← Shannon Cason's Homemade
Shannon Cason's Homemade
Solo Road Trip: No Plans, No Partner, Just Open Road & Opportunities | Homemade
00:53:55
This is an episode for the restless, the curious, and anyone who’s ever just needed to get away.
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Shannon Casey
Have you ever gotten in your car and drove as far as the road would take you? No destination in mind. Just to get away from everything I have. Let's talk about it. Welcome to Homemade. I'm Shannon Casey. Road trips. Road trips. I went on road trips when I was young. My road trips was always my dad, my dad's business trips. He had a hair magazine and we went on trips to sell his hair magazine. And he had a van. It was a van that was retrofitted, and it's old. Men in the 80s and 90s had vans with beds in the back. I don't know why. I don't know. I'm not trying to say nothing. No assumptions. But. But. But he had a van and he has had six wheels. Like two wheels in the back and then, you know, the front wheels, but in the back, I guess they had. This was like an aftermarket thing. And you could smell fumes in the back by the bed. Like, I would go. Go to sleep on the bed, but when you're going back there, you would smell the fumes from the gas tank. And it was almost like immediate sleep on road trips. Immediate. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful that God had a plan for me because I could have never woke up. Stopped at a rest area and they. Shannon, Shannon. It was fumes. Okay, I'm gonna tell you about some road trips that I've been on, and let me get to one of my stories. All right, we'll talk about this. Welcome to Homemade. I'm Shannon Casen. Road trips. Road trips. I. I love road trips. I mean, I like flying too, don't get me wrong. So if you calling me out somewhere, I'm gonna fly because I want to get there. But if I'm in no hurry, I'll take a road trip in a. In a heartbeat, because you get to spend time just chilling on the road, enjoying good music or a podcast or whatever it is. So I like road trips. I've gone on a few. I remember I went on one when I was in college. I had like a spare week and I drove to Cleveland, New York, Buffalo, Niagara Falls. It was my first time seeing Niagara Falls in Toronto. And then I came on back home and I always said to myself, this was in college. I always said to myself that I enjoyed this so much that I want to take like a month or six weeks and just hit the road, just go all across America. And I got that chance during the COVID time because we weren't doing anything. Everybody was just in the house Doing nothing. So I decided that I was gonna take a month or six weeks and just. Just roam the earth in the United States on by car, Just roam and take a road trip. And I had a few rules. My rules. The only rules I had here, here are they rent a comfortable car. I got a Ford Flex. I liked it because the seats let down in the back, and I could sleep in the car. And that was my second rule. Go affordable. Like, affordable hotels, even motels. And many times, if possible, just sleep in the car and just stay on the road. So this was me just living, you know, saving money, basically. And then another rule was don't eat fast food on the road. So either fast, like, lose some weight fast, or eat whole foods, stop at a grocery store and get some fruits and vegetables or things like that. That where I'm eating whole foods on the road. However, when I stop at a location, like, if I go to a destination, I can eat whatever I want. And by this, I mean, like, go to someplace nice. Go to, like, a steak house or, you know, seafood place. Go to someone, look on the apps, Find the best places in these areas, and just go to the best place. Because I'm saving money on the road. Why not enjoy it when I get to the destination? So my only other rule was, have no rules, make no plans. Go wherever I want. I'm solo dolo. I don't have to worry about anybody's personality or cater to them or pander to them to make them feel a certain way. I can meet whoever I want if I want to meet people. However, if I meet no one is no worries. There's no pressure. I'm not pressuring myself that I got to meet someone every place I go or visit someone. Every place I go, do whatever I want within reason. Within reason. I mean, I'm from Detroit, Chicago. I know what areas not to go to, which Martin Luther King boulevards are not welcoming. I know. I know this. You know, I can kind of fill it out, but do whatever I want. No fear. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not operating in fear. I'm more enjoying myself. So I. I hit the road, and first place I stopped is Cleveland. And I get to Cleveland at night, so I'm kind of in Cleveland to enjoy their nightlife. And I will say this about Cleveland, and it's gonna make somebody probably upset. Probably my Cleveland people will go get upset, but damn, it's a very unattractive city. I'm just being real. You know, I went to, like, a bar it wasn't a party, but it was like a bar because it was nighttime when I got there. So I kind of felt. I kind of was feeling myself. I was like, damn, I'm getting a lot of action up in this bar because. And then. But I was looking around, there's a lot of action that I really, you know, I could do without just being real. Just. I mean, people I know, they go get. I mean, I know it's beautiful people in Cleveland. Probably it was just my immediate notice at that location. But yeah, yeah, I'm just gonna say what it is, you know. Yeah, yeah. I met one lady and I'm gonna tell you, she called me. As soon as I left the bar, she called me. And then the next day I went to the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, which is wonderful. Gotta go see the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Amazing. The honor. And hip hop artists, Rock and roll blues, everybody. You know, it's a. It's an amazing experience. But she was calling me like, hey, where you at? Why you invite me to the house? House of the Rockefeller hall of Fame? I'm like, you live here, you can come here. All right. So just saying that. Then I went to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, a cool city. I like Pittsburgh. I like the art scene in Pittsburgh. It felt like a creative community in Pittsburgh. You had the August Wilson area, then you had Andy Warhol. He had a museum there. You had these bridges. It kind of. It kind of. It felt very creative out there in Pittsburgh. It was my first time going. I had went before, but I like, I want to go back to Pittsburgh. I want to spend more time there. Then I went to Richmond, Virginia, hit the road, stopped again in Richmond, Virginia. And they have a big market in Richmond. Richmond, Virginia. Cobblestone, you know, floors or, or, you know, road. And then they had the old buildings on each side. And the market had a energy to it. You know, I know that many of my people came through that market. You know, that was a. That was a slave port at that. At that Richmond, Virginia market. But they had people doing yoga and had all these restaurants. But then they did have some placards and some. Some memorials to, you know, what was actually taking place in that market. So that was a powerful experience. So I left Richmond, Virginia, which I would go back there to. Pretty good. Good food too. So my next stop was DC I went to dc, Washington, dc, One of my favorite cities. Favorite cities. Detroit, Chicago, New York, then D.C. i could see myself living in D.C. i. The energy of D.C. kind of fits with me. And in D.C. went to the museum, some of the museums, best museums on earth, pretty much, you know, in Washington, D.C. and then I went to. I like to go, like, when I go out, okay, I go to any museums, I find like a local eatery place, like someplace local that's only. That's known for that area. And. And then I'll go to some art scene, some creative scene that they have. If it's a performance or something, that's even better. So in DC, I went to a Ben's Chili Bowl. So I'm hanging out at Ben's Chili bowl, kind of sitting outside, eating. And it was a guy who was sitting across from me, and people were, like, talking to him, like he knew. Like he was known in the area or something. So I was noticing that. But we started kicking it and we talking about politics, we're talking about black issues, we're talking about family and. And women and everything. So he invited me to go to a cigar bar. So it was a cigar bar not too far from there. So I. He knew that I was just kind of like, roaming around. So I end up going to the cigar bar with him. And we sitting there, we're keeping the conversation going. He loves film, too, so we're talking about films. And. And it was a lady sitting across from us, and she kind of joined in the conversation. Women love cigars and bourbon now, too, you know. So she was in the conversation, but she kept. She kept telling us how successful she was. Like, she. I guess she was. Did something successful in the city. And we started talking about go go bands. And she knew that backyard band was playing somewhere in the city, and she invited me to go. So we jump in a. I think I left my car there and we jumped in a cab, or I might have took my car. I might have drove. And she. She was in a. She came with me or whatever. This. We just met there, you know, it wasn't like a love connection thing. It was just kind of like hanging out, friendly in a way. And so we get to the backyard band where they're playing at some kind of club bar place, and she pays for us to get in. So I guess she was successful because I would have paid my own way, but she kind of got there before me and paid it, and then she got us drinks and paid for that. So, I mean, she. I guess she was successful. So. But it was a good time now to go go the backyard band. Go go. I loved it because everyone was there. It was like older couples, younger couples, young people, older People, everybody just dancing and that kind of music you can't help but move to, you know, so she dancing and I'm doing my little two step or whatever, you know. So it's a good time. It was a good time. And it. The night ended wholesome. It was just a wholesome time. Just hanging out. Backyard band. The guy. The next day, the guy I had met that we met at the Chili bowl and then got cigars. He hit me up and he said he was going to Baltimore the next day because a friend of his owns a boat out there, and he invited me to come out and hang with him. So I drove out to Baltimore and we met up, and it was like a sailboat. And his friend was. His friend was interesting. He was like a sailboat captain, like a master of the sailboat. He said he would. Rich folks didn't know how to dock their boats over there, so he would have to go out, get their boats, bring it in to dock, because he was good at that. Or if they had to get their docks, they both out, you know, he could get it to the open water for him. So he. He was telling me about that, but he had this heavy accent, and I thought he was like, from some African culture country. I don't know where he from. So, you know, but he had a really thick accent. And so we're talking about. We're talking about black issues. We're talking about everything, you know what I'm saying? They put. They had. Was talking about Anthony Browder's books. So they were bringing up that, and they was talking about everything. I was having a good conversation. Now he has this accent, and I asked where he was from. And he was from Philly. He said he got this accent. He pretty much code switching. He said he got this accent because all the traveling he doing. I'm like, you didn't get no accent from traveling. You get what I'm saying? So. But he. Him call it. But the thing was, I think he just. I don't know, he's so enamored by this traveling that he wanted to be some exotic guy. So he put an accent on his. Like, man, you ain't got no accent. That threw me off a little bit with him. That threw me off. But he was. He was cool. He had us on his boat, we smoking cigars and drinking whiskey. And so it was a good time. It was a good time. So I left Baltimore and went to a place that I know very well. Atlanta. I used to go to Atlanta with my dad with the hair Shows Bronner Brothers would have a hair show like twice a year. So we spent a lot of time in Atlanta and then just Atlanta in general, in Detroit is a connection. It's 12 hour drive. You go to Atlanta a lot if you live in Detroit. So I know Atlanta pretty well and I got a place in Atlanta and kind of went to where I got a lot of friends in Atlanta too. One of my boys, Q, who actually has beats on the podcast during the intermission. That's Q's Beats. That's. He called himself, his producer name is A Margin of Freedom. So he had a mixer, like a. Like a performance mixer that he invited me to, where all these different artists would be performing. And one of his artists that he works with name is Bruce Kush. Good artist to check out. Bruce Kush, look him up. Real cool, smooth, chill music. Like music you can really listen to. Not, not real aggressive, real, real, really chill music. So I go to the mixer and I'm there and it's pretty cool. It's like got top artist Sky Zoo, who's a excellent hip hop artist. Ransom, I believe, was there, who's another excellent hip hop artist. So I'm kind of like wowed by it. I remember it was this lady who was there, and I wasn't hollering at her, but I was kind of like, like looking, you know, and she was looking too. So we was kind of like getting. And then I saw this guy and he. He kind of looked like west side Gun. Now I'm drinking, so when I'm drinking, I get. I'm not aggressive, but I'm friendly aggressive. Like, I'm like, hey, well, you know, I'm real because I'm really introverted, but when I'm drinking, I'm more extroverted. So. And I grabbed the guy by his shoulder and kind of like turn him around almost, you know, like, man, you look like west side Gun, man. You know, And I'm a big Griselda fan. And. And then he turned around and it was west side Gun at this event that we had, you know, so I'm like, he was with some other people. They could have whooped my ass. You know what I'm saying? I'm grabbing west side Gun, all aggressive. And then the lady who I was looking at, who I was kind of flirting with, in a sense, it was Keisha Plum. So I know, but I thought I felt like I had a chance with Keisha Plum. I didn't holler at her, but I kind of felt like I had a Chance, if you know Keisha Plum. Beautiful voice, beautiful poet, part of Griselda. But I had a good time. The mixer I met saw my friend Q. Bruce Kush. It was a good time. So in Atlanta, the following day, I stayed the next day. And I had went to. I want to go to a poetry event. I had looked up a poetry event. I went to some of the museums in Atlanta, although I had been previously, like the Martin Luther King house. And then he has a area memorial. So I did and paid my homage to that. But. But I wanted to find a place to go and I found this poetry night on Eventbrite. So I go to the poetry night and they had a set up where it was like a bar in one area and then they'll be doing the performances in another area. So I went to the bar and I sat in the chair, but I sat like in between two open booths, like little stews or whatever. And I saw a couple come in. So I move over to another stool to give them the two stools. I hate when people just sit in the middle stool and I got to come over and ask you, hey, can you move over so me and, you know, somebody else can sit down? So I moved over and had them sit down. And it was very, very thankful for it. They're like, oh man, we appreciate that. And it was a lady and a man and they. We start conversation, we talking about whatever. I forget what we was talking about, but I'm directing all my conversation to the guy because it's a couple and she's really talkative, talking to me, but I'm talking to the guy. But then later on she kind of lets me know that that's her. Her brother. Her. Her. Her blood brother, basically. She had came to town to meet up with her blood brother and hang out, some kind of celebration for something. So after she said that, it's funny, We. We bought each other drinks. Everybody bought each other drinks. Then the poetry was gonna start and it just shifted, like she was no longer with her brother. Her brother kind of went on and did his own thing and me and her were at the poetry event together. It was like we was on a date almost at the poetry event. So we enjoyed the poetry, we exchanged numbers. And the next day I was like, I'm. You know, we talked and whatever and figured like we'd go out and grab a drink together. So. And this was interesting because. Okay, so I called Q. Margin of freedom. He a lawyer, big time work on a lot of things, investments, all this other stuff. So I wanted him to tell me a place to go, but not no super expensive place, because he go to all these highfalutin places. I'm like, hey, man, give me a good dive bar with a cool vibe and good music. So he tells me a place to go. So me and the young lady. Beautiful lady, too beautiful. And we meet up at the bar. Dive bar place. So we. At the dive bar place, and we enjoy that. And then we go to. We lead air and we go to this, like, an arcade bar, like, where they got games and stuff. I saw it previously, so I invited her there. So we will go to the arcade bar. And this had never happened to me. Good looking girl. Another lady tried to snatch her in Atlanta, you know, so I'm in Atlanta. I think we played pool a little bit, played the games. I went to the bathroom and another lady was in my stool. And so they was talking. I was kind of like, okay. And then she says to me the other. She was like, you better keep your eye on her. I'll take your. You know, I'm like, we ain't together. I don't own her. Nothing like that. You know, y' all can. I think they did exchange numbers, but needless to say, that was interesting. She's interested, you know, so. So we. It was a wholesome night. What. Nothing. Nothing happened. You know what I'm saying? So I drove her back to her car, and we had a good time and. And beautiful, beautiful young lady. We. We follow each other, I think, on Instagram. I don't know if she listened to a podcast or not. If she does. Hey, we had a good time in Atlanta. Hey, I had a good time, which. So I leave Atlanta from there, and I go to Birmingham, Alabama. In Birmingham, Alabama is close to where my mother grew up. And they had a little area where it was. It was like. It shows some of the. A lot of the struggle and tribulation that black people had gone through in America. It had a statue with dogs. Like, you had to walk through this path, and the dogs was biting at you, and they had, like, whips and all these chains and all this other. Then they had the. I believe it's three. The three school girls who got burnt in the. In a church there, and they had a. Like, a bench with them. So it was just a powerful experience. Being at that Memorial park makes you want to cry. I might even cry, you know, because it was. It was just a powerful experience going through that. So I left. I left. Where was that? I left Alabama. Birmingham, Alabama. And went To New Orleans. Never been to New Orleans. First time in New Orleans. I love driving into New Orleans. It was like a long bridge that I had to drive across. And then when I got off in the exit, whatever exit I picked, my first thought about New Orleans was dingy. I thought it was dingy. That's my first thought. I'm just being real on the things that. Calling them as I see them, you know, that was my first thought even when I was driving through, like, it's a marsh. I guess it's built in a marsh or whatever. So I drove through and different color facades on the houses in the area that I was in. And it was. It was just cool. It was cool. I stayed at a nicer hotel in New Orleans. I had some points on my credit card, and then I had, like, a free night on my credit card. So I stayed in a nicer hotel. And I stayed there because my daughter flew into New Orleans from Detroit and kind of spent the day with me. So she flew in, spent the weekend, and we went to Alligator Tour. So we went on one of these little boats or whatever and saw the alligators. The alligators chased after us and. And we got some good food. Food. New Orleans. I mean, you got to find the local spots. You get the locals to tell you the spots to go. And I had the car so I could drive wherever I needed to go. And we had a good time in New Orleans. I drove her back to the airport, and she went off back to Detroit. And I enjoyed New Orleans one extra day. I went to Bourbon street, hung out. Now I'm gonna tell you, people be partying. I went to a cigar bar out there and. And the guy told me. He was like, don't go off the beaten path. Stay on the beaten path. Stay around people. Don't let nobody call you and tell you to go this way and do this. You know, it's dangerous out here, is what he said. I'm Detroit, Chicago. I can kind of know. But at the same time, I heeded his. His advice and kind of stayed around people and had a good time in New Orleans. I remember I was going back to my hotel because I switched hotels from that expensive hotel. When my daughter left. I went to, like, a cheap hotel, and there's people outside the hotel. I was walking back. The lady was like, hey, we about to go party. It was like a group of them, like, come on, you can go. I'm like, man, I'm going to sleep. I don't know what you. What y' all thought about I'm going to sleep. So I left New Orleans, went to Houston. First time in Houston. Houston's beautiful. I love the Houston Museum District. If you live in Houston and you haven't been to the museum district over there, what are you doing with your life? If you go to Houston, go to those museums. I mean, I had just went to the D.C. museum, and this museum was amazing too. So I was like, man, Houston, Houston. I thought of it as big. Everything was big in Houston. The streets were white, the. The food was delicious. Oh, man, so many good places to eat, beautiful people in. In Houston. I did meet somebody in Houston. I got on the apps. So I was on the apps, you know, in. In when I'll go to these areas. So. And I met somebody on the app and I kind of invited them to kind of enjoy my enjoyable night, right? So I'm. Because I'm not eating much on the road. I'm not doing stuff. I. I usually don't do this on a first date, but I was just like in a new area. So we talked and I meet up with her at. We went to a restaurant at first, just had drinks, basically, and then we went to a comedy club, this first date stuff. But I'm doing it because I want to enjoy myself. You know what I'm saying? I'm, like, enjoying myself in the city, and then I'm enjoying myself with someone. So she showed up and she was beautiful, and. And we went to see Dinell Rollins. It was like a. I forget the name of the comedy club, but a popular comedy club out there. And we ended up going to a speakeasy place called the Sugar Room. The Sugar Room. After that, kind of had a few drinks there. And yeah, it was a good time. I like Houston. Houston. Houston is what's up. Then I went to. I left Houston. I did have somebody call me in Houston. I was walking down the street and somebody was like. And they drove off fast. And I thought that that was the most punk ass. I was like, why you driving off fast? You get what I'm saying? If you want to yell something out your car, stop and say it. You know what I'm saying? Come, come, come. Say it to my face. But that, because that was the most ass I ever seen, you know, to pull off, to yell. It didn't pull off fast. Like, if you down, be down. You know what I'm saying? Take me. Be real about it. So I went to Dallas. God was kind of laughing at him. I went to Dallas next after Houston, because it was just on the road getting back on the main part of the United States. So I can turn left or whatever. So I went up to Dallas. Dallas was cool. I had been to Dallas before. I went to the deep Ellum part, and I like that area. You know, there's music, it's stuff going on. Oh, I did meet up with my boy Adrian. What's up? He listened to the podcast. He came. He. He invited me to visit him at his house. So I went out there for a little bit, chill with him and his family, drink a beer with him. Adrian, cool dude. Loves fragrances. He big into the fragrances, and he gave me a couple fragrances, and I still got those fragrances, man, you know, So I appreciate you. He, you know, the clones and stuff, he big into that, so left Dallas. Riding at night is a move, you know, you got your music, you got your mood, you got the sun. I mean, the. The stars, the whatever, you know, the moon. Just enjoying yourself on the road. Sometimes I even cut off the. The music or the podcast and just ride in silence, just chilling in my own thoughts. I loved it. I loved it. So I kind of bypassed some cities and I went to Albuquerque. In Albuquerque. I have family in Albuquerque. So when I was in Albuquerque, tell you one thing, that green. What is it? Green chili stew. Love it. Every time family go to Albuquerque or somebody come from Albuquerque, I want some of that green chili stew. I went to Frontier to get it. They got other places that have it too, but. But I always went to this place called Frontier and Delicious. Delicious. So saw my family out there. When I saw kids and everybody out there, good time in Albuquerque. Albuquerque, one of them cities that's a real city too. It's not. They really don't care where you from. It's like a kind of like a nonchalant attitude in Albuquerque. I always felt that, like, they like, hey, I'm on the road. I'm just driving through America. They're like, okay, whatever. Like, whatever, you know? So I left Albuquerque, went to probably the most memorable spot just by beauty, Grand Canyon. I had never been to the Grand Canyon. First time at the Grand Canyon, wow. If you haven't gone to the Grand Canyon is in the United States. You should go. Because I was like, what? It's like one of the places you look at, like, how it's crazy. It's crazy. And it's crazy, like, because some areas like you go. Go to, the more they define for the tourists, but the canyon is so huge that they can't really put bars around everything. You can't put rails and bars around the Grand Canyon. It is that big, you know. So it's like areas that I went to. I had stopped at one time and I, I had some cigars in the, in the four flex. So I went to the edge and just sat down. My feet was kind of dangling over the canyon and I'm smoking my cigar and I'm thinking like, man, I'm looking at the birds kind of like you see the hawks and the birds and I'm like, I could just, I could just do it like a little scoot and fall, you know. So it's not, is you got to use common sense at the Grand Canyon. But I enjoyed my cigar with my feet hanging over the edge. And I definitely want to go back to the Grand Canyon. I love to go with someone, go with family and be there and just spend some time there. Because I kind of went and, and left, but I went and the next place I went was Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona. I have family in Phoenix. They visit my family in Phoenix. Hey, Auntie Ann. I went and saw my Auntie Ann. I don't think Uncle, Uncle Junior, he wasn't there at the time, but I did see Auntie Ann and I went to go have like I, I go have my steak dinner. So my cousin was there, my cousin Kevin. And I talk about Kevin in some of my stories. Kevin is a guy who I learned a lot from. Six years older than me, living with my grandma sometimes. So we live together at certain times. Tough guy, real dude, nice guy and, and would do a lot for anybody. He real, really, really a good heart hearted guy. So I met, met up with him. We went to go get steaks, chilled out with Kevin, which was a blessing to be on the road and do that. So I left Phoenix and went to San Diego. I'm gonna hurry through these other cities because I didn't do much. San Diego, beautiful. It was kind of boring. It may be better than that, you get what I'm saying? But it was beautiful. But I kind of like I was bored. And then I went to Los Angeles. I went to Venice beach, which is, I had been there before in la. Got so many things to do, right? So so many things to do. But it was so many things to do that was kind of boring because I didn't want to drive to all these other areas and I just kind of like I kind of was in LA for a little bit and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. So I just did. San Diego, Louisiana. In Las Vegas In a. In a snap, just a snap of my fingers. I did those because I. When I went to Vegas, I didn't want to lose any money or spend any money. So I kind of stayed in Vegas for a little bit, left Vegas right away and hit the road and then bypassed. I was kind of ready to go home, bypass Denver, and I went to Kansas. I had never been to Kansas. I had been to Denver, I'd never been to Kansas. So stopped in Kansas City, hung out there. Kansas City here is supposed to have good barbecue, but the place I went sucked. And I talked to one of the locals, I said, hey, which barbecue spot should I go? And it wasn't. Was too salty. It was too. I can't remember what the name of it was, but it was a store. I should have known because they had multiple locations. You want to go to a place that it may have multiple, but not more than three. You get what I'm saying? So, like, you go to a place, they got two locations. If it got a single location and it's good, you know, that's good. But I went to a place, I think they had multiple locations and it wasn't hit. It was too salty. It was too salty. You get that, right? Barbecue, though, is. Is beyond memorable because I've had some memorable barbecues in my life. But Kansas City didn't do it for me. Left Kansas city, went to St. Louis. And I'm gonna tell you, St. Louis is running a close second to Cleveland. Not the best looking people in the world. You know what I'm saying? I might, you know, I mean, it may have just been me in that day. Now in. In St. Louis, I got a little. Because I was closer to home, I got a little bold. I went to this East St. Louis strip club that I probably shouldn't have been at. It was. It was get. You know, I don't use them words, but it was. It was. It was like, you know, it was. It probably. I probably shouldn't have been at that strip club called Bottoms Up. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I think it's. I think those crimes have happened that Bottoms up in the past. And it. If it had that feeling. Although I know how to handle myself, I was. I was having a good time and I enjoyed myself at Bottoms up in East St. Louis. So left St. Louis, didn't spend too much time there. And I went to. I was kind of headed home. And I could have went a straight way home, but I stopped in Louisville. Louisville was beautiful. I like Louisville. It Felt like a city being rebuilt in some ways. I went to some restaurants that had like this hipster kind of culture there too. So I went to the restaurant. It was like, really, you know, it was just that kind of restaurant. You know, it's the farm raised and all that kind of stuff. But it was good. It was really delicious. But I went to. The highlight of it was going to the Muhammad Ali Museum. I was so emotionally touched by that museum. The Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville. You gotta go. And as I was there, I'm like, I want to take all the kids in the family. I want to take as many people as I can to that museum. And I haven't been back since I went on that trip. But this making me think of it because it's just like a story of resilience, a story of saying it, like naming it and claiming it. You know, him saying I'm the greatest and then becoming the greatest. And it was just an amazing, amazing, amazing place. I could feel the energy there. I didn't want to leave. I kind of spent a lot of time at that Muhammad Ali museum. I left there and bypassed some other cities because I was so high on the story of Muhammad Ali. And I just came on back home, came on back home in Detroit, and I probably was gone maybe, maybe five weeks or so. I can't remember how many miles I drove. It might be 6,000 miles in my. I might be. I might be exaggerating. I don't know. But it was some multiple thousands of miles. I can't remember exactly how many miles I drove. But amazing experience. I'm be honest. I love to do it again. That's my story for today. All right. So make sure you like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Do that right now. Shannon Case is homemade on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, follow me. I'm at Shannon Casein on most social media. Follow me there. Do that now. Go do it. And then on Patreon, you want to support the stories, go to patreon.com backslash Shannon Casein, I appreciate you becoming a friend of homemade stories. You can also support on cash app if you want to go direct dollar sign Shannon Case in make sure you join the conversation in the comments on YouTube. Go to YouTube. Join the Conversation in the comments. Let's talk about road trips. And then later in the episode, like right now I'm going to talk about PSAs. PSAs. How to be a good passenger on the road. So get rid of that. And then restrooms. Restrooms on the road is their own adventure, like stopping to use the bathroom. And every place don't have these rest areas, you know, where you have to pull off the road. And it's actually just a building for a bathroom. Every area don't have those. And you have to pull off the road and find a restroom. Hopefully you can find a gas station that lets you use the restroom. Have one of those gas station over the road like BUC EE's. You know, you stop there. BUC EE's had probably 10 restrooms in the BUC EE's. You know what I'm saying? But restrooms can be a problem. I usually keep, and this probably tmi. I keep a wide mouth bottle of juice. That's not drink drinking, you know, it's already. It's an empty bottle of wide mouth bottle of juice. And you don't drink what's inside that bottle. I. I usually mark on my bottles. I'll have a marker and I say don't touch, you know, So I know the guys out there, especially my truckers. People know what I'm talking about. I keep my juice bottle, but. You ready for the next. Next story? All right, let's get to it. So you just go eat Funyuns in my car with the windows rolled up. You go fall asleep while I'm driving. What kind of road passenger are you? Let's talk about it, Mr. Capitalist. I am. I don't know that Keeping it real. Let's be honest. Some people have no idea how to conduct themselves. Once they slide into the passenger seat, they treat the road trip like an Uber ride, like an omnir chauffeur. Or you're a whack dj. You can't be a whack DJ on a road trip. Falling asleep without offering to drive. That can't happen. Or why would you eat White Castles on a road trip? You don't eat White castles. That's just. It's just the wrong thing to do on a road trip. So here's the official homemade PSA on road trips on how to be a good passenger. How to be. If you have no idea how to be a good passenger, you come to the right spot. All right? Bring something with you to the car. People gotta understand this. We got to start knowing that there's an etiquette of bringing things with you. You go to somebody's house, bring a bottle of wine, bring a bottle of liquor or something like that, or whatever they enjoy. You come to my car, bring something with you, bring some snacks, bring some Fruit. Bring good energy to the car. If you're going to be a passenger in the car, ask while I'm pumping the gas if I need anything from the gas station. When you go inside, don't just go inside for yourself. Sit down, have all your snacks, and then I'm just looking at your snacks like. You ain't offer me nothing. You ain't asked me if I want something. Be a good co pilot. Be the goose to my Maverick, if you know what I'm talking about. If you watch those movies, be a good goose to my Maverick. All right, Brush up your DJ skills. Bring some DJ skills to the table. Music matters on a road trip. I gotta feel the energy of the road, though. You know, I'm usually a Griselda Records Wu Tang type listener on the road, but that's not for everybody. So if you have 90s R B classics, that works. We can listen to SWV and Jodeci songs. We know all the words. You know, it gets us in a mood or whatever when we on the road. 80s hip hop classics. I know every word to Eric being Rakim paid them for every single word to those. Every song on that album. So we can play that. We can do like a back and forth to the Locks or to Tribe Called Quest. You know, back in the day on the Boulevard Atlanta, we used to kick routines in the press. You know, we. We could. We can go back and forth for a while on a lot of songs. So make sure you available to do that. Choose wisely. No boring music on the road. We're not listening to Sade. We're not listening to whatever. What's Beyonce's sister called? I forgot. We're not. I love that album. But we're not listening to Solange. We're not not listening to that. You know, maybe only at. Maybe. Like if we're going through the planes and it's a mood for jazz or Shade or Solange, we can, we can, we can roll with it. But it has to be a mood thing. You got to fill out the mood in the three hour long murder podcast. That works too. That works too. But you got to pick the right one. You don't pick the right one. You'd have messed up. And now I gotta choose everything. I gotta pull over or I gotta pick everything at the gas station before we hit the road again. So be. Be on your job, dj. Let's see, let's see, what's next? Snacks are serious. Snacks is a serious matter. You can't bring any stinky sandwiches to the Car. No White Castles. White castles make you flatulent, you know, so we're not, we're not eating White Castles on the road. No tuna sandwiches, no. No hard boiled. Boiled eggs. I understand that you a gym rat, but none of, none of the farting food. We keeping farting food off the menu while we're in this car together. Keep it fresh, keep it resealable. Even your chips. If you getting chips all over the car interior, at least clean it out when we get there. But we'll, we'll get to that because we got to drive in this car for hours. We got to be around each other and the passenger has to serve the driver. So if I need you to open a bottle for me, if I need you to open my chips or open my candy bar, you want to go home or you want to go to the hospital, that's your choice. You know what I'm saying? You want to go home or the hospital. Another thing, stay awake or at least schedule your naps. You, you, you can't just be taking random naps and sleeps when we on the road. You gotta kind of like work that out with me because I might need your alert for certain areas that we're driving through. If we're driving through the mountains, I need a little, I need somebody paying attention with me. You don't have to be alert the whole ride but, but offer some, some interesting conversation. Some, some what would happen if conversations. Some, some conversations that like get my mind sparked. Like would you like they got killed murder in. In. In or something like that. Do some, do some strange game conversation that will keep me engaged. You can schedule your sleep. Schedule asleep on when you want to. And I can listen to my Griselda in my playlist of Hot 97 funk, flesh freestyles and rap battles while you're sleep. Because I know that's not what you're interested in, but you got to schedule that sleep GPS assistance. Let's talk about that. Be my second eye on the gps. If the, if it says police is up ahead, definitely let me know that. Or if you see a police, if an exit is coming, just kind of gently say hey, say Exit 2 or something like that, you know, don't wait till the last second and say hey, turn right now. I'm not gonna turn. I'm an experienced driver. I'm gonna pass that exit and then we go get back to it. So just, just mention it. And if I miss it, if I do miss an exit, be a good sport about it. Don't act like we got a 12 hour drive. So these extra 20 minutes is not the end of the world. And you got to be a good sport about. If I miss an exit and you not offering me any GPS assistance, that's where I'm at with it. You know, I don't know if you agree or disagree, but that's how I am. If we miss an exit, we just breathe through it and we get back on the main road soon. All right, Bathroom breaks. You got to respect the bathroom code. If we stop, you got to try to use it. We stopping for gas, try to use the bathroom. It's just like the kids. When you put the kids to sleep at night, you go take them to the bathroom even if they don't have to use it. Go try to use the bathroom so you don't pee in his bed. So the same thing. Or else I'm handing you this wide mouth bottle and you can go use it in there. Because I don't want to stop every second for a bathroom break. Another one. Keep the conversation going. We can talk politics if we on the same side or if we just respect each other on opposite sides. Because I don't want to hate you when we get to where we're going. We got to keep the debate sensible. I don't want to leave you at a gas station rest area. So let's, let's keep the conversation interesting and respectable. Debate, Respectable debates. Sports. I love sports stories. Deep life stories. You know, you can tell me your deep life stories, but tell me your deep life stories in the middle of the ride. Don't, don't get into the crying story about this deep thing that happened to you that you never shared with anyone. You can share that with me, but make sure that's like middle trip, not beginning trip, because we don't want to start awkward middle trip. We in the. We in the zone. There's no awkwardness there. You can kind of get into it. You can cry. If you want to end the trip, don't bring that up because we got to get there and then it's gonna be awkward for a few days or the day that we get there. You know, we kind of want to go out and do something, so ease into it. And then remember silence. At some points it can be golden, that silence. You know, sometimes you're in a mood of silence and I don't want to have to tell you, hey, can we just, you know, can you shut the up, go to sleep. I don't want to have to say it, but sometimes silence is going, you Got to fill it out in the last one. Leave no trace that you were here. I don't. Once we get there, let's clean up. We should be cleaning up along the process. Every. Every time we stop for gas, we should be throwing away some trash that we made and then pick up them chips, them little chip pieces and stuff like that. Dump the trash, clean up the crime scene, anything. Oh, you. Your candy wrappers. Get rid of those. The smell that's in the car. We go, we go. Roll down these windows and open the doors. Let that air out a little bit. Let that air out a little bit and just an extra one blank is only for women. We don't do men blankets on the right. Ain't no guy riding with me covered in a blanket. We're not doing that. I give you your coat. You know, you want to wrap up in your coat, but we ain't doing no blankets. And you ain't turning on no seat warmers with me, man. Keep them seat warmers. I'm sorry. You know, I. They got things, memes that say men can't do certain things, but. Yeah, you can't have blankets. You. You can't have blankets. You can cry on the road to me, you can tell me about your deep situation, but you can't do it while wrapped in the blanket. And that's to sum up the. The being a good passenger. Being a good passenger isn't hard. It's about showing up for the ride like you care about people, the destination, and the energy in the car. Because the truth is, great passengers make great trips. And if you're really good, you might get invited for another drive. I had specific road dogs for long trips, people who I rode with, so. But if you're not a good passenger, you'll never be asked again. I don't mind driving solo. It may affect our friendship for a long time. So share your rules for the road right below me in the comments. I'm interested to hear what you talking about, too. All right. All right. So I want to thank the friends of Homemade. Friends are those who support the show, who always are a part of the show in some way. Connecting, reaching out and supporting my best friends. Anna R. Thanks for upgrading. Your Patreon means the world to me. I appreciate you. Genevieve G. In Chicago, long time listener to Homemade and. And great friend of the show and friend of myself as well. Esther B. Patreon. Thank you. Blessings to you, your whole family. I actually miss you. I gotta come visit you soon. My play cousin, Cindy Lee in Texas. Thank you. Thank you for being a big supporter of Homemade and I appreciate your understanding and everything. Congrats to Daniel H. His business ahava being featured that at MoMA in New York. That's big time. I appreciate you for being a part of Homemade. Keep creating to evermore. Keep doing your things. And hello to everyone at Brightside Brewing Craft Kombucha out of Kentucky. I mean, not a Kentucky, Connecticut. I don't know where Kentucky came from, but maybe you got some business in Kentucky to do. But Brightside Brewing Craft Kombucha out of Connecticut. Go holla at them if you see them at any other fairs or anything. I appreciate all the friends of Homemade. Join the Patreon patreon.com backslash Shannon Casen Become a part of the show or if you just want to go direct cash app dollar sign Shannon Casen. You get the same shout outs and I appreciate you very much so too. No, no phone call for this episode. I'm. I'm not gonna do phone calls every episode. And I appreciate you for, for supporting the show, being a part of the show. And as I kind of figure out this new format, you know, I'm figuring it out as I go. So I'm taking a long trip today on the west side of the state. I'm gonna go, I'm going to, I'm going to Muskegon. No, I'm going to Grand Rapids area for Father's Day. And it's gonna be a bunch of family. And then I guess we're going closer to the lake, some cabin in next to Lake Michigan. And we're gonna do some stuff there. So it should be a fun weekend, a family, friends and all that kind of stuff. So in a lot of kids, it's gonna be a lot of kids. It's gonna be close to Lake Michigan. So we'll hit up Lake Michigan and water parks and all that kind of stuff. So it should be nice, you know, a fun time to spend on Father's Day. I just want to say, make sure you like and subscribe. Be a part of the conversation. Join the conversation. These beats that you hear are echo finch echofinch.com Listen to his new song Hubris like this. Look that up on YouTube right now. And also beats in the inner intermissions are by margin of freedom. I talk about him out of Atlanta on the on my story. Get his new project with Bruce Kush. It's called Satorio Excellence. I think I'm saying that right. Satorio Excellencia, something like that. Follow me. I'M at Shannon Casein on all social media. Join the Patreon. Become a friend of homemade patreon.com backslash Shannon Casein. And if you're interested in workshops, speaking engagements or merch. I'm always wearing my merch. Go to shannoncasen.com and I'll see you soon. I'll see you very soon. Let me wait for my mom. Here come my mom. Now that's homemade.