Episode 27: Off-Season Adventures

[Music] Hello and welcome to Unlaced with Trucking Bates. I'm Madison Truck. And I'm Evan Bates. And we're Olympic Ice Dancers for Team USA. If you're into sports betting, bet online is the fastest, easiest way to bet all your favorite sports. Head to their new updated desktop or mobile website to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Just use our promo code, Believe50, to receive your bonus. Hey. Maddie, we're back. We've got a lot to catch up on. I'm just going to hit record and let's just go. Let's go. So where do you want to start? Well, let's start where we left off. That makes sense. Back in Japan. Really good idea. Yeah, thank you. I thought it was good when I suggested it. So, it was great. Okay, so we had, we had just finished ours on Nice in Japan. Yeah. We were entering Competition Week. And that competition was called the World Team Trophy. Let's talk about it. First of all, one of probably the best competitions that you can do is in terms of fun. In terms of fun, yes. It's the last competition of the season. Well, it doesn't even happen every season. It's only every other season. So it's extra special. And this is a team event. So you compete together as a team. And this event actually inspired the team event that we now have at the Olympics. So thank you to World Team Trophy for that inspiration. Yeah, I think that the team event at the Olympics is also very fun. Yeah, it is. It's a different vibe. But it's still fun to compete as a team with your teammates. Yeah. And I don't know, sharing that experience, it's really special. I think what's really unique about the World Team Trophy is this kind of the festivity of it all. It's borderline Halloween-ish. In terms of the dress-up. Everyone's dressed up. Halloween, but make it about your country. I mean, it's obviously a competition and it's serious. But when you're on the ice and you look over to the board and you see people with wigs on and different outfits and wearings, bowas and sunglasses and all this, it really cuts through the tension in a good way. But it's also not only is it a figure skating competition, it's a spirit competition. That's right. At the banquet, the country who had the most spirit is awarded a prize. What did they get? I don't know what they got. They all got little boxes of something. But Team France won the Spirit Award and they were great. Honestly, right. And they were always great. They're very creative with their cheering, with their costumes, like the other skaters are wearing, not the skaters on the ice. And then there's just little things during the week where there might be, for example, a whiteboard in the back, near the locker rooms. And we all decorate it and kind of draw on it. And the French skaters are just super creative with it. It was like a high level art. It was high level art. And they had Kevin Amos was the team captain and he brought a Polaroid camera. It was so cute. And then he took Polaroids of all the team and they put it on the board. Put the Polaroids on the whiteboard with magnets and then they did this awesome, like it was a graffiti style. It was like a geometric drawing but it covered their whole section. And then ours was kind of like, it looked a little sad at first because we just had go team USA and then you go ahead. Yeah, like when we really had the time to pass by and do something. And then France threw down and everybody was like, "Okay, we have to do some art here." Yeah, time to step it up. But you did a great Statue of Liberty. Oh, thank you. That was really good. Thanks. And you know, like everyone kind of stepped it up but France really led the way with Spirit. So I felt like they deserved. Yeah. And when they were announced as the Spirit of Word winners, they were so high. It meant a lot. And it's a cool part of the competition that's really unique. Everyone has so much joy and you can share so much of your character at this competition. Whereas I feel at regular competitions throughout the season, people are so focused on the job they have to do on the ice that you don't often see. The personalities. The personalities come through. So it's a really fun and special event. And the friendships, I think too, like getting a chance to see a different side of the skaters. And you know, like we've been fortunate enough to do four world team trophies, which is crazy. Because they're only every other year. But getting a chance to do it now with like younger skaters like Ilya and Isbo, who were first timers, it was fun to just connect with them in a different way and cheer for them and show support. And of course, he had their excitement about a competition that wasn't so serious. And of course, like Jason Brown, we have to give a big shout out to Jason, who is Jason. Our team captain, who was just phenomenal. He's the best, honestly, just the best human, the best person, the best team captain we could have possibly ever asked for. It was a no-brainer. I'm pretty sure everyone on the team voted for him. It was for sure. For team captain. Yes. He has the most spirit. He's the best and loudest cheerleader. Like you said, he's just the nicest human being you could ever. He's so organized, so sweet. He got everyone these really thoughtful gifts so we could all be matching in our Team USA t-shirts, which he had specially made custom for each member with our last names on the back of the shirt. And he gave us hats. And so sweet. And he also gave us hats. Yeah. And that was great. The first thing I just remembered too about World Team Trophy is that the winning team has to do a group. Or gets to do a group number in the finale. Yeah, I have forgotten about that also. Which is so fun. We did. So Team USA won and we skated to Top Gun in the finale. It was so fun. We all wore aviators and wore our matching t-shirts and then. Yeah, it was just so fun to do like a group number with everybody. First of all, I love Top Gun. That music is so iconic to me. And the nostalgic and just like really Americana. So whoever chose that for Team USA did a great job in my opinion. And plus the new movie that had just come out. Right. It was just great. They gave us all aviators sunglasses and we used them as props in the choreography. It was very cool. Very fun. Sure was. You haven't seen the new Top Gun movie though, have you? I haven't. I think you watched it on the plane without me. I was sleeping next to you. I did. I couldn't help myself. I saw it and then I just couldn't fall asleep because I was too excited to watch it. It was worth to watch. It was good. But you know what? I have it downloaded on my iPad so we can watch it anytime. I didn't know that. Yeah, well. I have to catch up on a lot of movies. You know, Maddie is a movie buff and I'm whatever the opposite of a movie buff would be. A movie snuff. A movie snuff. No, you like movies. I like movies but I have not seen nearly as many movies as you have. That's true. Whenever you ask me, have you seen this movie, I'm like, what do you think? No, I haven't. Of course not. Yeah. Well, you're catching up slowly but surely we'll get you on the movie train. Okay. So, yeah, so world team trophy. Well, from world team trophy, then what did we do next? So, after world team trophy, we went straight to New York City. New York. Concrete jungle, where dreams are made of. It's a good voice. You have a good voice. Well, not really. But thanks. So, we had been in Japan for four weeks and we were sad to leave because we had such a good time and such like a variety of activities between world team trophy, doing the Stars and Ice shows, doing world championships. But coming back to the States, it did feel good to get back to the US. We went to New York City where we had, what did we do in New York City? We were the keynote speakers at the partnership for clean competition conference and it took place at the MLB headquarters, which was really cool to see and it overlooked Radio City music hall. So that was also very cool. Just I love being in New York and it was just such an honor to be invited to speak there and share our story. It was great. I'd say public speaking is definitely, I understand why people get so nervous because were you nervous? Well, not a little bit. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be. I think when we arrived, I got less nervous, but you know, like writing the speech and preparing it like a PowerPoint presentation, thinking about what we were going to say and then when I thought about who's going to be in the room, it made me a little bit nervous because the people who were at the conference were just brilliant. Like, scientists, researchers, policymakers, lawyers, head of Yusada, some people from WADA, world anti-doping, and US anti-doping agencies. People from the NFL. N-B-N-B-N-B-M-L-B-P-G-A tour. It was like, we were like, okay. All the top sports sent their top people and we're like, whoa. But it was great. The good experience, our speech was really well received. We got a lot of positive feedback. And then we got to network with these people and meet some of them. And it was really meaningful to be able to meet some people who are, I don't want to say behind the scenes, but the athletes aren't necessarily connected to people who work in the labs and scientists who are working on cutting edge anti-doping. you know, technology. So we don't see them. And we don't know that they're there or who they are. We just have like, I don't know this vague idea like, oh yeah, of course some people are working there. I don't even know if like many athletes always think about it. You know, they say, okay, we have we have to be drug tested after the competition and you know, we know the process that we go through of, you know, going into a room and providing a sample. And then, you know, you probably don't hear back. No news is good news usually. And that's kind of it. When you leave the competition, oftentimes you don't think about it. Then you think, where does that sample go? Who is testing it? How many like tests do they put it through different tests, multiple tests? And then who decipheres those results? Yeah, like it's just there are so many people who decides what is allowed and what's not allowed in the prohibitive list for that. Yeah. And then just going even further like, you know, policymakers who are working in government to ensure that fair play is upheld in the court of law. Like all of these steps that, you know, we don't think about at the field of play level that are so much further beyond that, that go into research labs and into court rooms and beyond. I mean, sport is so much bigger than just sport. I don't know, we talk about sport and politics and sport, you know, meaning so much more than that. And this was kind of a really wonderful way to meet a lot of the people who are involved beyond just. These are the people that help uphold the values and integrity of sport. And that is incredibly important in all, in all sports and all aspects of sport. So yeah, we just really grateful to have that opportunity to speak with them and speak for them. And thank them and thank you. And say, you know, we couldn't do what we do without you doing what you do literally. You ensure the field of play is level and equal. And, you know, I feel like it was a great honor for us to get to say thank you in person and to tell our story and to have it well received. Mm-hmm. It felt great. Yeah, we brought our metal boxes and we're able to pass those around and show people where our Olympic medal would be. Well, I think it's a symbolic. It is, it's very symbolic. You know, it's the first time in history that Olympians have left the Olympic games without without their metal that they've earned. So. And these are all people who are working in the anti-doping movement. And so I think to see the athlete side, the athlete story and to get a chance to hold that symbolic representation of what an empty metal box means, I think for, hopefully, for many of them it resonated that the work that they're doing is very meaningful in having an impact. Because for us, it's not just about the one moment and the metal. Of course, that's important, but it's so much more than that. It's about a whole lifetime, a whole lifetime, a whole body of work from an athlete. It's gone into making that goal real and achieving that and winning that metal. So it's it's a very special moment and. But you're right. It's not just about the metal. It's about the values of clean sport and the integrity of sport and, you know, having accountability and responsibility for those who aren't playing by the same rules as the rest of the field. Yeah. And that happens sometimes like across many sports that you find out. And the reason that you find out is because of these researchers who are making these discoveries and finding out what is a performance enhancer, what's not, like what should be legal, what should be illegal. And it's a lot of work oftentimes that it can probably be overwhelming, I imagine, but we're just very grateful for the work that they do allowing us to do the work that we do. And the speech was, yeah, it was just a great experience for us and we're really happy. We got the chance to do it. And also we were in New York City, which is one of my favorite cities. I don't know about you, but I love New York City. It's one of my favorite cities too. I do love New York, but you know, food. So we were there for a couple of days and the day life, you had a really busy couple days in New York City. Do you want to share some of what you were up to? I will share some of what I was up to, but first I'll say, Evan didn't have much, much going on with him. He didn't, wasn't feeling well. He got a little cold. I did get a little sick after world team trophy. And it kind of worked out because Maddie, you were? Oh, yeah. So one of my best friends flew into town to come with me to some very special appointments I had. Also, my parents flew in. So it was a really fun time and we went wedding dress shopping. I was obviously not invited. Yeah, you were not invited. So I was basically sick and bad while you guys were having a great time in New York City. And it was so jet lag too. You needed that rest. I was so jet lagged that I basically was just sleeping all day while you were having so much fun having all of these appointments throughout New York City. So I had one the same day we had the speech. My parents hadn't arrived yet, but Lolo arrived. She is one of my best friends. And Laurel's forney Bojiri is her full name. You may know her as another skater. So yeah, we went to Monique Le Hula and- Sounds fancy. I mean, she's a phenomenal designer. Actually, she designed, or Marl Davis, were one of her designs as her wedding dress. Wow. When she got married. So actually, that's how I found out about her because Marl told me. That was a nice dress. Yeah, that was a gorgeous dress. Marl just was stunning. Angelic. Angelic is a good word for it. Yeah, so I went to her shop. She had the most beautiful embroidery, the lace fabrics that she used. Just the fit of the bodice. I was fit like a glove. It was incredible. And they weren't tailored or custom made. They were just off the rack. Yeah. I got to try on her newest collection, her spring 2024. I think is what it was. Wait, for next year? It's 2023 though. I think they do it. They do a year in advance. I think so. Maybe it was 2023. I don't know. Anyways, it was her newest collection. Maybe I'm jumping ahead because we're getting married in 2024. But it was her newest collection, which was about to go in a trunk show and like travel travel the world. And yeah, found some really special dresses there, but I'm not going to tell you if or so curious. But yeah, and then the next day I had three appointments in one day, which was kind of a lot now. It was a very busy day. It was more like a marathon. Especially getting around Manhattan. And I just appreciate my parents in Lolo for like having the stamina to do that and keeping up the enthusiasm and the morale because I know we were all getting pretty tired, especially towards that last appointment. And you were probably jet lagged. Yeah, I think it was a little jet lagged. But I think I was sleeping well because I was so tired after each day. So just get back to the room and just pass out. But no, it was incredible. Next day, I went to a boutique called Spina. And they had a lot of beautiful dresses as well. And that was in Chelsea, just to give you a little. I feel like I was there. Because you weren't there. So I'm just like now telling you where they were. And Chelsea was really cool. That's when I sent you the text about the cool real estate. Because I saw across from this bridal boutique, there were some really cool new buildings. Yeah, I got a text from Maddie with like a link to a listing of like a $3 million penthouse. I was like, what is this? We can't afford this. Yeah, I just thought they were so cool. The windows were like bubbles. So it looked like just a big bubble building. And everyone, I imagine had a great view because of the shape of the window. So I was fascinated. I hadn't seen anything like it. So I thought, I'll send this to Evan. Thanks. Through me a bone there. Because I was feeling left out. I was like, I wonder what he's doing. He's probably sleeping in bed. Maybe I'll send him some real estate. Anyways, then after that, we went uptown to the Upper East Side and went to Vera Wang's bridal boutique, which was in a word exquisite. It was just the mood. Everything was all the walls were like dark, black, and then the dresses really popped because they were all white. So it was just really stunning. And they had this long hallway that you can walk down and then each little side pocket there were dresses and you keep walking down the hallway and there's another little room of dresses and another room of dresses. Was it a big space? It was big but it wasn't open. So you could walk down the hallway and see everything. And I think they also should really click that so people could see you walking down kind of like an aisle way to imagine the moment. Then it had just windows looking out onto the street below. But with soft romantic curtains to fuse the light, it was really beautiful. Everything about it was artistic. It smelled good. The bathroom, you know, I love bathrooms. Give us the bathroom, sitch. Okay, so the bathroom was like dark and moody and smelled really good. They were like incense and then the soap was delicious. and then the towel. - You tasted the soap? - No, but you know, I'm just being descriptive. And like, who's he? Trying to paint a picture. - You smelled good. - It smelled very good. And then the napkins, you dry your hands with said, "Fear Wang." And I was like, "Oh, man, this is so nice. I feel bad three of the trash can." And it said, "Fear is name on this." And I was like, "Oh, man, no, bro." - That's good, the way. - That's good, the way. - But yeah, it was gorgeous. Anyway, so Vera had just a plethora of gorgeous dresses. - And she normally does. - The people who helped you there, at least that were very professional on it, really good. - It was so good. Yes, I loved them. - But still, I don't know, maybe I found a dress in there. Maybe I didn't, who's to say? - You had one more. - I'm not telling you. - You had one more appointment that day? - Yeah, we had one more appointment at Mark Ingram's Atelier, which was lovely. That was like a different vibe from Vera. It was like bright and white everywhere. And everything was very clean. And there was like pink. And it felt very like, I don't know, a theory all in a way. Like there were lots of light dresses, lots of tool, some embroidery, and then they also had some like classic dresses. It was great, just gorgeous. - Like a good variety. - Yeah, it was a very diverse between Vera and what was this one? - Marketing. - And Monique La Hula. - Monique La Hula. - The Hula. - Mark Ingram. Okay, I'm learning. - Yeah, no, there were so many. Let's see it at Spina and at Mark Ingram's. They had a bunch of different designers in those two. - Okay. - So it was kind of like an Atelier where they have multiple designers and multiple looks. And then at Monique's and Vera's, it's just like all Monique and then all Vera. - Got it. - Yeah. And so, yeah. And what were you doing during this time? - Well, I told you I was kind of sick and bad. - Yeah, but you did one like fun activity, didn't you? - I did like, I went out and I was just like, I had never really been in New York City alone with literally nothing to do. It was kind of amazing. So I decided to just like wander the streets 'cause I feel like New York City is probably the number one pedestrian city in the world, at least in my opinion. Like it's built for the pedestrian. - Yeah. - Right? - Just how they number the streets. - And the cars are just like, you know, secondary to the people. - Easy to navigate. - Navigateable? - Navigateable? (laughing) - Oh, I don't think that's a word. Easy to navigate. Let's go with that. - But we were staying pretty much in Midtown. So I just walked up to Central Park, just kind of like, mosey to round. And then, you know, it was just like a guy in a park just sitting on a bench, like watching the pigeons. Just people watching in New York is also so entertaining. - Did you feed the pigeons? - I didn't feed the pigeons. No, I didn't. - Okay. But then I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA. - Nice. - And I just felt like a retired old man who just goes to the museum by himself and like clasps his hands behind his back and kind of wanders around. I put my headphones in and then you can like, plug into the audio and get a background in the history of each piece of art. And I spent like three hours there, just. - Wow, he must have needed a big nap after that. (laughing) - No, that sounds incredible. - I had such a good time, honestly. I, you know, we don't spend a lot of time apart. - No, we really don't. - And not that it was something that I desired to be away from you, of course. - Oh, no, no, no, I get it. I value solitude as well. I think it's important for everyone. - It was just kind of like a magical experience to be like, wow, I'm in New York City by myself. I'm gonna go to the Museum of Modern Art. Great. Did it? I'm gonna go do this. We did that. I didn't do that much, actually. That was pretty much it. I went to Central Park, went to MoMA, and then I came back home and I fell asleep. - He did have a big nap, I knew it. (laughing) - But it was really, it was lovely. I love New York, like you said. Oh, and then we went to the Yankees game. - Even if you didn't feel good, I feel like that would warrant a nap. Like all that walking. - It was a big day. - Like how many sets must you had? - A big day. - A lot. - A lot. - A nap required. - And then that evening we went to the Yankees game. - Yes. - We met some people at the major baseball headquarters who were incredibly kind, and they hooked us up with Yankees tickets, and we had an amazing time. We weren't expecting to go to the Yankees game. It was just-- - No, it was so cool. It's been a long time since I've been to a baseball game. I think the last one I went to was in Comaricapark when the Tigers were playing, but it was probably 10 years ago. - And what was your impression of going to a baseball game? - It was so much fun. - It was cool. They were playing-- - I'm more fun than I remembered. - Anna Hymanjals. So we saw Shohei Otoni, who was just like-- - No, hey. Big fan. - Such a huge, it was such a big deal in Japan when we were there. - It was a big deal in New York too. Everyone would like pull out their phones and was like recording him when he was about to hit, 'cause you know, the guy's known for his homers. And look at me talking like a baseball person. - Nobody would do it. You are a baseball person. - I do a baseball. - And since they've made the game shorter. - They made the game shorter. - They put it in a-- - We're fun to watch now too, 'cause it goes by quick and I enjoy that. - But we were just in Shohei's hometown in Japan in Iwate, which was kind of funny to be there, 'cause we were there during the world baseball classic, which was a big deal. Japan beat the US in the final. And we were there in Japan when it happened. And it was such a big deal. You could just sense it. Like all over the country, people were talking about it. We saw so many kids playing baseball, like in the whatever, the baseball diamonds. - Yeah, we saw so many. - I don't know, there were like at least nine baseball diamonds. Like just for people to play, it was incredible. - And then like we had no idea, like a week later, we would go and watch Shohei in person. It was pretty cool. - Yeah, that was really special to like see all his photos up in Iwate and the rank that we were performing in. Like he just had all kinds of Shohei memorabilia and then we're like, wow, that'd be so cool to like see him. And then what, what, what, what, what do you know? - What do you know? - What do you know? So that was pretty cool. - That was really cool. - Yeah, I really had such a great time at the baseball game. And you know what, just like the classic and the seventh inning, everyone in the stadium saying, take me out to the ballgame and I was belting it out. I had so much fun. I'm like, I know all the words to this song. Of course I'm gonna sing it. It's so fun. And then I really wanted some cracker jacks because the guy next to us had cracker jacks and then we sung about the cracker jacks. - I know, right? It was-- - Take me out to the ball. - What an American experience. - That was so great and hot dogs. Gotta get a Frank when you're at the baseball ballpark. - Ballpark Frank. - What else? What else in New York, Evan? - I don't know. I think that was it for New York. - New York was amazing. And then-- - Montreal for a few days. It was so good to be back in Montreal after five weeks of broad. Just to-- - It felt like re-energizing. Kind of like grounding. - Yeah. - Whoa. - We got to go into the ring, see the coaches, see a lot of friends we hadn't seen in a while. It didn't seem like we'd been that away that long until we're back. And we're like, whoa, we haven't seen you guys in like a month. - Yeah, that was really fun. - Crazy how time flies. - Get back on the ice. - Yeah. - Before coming to the stars on ice, Canada and US tour and just like feel it out after we got off. - We weren't able to see the dogs, right? We decided not to see the dogs because-- - It would be too emotionally stressful. - We were gonna hit the road again in three days and just like, it's not fair to them to only have them for two days and then have to leave again. - Mm-hmm. - I feel like it's just easier on them if we don't see them. - Yeah. - Unfortunately. - I mean, harder on us for sure, 'cause I miss them like crazy. - Mm-hmm. - But I can't think about it too much. Otherwise it'll be really sad. - Don't be sad. - I know, it's okay. We've got a lot to look forward to. Like our first show here in Halifax. - So then we flew to Halifax for stars on ice, Canada rehearsals. Our first time in Halifax, we are so far east, we're like past Maine. - Really? - We are in another time zone. We're in our head of Eastern time. - Oh, I didn't realize that. Wow. - Is it crazy? - That is crazy. - This beautiful here is-- - We've been this way before. - It's a maritime province in Nova Scotia. Everyone probably knows this. - Yeah, but I mean, it's fun to say. - But Halifax is really-- - Nova Scotia. - Nova Scotia. Halifax is really beautiful right on the water. - Right on the water. I've heard amazing things about the restaurants around here. We have yet to try them, but I'm hoping that we'll be remedied soon because I would love some oysters. - Big oyster person, you are. - I'm a big oyster person. - Which is funny because you don't like a lot of seafood, don't like shrimp. - I don't know, maybe I just like, no, I like the taste of oysters, but I like the whole process. - The experience. - The experience, the shell, it comes on the cool plate with the ice or the salt. - Not get it. - And then you pour the little sauces on, and then recently I learned that I like horse radish. Just a little like raw horse radish. It's delicious. - Wow. - And then you put the lemon on, it's so good. - It's like a little project. - It's like a project, I love a project. - I know, I know you do. - Yeah, I know you know that about me. - But we haven't gotten a chance to really explore any of the restaurants because we've been doing stars on ice rehearsals, which are kind of long. They're a long worth of rink from the morning to the evening. We just. We walked over to the rink this morning like 830. We walked back at 7pm, 730. We had a custom fitting and then. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. And then we're probably on the ice, I'd say, six hours at least. Learning group numbers, practicing our own solo numbers. Then we have custom fittings. We're doing some video recordings, so kind of supplement the show a little bit. Because there are some screens along the side of the rink. And so we did the funniest thing today. We did like. Well, you can't spoil it. Well, it's. Okay. Okay, no, go find Gohead. We did like. Yeah, go ahead, tell them. Voice over. It wasn't really voice over. We like lip synced to. To. To. To spoken word parts that are part of this one group number. It was just so funny because we were like. Acting like we were in a silent movie or something, you know? When we walked in Patrick was doing it and. Patrick Chan. And then I was doing it and I felt like I looked really funny and then I saw you doing it and it was funny. I looked funny for sure. It was for sure funny. And then Jeff came in, Jeff Bottle, to watch us and he thought it was hilarious. He got a kick out of it. I don't know if it's supposed to be a comedy but parts of it. I think people are going to love it. Especially the part with Elvis Stoicgo. Oh yeah. When he comes out in the group number, I mean it's very, very fun. Yeah. But not fun like in a ha ha way. I mean when I first saw him come out, I was ha haing. It was very clever what they did and his costume was so. So. So funny. Yeah. I think for the character that he's playing. So can we just talk for a second about the cast and. Curtin Elvis. Getting to do stars and nights with. Curt Browning and Elvis Stoicgo. It is incredible. Yeah. They're legends. Legends. Capital L. Like a little legend. Cap's lock legends. Wait for it. Dairy. Legendary. I mean I remember watching Curt Browning at Stars and Ice in 2001. Wow. And I remember doing like a school project on Curt Browning when I was in third grade. He told me about that. That's so true. And I like brought all my skating medals into school to share with everybody and I made a poster board with like photos of Curt, like Gluedum on there. And I have a photo somewhere that I must find. I wonder if Nancy still has this in the basement somewhere. Your project that you don't have. Oh okay. I don't know. But the photo exists somewhere. Did you tell Curt about this? I didn't tell him yet. No. I feel like you should. That'd be pretty funny. I think you would get a kick out of it. He definitely would. I just. It's been amazing. It's just been a couple days. Like, sharing the ice with Curt and Elvis. I mean those guys have been doing this for so long in the store hearing them tell stories, over lunch, reminisce about the old days. I just feel like lucky to be in the room or sitting at the table and just try to like pick up little nuggets of information from them or just see the way they go about their work. They're not just professionals. They're like ultra mega professionals. They've been in so many shows. Like, back when they did shows, like during the 90s, like when the shows were just going all year round, they would do like 90 shows a year. Like, that's a lot. We do maybe like, how many? We have 20. 20? Yeah. 90. Like, that's crazy. That's so hard. Yeah. So different. That's so much work that's so much skating and performing. And they still love it and they're still doing it after many years. They're still so good. Yeah. I saw Elvis sliding around there out. Oh, so impressive. I was doing all his like sliding tricks. He's these like cool gloves that have like metal in them and then he just like slides on his hands and does all this crazy stuff. I hope I'm in that good shape when I'm that age. I hope you're too. I can't. Well, thanks. Well, thanks. Well, thanks. I'm so glad. No, seriously. Yeah. No, I agree. And I second that. And then Patrick Chan is on the cast for Canada. He hasn't been in any skating shows in a couple years. Because he had a baby. Yeah, a baby. And he, you know, he got into a different line of work. He's not really like coaching or doing much performing, but it's so good to see him back on the ice. Boy, is he a good figure skater? That is a talented man. He's so good and is so fun to watch and do the group numbers with them. I mean, like we said, a couple last episode skating with Yuzu in the shows and getting this skate with Kurt, Elvis and Patrick and Jason and Satoko and the cast is so good. Everyone is amazing. I'm a big fan of this cast. And there are like 15 of us in the cast. And this is one of, I think the biggest cast they've had for the family skates and their group numbers. Yeah. So we're doing the group numbers with like 15 people on the ice. We had to really modify and have a gig and make it. It's been a learning curve a little bit because there are a lot of people on the ice trying to learn the numbers and we've got a show coming up in a couple days. But it's coming together. And I think it just, I appreciate so much the opportunity to tour across Canada, which we've never done before and to be part of this cast, this incredible cast, this historic cast and its Kurt Browning's farewell tour. We were so lucky. Yeah, when we were doing the number, the number that's signature for Kurt. Sentimental. Sentimental and he goes by and kind of says goodbye to everyone like in that little group. I got emotional. I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, I was feeling it. So I can't imagine what it's going to feel like when we actually do the show. I feel like a lot of skating fans who have loved Kurt and Elvis for so many years are going to really be touched by this show. And it's really special. It is. It's so honored to be a part of it and get to be on the ice with these two legends. It's really something. It sure is. And with that, I think maybe we'll leave it there for this week. What do you think? I think it sounds like a good idea. Let's go get some oysters. Let's go get some oysters, Maddie. Yay. This has been an episode of Unlaced with chalk and baits presented by Bet Online. Make sure you listen and subscribe for more episodes. You can follow us on social media. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING]