Motorcycle Stories Through the Years

Ron - 0:00

Well , here on the Peace Love Moto podcast , one of the great privileges that I have is getting to know those who listen , and I mention it every once in a while on the episodes that , hey , send me an email . You know it's Ron at PeaceLoveMotocom and some do , and it's just such a pleasure to connect with those individuals , either by email or through a conversation . But this is a conversation that I think you should hear , and that's why I've asked Hunter Matthews to join me today , because , you know , sometimes we have this whole idea that we gain peace of mind solely from riding our motorcycle . You know , maybe I presented it that way , but that's not always true . There's other ways as well , and as the story unfolds that you're about to hear , I think you're going to see direct evidence of that . It takes courage and it takes faith and , yeah , you're going to hear that story . So , hunter Matthews , you were on with me today and thank you very much for joining us on the Peace Love Moto podcast .

Hunter - 1:01

And thank you for the opportunity . Ron and you had mentioned starting my story off at the beginning and I haven't always had a passion for motorcycling , but I do , even though I haven't ridden in over 11 years . And it started a friend of mine and I , we lived in the same apartment complex and we found this mini bike that had been left kind of in in the woods near our , our apartments and turned out it was stolen and uh , we , we inevitably gave it to the police . But that led me to uh , well , hey , you know , that was kind of fun . I , I want to , I want to pursue that , and I went out and bought this little it's called a little Indian minibike kit .

Hunter - 1:48

It had a little lawnmower engine on it and my friend helped me paint the frame and we assembled it and we rode around the . Then that led to , uh , a little Honda mini trail , which was that was . That was more like a motorcycle , you know it wasn't , but um , was that like a 70 CC , something like that . Yeah , I think it was 50 , uh , 49 point whatever .

Hunter - 2:24

And the handlebars collapsed and you could throw it in your trunk and you know it's really meant . It was an adult size item , meant for people to kind of had pretty knobby tire , aggressive tires on it and um , then when the tires kind of wore down , the next thing I knew I was . I was looking at a at my friend had bought a Kawasaki 90 Sport I think it was called . It had kind of an upswept . This was about 1970 . It had an upswept tailpipe and I started looking at them and I could save $50 and get one for get a downswept , pipeept street bike for $300 . And then that's pretty much where it started . I mean it was really in the beginning . It was kind of being able to have affordable transportation .

Ron - 3:15

Yeah , how old were you then when you got your first wheels ? Then ?

Hunter - 3:19

I got that 90cc when I was I guess I was about 15 , 15 , 15 and a half I was really close to getting a permit and uh still wasn't legal . But uh , you know , my mother put tags on that for me which infuriated my father and uh , but that's okay , they didn't live together , so that was that and I didn't control that that was another piece of it I was going to to ask about , about the buy in that you had from your folks .

Ron - 3:49

I was lucky , dad , you know , dad took me out to buy the bike and then , to this day , my mother says I don't know how we let you get that motorcycle , that little mini bike , her little mini bike .

Hunter - 4:03

Well , but I think I had mentioned to you when I initially wrote you that my first real motorcycle was a Suzuki 350 Rebel , which was actually 315 CC . Yeah , and I want to share this story with you because you know I was . I guess I was a junior in high school and coming home from high school to go to work , I was involved in an accident that laid me up for gosh I was . I didn't break anything , but I had a significant road rash and that said I was . I was kind of my mother was kind of peeling me off the sheet for a couple of weeks .

Hunter - 4:48

So not real comfortable but still did not inhibit my desire to ride a motorcycle . And before I graduated high school , I bought what I thought was a real motorcycle .

Hunter - 5:05

Although I wanted a Triumph , I couldn't afford one . And a friend's brother had a Yamaha 650 . Sounded pretty good , had dual carburetors . I thought , well , you know , and they were really motorcycles seemed more affordable back then . I think I've heard you make reference to the expense of riding a motorcycle today there's the normal wear and tear stuff . But initial acquisition seemed , I think when I bought my 650 , it was under $1,200 , I think or about $1,200 . And although significant to me , you know , I did have the money , I think or about $1,200 . Although significant to me , I did have the money . But I was trying to also balance that book with trying to get ready to go to college as well . Oh yeah , but I knew if I had that motorcycle when I went to college I'd have some transportation . Now that was a bare-bones motorcycle . There was no wind protection . I put a windshield on it for what it what it amounted to , but it didn't provide much . Right , but fast forward to .

Hunter - 6:17

I joined the Air Force in 1978 . And I have a I'm I'm retired military . I spent 22 years in the Air Force and over the course of that experience I rode probably three or four different motorcycles From . I had gotten rid of the Yamaha 650 . And when I joined the Air Force it needed some transportation . I went to do uh a suzuki shop haven't been a previous suzuki owner and I bought a , an sp370 dual purpose motorcycle and I think I mentioned to you , I found out real quick , that uh , riding off the road was not my , was not my cup of tea , if you will I did not enjoy that things get a little loose out there , don't they ?

Hunter - 7:04

yeah , yeah , so , uh , I , I traded that motorcycle for a yamaha gs850 shaft drive . You know , I , I had limited knowledge of the difference between shaft and chain , uh , except for a new bmw shaft drive motorcycles , yep , uh , and I could afford this , the suzuki 850 . And I didn't , didn't think I could afford the , uh , the . So life goes on . Uh , I moved to , I moved up before I left before because , again , I mentioned I was , I was in the military for 22 plus years . I moved up to a Honda Goldwing , aspen , caden , and I think I bought that motorcycle for something slightly over $4,000 .

Ron - 7:55

I had an 85 . It was my first Goldwing . What year was ?

Hunter - 7:59

yours 84 . Okay , when they made this frame change and handling changed significantly from the older gold wing and about the same time I was associated with multiple people and I mean I was pretty active throughout the military base where I was at . And there was a guy there that I knew and I'd ridden with a couple of times and he had taken a promotion into the safety office . And he approached me one day and he says hey , I got a slot open for a motorcycle safety instructor trainee . Said would you , would you be interested in going ? And One , I said I had to tell him . To tell him , I said well , let me think about this , you know , and I'll get back to you . And he had approached me , I think on a thursday or friday afternoon and and uh went home , talked to my wife about it , because that meant it would be really my first time away from from the house , uh , from my wife , and uh , she was encouraging .

Hunter - 9:07

And next thing , I know I'm on my way to Riverside , an Air Force base down there , riverside , california , to do the motorcycle safety instructor course . Wow , and had no idea what I was getting into or how hard it would be , because there I was , I was one of , I think , 15 instructors that started , or instructor candidates , and I think we ended with 12 or 13 . Uh , I didn't , I didn't , you know , and I I just didn't know . But I got to do that for for over the course of of my .

Hunter - 9:42

I didn't do it my entire career , I didn't do the motorcycle safety instructor thing my entire career , but did it for a total of about four years and pretty neat experience . I'll never forget one of my first courses . We had a guy in our because it was mandatory for all military personnel that wanted to ride a motorcycle , because it was mandatory for all military personnel that wanted to ride a motorcycle . And the guy told me he says , son , I know more about motorcycles than you'll ever expect to know and you know he was one of the first guys that he passed the course , but he was one of the first guys to drop his motorcycle on the activities out on the paddock .

Ron - 10:29

Is that a lesson ? To keep your mouth shut every once in a while ?

Hunter - 10:32

Well , you know , the thing is how many times have you heard it ? There's two kinds of motorcyclists those that have had an accident and those that are going to have an accident . Oh yeah , and you know , I like to think . You know , I've shied away from that over the years here as I've gotten older and where I'm at today , I know there's riders that have never had an accident , never had a close call . Yeah , and I don't know if it's their skill level or if they're just lucky . You know , regardless , I'm happy for them .

Hunter - 11:07

Uh , because , as you , you know as well as I do with the risk on a motorcycle that it can be catastrophic and it's serious , yep , and that that brings me to where I am today . You know I'm I'm a living example of the kind of catastrophe that can . It can be , and and I'm going to transition just a little bit all the way to now and talk about that in hopes of leading into what we might discuss but I never expected to . I fully expected from experience that I could lose a limb , I could be disabled , but I never expected to lose my sight in a motorcycle accident . My helmets were top of the line , I was confident that my head would be protected . But in the last accident I had I completely crushed , I completely broke the chin bar on a full face Shoei and that implosion basically crushed my face .

Ron - 12:18

Those who don't know , a Shoei is right on up there with the top quality of helmets , so it's not cheap or of poor quality at all real top .

Hunter - 12:29

But you know , like in the beginning I always thought Bell was the best and I wore Bell for a long , long time . There are a lot of top quality motorcycle helmets . If you're going to ride a motorcycle , I strongly recommend investing in your personal protection gear . I had good jackets , I had heated jackets and gloves , which allowed me to ride more frequently . How many times have you heard of the fair weather riders ? Oh , yeah , yeah . But if I wanted to ride the motorcycles that I wanted to ride , I kind of had to ride them all the time . So it's , you know .

Hunter - 13:17

But as I listen to your podcast frequently , you talk about that feeling , that , that feeling that you just can't get anywhere else . You know , um , I can imagine what riding in like a little , uh , mazda Miata might've been like like the old MG midget or something , or or , uh , a BMW sports car like the z3 or z4 or something , um , I can imagine , never , never , drove one , you know . But , uh , you know , my philosophy was that there's nothing . There was nothing , nothing that made me feel like I felt when I was riding a motorcycle , um , but that said , I've talked to a lot of people say it's just too dangerous . I gave mine up . You know I'm not , I'm not riding anymore . And uh , my re . My response to that is you know , I'm sorry , that's too bad , because if you , if , if , if , you think there's no risk to riding a motorcycle back to my motorcycle safety instruction days . We adopted a saying that motorcycles were too tired to stand up , and if you can't get that concept , then I think that adds to your risk factor .

Ron - 14:42

Yeah , you see so many people I see it all the time in the summertime out here folks on motorcycles , whole bunch of bikes together and they're they're dressed like they're going to the beach , of course no helmets , you know , and sandals or whatever . And and I just say to myself , maybe I say to other people too uh , there's an example of someone who's never ridden as a kid , never or never ridden motocross , or never or never laid it down .

Hunter - 15:08

They just uh , yeah , it's just a hard lesson waiting to happen and some of those people get very lucky and never experience that lesson . Yeah , but uh , you can't swap luck for experience , you know , and that's you know . I'm real fortunate , you know . The thing is again I mentioned , I haven't found anything to replace that feeling that I got , that helped keep me motivated and incentivized to deal with life on life's terms . It's not to say that I don't do a good job of it . I'm just fortunate that my life's experiences have brought me where they have today . But as a result of the accident that crushed my face , I'm facing some ongoing surgery and now they're talking about taking the titanium out of my face . I'm facing some ongoing surgery and now they're talking about taking the titanium out of my face . I said , well , the bones have healed , but they think that the titanium may be causing me some issues . So so be it . You know it's uh , it's just a . It's just a . It's just one of those anxious moments and and I have a choice . You know that that's it's one thing I want to emphasize . What I've learned over the years is I have a choice . I can dwell on on the negative , or I can look to the positive experience , that that god puts in front of me and and learn a lesson or not , and I try and grow in that .

Life's Challenges and Motorcycle Joy

Hunter - 16:51

It's been a challenge without my sight for 11 years . I mean , I have a little sight . I can tell you know , I can kind of recognize from years of visual experience . You know stuff that's off here to my right , but that's all I've got . I'm totally blind in my left eye and all I have is this like keyhole . It actually is a 20 degree field of vision from one that's so that's 20 degrees from one side of the hole to the other . Uh , and when I lost my sight again , being retired military , I had an option . I had an opportunity to reach out to the Veterans Administration and there was a blind , visually important scene coordinator that I met . God bless her . She passed away this year but she had a philosophy about life that kind of helped me adjust to my loss of sight and she said you got two choices you can learn to be blind or you can try and learn to be low vision . And she confidentially said you know , you're probably better off learning to be blind and that helped me grow , yeah .

Ron - 18:04

Yeah Well , hunter , you know there's well , you and I both know we're probably around the same age and , as as life goes on , our high school classmate reunions get smaller and smaller and smaller , and it's just because we lose people all the time . I've got close personal friends dealing with cancer right now and have lost friends for various things Lou Gehrig's disease for one Lost the guy who was the best man in my wedding , best friend at the time , and , yeah , lou Gehrig's and people suffering with all sorts of kind of things . And we go find ourselves , when you get that kind of diagnosis or you're dealing with anxiety or depression or whatever , you find yourself in a deep , deep hole and it's really easy to keep the covers over your head and not get up . But I'm so grateful for people like you , though , who know very well , for people like you , though , who know very well , obviously , the joy that we experience riding on a motorcycle and just hopping on every time . But I tell you , buddy , what I'm reminded of right now is that you know , like we were talking before we started recording , I was just kind of loaded up with meetings at 6 am this morning and trying to arrange for a Denver to Dallas trip tomorrow , and then those plans are kind of changing here and there and doing a really good job , feeling sorry for myself . But as soon as I got free , later before the sun goes down , I was going to hop on my bike and go for a ride , and I just need to be reminded myself once again that that is a gift for one thing and it's something you'd have to take very , very seriously , for for another , you can't just kind of go out and just jet around and be crazy , because times , times in your life , can change in a flash .

Ron - 19:57

So you know , it's this , it's this balance , you know , but you know , just in your opinion , hunter , what do you say to those folks maybe who are , frankly , here's my concern . Just to be really , really honest , I'm very concerned for motorcycle riders who have never ridden before . They're already adults and , you know , even even getting up in years , and they think , oh yeah , maybe I should go try a motorcycle . And then they go to the local Harley dealership or BMW dealership or whatever and find this big , huge bike with 140 horsepower and think , oh , this is the one that scares me to death to think about that . So what's your opinion then of getting into motorcycling or not , or getting into it as a kid or not . I mean , every individual is different . But from your experience , what would you share ?

Hunter - 20:58

Well , you know , ron , the thing is that there really is maybe one alternative to riding that is not available to everybody , but that's flying . And so when you start thinking of the investment and if you try and take , somebody says , well , I want to ride a motorcycle , and I say that's great . You know , we're really fortunate here in Virginia .

Motorcycle Safety and Training Experiences

Hunter - 21:40

If you take a sponsored Motorcycle Safety Foundation training course , if you successfully complete that course , they will at the end of that course award you what you need to take to the DMV to have that endorsement put on your driver's license . And I strongly recommend that they do that because that kind of helps people really determine whether or not they want . I've known a lot of people that have have taken that course , some that that were dismissed from that course because the instructor told them that motorcycling really wasn't for them . Yeah , some that successfully completed the course with all its demands , and then others that you know had grander ideas that they didn't need that course . But the thing is in Virginia , if you get caught riding a motorcycle and you don't have that endorsement on your course , there there will be penalties . Yeah , and a lot of people kind of relate to that . So you know , you ask me about people . What do I tell somebody that they take a motorcycle safety course ? No , to learn , if you really , because you're right .

Hunter - 23:04

I've known more than one , one or two people that said I want a motorcycle . And they go down to the Harley dealer and that Harley salesman is more than happy to sell them a motorcycle . For sure . You know , I think in a BMW shop it's a little different . They're still happy to sell you a motorcycle . However , I think those folks seem a little more conscientious about it and the interesting thing is a lot of the Harley shops sponsor motorcycle safety training . Oh yeah , so you know . But you know I was again . I was real fortunate having the opportunity to teach motorcycle safety in the military and what I didn't , what I'd like to , I'd like to kind of transgress . You know , when I was in high school actually I was , I was , it was my freshman year in college I worked at a Honda dealership in in northern Virginia and there was this big program . One day well , actually a weekend program sponsored . It might have been sponsored by Honda , but all the motorcycle dealerships in the Northern Virginia area contributed .

Hunter - 24:18

They put small displacement motorcycles out there and they had kind of this , what they call a learn-to-ride day , and the idea was that they were going to sell motorcycles . Yeah , so I get that seed was planted in me early on that you can't just throw your leg over a motorcycle and go ride . Over a motorcycle and go ride . I mean you can , but it's really not the best philosophy to pursue because there's a lot of things in riding a motorcycle that people take for granted and you know any education might help those people survive . You know what is a high-risk experience . But that said , I made the analogy between flying and riding .

Hunter - 25:15

As a young airman in the military I got an incentive ride in the backseat of a T-38 trainer , which was the training version of an F-5 fighter , and the pilot asked me . He was actually an SR-71 Blackbird pilot and people probably aren't familiar with the airplane but it's pretty exclusive . But he asked me . He said you want to go for a ride or you want to do aerobatics as a motorcyclist ? Want to do aerobatics as a motorcyclist ? I said aerobatics , oh , you know it's . You know as much fun as I've had riding motorcycles around the twisties there's , there's . Nothing has has been quite , quite as close , although and I'm leading up to this .

Hunter - 26:02

I got a chance to take some advanced motorcycle training with Reg Pridmore who is , for those that don't know , he's a well-known road racer world champion and he conducts this program called CLAS and I don't remember what the acronym stands for , but we spend a day in classroom and on track and I got to do that training at a racetrack here in Virginia called Virginia International Raceway , and I'm not trying to promote these places or these items , but it was an experience riding through turns that you really couldn't safely , well , couldn't , practically do on the road , you know , and learning my limits , and not that I thought I was bulletproof , because I knew from my earlier experiences that I was not only mortal but I was fragile , despite whatever personal protection gear I wore . Yeah , so it , but the despite that , you know , for those that ride , they know my feeling that you just can't , you just you just can't find that anywhere else Riding a motorcycle , even even down a straight , even down a straight highway , going cross-country . Did I lose you , ron ? No , I'm here , okay , riding down .

Hunter - 27:53

Oh wait , bear with me here a minute . Sure , okay , I had an alarm going off in the background . It's like oh , where's that music coming from ?

Ron - 28:06

oh , no problem at all , I can , I can do editing , or you know , there is no problem at all .

Hunter - 28:11

Yeah , but you're going down the highway , though you know whether you're riding down a straight highway or I've seen pictures on on facebook of uh that that I think it's interstate 70 yeah , where they , you , you , come off the top and you , you just see , see this straight , this straight road out in front of you , running across down , you know , down the mountain and across a vast open plain . Yeah , yeah , you know um .

Ron - 28:42

Grand Junction sounds about like that .

Hunter - 28:45

It's uh , I've had so many wonderful experiences and memories and , uh , it's just , I wish I had more pictures

Finding Peace and Balance in Life

Hunter - 28:55

. You know we we've got such opportunities today with , with products like helmet-mounted cameras , and you know , the list goes on and on . I just wish that I have a few pictures that were taken from when I got to ride in the class , so I can't see them as well as I used to , but you know , with all the years of mental imagery that I rely on , they do bring back memories . I have some really wonderful memories . It's just probably helped me come to where I am in my philosophy of life today , because all we have is the moment and what we choose to do with it , you know , is it's kind of up to us .

Ron - 29:50

Oh , that's so true , it's a balance , right . I mean , you hear so many stories of ? Well , I had a neighbor that I'd just gotten to know . We live in a cul-de-sac and behind us is a big green belt , so a lot of the neighbors that live on the green belt will get together every once in a while in the summertime . Well , I'll never forget this situation . So , a bunch of the neighbors all getting together on a summer day and all the men gathering around one table to eat and all the ladies sitting around another table .

Ron - 30:23

And there was a guy I had just met , new neighbors , and , as I recall , he was a retired police officer , I think from New York City . He had been a cop for a long time , like 40 something years , and he was so excited to move out to Colorado . He was going to get into mountain biking and we're just all excited about him . He'd just gotten a mountain bike and just started . Well , anyway , two weeks later I hear from the neighbors he had a heart attack while he was out on his bike , passed away , and you know , it's just tragic , just tragic , and I don't know why I bring that up , I guess , for the fact is that we don't know if we're going to make it to 90 , 90 plus , or if the Lord's going to take us home tomorrow . We just don't know . And just like what I mentioned too about the friends with cancer diagnosis or you know , or something that's affecting them physically , where all of a sudden life has changed and all of a sudden these choices that they were going to make at some date , you know , when the money lined up or the time lined up or both that's all of a sudden not a choice anymore . So it's like this balance . You know , I know too I can't go crazy and spend our savings on two or three brand new motorcycles and quit my job . I can't do that right now . So it's like this balance . But as for me , I try to remember just about every time I go out and honestly , I'll just be a little bit more transparent here too when I go out for a ride . Oftentimes and I've mentioned this on the podcast I'll stop at the Abbey of St Walburga , which is an abbey with 30 nuns in it way out in the country , and I'll stop by there occasionally .

Ron - 32:07

They're open , a lot of the time open to the public , and I'll make a donation and pick up something . Well , one time when I was there , one of the nuns gave me a cross and she said here , just take this for safety . Oh , and actually she gave me a medallion of oh , my goodness , I'm not Catholic so I'm not going to know , it wasn't St Peter , but it was one of the saints and she said I want to give you this to take on your bike . Well , anyway , on my BMW GS , in the little compartment up on the top of the tank , is that cross and it's that medallion . It's both of them right there .

Ron - 32:46

And so I know that that's not a guarantee of safety or anything , but I hope I try to remember that it's a .

Ron - 32:53

You know , god above has given me another day and I don't want to abuse that in any way , but I'm just going to be extremely grateful for this amount of time or the amount of miles that it's in front of me today and at the same time too , kind of reflecting on what the podcast is all about .

Ron - 33:10

You know , we and I'd like to circle back to this too before we wrap up on the whole peace of mind thing you know that the peace , peace , love , moto , it's about peace of mind that a lot of us find on a motorcycle , and then the love is , you know , learning to love other people too , through whether it's a smile or whatever it takes , you know , funds , whatever it is , you know that's . That's what's my hope for for every ride , is that I'll be safe and that I can go out and make a difference . But but , matthew , I'm sorry , hunter , hunter , we talked too about the whole before we started recording the whole peace of mind thing , and I kept alluding to what I felt like was a fact that we go out for a motorcycle ride to get our peace of mind . But you've got alternatives though , right ? I mean , you have clearly found , through the tone of your voice and through your story , you have alternatives .

Hunter - 34:06

And I do , and , but , ron , they're , they're substitutes . I think I mentioned to you when I when I lost my sight I started making paracord wristbands , I came across what I thought was a good deal on a thousand feet of paracord , what I thought was a good deal on a thousand feet of paracord , but having the same paracord and doing the same thing over and over again , eventually that kind of grew into . I've got I've got probably 60,000 feet of paracord today and that would be 60 different colors of and honestly , I've got more than that because I've got small , small bits and pieces here . But I do that .

Hunter - 34:44

But sometimes it's just a matter of sitting quietly and just kind of really trying to open my heart to , to my higher power , who I choose to call God , and and just say what message are you trying to send me ?

Hunter - 35:04

You know , at the moment , or through the course of it , you know if I'm reflecting on a day or whatever it happens to be , you know , and and that that that really important to me , uh , over the last decade , honestly , um , where I used to just kind of try and focus on being safe as a rider and absorbing mother nature in , in , in that element , uh , you know , because there's different times , but since I can't see as well today , sometimes , I guess it's really important to just take those moments and and and just open my heart and not even ask , because I believe that power of the universe , if you will , knows what's in my heart and that's the important thing .

Hunter - 36:02

And I want to share , you know , and encourage everybody to to , you know , find that balance that you mentioned before , that , that , that that internal peace , uh , you know , and and the love of sharing what I've got with with others . I may not have something that somebody else wants , but then , at the same time , I've discovered sometimes people are , are just most appreciative of the of what they hear , what , what , what we can , what we can talk about .

Ron - 36:40

Yeah Well , I I'm so grateful for , for the listeners that I have I don't know how many , I think it's growing , but I don't know exactly really Um , and I've gotten , occasionally , emails from around the world and a lot of people kind of saying the same thing that , um , you know this , this podcast is not about um , that this podcast is not about racing , it's not about building bikes , it's not about adventure riders , but instead it's about you know , there's something that's been meaningful to us .

Ron - 37:13

To some of us it's been really meaningful . And you know , hunter , I just so appreciate your story when you wrote to me and told me you know about the , about the accident and the blindness , and I thought , wow , I haven't thought down this path at all . Honestly , not in nearly 80 episodes , haven't thought about this , about . You know , this whole piece of my thing , yeah , it's tied to motorcycling , but it's about a mindset and it's about courage and , like in your case , what I so appreciate is your willingness to share the hard times and finding beauty and wonder and love , even during that , and so I think you're going to be quite the encouragement to a lot of people , just like you have been for me today . So , my friend , my new friend . I appreciate it very , very much .

Hunter - 38:12

Well , ron , I hope we'll keep in touch . I will continue to listen . You know I did listen to the 79th episode . I did listen to the 79th episode . I need to go back and listen to it again because right now , honestly , the 78th episode . It was so impactful .

Hunter - 38:31

I have to acknowledge that I really enjoyed listening to that and your interaction with that young lady , you know , and it sounded like you made an impact on somebody there and I can only hope to do as much in what I do and and really that's just where I am today is to try and ensure and encourage . Uh , you know , whoever I meet , you know , because sometimes life gets tough and people have a hard time and they don't know . But there's a quote I fall back on . I repeated it more times than I can count , but the quote , I saw it , it was , it was , I think it was stenciled on a sweatshirt before I lost my sight and I was traveling with , with my job , and it said I alone can do it , but I can't do it alone .

Hunter - 39:29

Yeah , interpret that however you want . You know , because one I don't do anything alone because I I my belief in in , in that , in god , but know God talks to me through people like you and your podcast , through other friends and acquaintances used to be through co-workers .

Gratitude for Life's Opportunities

Hunter - 39:50

I just needed to pay attention and leave my heart open so I could see the opportunity . And a lot of people get caught up in life and they miss that opportunity .

Ron - 40:00

Well , brother , I can't thank you enough . You know , again , I don't know who's going to listen . I think there'll be quite a number around the world . I always hope so , but one impact you've certainly made is on me , so I can't thank you enough , thank you .

Hunter - 40:14

Well , and thank you for the opportunity , Ron .