seen him mad like three times in my life. And this was one of them. My dad gets out of the car, runs up to the box truck and like, hops up on the side and is like, you're not going anywhere. And we're in the middle of traffic in Delaware, like, what's dad doing? And so anyway, the truck did not leave. The police came. You know, we did the whole thing. So now our car is bent so that we can't open the trunk anymore, and we all have whiplash. And we, like, go back to our condo where we don't have sheets or towels and we can't go to the beach. And I'm pretty sure, if I remember correctly, Like, I was fairly young at this time, but I'm pretty sure we ended up going home early because we were just like, let's cut our losses and drive back to Vermont. But it does make for a good story. And I do think my mom likes to rag on my dad because she was like, I told you so, we shouldn't have done that. But anyway, it was a great story to be able to tell and look back and laugh at it because in the end, you know, none of it was a huge deal at all. Love listening to the pod. Love hearing the Colin stories of people and quite army.

[Sufi]

Righteous kill. Righteous kill. Fantastic. And I kind of like the thesis of our pod when we started, which was how memorable a great v. How memorably great a bad vacation is.

[Pashi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's one that's gonna stick with you. That's a comedy of errors.

[Sufi]

A dad jumping on the side of a box truck is pretty good.

[Pashi]

Yeah. A mild mannered dad.

[Sufi]

Now our dad is not mild mannered. And I could see him jumping up on the side of a box truck.

[Pashi]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That would just be like Tuesday.

[Sufi]

Yeah, I think we've talked about it. But there was. We were at Skipple Airport in Amsterdam and there was like a long line to like check luggage and two business guys walked by to like the front of the line. And according to dad, they were acting like they were like misunderstood where the line was. And then since they were at the front of it, they just tried to kind of weasel their way in. And dad stepped out of line and pointed at them and said, hey, you get in the back. And they were. And then they kind of like started doing. They started like speaking Dutch and he's like, you speak English? You speak English? And he wasn't wrong. I mean, there's no, there's no businessmen in Holland that don't speak English. So dad was like, you don't die. I know you. Yeah, really good. Every, every part about that was just, just fantastic. Going home early from a trip I think is. I think that's allowed. I think that's pretty cool.

[Pashi]

Yeah, sometimes it's the right call. What are you gonna. How are you gonna put it back together once?

[Sufi]

It's also like, hey, everybody ready to love home? Everybody love home. Now let's go.

[Pashi]

Also, like, if you get home, if you get home and you still have, say, two days of vacation time, then it's like you do whatever you want to do. Like, yeah, if we want to go out, go get pizza, we want to just go to the movies. Like, we're still on vacation, but we're here. Yeah.

[Sufi]

Very, very, very allowed. I also think. I like that observation that the mom. Her mom likes that trip because she can still bust on the dad for it. Yeah. So I'm so. I screwed up so bad Posh. Which is, you know, stand up one week in a month.

[Pashi]

Yep.

[Sufi]

Booked Denver on a Friday. Said to my. My agent, hey, try to find me something close enough. He's like, you want to go to Albuquerque? I'm like, great, I'll go to Albuquerque. It's the Saturday before Mother's Day. I know. Albuquerque. Go there all the time. Cause that's where my wife's from. There's no way to get back in time for Mother's Day. It's the fucking hardest place in the world to get back from.

[Pashi]

Saturday, like, oh, Saturday. And then Sunday.

[Sufi]

Sunday morning. So now Sunday it's Mother's Day, and, like, even if I bust ass and get the first flight out. Gotta connect. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And I own this, and it is totally my fault, and I feel great shame about it. However, I do secretly think the best Mother's Day gift I can give her is something to complain about. Like, where she's like. By the way, when I say complain, like, where she's unimpeachably in the right. You know what I mean? Not like, this is not a complaint. Where, like, you know, she's not. She's right. Like, I've given her right.

[Pashi]

And there's no. There's no. Like, oh, well, you were off making money that supports our family.

[Sufi]

Oh, Cut that part out, Sam.

[Pashi]

I got this nice.

[Sufi]

Cut that part right out, Sam. But then maybe Pasha and I will reconnect on that later. Yeah, that's tough.

[Pashi]

We were. I was gonna maybe try to go home for Mother's Day this year, but I got a buddy's 40th that weekend, and it's a big. We're going away, but I'm going to see them shortly thereafter.

[Sufi]

And you got to write a huge fucking musical number for it.

[Pashi]

Mom will. Mom will understand. And I'm going to see her nine days later or so.

[Sufi]

Nice. Yeah. All right.

[Pashi]

That's a great story, Samantha.

[Sufi]

Thanks as always for those fantastic stories. It is, you know, one of our nicest parts of our week to listen.

[Pashi]

Great stories. Great, great details in those stories. The story's in the details. And, you know, a box truck helps you sort of visualize it. The. Yeah. The International Women's Day march. It's Arnold with the parasol Yeah, I got hit once.

[Sufi]

I got rear ended by a bag truck once. I think we should probably wrap this up. I think I've lost my mind.

[Pashi]

Wait, should we wrap it up or do you want. Should Arnold wrap this one up?

[Gary Desnake]

Thomas. Thank you for listening everybody. There was a back truck. They put the beer in the back of the wheels.

[Sufi]

All right. Love you Pasha.

[Pashi]

Thanks everybody. Love you.

[Sam]

Sufi family trips with the M Brothers family family chips with the money.

[Sufi]

Here we go.

[Sam]

Yeah listeners good trips gone bad. Three stories to laugh with once a month. Don't you know that we drop a listen to episode so here we go in Oregon family trip was going on out in Astoria for our first story short circuit and point Break uncle was a beefcake Nicola State park was closed least that's what they were told when they when they pulled up there was a boy scout said that they had to be kept out. Dad took a look and said for sure I'm a lawyer and that's against the law. Drove up was a movie shooting and it wasn't an illusion. Arnold was under an umbrella. The governator was under an umbrella.

[Gary Desnake]

Sunday day two days more of a

[Sam]

parasol that an umbrella I need more shade. Was just a giant fella. You heard a rumor under an umbrella

[Gary Desnake]

it's not a tumor.

[Sam]

And Brandy Wayne from Idaho to Spain full days spent on a plane and then the subway went down so many stairs couldn't get out of there. Immersion located middle of a parade. No way. Brandi and her husband pulling luggage through the streets while they were flooded with women marching in unity. Brandy just want to get to that B and B problem solved. They found a taxi took a load off in the backseat. 15 minutes they just sat there. 15 year olds to go nowhere. They had to pay up without going nowhere. Waited but gave up. That is just no fair. Walk rest of the way. At least there was a host there. Mine made it okay. Samantha went to Delaware beach was closed for a bomb scare. Gotta be kidding me. There were no sheets on the bed box truck rear ended her dad who jumped up onto the truck's cab. No die going anywhere. Trip was doomed from the beginning. Condo didn't have the linens beach was closed cause there was a bomb. Pretty good validation for her mom. Overall they were unlucky. Failed early cause it was sucky. Maybe next time. Florida always had fun in Florida Grandma grandpa down in Florida they have sheets and pillowcases down in Florida. What a bust of a spring break break. Delaware or Maryland won't make that mistake. A cake once again all listeners. Santa man and they went three for three with stories. Once again, all listened to Santa men. And they went three for three with stories. Sam.