170: Riverfest 2024

Weird things happened in the back out weird, weird, weird.

Hey everyone, Bletso said, So it's me Jenny, Hey, Jenny.

Hey everyone, welcome Backalo Maaloe. I was about to say that Salomi stole the words right out of my soul.

It's lovely to have you Jenny here.

I am here, I am I've got my kitty cat on my lap. This is Nobody can see her. I swear she's here.

This is Dedi's first episode in the studio.

No, she's been behind Ryan before, not in this one.

Not in this studio. Lift her up, yeah, put her on the camera, disrupt her, peace and sleep. She's real good.

Anyway. Yeah, how's everyone feeling now? She's gone?

I knew it, it was worth it. I'm feeling good. How are you.

Feeling I'm feeling good as well. Yeah. We I don't know if we want.

To talk about this yet, about the We just had a meeting, Yeah people, why not?

Yeah? Yeah, by the time this comes out.

Maybe we talk about that.

Yeah, yeah, I think.

So, somebody else to talk about it.

Though. We just had a meeting with three lovely individuals about becoming our discord mods, and we're really really really pumped about it.

I told them I would personally shout them out. So we have let's go in the order that they were recruited in the sense of fairness. Okay, so we have Daniel right done, Captain Skippy, he's one of the OG's in our discord, at least he's been in it as long as I can remember. And then we have Corey Corey moo enough said she's an amazing human being, and now she has an Instagram channel. I think it's Corey moufo.

Oh. Yeah. She started posting her or videos because she got one of those psionics cameras right yeah, like the infrared.

And she took videos while we were together at Riverfest, which we'll get into later. And then we got Blake our boy or break Powers, who we go way back with.

We've went to high school with him.

Yeah, he was what the leader of some sort of the Valheim thing needs.

Yeah yeah, yeah, he's he's basically the leader of all of our games. Yeah, like he becomes the main Minecraft guy, he becomes the main Valheim guy. Yeah.

Yeah. So it just kind of happened this way. It's something that like definitely for years I have felt was going to someday be a necessity. And last week we were at that Vampire Weekend concert and after the Riverfest it had just happened like two days before, and Daniel and Corey were there along with many other people.

We'll get more into that later.

And we were at the concert and Jenny was just like, Ryan, I had an idea. You've been wanting a mod what if we We had been talking about it for weeks. Me and Jenny like, man, I really would like a moderator.

What do we do? What do we do?

And Jenny was like, what about Daniel? Asked Daniel, and I was like, oh my god. And then the next day I saw Corey for lunch and one thing led to another and I was like, well, what about you? And then it was you know, we got to talking about it and we.

Were like, well what about Blake? Yeah, you know, So it just.

It just spontaneously happened, and we're all very very excited to officially expand our team.

Welcome them to the team.

And for the people that don't know what we're talking about, what's the discord?

Ryan?

Oh, Well, since you're asking, we do have a Patreon. We put a lot of love into it. We have a community of about six hundred really open minded, like minded individuals who have just formed a really tight community where we talk about everything under the sun. It's really an amazing I've had people This is not my opinion.

Yeah, I've heard those comments as well. It's just like it just like happened organically too.

But I also wanted to say that, like, for me, I think that the reason that all of this is so like it's just perfect divine timing is like this riverfest just happened, and that's whenever we really were like, oh wow, like I feel like we need help and help was the first time where it was like we need help because I think that like, you know, we did as Daleifest back in April and it was really really great, really successful, and even then we were like, oh my gosh, we were so exhausted at the end

We're not drinking water. We're all just so excited to be with.

Each other.

And getting and well seeing like you know, these people and how dedicated they are to the community, and really thinking like, you know what, if we asked for help, I'm pretty sure people would help us. So that's kind of I think whenever I started thinking about who, you know, maybe who we could talk to about, you know, helping us out. And I'm really just excited for this sort

I would think that's that's the plan, that's the hope.

Yeah, yeah, too soon to commit.

I mean, we talked to Christina about it and he's like, yeah, I would do that again, you know, so we could kind of do like a partner booth again. But yeah, I think that every time we have one of those, it's like we get really excited and like really really back in the groove of like, yeah, what can we do next?

Well, for those who are curious, if you're like new to the show or you just kind of listen out of order, which we sometimes get, The Azella Festival episode is episode one. This just happened six months ago in April. Now we are going to be talking about Riverfest, which just happened, not this past weekend recording on a Wednesday, but the weekend before last weekend.

Yeah, and it was it was so insane.

I mean, we overdoubled our not audience, but we overdoubled our crowd size. We overdoubled our SkyWatch crowd.

I mean, I don't even know where to begin. Unreal. Yeah, Well, a good place to start is that these things. I think these events rejuvenate us so much because like it gives us a chance to kind of tangibly see like the impact of what we do, but also to just meet the people who enjoy the show and hear their stories and just like meet face to face share energy. Like it is so healing to do this. I stand them a thousand percent.

I mean it biz our for them to see them in person, have never seen them before, and they like get the same inside jokes that I get.

And it's like, wait, how did you know that?

And it's like, oh, well, I guess they've been listening to the show.

Yeah.

I mean it's super wild talking to people who have listened to our voices for hours.

Yeah, hours, hundreds of hours, hundreds of hours.

Not to mention the other shows and and this and that, and then they're like they're already my friend. And now it's like I'm meeting them for the first time, but they know everything about me.

It's like it's a wild thing. Yeah.

I told a few people it's like it feels like a family reunion. Yeah, it does, because when you're at a family reunion, you're like, I know I'm related to that person, but like I don't really Like, no, I haven't talked to them in person. I'm your cousin, but yeah, yeah, there's like a familiar and would your daddy, yeah, since she was just tall.

Yeah, it's like that my favorite ones I've held you when you were a I know, that's awesome.

Like I didn't change any of our fans diapers. I just want to make that really.

No, no, no, hey, you know what, we did have a particular fan that showed up in a diaper and his name was Obie.

Oh yeah, and he was a monkey. Somebody I think it was me and Alex were sitting at the booth. We were sitting it really.

I was really concerned with where you were going.

Yeah, me too. I think me and Alex were sitting at the table and this couple walks up with a stroller and I looked at it. I was like, oh, baby, I looked in the stroller. There's a little squirrel monkey with a diaper on in the stroller. And I just start screaming, there's a monkey. There's a monkey. Guys, come here, there's a monkey. I was like where people were just like throwing their stuff down and be lining straight for the monkey. Everybody crowded around this month. He was on

The craziest part about it for me was I was I was kind of doing like line control quote unquote, because you know, there were other booths there and so other like our line for our booth was starting to kind of back into other booths, and I'm like, Okay, this isn't cool, so let me go out there and like chat, you know, chat with some of these people. And maybe you just get them out of the sidewalk,

Speaking the same for our cats but black, yeah, same kind of animals.

And so then I immediately because Teddy was like one of our guest of honors at the at the river Fest, our nephew, and we were like, oh my gosh, we have to grab Teddy. So then Teddy goes and he gets all excited. But the the the label on the monkey cage said that our monkey likes fingers, and.

I was like, do not reach for him because it does like sign on the front.

Yeah, yeah, it was so precious.

Did you see the copy that Teddy signed?

No, okay, So we were signing books like we obviously it was it's a shared booth with we have our little BLEDSOE said, so corner with like we had merchant stuff and we're just hanging out whatever. But then the other side of the booth is UFO of god, your dad was there selling books, meeting people. It was It's always so incredible to see that too, And so we were a lot some people asked us to sign their book or whatever. I didn't know Teddy signed one.

Yeah, so obviously he wasn't there the whole time. He was in and out, but like dozens and dozens of people asked Teddy to sign their book and he's like, no, I don't want to. But he signed one copy. And if you recall, it was Kim Brooke, the ten.

Year old girl. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

They got into playing and they became friends, like throughout the weekend, and he signed her copy.

He's Teddy's what six now he's four. Oh my god.

The camera is pretty good. Yep, beautiful. That's awesome.

It looks like my handwriting.

It's a little better if he.

Got help from somebody.

No, you don't think so for me, No, no, I don't.

I don't even know he can hold something yet.

Yeah.

They send me pictures all the time where he chases letters.

And yeah, I have the idea.

And Age is like, if I look at a human, I'm like, I literally have no idea.

How old you are, especially for children.

So for me, I'm like, I don't even know can he even grab anything at this age?

I mean, what can he do?

As a one thing that I recently learned, which you know, this is something I'm sure people have known forever. I didn't know that babies were born like blind? Did everyone know this most.

Of the time? Yeah, they're born where they just like they can't even open their eyes.

Well, but it's like even when they can't open their eyes, they can't, they.

Can't they're in darkness.

Yeah, think about what happens when you flick the lights on after sleeping.

Well, let me ask you this. Do I don't know why I'm asking a bunch of men this anyway.

But.

Well I would consider myself a professional because I was.

Born right, Okay, but I just like, do babies open their eyeballs inside?

They can't do that?

Right? You ever put them in a pool?

Is it the same?

It's for sure, exactly the same. Yeah, it's like, yeah, bot fluid it's the same. Yeah.

Yeah, Yeah, I don't know, man, you're asking the wrong people.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, wrong, audience, talk about it later.

That's a different conversation.

So, hey, you never know what you're gonna get if I'm on this.

That's next week's episode.

Actually, right, Yeah about babies in the womb? Yeah? Are they born blind? Yeah?

I think so. We were going to bring it a baby to find out MythBusters.

How are we gonna do it?

You got a guest on the show?

What is he? Fifteen?

Hey, we'll wait for We'll wait for Blake's baby to be born, and then we'll get him to perfect interview the baby, interview the whole like this the whole time.

Put it put its little head near the mic.

Yeah, I'm in.

I think that's a great guest.

I'm in.

I think it'd be entertaining.

I'm also in.

Okay, back to Riverfest. It was it was really shocking to me. Like we started getting messages on like Tuesday and Wednesday of people being like I'm here, and I was like, y'all know. I was like, y'all know, it's Saturday. I mean, I didn't say that, but in my head, I'm like, okay, all right, you're you're early. You're here a little early.

I had the opposite messages like I'm gonna be here till next Wednesday. Oh yeah, yeah, I'll be here a week.

That's awesome. Yeah yeah uh. And then like it was really cool because Omi's like started meeting up at like people that people were getting dinner together and like hanging out and I think people were skywatching even before Saturday.

Yeah, the fact that they are.

But this is the biggest part for me, you say, the word omis the fact that people are using the word Omi's. I didn't realize how much that was actually used until I like until I was at Riverfast and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so nice, Like people are actually.

Using the word omie.

It was so so cool, And that was like one of those things where you kind of realize that there's like a little bit of impact going on.

Yeah, you know, people would meet for the first time ever and be like, what's up on me?

I think something that we really learned this weekend was like what might be a silly little moment for us on the show that's a joke that we laugh about and then never think about again, like deeply impacts people talk about. Scott Scott Phantom, Phantom.

Big shout out. I have a couple of.

The little buttons you got to take your headphones off. Oh it's right there, Alex, can you grab the bucket. It's the I want to tell my Scott's story.

Yeah, it's right behind the moon.

It's yeah, the orange bucket right there. Yeah. We we had a lovely, lovely fan named Scott who showed up with this.

Oh okay, wait a little bit of ASMR please?

Is that good?

Oh yeah, you have to tap it right, rub it a little bit.

Yeah, that's my favorite.

Yeah, it on the mic. Yeah, okay, so this is this is Scott brought us this cool little container. And look on the front. It says, owe me Luke.

I want the people at home to know that that's my contact picture for Ryan. So anytime it calls me, I see that. And this has been this way for a year now, when he never showed me that.

Oh so so Scott, this amazing, amazing person. He took the liberty of buying a button making machine and creating some very incredible niche like deep cut.

Some of them are really need some I didn't even know.

Some of them are like only I didn't know some of them.

I didn't know some of them. So look I'll show off a few of them. We got practice your mudras? Can you do that?

Yeah?

Yeah, okay, got practice your mudras. This is a really really good This is one of my favorite ones.

It's the Man.

What was it?

The Man was Ryan's Halloween costume and alter.

I'm concerned that you guys genuinely think on that.

Character what you are, isn't it not your alter ego?

This this one is a very toss. That one, to me is having a hard time. Okay, that's a very deep That one's very deep cut. That one is from our Valheim server. Like, there's some really really niche ones, and then okay.

He knows a little bit of all of the references, just so.

Cool going way back. There are a lot of really cool ones that just said Omi's on them. But the OM was the OM symbol.

I think the one that like really got me and just made me die laughing was Salome.

Salome is Unbelieved.

Because that was on the Full Disclosure episode like the week before and oh really, yes, oh my god, yes, and then let me just that's why I just lost it, dude.

This one is the star of the show in my opinion. Personally, it's the we we love you, Alan.

But we love you Alan button.

That's so funny. So, yeah, Scott, You're incredible. We can't thank you enough for doing that. That is so unbelievably cool.

Yeah, I want to tell my Scott story.

And every oh, yes, sorry and everybody. He was just walking around just giving these buttonses.

How empty the bucket is? I begged him. I was like, name the price. I don't care. I don't care if it's two hundred dollars, Like you tell me what it will take for me to take this home. And he was like, dude, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. How a hat?

And I looked it was literally the last hat we had.

It was on the mannequin, and I was like, it's yours. That's so I literally took it off the mannequin. We sold every other hat and it was just perfect timing, and I gave it to him and he sent me home with the bucket. But you see how empty this thing is. Every single other pin that was, you know, filled to the top. Hundreds of people were wearing these pants. It was it was mind really cried.

I had tears in my eyes and I was thinking him just because I'm like the fact that somebody put this much thought into something made all of these designs from scratch, went out of their way to physically make all of these buttons and mentally use their brains to kind of.

Be like, what would be the coolest little callbacks? He's a graphic design I can't even believe that.

So I literally had tears in my eyes, and then I had people coming up to me like what's wrong me.

I was like, she's crying, Are you okay? Are you okay? And She's like.

Touch just touch.

Yeah.

Absolutely, Because just to give the listener an idea of the weekend for us, right, it was Friday was set up. Then y'all went to a movie. I went skywe watching with some people who organize their own SkyWatch Corey separately. Corey Sorry sorry Corey. Corey organized the SkyWatch independently, didn't worry about us being there. Ended up showing up with your dad and not the most successful SkyWatch, but still it was completely cloud completely cloudy.

Yeah.

Yeah, anyway, at the SkyWatch till twelve, go home, wake up, nine o'clock in the morning, Day one of the river Fest nine o'clock until twelve or one o'clock in the morning, again because immediately out to the beach. This is all day at the fest out at the beach. Then day two rolls around and I'm kind of feeling it, you know, like I'm tired.

I love being there.

I wouldn't miss it for the world, but I'm tired, and so I'm kind of dragging. In the morning, I was I was like, maybe thirty minutes, run like running behind. About thirty minutes, I show up and I'm just like, you know, like trying to hype myself up. I show up and here's Scott. Immediately he's like the first person I walked up to. He said, dude, look, introduced himself.

Renewed, you know, yeah, just filled you with.

And I made sure to tell him that on the beach that night, and it was just.

Oh, he was out there on the beach.

I bumped into him because I liked Friday the second night, Okay, on Sunday, Sunday, Yeah, Sunday.

Yeah, when when we SkyWatch on the beach.

I like to just like walk around the perimeter and just like join people's conversations and like just say hey, try to say hey to as many people as I can. And I think it's so funny because it's dark, you can't really see, and like I'll just join a conversation like is that Alex.

I'm like, yeah, yeah, dude, I got a funny little story about that. So I want to give a shout out to someone in particular that that this this interaction.

Like touched me.

So okay, then I'm going next. Okay, I already call the next story.

All right, well why don't you go now?

No, no, no, okay, take it.

I'm just kidding. But I think you guys probably notice this too. We we didn't really talk much about this, but something that was different this time than last time. Right, did you guys notice that a ton of Welmington people came through?

Yeah? I didn't notice that at is Eliafes.

Oh.

Granted I was there the last day, but I also feel like maybe things are different since then. But so many people, like for example, there was this guy named Kurt. We were setting up on Friday. The dude is riding on his bike, hops off the bike, sees us setting up the tent, and he's like, UFO of god, what is this? What is it? I love this book? It was like, what's happening? I was like, oh, yeah, nice to meet you man. I'm Ryan, I'm Chris's youngest son.

He was just biking.

See his apartment complex at my tent.

Yeah, it was like, I love this book. What is he here?

I was like, yeah, he's right there, and I invited him out skywatching and I saw him at the beach. And it was a lot of moments like that, Like there were so many times this time around that I would meet people and they're like, I'm from Wilmington. I read the book, I'm from Wilmington. I heard the podcast. But there was one person in particular. It was this this this young I say, young lady. She's our age, right, she's an adult. She's like probably mid twenties, maybe early twenties,

Oh cool, Now that Immunity was just the flavor of the tea.

Oh okay, okay, what was the name of the store?

Let me find it.

I sat Immunity Tea on the bag, so I thought that was the name.

Of the No, no, no, that's just the kind of tea that it is.

Cool.

The name of the company is Queen s Thirtis. She's awesome.

Yeah, she has stuff all around the community. She actually is like getting her first and I love that. I'm just doing a sales pitch right now, but she has her first break and mortar store opening up right outside of Wilmington. Amazing tea. Her husband, her family, her loved ones hustle for this tea company. I think it's so awesome. Casey and I have gone to several markets, have met her family, met her family again, met her family again.

And uh, I think you've told me about them.

Yes, because what they do is they have this business together and I think it's so yes, because she teaches her sons. They have sons of I think, like a teenage son. They have other sons that are a little younger, and literally they teach them like these quote unquote.

Like business, business ethics.

And this little boy is out here selling rocks and seashells.

You're a dollar each, and I spent some money on that, okay, because I'm like, it's I'm telling me about it.

I was like, what is this? And she told me all about it.

Because he literally he goes into it. He's like uh, and keep in mind, this is a young boy.

He literally goes up like, oh uh, that's courts and this one is you know, and I'm just like, yeah, tell me more, like I will buy all of it.

And I just think it's so neat. So this family has.

Always been one that has like caught my eye. So then to know that they also caught yours and they.

Well, so let me explain the interaction. So I walk up to her and she has this bag from again. I literally just read the name of the tea and it was so hectic. I figured that was the name of the company. But it's Queen as their teas, right, and She's like, actually, I'm a local. I work at this tea shop down the street, and I heard about you know your family. I heard you on a podcast. I can't remember. Oh, maybe it was Molly. Maybe it

I was sad.

I really wanted her to have that experience, you know, just to really have proved that, you know, she's not crazy. Last night when Meredith was here, which for those who don't know who Meredith is, she's been on our show before. I don't have the episode number, but she's Meredith for real. And she swung by town last night and her and her husband Carrett, and they visited and we just hung out and had the best time. We didn't record, but

That's awesome.

And I saw that last night and I.

Was like, she did come, That's amazing.

And then I brought it up like an hour later He's like, I can't believe she came.

Episodeah, So that kind of touched me, Like the even you just to prove your point, like you you never know who you impact. Yeah, it can be in your freaking backyard, dude, and you have no idea.

Man.

When I when I pulled up to the beach, it was at the same day and it's got the whole I was tired in the morning. Then after the festival, we had like a little break for dinner and then out to the skywash, and I got hired in between that and I'm driving and I'm like, honestly, I felt like I could fall asleep while I was driving, and I'm like, man, I really hope I can just show up for all these people who showed up for us.

Dude, I felt the same way.

Yeah.

I pulled in and I was like, oh my god, we did we did this.

I panicked. We pulled up and Casey was like, there's no way that this is all Allmi's right, and I was like, ye.

Dude, two cars in front of me pulled in that lot and the car behind me pulled in that lot. I'm like, oh my god.

This is the craziest part for me was I literally show up and this was the Saturday night one, which I think is the one that we're referencing here, was totally like kind of thrown together. Sunday night was going to be more of our like, Okay, we're all gonna go skywatching. Saturday was like Okay. During the day, we kind of decided vibes are high, weather's good, like, let's try to do a SkyWatch tonight as well, which is Saturday.

Walking very very fast get out there.

Ryan was like ran past everyone, and Emily and I were there and I was literally shaking, like I don't know what happened, but physically I started getting so nervous to like go out on this beach, and like, you know, it was already dark, so I couldn't see anybody. But it was just so alarming because then we got on the beach and there it was literally, you know, it was dark, but there was.

Like a dark cloud of people in the middle of the beach, and I'm.

Like like a huge black hole on the beach.

So it's wild how I had such a different reaction, Like I almost like I was completely humbled in an awe and like speechless, and I just walked out there and was so calm, like I just I just felt so like put into place by everything, like this is so much larger than me, This is so much larger than the show, Like I'm just this small piece of.

What's going on, like it was definitely that. It was incredible, man.

No, I was physically shaking.

Yeah. For the first time since Riverfest, I felt like it's not just us doing this anymore, but it's like an army of people around us helping us. I've never felt that way before. I've always felt like it's people trying to use us, to pick us apart, to learn about what's going on, to get something out of us. But after Riverfest, I've finally feel like people are helping us.

Oh my gosh, Well, the level of consideration from so many people at that booth, it was incredible. First of all that Scot out, you know, not Scott out.

The shout out to Scott, but also there were people that brought waters for everyone, brought sandwiches for everybody, brought snack bars for everybody, Oh yes, drinks.

What can I do?

Can I, you know, something as small as hey, can I help like throw this trash away from you, like for you while you're you know, talking with somebody. And it was just like insane the level of thoughtfulness that everyone had for each other, Like that was the first time, like sure like Azalea Festival was super magic super amazing.

Yes, this time.

You know, I think the people that had come before too had kind of caught on to like, oh wow, like this is like a thing, it's an event, and people just start giving stuff.

Yeah.

Well it was definitely Azelia was definitely our first time. Yeah, and it was so nice having that experience and then getting to like adequately prepare for River.

Yeah.

Oh and name tags somebody brought me, Jennifer, which was so such a fo idea. That was something that I had thought about, Oh would that be good to do? And it's like, no, Jen, don't even stress it, don't even worry about it. So for somebody to buy these name tags and they were so so good.

Again, next time, Jennifer talking about charitable omies. Jennifer's husband heard that my poor little knees were in pain. And the man got on his knees for ten minutes and massaged my knees like that, very.

Giving, like he got there's some context of that.

She was hyping him up as having this really special ability to be able to like do trigger points, and it's like he's not even a massage therapist, but.

His father did it professionally.

Yeah, and he taught him. So I was like, really, my back hurts. Can you do my back? And he did this thing where he got the trigger point out of my back and I felt amazing, and he had already been talking about doing it.

I grabbed him. I was like, let's go.

I was like, Nick, now, this man touched your knees.

I mean it was it was. I was like and then I was like, you do not have to do that, and he was like no, no, no, no, no, I'm going to do it. And like I felt like I had new legs.

Like it was crazy that guess who got in line next me?

What did you do? My neck?

Yeah?

Really my neck.

It was the most insane feeling because it literally is like like if you were to just like jump off a cliff or something like. It literally felt like him he was pushing, pushing, pushing.

The pain was like ah and then all of a.

Suddenly really yeah, it was amazing.

It just felt like.

It felt light.

Yeah, it just like it just like disappeared out.

Of nowhere, unbelievably kind of him. So nice, that's insane. They're really cool people.

They're they're really talking, and so many people brought little gifts and stuff and it was just so and the people who just literally brought themselves like, oh yeah, that means just as much to us. Some of these people traveled from California, Canada, Denmark.

Yeah, Frank and Martin from Denmark. We had Caesar from Columbia. We had like over a dozen people from Canada and Brook. We can tell that story in a little bit, because I think that's a funny story. If you want to talk about Brooke, I'll let you know what I'm talking about, Okay. I wanted to reiterate something when I said earlier about five minutes ago that I have felt like it's people using us. I don't mean that for the people that came to Azalia Festival. I don't want anyone to be

Oh yeah, and then like night vision goggles. Yeah, like all kinds. People brought their own equipment and cameras.

And I had this strange sense that like, we're not collecting this data anymore alone, but we have an army of people helping us crowdsourcing data. So for everybody who has taking good footage, I was like, send that to me because I can tag this, I can post this and tag you. But now I don't have so much of a burden and a responsibility to get this data. There are people here with me who have like heard our story, know the truth about this thing, have learned

We'll not a literal army, well, they don't have a literal mass run out there.

There's a mass number of people out there who's getting to be a comparable size for sure. Yeah.

It was so unbelievably mind blowing.

It definitely helped share my story. Now, yes, please, because you were talking. The reason I had thought about it is because you were talking about how you don't like understand your own impact sometimes. And there was this lady that Ryan Literally I was in the middle of having a good conversation with somebody and Ryan comes and it's just like, hey, I need you now quickly come over here. And I'm like, dude, like I'm in the middle of something.

My gosh, yeah, I remember you. And I was very date. I was just very out of it that day. I remember that. I remember it was just one of those things.

I had a gift card and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna go get this facial and it was nice, you know, I just I don't really get facials a whole lot. But she was so sweet and so I think it was maybe a recording weekend or something, and she was like, so, what are you doing this weekend? Like so, I think I had started talking about the podcast and just saying, oh, I'm recording this weekend.

We have this podcast. What's it about? Blah blah blah.

And then I was telling her and she's like, oh my gosh, wow, that's amazing. And I was telling her, go look it up, go look it up. And then here she is, in person, right in front of me. She said, Hey, I just want you to know, like I've actually been keeping up with you since that appointment. I'd never seen her again because again, I'm not really a facials gal, so i'd never really seen her again.

Three years, you know what I mean, and like really nice. It was so.

Crazy and it was just it was so nice, and that was one of those moments for me that I.

Was like, wow, yeah, like she heard you right, exactly right.

And like actually internalized it and it and it meant something to her.

I know, Like that's really strange sometimes to think that there's like value in.

What I'm saying.

Yeah, like, oh.

That's so nice.

Yeah, it's It's incredible. The whole weekend was just jam full of little moments like that. Yeah, just just too incredible. And that's not even talking about the unbelievable skywatches.

Get to that. We saved the best for last. I wanted to talk about Brook for a second. So this is this this lady from Canada. I say, okay, I say lady. I estimate she was probably like twenty Okay, So that's what I was thinking, maybe twenty one or twenty two based on our conversations because she was definitely

Yeah ubering.

We're skywatching on the beach till like one in the morning, so I'm like, I'm concerned, how are.

These people going to get home? Some of them?

So on Saturday night, I think, yeah, I think it was Saturday night. We were staying really late and Brooke was one of the last people out there.

Because I was doing so there was a gentleman named Evan and Brooke and we kind of started talking towards.

The end of the evening. Evan was cool.

I ended up sitting them both down and doing Cube in the Desert to both of them at the same time. So we all had fun doing Cuban in the desert, talked. He had a whole awesome like zero gravity chair set up, like he out he wasn't playing around, so he was like, I'm gonna stay and yeah, she she had traveled here by herself and was like going to catch an uber and I was like, nah, I'll just give you a ride, Like it's not a big deal. Otherwise, I mean, I

I was leaving the parking lot thinking to myself, Jenny, I was talking to her and Emily. I was like, should we go back and offer her ride? Like I'm really worried. Maybe I could ask Alex if he'll give her a ride. And then sure enough I turned around and Alex and broke her walking out behind. And Alex was like, I'm gonna take her home. And I was like, thank god, dude, what a gentleman. Like I was sitting here panicking, how is this young girl from Canada gonna

Yeah.

So then Sunday night comes around and of all that, now you guys are there, so you know, like pretty much everybody we saw Saturday, they were back at that booth on Sunday.

Well, and I saw her when I got there, and I was like, hey, if you need to ride home, I got you.

Don't worry. Well, Brooke was the one person all day on Sunday that I never noticed at the booth.

Yeah, So in my head, I was like, what happened to Yeah, I was wondering the same thing.

I was like, what happened to her? What happened to her? So I saw her at the beach that night. I'm thinking she went home or something, and I bumped into her at the SkyWatch. I was like, where were you and she said, oh, well, I came out to the beach by myself. I fell asleep on the beach for several hours. I got sunburned, And anyway, SkyWatch goes on. This is the part that I brought this whole story up for that I thought was so funny that it's again you know what I'm getting at now, don't you.

She was too stunned to even talk to him. So awesome.

Yeah, he acknowledged her in the car, and he was just talking a head off like he was just like.

We were, Me and your dad were just chatting business as usual, like we were chatting about SkyWatch, about what's going on. Like I was just like, hey, you know, you need to talk to this person, this person, this person.

It's what we wanted to do. He's a human being at the cost of himself, right right.

And that's where I start to like, all right, come on, let's like it's time to go. You know, someone's got to be the bad guy sometimes. But anyway, so this was happening, and I was like Brook, like, grab your stuff, like we're leaving, and uh put yeah, got him in the car and then uh yeah they he they exchanged some words and I just I don't remember. So there was so much going on, but I just anyway, after he got out, it was kind of it was I

Yeah, magic moment. It just was like really special for us, Like she was such a nice person anyway, all the way out by herself from Canada. That's the thing is my mom is like, why are you doing this?

Why are you doing this?

Is weird?

Well, and that was part of it too, is like everybody that travels, I feel like everybody kind of has their little groups or they bring a friend, you know, or they've got their little click click that they meet up with and have traveled with when they get here, like Omi's are friends, like there's friend groups within the Omi's and stuff, and she was kind of outside of all that, and I was like, I'm gonna worry all night.

Yeah, Oh my gosh, can I say another person.

That I just yeah, ever a personally think of shout out moment, So, oh god. One of my favorite people ever is Rosa. I just love you. I just think you're amazing.

That's what I thought. The story was.

She is just.

I love you. I love you Rosa. Essentially what happened was she.

Was waiting in line, and you could tell that she would maybe was a little bit stressed from travel.

She had just flown in that kind of thing.

And I was, of course, like I said, kind of doing line control, if that's what you want to call it, just speaking to people in the line, just like, you know, making sure everyone is isn't.

You know, Chris likes to talk with people a lot, So I was just.

Kind of making sure that, you know, people weren't getting impatient or something. And I come across Rosa and Roses like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're in the line, like that kind of thing. And then was like I was telling her, yeah, yeah, like we're all here, like you know, Nick and Alton, everyone's here.

She's like everyone's here.

I'm like, yeah, I get to talk to him.

And I was like yes, please, please please.

I got Ryan And anyway, everyone ended up coming, you know, over to Rose overtime and I had everyone sign her book and she is just I just think she's an angel.

And I love her and I wanted to shout you out.

I also wanted to shout at some of my other favorite buddies from the weekend. Jimmy was my skywatching buddy and we had so much fun, like so much fun on the beach. I think like he was super awesome Orange, super awesome.

Oh yeah Orange.

On the on Sunday night, me and Pierce ended up just like laying down next to each other and like watching for over an hour, hour and a half something like that. He's hilarious and we were just cracking jokes back that dude is.

To get him on the show I watch literally, so we were like the last ones to leave on Sunday, the last ones, oh yeah, were we really got to go to bed, like you know, it's getting late or he got in the car and he's like driving off but passing us as we're walking to our cars and he literally just goes.

It's like one am, he goes and one want to hit up w House. I'm so sorry.

So it was. It was on Sunday night. It was me, Casey Orange was next to us, and then Paul and Emma were on our blanket with yeah to go, two of my favorite people in the world. They are so incredible. And then Ashland big shout out. Ashley, our friend from high school, showed up for us. Came from Fayetteville. It was she surprised all of us. So cool and I swear to you, dude, we're all there like on Sunday night, like skywatching Orange has us rolling. Dude, He's so funny.

Like it was cool to meet him in person, dude, because he is literally one of the very first members of our discourse. Yeah, we have known him for three years. I've played Valheim with him for countless Minecraft with him, yeah hours, And I never thought he would look like that.

Give everyone context. What did you say say he looked.

A musician music? He plays the rock and roll aesthetic very well.

I told him he looked like the poly short character from the Goofy movie. He loved it, dude, he loved it. He had the ear ring like he thought that ship was so funny. Man, we were cracking up about it. He's cool.

I really liked him. He's so so cool. Every every every single person that we met was truly incredible. It looks true, right, I mean, his hair is different.

But the vibe that's yeah, that's the hair is totally different, you know.

And you're right, dude.

Everybody was every single person was incredible and sweet and they said the nicest things like it truly healed my heart so much. That's why I was saying, like, I felt like people are here to help us, absolutely, you know, not to take from, but to help. And I've never felt that before.

It was cool to see other people get along with each other like that was really some of the book. The fact that it's like, wow, like you guys came together because we decided one day to put together a discord and now you know you And it was also a reason for some people to connect with old friends, like for example, Meg and Rose Rose across the country and they're like, you know what, I think we're gonna make this kind of like a yearly like friend meet up thing for us to come here and do this.

And I'm like, yes, they live across the country and they and same with Mike and Danny, and they both of these different friend groups, and I'm sure others did this. They were like, all right, we'll meet in Wilmington. And they flew both from different states into the same city. So because of our little event, multiple people who are friends remotely all the way across the country came into town and got to be together with us. And that's just amazing.

But wait, one of my favorite parts is that our friends from Denmark, Frank, Frank and Mark, I think, like I might be getting it the wrong way. I think Frank had just brought it up to Martin and said, hey, I want to go meet and he's just like, well, I gotta go with him, you know. So then he's just like, yeah, sure, I'll go with you to Wilmington, North Carolina, of.

All places in the USA, and go like meet.

These people from Denmark.

It's also funny you bring up Mike.

For some reason, I always just thought his name was Sam, And even whenever he said hide me in the discord, I'm like.

Oh my god, are you Sam like Mikes?

So he was Sam was Sam was the guy who had the black lap Venus.

Yes, Venus, shout out to Venus. She was with us all weekend.

Good vibes, oh yeah, and Sam to One of the most touching things I heard the entire weekend was from Sam. And it was Sunday night when we were leaving and people were packing up and heading out. We were about to head out, and he just like stopped and he was like, I just I just want to thank you so much for all of this and everything you guys do, and you really gave me a really a beautiful memory

She didn't make a peep the whole weekend. She just sat right there in front of everybody, and she was like the mascot of the crew, like the sweetest dog.

If I'm correct, I think Sam came for the book and your dad and stayed for the omies. Oh really, I think he was there in the morning. I could be the one there.

He was the first one there. It was Saturday when I showed up to the he was there talking to that.

Right, and then he just started hanging out in the back. The omie started filling in, and he just assimilated into the culture.

So many people that weekend, so many that I can't even tell you a number because it's wet.

But let's give another super duper special shout out to our friend Ken Brooke.

Yeah, okay, what about her. We did a little bit how Teddy signed her book, but I mean there's so much.

More, no, but okay, well let me say something about her. I think she was so cool. Yeah, girl, and shembroke for listening.

You are really smart, Like it was really really cool to just watch her talk. And she literally would ask questions while we're out there skywatching, questions like how do you make a connection with them? Or do you feel connected to them? Are asking very like advanced questions for her. I'm like, Okay, this is the future right here, this is the future generation.

Yes, awesome.

This this ten year old girl asked us. She asked me, she said, do you think that something will come out of these orbs? And I got the sense that, like, you know, I need to be careful about how I answer, because I don't want her to be afraid, right, And I said, well, they usually don't. That's not something that they usually do. But in my experience, they're very, very friendly, so if they did, it probably would be okay, you know.

So funny.

Yeah, so she was. She was really awesome.

It was amazing getting to meet Kyle's daughter. Oh yeah, yeah, it was so awesome.

She was so giddy, so Emily's voice.

There was a students so well mannered, so well awesome. She another bright little girl, so smart, so smart.

Shook my hand, introduced yourself.

I'm like, wow, I know. She shook my hand to job Kyles, great, great job, Kyle.

I told him that, right, Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, I think we're I think we're probably at a point where we can start talking about what those who didn't come we're waiting for.

But I wanted to finish what I was saying earlier before we started talking about Kimbroke again, was that I couldn't tell you how many people were there with us that were like, please let me help. If there's anything I can do to help, let me do it. I'll help break down the tent.

Do you need food? Do you need this?

Do you need that? And people they were really like, you know, taking care of us, and that was just like really humbling. I don't know it was. It was definitely life changing for me.

Absolutely it was, and you know we could it would. It would take us four hours to mention everybody in every interaction. But to everybody who came, uh.

Changed my life.

Absolutely. You You are so special and incredible and we can't thank you enough for coming and showing up for us and this project and the community that you're a part of.

So this is I was telling people, like, you might be really excited to be here, and like I get that and all that, but like I promise you that were just as excited, if not even more excited to meet you.

Absolutely.

Yeah, there wasn't a dull feeling. No, you know how it's like, there wasn't a dull moment. No, there wasn't a dull feeling.

Not one. I was just ecstatic the entire time.

I was buzzy, even when exhausted, even when hungry, even when you know, it was.

Every time, Yeah, every time I had a thought like that.

We didn't want to go immediately turned around to get a way to use the bathroom.

Yeah, you know whatever, right like.

You know, my dad called me, said, how was Riverfest?

I said, I don't know. I never left the booth.

I have no clue what was Yeah, no, no, no exploring whatsoever. We just stayed right there and hung with the omies.

I did.

I did mosey on over to the reptile booth. Okay, I had to go. Hold They had a snake there. They had a whole bunch of big snakes and iguanas and huge frogs.

Yeah, and so I did have to go pay them a little visit. I don't know what it is. I'm just drawn to him lately. But anyway, yes to everyone for real.

Yeah, So I guess now we can kind of talk about what actually happened on the beach. Yeah, let's start with Saturday night. Yeah, so Saturday night, me, Jenny, and Emily get there late by about thirty minutes. Dad's out there by himself with about two hundred people we had at Azelafes. Jennifer, the one we were talking about who brought the name tags from Tennessee. Her and Brent basically got a count for us, which is how we knew there were seventy five people. So when I got it

I was like great.

So this time when I got to the crowd Saturday, I was.

Like, where's Jennifer.

Not my wife, but where's Jennifer from Tennessee? And they're like, you know, two hundred people? They were like who you know? And eventually she came and found me. She was like, hey, I heard you're looking for me. I was like, yes, last time, you got a count for me, would you mind doing it again? And she comes back to me and I don't know, fifteen twenty minutes or something, and

She lost counted one hundred.

And seventy five, but she was like, but I think it's really more like two hundred. So I was like, okay, so anywhere from one seventy five to two hundred people were there. So I get there late. I'm freaking out cause Dad's out there by himself. And Dad's not really a loud persons He's kind of soft spoken. So I get there. He has his camera. He's just like literally in front of two hundred people with his camera on the horizon. I just bust right through the crowd. I'm

Start whispering in his ear. I'm like, Dad, you know we need to get these people.

Together, Like have you addressed the crowd yet? And he was like, yeah, I did a little bit. I told them this, that and the other. And I was like, I'll be right back. So I ran around to the side of the crowd, and I just basically was like, hey, everybody, you know, put your minds together.

I don't remember what I said.

Did a great job, Yeah, well, thank you, but I

Yeah it was it was, yeah, about five. I thing.

After being there till like midnight, we saw maybe five things, maybe six, at least five. And the final thing we saw that night was pretty crazy, I guess. And this was several hours into it. I could probably get a timestamp because Paul, who we were talking about earlier, Paul

Screamed yeah, and I was clapped.

Yeah, clap cheered, and I was like, yes, the pressure is off.

Yeah. It was an amazing Yeah. And Casey the second we stepped on the beach, she said, I feel like there's an energy of like fear and anxiety to hear. But it got broken when like everybody sees something and everybody's like yeah and cheering, and the whole vibe flipped at that moment because.

Initially there were two hundred constant chattering voices. Yeah, and we have to focus, right, We can't.

We don't.

We're not constantly chattering when we SkyWatch. Sometimes we do and they're like, all right, refocus, you know, Dad refocuses us. But it was literally two hundred chattering people.

And it's easy to do when it's a group of five or six people, but it's not easy to do right.

Two.

Also, I just counted the parking spots in that lot. There's exactly one hundred, and you've got to think most people are traveling to wait.

Is that? Was that what your prediction was?

Well, dude, not to mention the Yeah, yeah, no, I'm just saying that rot was full, So minimum one hundred yeah, and that that's that's like a worst case exaggeration minimum, right, like, oh yeah, that is double that is the bare minimum, and it was actually double that.

Yeah. Jennifer lost count at one seventy five.

Yeah, and she literally told me, she was like, there's got to be at least twenty five more.

People, far better than me. Because I lost count at twenty five. I was like, I could do this. No, I can't think.

I think Kyle said in a discord he counted one of the pictures. I can't remember the number. Oh oh oh, but it was at least one seventy five, like like bare minimum, one seventy five realistically like counted people. But anyway, so it ended up great. Saturday night, we saw five or six things, but the final thing was a massive flash, right, and everybody's cheering. The next day when I wake up, I'm really just thinking to myself, like, someone was afraid

What Jenny was saying, what's that noise?

It was your It sounded like thunder. It's like banging on the door or something.

Anyway, so I knew Sunday night was gonna be great. So my point is, at one point I'm walking around towards the end of the day trying to tell everybody like, hey, we're about to pack up the tent. Hey, we're about to pack up the tent. I get to Alex and Olivia, his wife, which is still so strange to.

Say, shout out miss shot or.

Is it misses. I don't know.

You guys were talking to this individual, and I was just passing through really quick. I was actually delivering books, and because I had signed it, and then I had to find the people, right So I walk up to you and Olivia, and maybe I was getting you to sign the copy or something. But there was someone you were talking to and his eyes were wide.

Like he had seen ghosts.

And unfortunately I can't remember his name, and I wish I could shoot, but his eyes were wide and he was like, Ryan, am I okay?

I had nightmares last night.

Oh my gosh, I cannot remember his name.

He was like, I had terrible nightmares last night. I'm so afraid. What you know, I had demonic dreams about what I saw in the sky. And I was like, I freaking knew it.

I knew it.

I knew I didn't even know this, so that's oh.

Gosh, Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry if you're listening and I can't remember your name. But no, he came up to me and was like, man, can I tell you about my dream? And I'm like sure, and he starts telling me about this bad nightmare that he had that night involving orbs and that he's had him in the past, and a lot of there's a lot of religious I want to say, religious trauma up in there.

And it wasn't fraggle uh what was it? Fraggle rotruggle rock.

Gosh?

I lovely gosh.

I'm so sorry, but anyway. I was like, yeah, man, I don't know, like completely caught off guard. I don't know a whole lot. I'm not as good at obviously as good as you are. Anyway, you come up, I'm like, here's the guy.

Ask him.

And he did. And whatever you said was so eloquent and graceful and correct, and you just put him at ease immediately.

Oh.

I said something very quick, and I walked away because I didn't have much time. But I thought very carefully in that moment about what to say, and I put my hand on his shoulder. I was like, look, you are totally fine. I was being sincere, but I was being very fast. I said, you are totally fine. You are experiencing religious trauma. And I want to ask you a question, and I want you to think about the answer.

But you are totally safe.

And he was he I just I walked off and I never saw him again. Yeah, I never saw him. I don't know if he was there that night or not. But I wish I had more time, want to say he was that.

I can't remember exactly either. I feel so bad, But then again, there's like two hundred people, right, Yeah, and I wish I had more time to talk to him. But hopefully that impacted him in a good way. And oh, after what he said, he was like, I said something about, man, I'm glad you got to talk to him because he did so much better than me. Like it was like, I'm glad you got the pro right, and he was like, yeah, that was awesome.

Thanks. Well that morning, I forgot to say. That morning he also put a message in our discord saying, did anyone else have nightmares last night? I had terrible nightmares about the ORBS? What do I do? So when I talked to him in that moment, I knew it was him, you know what I mean, I made the connection really quickly. Yeah, And I was like, oh, and I had already been thinking someone's afraid.

So I don't know.

It was weird how it presented itself. So anyway, Sunday night comes around, and I mean, you guys want to take a crack at what happened.

Yeah, it was unbelievable. So we show up again around the same time, a little early. Wait, yeah it was a little earlier. Yeah, we wanted to get there a little earlier so we could get a picture of everybody group picture. Everybody got there on time. We were all there at the same time. Energy was very high. Everybody's so excited. It was good vibes all around. And I mean we probably got there at what seven thirty yeah, yeah,

Dude, it started while I was explaining the process. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we saw like six by the time I was even done explaining how we do this.

Well, wait, I actually have to give us credit for getting a photo of that many individuals after dark and I was up on this on one of those really big yeah the lifeguard towers, and I was like everybody, and then we had to wait for Chris.

Okay, wait, I want to tell this. I want to tell this play.

So y'all left and and then I was like, Chris, you need a ride and he's like yeah. So we hop in the truck. I got his camera equipment. We go, We go all the way there, We're like on time, we pull in, we park.

He goes, I don't have the batteries. Yeah, but I mean luckily we're only like five minutes down the road. We're just going.

It's all in Riceville Beach, and I know Jenny was all about this picture and the sun is going down. I'm like, okay, no problem, back up, leave, grab the grab the batteries.

Pull back up.

We get in the parking lot, I get him out in the car, like we're hustling, right, And I feel so bad because someone came up and is like, Chris, can I get a picture? And I was like, actually, no, we're trying to go get a picture. Jenny's gonna kill me.

So good for you.

Yeah, no, And so I felt really bad.

Because I'm like, man, I'm so sorry, We've got to go. So then Frank grabs the dude's camera, Frank from Denmark, and is taking pictures of them walking together, so like never stopping, but walking, and I'm like, all right, all right, let's go, let's go, let's go, and we get out there and get the picture. After the fact, we caught back up with that guy. Sorry I can't remember your name, got his picture and then that's good. Yeah, we got a picture after but yeah, it was a that was

Oh? Whoever? I mean, we were all there, well, it was it was crazy.

I just felt that that tonight, like it kind of worked out perfectly that the reverse happened and Dad was late this time because then I was thrust to kind of like wrangle the crowd without him being there.

And Sunday is when you really shined with your crowd control. I will tell you. I mean you took absolute control of the situation.

And I'm the Joko baby No, I mean I kind of felt like I had to too soon source subject to me. I had to though, you know, it's like you kind of sink or swim and and well we I.

Think we also had the intention too of like we know what the first night was, like, we kind of a lot of people showed up after dark, so we didn't really recognize each other. We were just catching up for the first time, you know, since kind of like coming back together. So I think this like the second night, we went in with the intention of like, Okay, we're going to try to get the attention of everyone so that we can kind of get on the same wavelength.

Yeah, it was Jenny's idea, like just maybe tonight we can address the crowd like and kind of explain to them that we need to all be on the same page. So it just you know, basically telling the crowd like, hey, you know, sorry I showed up late last night. Tonight We're gonna do things differently. We need to all be on the same page. We don't need a billion different

So, because that's what we do at home, that's literally what we do. Yeah.

So right out the gate when it was time to SkyWatch, it was quiet.

It was quiet. Everybody knew the assignment. Everybody knew.

You kind of forgot how many people were there, yeah, because it was like, oh wow, Like you know, if you're looking one way and you got everyone behind you, you forget everyone's there, you know.

And that night we lost count again with the same problem the night before at one fifty. So it was still a large crowd. Yeah, slightly smaller, but still over one fifty.

I want to tell the story that I forgot. I don't know if I told you guys. Okay, so this is right in the beginning. So it's happening like the orbs are popping off right in their normal kind of state of being. The crowd is very quiet, everybody's very focused, and these experiences are happening very rapidly.

In the beginning, I'm.

Kind of I like to circle and see what's going on, right, and here comes this group of people coming off the access onto the beach, and I can't see.

It's the dark.

I don't know if they're here for this or whatever. So I just say hello and young young kids, college kids, and they go, what's going on here?

Yeah, I'm glad you're telling this.

Yeah.

They're like, what is going on here? And I'm like, okay, so, y'all aren't here for the sky watching. You're not part of the skywatchers club? Like no, So I'm like, okay, well let me tell you first, I'm not crazy. Second, all we're all out here skywatching looking at UFOs. This guy wrote a book. I'm like giving them the cliff notes of what's happening, right, and then I'm like, look, there's one. Look there's one. And they're like, oh my god,

And they're like yeah. And I'm like, by the way, I'm a normal guy. I have a normal job. Like I'm not crazy.

I want to reiterate I am not crazy.

No I did.

I'm not exaggerating to you when I said that, exactly right, that's all because it's like it's dark, I'm stranger.

I don't have a way out.

Man.

No, I'm just like trying to bring their guard down because it's wild, right, it's wild. And she goes and I have no clue who she has never asked. One of the girls said, man, we came out here because I was having such a terrible day, Like thank you so much. Oh wow, this is this is truly really cool and I'm glad you know you said hello or whatever, and wow, I can't believe we saw anything today. I'm like, yep, cool, see you guys.

That's another example of like literally meeting people in our town and like making somewhat of a Yeah.

I ended up bumping into them.

They were pretty far from the crowd, but I was looking for my mom who was sitting.

Oh, we did together.

We bumped into them and we just were looking for somebody. And one of the girls was like, are you rying with the podcast? I was like, yeah, how you know, basically like, oh, I think they pulled the podcast up right there. Well, she was like, I was just talking to your buddy Alex. She didn't remember your name, but she was like, I just talked to one of your crew who was part of the podcast. I was like, oh, was it Alex Buzzcut or not? Well, yeah, I was like, was it Alex or Nick?

She was like I don't know. I didn't catch his name.

And we were like buzz cut or no buzz cut, you know, because it's easy, and she was like buzz Cut. I was like, yeah, Alex cool and she was like, yeah, he just explained what it all was very cool.

It was nice Topeet.

She was like, yeah, you know, come on hang out, and she was just like, we're gonna go check out the show. And I was like, yeah, I think you'll really like it. Looked me up later kind of thing. But they were super nice. They were definitely young, like maybe college age. It was a few they were at yeah, yeah, there's a little crowd of people, like maybe three or four, and it was really weird that you bumped into them, and then I bumped into them.

Super weird.

So, like I said earlier, when we were explaining the process to this crowd, we already saw like six orbs before we even started, before the sun even went down, we saw about twenty or thirty. And at some point shortly after that, I was like, okay, we need a hard count. So I yelled out to the whole crowd, somebody start counting right now. And this one gentleman I didn't get his name, and it was dark, so it

This is he's counting the number of sightings after.

We had already seen Yeah, twenty five thirty.

So that's very clear for everyone. Yeah, this guy is counting the number of orbs that we're seeing.

Realistically, like a very genuine, like non exaggerative estimate. We probably saw about one fifty that night, but a very real number is maybe one thirty five, because, like I said, we saw like twenty five or thirty year it was a very rapid fast number, sometimes three and four at a time. Oh yeah, and then we were like, somebody count please starting now, we'll go from starting now. And by the time he left it was one fifteen. So I mean, realistically it was probably one fifty.

Yeah. Now here's the.

Crazy thing, all right, So we saw tons of orbs. I mean I've literally never seen that many in one day.

I was just gonna ask if you've ever because I certainly have not seen that many. I think the most prior to that was like maybe fifteen or twenty in a night.

I count every time, because I think it's data. I think that's how you can build. That's why I confidently say I've seen thousands of orbs because I count every time, and realistically, on a normal night, when Dad and I go out there, it's usually around fifty. I'm talking like we're actually seriously skywatching. Sometimes I'll walk outside and I'll see one or two and I'm like great, and I

My top number might have been one for every person on that beach. Dude, you're right. I didn't think that's true. That's true. That would be really really I didn't think about.

That well, talk about special. Crazy thing is even though I like had an estimate of twenty five to thirty before we started counting.

At one point.

Hours you know, down the line, when we had already seen so many crazy orbs, orbs crossing over each other, streaks across the sky, I mean it was just average orbs. I mean it was a very heightened night of activity.

It's clusters of four or five of them went crossing over each other and like circling each other.

Some of them hovering over the ocean like last till, some of them in triangle formations. Yeah.

I Corey got a great video of that. Yeah, it was so wild.

At one point, I was like, it's been a while since I've asked. I need to know the number. And I went up to the guy in the white jacket. He was an older guy too, He had white hair. He was like, I don't know, maybe fifty five sixty like he was. He was, you know, it was he was just easy to spot. Yeah, you know, because he looked so distinct from most of the crowd. He was younger, and I was like, hey, man, what's the count. He was like, Ryan, we're at ninety nine. And I kid

We got special one hundred, the craziest ORB siding I have ever seen. You can't even call it an ORB siding. No, it wasn't. It wasn't orbs. I've never, in all of my years, seen anything like this instance that that happened.

So I'll just talk about how it started because I was one of the first to see it. Ironically, we have had people in the discord who described exactly what I was initially seeing before the crowd saw it, So I know that other people were seeing it too, but didn't want to speak up. All right, So we're looking and there's about two hundred people here. We're looking all different directions, right, so, you know, maybe fifty people are looking this way, maybe two people are looking this way.

No?

Are they this?

No?

So I start saying I don't even remember what I was saying. It's probably on video, but I was like, everybody, look overhead, look overhead, look overhead, and we look up and these bars of light get brighter, and by the time everybody's looking, they sprout these wings and then they start flapping and there were four massive They weren't even orbs,

You could see through them. They were glowing golden.

Daniel kept saying, I was seeing the stars through them, dude, and uh, oh my god.

It was like I was away from the crowd.

It was chaos.

I was away from the.

Crowd because I was trying to find a spot for Biscuit, Like I was trying to find Ryan's mom's dud, like I had her dog, and I was trying to bring him back to her.

So I was away from the crowd, like looking, come on hello.

And I just hear everyone over on that side of the beach just scream.

And I'm like, oh my gosh.

So I immediately look up, I get the memo and I see these things.

Right, we keep calling them.

Not birds, No, the people in the discord keep calling that, but I call.

Them what it is.

They were angels right right right, I was saying that night, they're angels right right.

Well.

The reason that people started saying that is so from my perspective, it was like me, Casey, Ashlynd Pierce, like a little cluster of people standing in front of the lifeguard tower. And I think it might have been Kyle or somebody who pointed look at that whatever. By the time I looked straight up, they were directly over me, and it looked. The first thing I thought was it's four birds. And then I noticed that they were glowing.

No, I had a similar so they came from it.

When I'm looking at them, they were silhouetted, like in front of like a slightly lit up cloud. I could see their silhouettes perfectly. Yeah, And the moment you said that, poof, they and I kept looking for like thirty seconds, like did I just lose them in the light or what? And no, they were now Yeah, dude, I saw them manifest.

So you were on the south side of the crowd, nick, I was on the north side of the crowd, complete opposite side.

I hear everybody scream. I look up.

I'm like, oh, those are just birds, because that's what they look like. And I was like, Oh, those are just birds. And then I keep looking and then they just disappear and I'm like no, And then Ryan goes, those are not birds.

I'm like, no, then they disappeared.

Those weren't. Yeah, that's it.

All happened very quickly. But I'm like, yeah, those are birds. Oh my god, they're not They're not birds.

So Heather, dad dad got them on camera, but he hasn't processed all his footage yet. It's so overwhelming and after these events he takes a week to just vegi out. Yeah, but Heather from who was there that night, got them on camera, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Will attack her and give her credit. I've already asked her permission to share some of her footage, you know what. I also have footage from Corey and Paul that we could drop too.

Yeah. I've seen a couple videos of it, and they're just like astounding. You can clearly see these not birds, Yeah, glowing.

Right.

Do you want to share?

Yeah? Maybe at the maybe at the end of the episode after Yeah, we could just we could put a few of them on and you could put a quick little textus. I'll ask them all for permission first, but I've already asked them permission to post on Instagram. They're like, yeah, go nuts, Okay, But I think that could be really cool for people to actually see what we were seeing and hear the reaction of the crowd. Now, granted this

They really were glowing, they were going, and they were going.

What really gets me the most is, you know, we're on the east coast, so that means that the ocean at that time was pitch black and that there was light pollution coming from the opposite way. But also the sun was still setting on that side the west right, so I you know, it was still it was lighter on that side of the beach where they were they were flying from.

You know, the darkness from the dark line kind of.

Toward the light is like the perspective came off ice right. So I literally, like I said, I was away from the crowd. I didn't even know you were talking. I didn't know who was talking. I just heard screaming and yelling, So I looked up. So I was far away, and I was watching these things go from my far left to my far right, and the closer they got to my right is when they were getting closer to the daytime.

Because the sun had really set for a while. That was all just like that was all the light pollution from the city.

And so from my perspective, you know, if you have something in front of a light, it's going to be dark. It's going to be like a shadow. It's going to be dark. And they weren't dark. They literally disappeared. They were not there. I did not see this.

I saw them manifest.

Most people did it for about a second or two. I saw them manifest and change form, and then I was like, everybody, look up, they're not birds because I knew they were birds. You know why, because I've seen orbs with wings multiple times, sometimes five feet away.

I'd like to give a special shout out to all the airplanes that showed up, because I love that there are airplanes on that path because.

You can clearly that's a plan.

Yeah, it actually works in our favors.

You have no man, it's so cool.

And I don't mean to out Emily, but whenever we showed up, Emily was just like, you know, we were all just kind of feeling, oh my gosh, you're so many people.

This is crazy.

Emily was like, you know what, I might have to take a moment to go stand over there. And I'm like why, She's like, because this is usually like a very like intimate thing for us as a family, like you know, friends and family. We it's just a very special thing for us, and now to be doing it with so many people just feels very like vulnerable.

It makes you feel very vulnerable.

I was pressured on Saturday, Oh my god.

But it's so like the amount of like electricity is just the only way I can describe it.

That that just like.

People were crying yes on Sunday night when we saw those you.

Know electricity and everyone's just and it was just like it makes it even more magical and everyone's like laughing, shaking and like maybe happy crying, but like just I don't know.

It was really outstanding.

People were describing to me how they felt after seeing that. That was exactly how we felt at the Monroe Institute, after we were like going through these expanded states of

Absolutely, it was mind blowing.

And I knew they weren't birds, because not only have I seen orbs with wings before, but also I had seen them two nights before when we were all out on the beach, right before you guys came, when we were at that condo on Thursday night, Remember, Yeah, when you guys were all upstairs and it was just me, Alex, Emily and Dad and Bear outside. You guys were still upstairs. We were out there watching. Alex and Dad were looking out over the water with Bear skywatching that way. I'm

I literally just said whoa.

And they appeared and they had wings and they started we were fluttering their wings and they swooped in and out like a helix pattern, and just vanished. That was Thursday night, so on. I think that was for me Emily too, obviously because she saw it, But I think that was planted in me to be able to have the confidence on Sunday to be like.

Those aren't freaking birds people, you know, because.

You know people your dad has seen something like that before the queenex of course I know, but it was so it was amazing to see it in person, with two hundred.

People telling people that I was around. I was like, this is the kind of activity that they see when it's just the family.

I shouted that over the crowd.

Yeah. I was like, I want you guys to understand, Like, I know those are not birds. I've seen these things. This is what we see when people are not around. They're angels.

People are like, what was that? What was that?

It was an angel? They're all angels. People are like it was different than New yorbs. Yeah, they're all the same thing. They're angels. I'm like telling people, like, now you get it, You've seen it. This is what we're talking about when we say we see these things. Sometimes we see them in the house.

You know, this is this is that dream that you always had.

Dude, I've been talking about that for days. You haven't even heard me say that.

Not once. I haven't heard you say that. How haven't I been talking about this for a week. But but but Bro, since i've known you, you've had a reoccurring dream. You've always had this this dream that you hoped one day would come true. And you're out with crowd people people, yeah, sky watching, they all see it, and you tell everyone, this is what we've been seeing all this It's there, It's really there. It's real.

I've had this dream since I was eighteen, yeah, Well, now I have another reoccurring dream it I'm gonna say this, and this is really vulnerable but who knows, But I mean whatever, In the last two weeks, have been having a reoccurring dream that I'm going to meet Theovonne.

What so, Yeah, let's definitely maybe it'll definitely manifest that. Yeah, maybe it'll come true.

I don't know.

Maybe it's one of my favorite human beings.

Maybe you're watching this. We'd really really loved to meet you, dude. I don't know, we have some stuff.

To talk about.

Yeah, I didn't know if I wanted to say that or not, but it's been calling to me, this dream I've been having multiple times in the last two weeks. But yeah, no, you're right, man, I've been talking about that with Ginny and Emily for a week now, Like, this is a reoccurring.

Dream I've been having, You've always The.

Next day I realized, like, oh my god, I've been dreaming about this since I was eighteen years old, and it's happening. There's a lot of things I've been dreaming about. That was one of them. Yeah, so lately it's been I just keep dreaming about meeting you. One it's wish for me, I don't know. But anyway, so Riverfest was unbelievable. I think for all of us, it was equally shocking and mind blowing. Nick, it was funny, man. You just kept saying, dude, I've never seen anything like that.

I was shaking. Friends, I've seen a lot of shit. Yeah, since I was a kid, I've been seeing shit at your house and other places with you, and at my house and all over the place.

And with other people.

I've never seen nothing like that ever. I was shaking for an hour. I was tripping, bro, I was buzzing. Everybody was. I just kept going up to everyone I saw and going to see that, and they're like, yeah, it disappeared. I'm like, I know that. Like it was nuts.

It was me walking into the crowd, right. I was like, uh, because I just.

Experienced it alone around trying to find you. Yeah, and then just goes, oh my gosh.

I was like, where's my wife. I have to make sure she saw this.

Yeah, it was I saw it. I got the memo.

It was bonkers.

So then two days later, which was Tuesday night, we go to the Vampire week In concert and I'm sitting there at the concert, and I'm just deep in thought.

It was the holiest of moments because sorry, I had to interrupt you, because I had to honor it. Vampire Weekend is a very big band for Ryan and I and our relationship because we've listened to it since we started dating, before we were dating, and so we went to this concert. It was also the first concert Ryan and I have ever been to on a date, like just me.

And him over Vampire Weekend.

Yeah, well it was ten years ago then today, and it was on our four year wedding anniversary.

And we walked down the aisle of Vampire Yes we did.

Well, I did to you, oh walk down the islene. Yeah, you get what I'm saying.

Anyway, So it was like a very lovely show and like for me, it was very just like a mental.

It was good too, going.

It was really Emily ended up coming because she, you know, evacuated the hurricane, and so her and Jack ended up coming on our date with us, which was great.

I really enjoyed it, and Randy was there so we got to see her.

Here's the thing, though, Jack kept thinking, we just told Jack, like, you're coming to a concert with us. He kept thinking it was imagine dragons. He literally thought the Vampire Weekends very I thought we were going to imagine dragons. He was like, I was kind of like wondering. I was like, okay, like whatever, I'm like, dude.

He got his mythical creatures. Swap it is.

Anyway, So the whole reason I'm bring the concert up is so I'm just like kind of deep in thought before it starts, and there's this band called Colts playing. I had never heard of them before, but they were really good, amazing, and they defin When I was buying food at one of the venders, I was like, who is this band? She was like, trust me, you'll recognize some of their songs.

And I did. I was like, oh, this is that band?

Cool whatever, they're they're pretty out there, but anyway, so I enjoyed their music and I was just like really deep in thought. And it's a nice venue and I'm just sitting there outside relaxing and I'm looking up and boom, orbs start appearing. Dude. We saw like probably fifteen to twenty five orbs over the freaking content.

They did literally actually did and came from all I recorded several of them. There have been times where I've been at that venue and I'm like, oh, do I see something?

Do I not? Whatever?

No, I do.

There was something.

It was like our energy was like magnified or something. I don't know if it was like after being with everyone at Riverfest, like we were even more magnetic or something. But these things were coming from left and right and left and right, and.

We're they were flashing at us.

We're trying to be kind of subtle when thousands of people looking straight.

So it's like, I think we are kind of showing off.

We're weird. No, well, everybody's looking straight, so they're not seeing this, but I'm always looking No.

But they're all they're seeing us looking.

Keep looking up. That's why I keep writing the shit in the book. Keep looking up, like you'll be surprised what you see. Right, But they were flashing at us, they were crossing each other. I mean, we're having a crazy light show over the concert and this is two days after Sunday people, So I'm like, oh my god, like this is crazy. And then Jenny that's when she swoops in and she goes Ryan, we should ask Daniel to be.

A mod.

And that's the end of my Riverfest experience.

Yeah, that really was the end.

Well, and then we had the meeting that there are mods today, and then here we are full circle.

Now we're an expanded team physically and spiritually.

I don't know.

I feel like more than ever we've been talking about this being like the Age of Aquarius, and like this past weekend to me was more proof than anything that I think that we are in the Age of Aquarius, or at least getting pretty darn close.

I think we're in it.

Even just seeing those children on the beach talking about it, seeing them, you know, get excited about it. There were several children. It was so crazy. It gave me a lot of hope for like, wow, the fact that these people are seeing this at such a young age, like they don't under like there's so much potential. Yeah, like for I don't know for what's next. I feel like it's good vibes all around. I'm very grateful for this weekend.

We all are.

I know it means a lot to Chris and Emily and the rest of the family as well, so it.

Was amazing, magical.

Shout out to him, Nick's coworker for coming.

Oh yeah, Logan, Yeah, that was really cool showed up. He was a cool, big shout out. He has not the first idea about any of this stuff. And I've like tried to like give him the cliff notes before and it's just like and I can tell, and so I don't like bore him or bring down with it. It's a lot for somebody. Yeah, but he asked questions about it, and he like keeps up with like he's he's always asking me how's it going, and at what we're going to record about and all this stuff. And

This is a serious, like real life moment of like, oh, here's somebody from my real life and then now they're intermingling with my people from this part of my life.

Like that's just how he's probably like, Wow, this is a lot more people than I.

He was really cool though.

He was just blended right in.

Oh it was great.

Yeah, he's the best, very nice guy.

Yeah.

It was a magical weekend. So thank every single one of you for being a part of it and making it so special it was. It was magical.

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm at peace with it all it was. It was just mind blowing, life changing. I mean, it was was profoundly altering for a lot of people, including us. Yeah, so, any more thoughts, Alex, I don't know if I could add to all that. Absolutely, I can't wait for the next one.

Yeah, me too, same.

I just feel like I feel like somebody has to do a Mickey outro of say.

You're real soon.

Go ahead, Alex, you know, so.

You're next week?

Oh my god, that's a wrap. Okay, bye, I gotta end it on that.

My gods.

What up? Bmies.

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