¶ Road Trips, National Parks, and Hats
Absolutely nothing beats windshield time . Welcome back to Dan the Roadtrip Guy , a podcast where we have candid conversations about life lessons learned on the road . I'm your host , bimmer Enthusiast and Roadtrip Extraordinaire , dan Neal . And now on to the show . All right , I'm taking a virtual road trip today .
My guest , whom I've never met , is down at Atlanta , georgia . I'm here in Cincinnati and we're just going to take a short drive . I found his story very interesting . His name is Joe Edelhuber .
Again , he's down in Atlanta as a school teacher , he told me , and today , though , he is part of a company called Park Hats , and I stumbled across Park Hats several years ago and bought one of their hats and just found it to be a really cool little company , and so I'm anxious to hear from Joe about cars and road trips and national parks and hats and how
that's going . So welcome to the show , joe .
Yeah , thanks for having me Happy to be here .
I'm a race fan , joe , and I . Usually some guests don't get it and I'll say , well , let's take a warm up lap around one of my favorite racetracks and take a couple of minutes and just tell my listeners real quickly who is Joe Edelhuber .
Well , well , side note , I'm also a race fan . Grew up watching my mom's cousin do a small asphalt track up in Wisconsin , but down here Georgia , we have Claytrak . Have you ever seen a Claytrak race ?
I have . It's fun to know you're a race fan , so that's great .
Yes , like you said , I live just outside of Atlanta . I live kind of in the foothills of the Smokies up in North Georgia , love being here and watching the sunset right now through the windows Pretty great .
Oh fun Did you . Are you from Atlanta area originally or no ? Yeah .
Now , I'm from Wisconsin originally and that's where kind of Park Hats is kind of based out of loosely . I moved down in 2008 to kind of my wife and I were dating , or my now wife and I were dating long distance . I've been down here since 2000 .
As you know , this is Dan the road trip guy , and I will get to Park Hats a little later and what else you're up to , but I love to start my show with tell me about your first car .
Well , I'm excited to share about it . It was a beautiful thing . It was a 1991 Geo Tracker .
Oh , boy yeah .
It was amazing . My mom and dad had a deal when I turned 16 . They would pay for half of any car that I wanted . Well that you know . My dreams of getting like a Mustang or something you know , like a real car dwindled quickly when I realized I had to pay the other half we ended up with . Family friend had a Geo Tracker .
It was rusted literally everywhere but it had four wheel drive . I could go kind of off-roading with it on a buddy's farm and honestly loved it . It was the best first car ever .
Now remind me , some of those were convertibles . I think was yours .
No , so sadly , somehow I managed to get a non-soft top one .
Oh , okay .
It was kind of a bummer .
And how long did you keep that car ?
I think we had it , for we probably had it for two years . I think the story was Like one of the first times my sister took it out , somehow the wiring harness shorted out . It was dead . It was kind of beyond repair . When that happened it kind of went down in epic glory . But I still love it . I wish I could .
I thought about getting one again because I just think it was such a fun car to have .
Well , I usually ask my guests you wish you'd have kept that car and you know a lot of people think that they'd like to have it back .
Oh man , I would take it back in Hartley , although it leaked oil terribly . And I remember my girlfriend in high school . Her dad asked me , you know , after probably the second or third time but I visited their house to not park in their driveway anymore and I needed to park down at the street because he didn't like the oil stains in his driveway .
So I think I'd probably try to get that fixed .
Yeah , there you go . Second question I usually go to is and you're an avid outdoorsman , I know that , and you sell hats about national parks . So I'm assuming you've taken some road trips in your life , Any road trips that just stick out to you . That's just a road trip that if you could go on it today you'd go again .
Like you said , I was a former teacher . One of the best perks of being a teacher is to get your summers off In 2009 , no 2010 , sorry . We took a pretty epic road trip out west . We did seven different national parks .
Oh , wow .
In that road trip but I was kind of looking back on it . I realized the first day that we did on that road trip we drove from Atlanta all the way to Albuquerque , new Mexico , which is 1400 miles .
Oh , one day yeah .
And so that was . It was pretty fun . My father-in-law it was me my father-in-law , my brother-in-law and my wife . And my father-in-law . We heated biscuits in the engine compartment and we ate them outside of Talladega , so that was kind of that road trip was so much fun . I guess we hit seven national parks . I think the first one we did was the Grand Canyon .
Then we kind of went on from there and then drove back , obviously , but I think we were gone , for we were gone 18 days or 19 days .
Oh fun . So , that's pretty great .
My father-in-law had just bought an older Toyota Sequoia for the trip . I mean it was a perfect car for it because he loaded the trunk down with all of our camping gear and it was really comfortable . But it didn't have DVD player or nothing and I think we just talked the whole time and listened to a few books on tape and looked out the window a lot .
Favorite . Was there a favorite stop on that trip in one of those parks that you just recall very well ?
Yeah , I mean , have you ever been to Yosemite ?
I have yes .
So I think the first time you drive through the tunnel to see the valley for the first time , I cried for real because it's so overwhelming . You just can't imagine a place being that beautiful . I think we were probably sleep deprived a little bit because I think we slept at the Grand Canyon prior to that and it was snowing and got cold .
But Yosemite was just epic . It lived up to every bit of height that it could . But I think my favorite place on that trip was Sequoia . Have you been to Sequoia .
I have yeah .
I think , sequoia , you know there's a rule , kind of in line , you know , like the 80-20 rule , and it applies to all sorts of stuff like 80 80% .
Stuff that gets done is actually done by 20% of the people , or you know , however you want to think about age 20 rule , well , that my 80 20 rule for national parks is 80% of the people only see 20% of the things .
You know they hit all the , all the Top attractions that you need to see in national parks , but that means 80% of the park is only left to the other 20% people . Yeah 20% of the people . And so at Sequoia we got , we , we hiked on some of the John Mirtrow . No one was there , you know , and it felt like we had Sequoia all towards , felt .
I like look back on some of the pictures and it's just us wandering around , you know , a giant grove of Sequoia's . I remember we , we didn't see anyone for like an hour at one point and we were hiking and just to think that that was possible , you know well , it was kind of great .
Yeah , my wife and I kind of had that same experience in , I mean , there were crowded parts of glacier when we went through there . But then we came to this one spot and it just felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere all by ourselves .
So yeah , but we just I just got back from a Katie with my family of a wife , three kids . Our youngest is one . Okay , that's a different , different story for a different day , but here's a trooper . We kind of felt the same thing in Acadia .
We ended up in a you know kind of an unmarked beach and it was a little pull-off from the side of the loop trail that they have in Acadia , or loop road , and we ended up we we had this like beach all to ourselves and it was just as beautiful as any other part of the park .
It just wasn't on Everyone's travel blog top ten places to see in Acadia , so no one else went there . So we all kind of came back and said , man , that that little beach was the best spot we went that whole week .
Well , you know we've talked about cars and road trips and you told me earlier that you're a teacher but you've kind of stepped away from the classroom . Now You've got another day job .
But I'm really interested to hear about park hats and that little company and when that came from , how that started and just whatever you can tell me about it , because I've just always been kind of intrigued .
After our large road trip . Will , my brother-in-law he's pretty artistic , he does almost all the art on all of our hats . So wills pretty artistic , and for Christmas one year he found a company online that would embroider an image on a hat for you .
He Got me a hat of sequoias are ten , or my tent in sequoia is a picture that we had , and so he gave that to me for Christmas one year and I think the artistic side of him kind of viewed that and said , well , you know , we could do . I could do a lot better than that .
So he started kind of experimenting with different patches and different hats and you know it's kind of like a you know most good little small business stories . We were sitting around the living room one day , you know , trying to come up with a company . I think you know kind of like the internet store was kind of new back then 2016 , so a good bit ago .
You know I remember we were on go daddy searching domain names for you know what was available in park hats was available . So he kind of started it and I was kind of always in the background kind of his support early on . It was will and His mom said my mother and laundry , a lot of the kind of running around , you know that they .
They weren't selling a ton of hats back then , but it was just people that you know love national parks and wanted a little memory you know , they're on his little store . But then in 2019 he will move down to South America and I I took over Full-time and I brought my sister in . So my sister , aaron , is up in northern Wisconsin .
She she handsows All our patches onto hats and ships them out . She's kind of lives a little bit of a homestead life . So it's a great little , you know , side side job for her kind of that world . And I also brought my best friend from high school in , ricky . Ricky kind of manages more of our website , like add that kind of stuff .
So okay if anybody's seen a , you know a park hat Add . You know you can blame Ricky .
Okay , the now is will still involved from an artistic side , or do you do ? Yeah , so really .
Yeah , so wills . He's pretty busy . He runs a big farm down in South America right now , but he still has his fingers in . I think you know he's got a lot of practice . You know it was kind of his brainchild initially sure and so he's really , really proud of where we've been able to take it .
For him , it was always more of a hobby , it wasn't really like a business or something like that . He just really loved the idea of , you know , being able to put it all together . But , yes , no , so will when I get him to . That's why we haven't had Many new parks launched lately is because will move the way and I need a new artist .
I see , yeah right .
¶ Designing Artwork for National Parks
So if any listeners out there want to help design some artwork , let me know is it only national parks ?
I haven't looked that close back when I bought one , it was just national parks . But do you do ?
yeah , that's mainly what we focus on . We do . We do some like we do a lot of custom stuff . One of our biggest custom Company it's kind of a national park , I think it's run by the National Park Services out in Assateague . Okay they're out of Maryland . There it's a national Seashore , I believe is what it's considered . So they have wild horses .
So we do a lot of their hats , we also . I mean what hopefully We'll kind of get in ? We have state park at calm as well but we don't . We haven't done anything with that .
Okay .
Yeah , so we kind of do all sorts of stuff , but but part national parks is our main is there one particular park that sells better than another park ? when will started . You know , we kind of did the , the simple math . I think we went to Wikipedia and just said we're gonna do all the Popular parks first .
Yes , smokey does really well , but Smokey Very smoking mountain park they have like 14 million visitors a year . Smoke is probably our number one seller . Okay , we're , we have our biggest footprint with Acadia actually Acadia's , you know it's well trafficked but we're in I think we're in like eight stores in Acadia , which is kind of fun .
So when I visited , you know to be able to get to see our stuff and little stores was was really fun .
So what was the first Hat which part ?
I believe , aside from my Sequoia , one which I still have , right , the original .
Yeah , yeah , you've got . You've got number one , serial number one .
I do . I do have park at number one I'm really proud of . I think so . Then it really was . He had an initial Patch design for Smokey that we've since then changed , or he's changed . So I think it was like Smokey , rocky Mountain was up there really early , I have to think .
I think I remember Smokey and Rocky were up there , and then Arches was another one . Our Arches patch is really cool , that's . That was one that he was really proud of . And then you said Glacier . Glacier was like our first fun patch , you know . It's really colorful and kind of fun . So that was kind of his first experiment in something a little more wild .
And not only . We should add not only do you sell hats , but I believe you sell just the patches . Is that correct ?
Yeah , yeah , so we do patches . I'm trying to get . My magnets are hard , you know that's . But yeah , so we we get a lot of people that buy patches . They just sell them on the backpacks or , you know , they might film on their own .
So it's kind of like having a piece of luggage that you put all the stickers on where you've been , so just put them on , yeah , sleeping bag or backpack right . So you were a schoolteacher . What did you teach ?
Started basically just sixth grade science was what I thought for a long time which is fun is geology , and I would say sixth graders are the best . You know a lot of people . They could be sideways when I said I taught middle school , but it was great .
So geologies , you know , I just was teaching kids about the rock cycle and water cycle all day , so I was having fun , it was great . And then I kind of ended up teaching a lot of robotics and coding and taught a maker space class as well . So okay but it was just a lot of fun .
You know being able to work with kids every day and you know watching them be creative was great .
And you tell me you kind of stepped away from the classroom and you are continuing in the robotic area .
¶ VEX Robotics and Road Trip Bucket List
I worked for VEX robotics now and that's my , you know , nine to five as I call it . We do your education robotics . We do robotics competitions for kids , a Lot of people . Have you ever watched BattleBots or robot wars or something on Discovery Channel ?
Yes , I've seen that .
So would you like that kind of stuff For kids ? But they don't like demolish each other's robots . But there you know , kids are building robots that have different games that they're playing . That's fun . So .
I mean .
VEX that that space is unreal . I think we had a world championship in April and May and we had kids from I think the number this year is 43 countries Came to worlds , which I find fascinating . You know , like what ?
What else do you or where else can you get you know , aside from the Olympics or something like that , you know that many countries represented in one area where they're all . The cool part is they're all working together for the most part . I mean they are competing against each other , but they also get paired up with random teams .
It's really satisfying to watch kids kind of on . You know , be their best .
You've . You've been a lot of places , you've taken some road trips . What's on your bucket list ? Something you want to do ?
One thing I said I'm not that old , but you know , I feel like I'm getting old for my 40th birthday . I've had this on my bucket list since I turned 30 , because I couldn't afford to do it when I turned 30 okay . Was to go on an Alaskan cruise .
Oh , wow , okay .
Have you ever done that ?
have not done that . It's on our bucket list also , yes .
So well , I've never been on a cruise period but I , you know , I'm from Wisconsin . I love the cold . I Really have kind of just thought how great it would be . And I've heard you know the cruise is the best way to see Alaska .
Initially because you can actually see different parts of it , even if you're on a cruise boat with you know , 4,000 other people or whatever . I Just think it'd be Great . You know , wake up every morning , see it out range and you know snow , glaciers everywhere Sounds great .
I want to drive to Alaska at some point , but we'll get there someday .
That's a haul I spent and we , we spent a lot of time kind of up in like the Pacific Northwest and you kind of I feel like you get a taste of it with some of those mountains up there . But and then , have you ever been ? We went to dance . Have you ever been to dance ? Canada's kind of no British .
Columbia . I've never been across the Canadian border out west . I've just been out here to Toronto .
I remember the first , because they banter you can actually like walk on a glacier , and so that was kind of kind of kind of crazy to like think about . So yeah , so Alaskan cruise is my hot bucket list . What , what would your ? Do you have anything else in your bucket list ? The side throne ?
You know there's a lot of stuff there . I'd still want to go back to Europe and watch a Formula One race , maybe in Italy , so I saw some of those . I just posted a podcast about visiting with my brother 44 years ago and we went to the British Grand Prix and so I want to do that .
And then I have this crazy idea of my wife and I driving all 40 48 states for sure . I would like to go ahead and do Alaska , and I've mapped out this road trip where you touch every state . We're gonna need a bit of time for that one , but that's . That's on my list . We we've done a road trip .
We did a 4400 mile road trip out west from Denver and we made what look like a lap up the coast To Portland and then over to glacier and then down to Yellowstone and and the Tetons and and back to Denver . So that was , that was fun .
That sounds great .
Yeah .
I think when the kids are , when our kids are a little bit older , my wife has this grand vision of , you know , renting an RV and doing that , you know and my kids love camping , so they're . They're all about it in it . My son asked all the time you know when can we go in a camper ? Because we have a little pole behind Papa sure .
He's like when can we go in a camper where you drive it ? You know it's talking about me as like well you know she more years , buddy . I think that'll be in our future at some point .
Here's a question for you on a road trip . If you could take a road trip with anyone who's living or deceased , who would it be ? What would you drive ? Maybe that geo tracker ? Where would you go ? What would you talk about ?
Yeah , you know , the first person that comes mine kind of hints that your your road trip idea my grandfather , so my mom's dad , he was an avid traveler and he he visited all 50 states . He's passed away , I think he passed away probably about 20 years ago , okay , but he , he loved to travel . He's knocked down the Cuba when you know you couldn't .
He said he was going on business . But he said he told me later on he just wanted to visit . So he came up with an excuse to get down there . But he , he would . I would love to travel with him . Mmm kind of as an adult , as kids . You kind of get maybe maybe this isn't the correct terminology , but you kind of get pwned off on .
Grandparents sometimes have to work and you know , grab a grandparent babysitting . I have so many fond memories he used to drive Giant Lincoln Town car .
Okay .
He , he was crazy . He in his later years he decided he , he was doing leases , but only for a single year , oh , and then he would go turn it in and get a new lease .
But he told me , you know , he was like , well , I never have to do an oil change , I never worried about anything , I just drive it for a year and , you know , turn it in and get a new one . And he , he loved cars .
But he , he had like three or four of those giant Lincoln Town cars in a row and as a little kid you know , not much was cooler than sitting in the backseat of one of those things .
So absolutely yeah , my dad had one of those and my son he . He loved that car , yeah , so that'd be a good road trip . Car Drive around , yeah , he was .
He was a character . He's got a couple sayings that stick with me . He always used to say stop signs are for tourists . When we were just driving around town which now as an adult I'm like grandpa that probably wasn't very safe , you know , but he said that a lot , that that was probably like the best .
But he always used to have to say , anytime you know we'd be going on an on ramp , under the interstate or something , he always gave this like away we go Little call , I Think just to keep it interesting for me in the backseat .
But now I do that with my own kids , you know fun and they , they want me to drive fast , you know getting on the highway or something , and I kind of get that same Away we go .
Yeah , that's great .
Oh , that comes from him . Do you have anyone that you would drive with ?
Oh gosh , you know I made a road trip with my dad . He was 73 20 years ago , actually coming up this month . I bought a car and I've said this on the podcast so listeners probably get tired of hearing this story , but it just comes back to mind Bought this little car in San Jose .
Car was 20 years old , little BMW , and the only reason to buy it we were gonna drive it back across route 50 Backroads and he was a truck driver and we just had the best trip . You know it was pre kind of pre cell phone , where you would turn on the recorder . So I was always upset with myself that I didn't have a recorder .
But there's a lot of people .
I would .
I would love to ride with , but if I could go right now I would go with him and listen to all those stories again about all of his travels in the truck . So that was that would be fun , yeah yeah , we're asking yeah . That sounds great .
We're about to the end of our virtual road trip here and and I really thank you for for doing this and I know we don't know each other , but I feel like I know you a little better now . Yeah so I love to give my guest an opportunity to .
I love to give my guest an opportunity to promote a business or a charity or or whatever it is they might want to promote . So I'll throw it back to you .
Yeah , so you can find us at parkcatscom . That's probably the easiest place . We'd love to do something for your listeners . If they they use the promo code or coupon road trip , they can get 30% off their order . We'll have free shipping and everything .
What I love about park cats is I feel like , when people get one , most of the time it's because they have a memory right , like they have a memory of going to the national park . They just kind of want to hang on to that . You know , kind of like we were talking about with all of our road trips .
But yeah , I love that If we could help , you know , help them keep a memory going for a little bit longer , you know , because sometimes some of those trips to national parks you know we they take so much time and effort that you can't just do it . You know every year you can't go back .
That's why it's fun to have a memory and according to your website , you give back also .
¶ Partnering With Organizations to Promote Parks
I believe we're trying to partner with , Like smaller organizations kind of outside different parks . You know a lot of times that they have like a friends of you know the smokies or one of those things . We try to find organizations that you know are trying to help give back and promote you know that park or that community .
That's a realm apart if , if you you know anybody Listening has you know some good organizations out there that are doing good outside of national parks .
We love Learning about them and helping them invest in the community that they're already a part of well , thank you again , joe , for taking a little time here this evening and coming on a day on the road trip guy and You'll just tell people to go visit a national park and buy a park hat .
Yeah , please do go , go visit . Don't go in the summer unless you are crazy , but but go , I was joke . You know there's a reason why the government and decided said hey , we'll , we'll take this one . I haven't been to a national park . Well , I didn't feel like it was worthy of its name . You know what I mean .
Yeah , just tell people , you know , just get to one if you have it . Yeah , well , thanks for having me on . I've really enjoyed .
I hope you enjoyed this episode of dan the road trip guy and we look forward to having you back again next time . In the meantime , if you want to find me , you can find me on the internet at danie d an ny neal Neal Dot com . Until we meet up again , keep having conversations and keep driving .