WE NEEDED A BREAK! (Catio Reveal and A Wild Reunion)

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Good morning everyone. Well, you might not know  it, but outside of building a porch and a catio, we've been busy as heck. We got a lot of stuff  going on. And one of the things that I've been doing is cleaning up the yard uh while we live in  the forest along the river and a lot of trees fall and a lot of grass grows up and shrubs and all  that stuff. and we've done some clearing and I even cut me a little path through the woods so we  can get in there and see the wildlife and see the nature and uh anyway it's just been a busy time.  But now that we've got the patio almost done, we've got a couple other things to do. We  need to do a little landscaping. And this is the time of year in Florida where it's good  to plant some bushes and shrubs. And it just so happens here in Gainesville, the University of  Florida is putting on this giant plant sale and there's also a master gardener here. And so we're  looking for local plants, lowmaintenance plants, something that will attract the bflies, the birds,  and also kind of keep the deer away. So anyway, let's go in and check this out and see what we  can find. All right. I don't know if Kurt told you. He probably did because that place was a  freaking whirlwind. But it was awesome. I wish we would have got there a few minutes earlier  because there was another plant we wanted that is a huge bird and butterfly attractor, the fire  bush, but they were already sold out by the time we got there. But we did get the ones that I've  been looking for. Uh they're called uh what are they called? Beauty. Yeah, beauty berries. And we  like them because the birds like their berries a lot. And another important thing is they also  have to be deer resistant because as you guys probably know by now, we have deer and we have  very uh sandy soil with a high pH. So anyway, these are a natural Florida native plant. So  that's awesome. They'll fit right in. We won't have to do too much maintenance on it. But  they didn't have everything we wanted. So, we're going to hit another nursery up the road,  and we're trying to beat the big rainstorm that's coming. So, let's see how we do. When we  were younger, we used to sit on the grass among the flowers. We just let the days  pass by. People would tell us to get a grip of ourselves and get a job. We didn't care  what we were told. Cuz when we were younger, we used to sit on the grass and go, "Damn, I don't  want to grow old. I wish I could turn back time."

[00:02:55]Stay up all night singing songs on  the terrace. We didn't mind sitting out in the cold. It was impossible  to make us embarrassed. We were free.

[00:03:11]Do you remember stealing smokes from your  parents? Sometimes we got a bit out of control when they found out we ran from home just  to scare them. We were free when we were 17.

[00:03:40]When we got older, we tried to stay in touch, but we had to move on. Life ran away from us.

[00:03:56]All right, today's an exciting day. We  just got a package in the mail. And well, let me just start by saying this. For those  of you who've followed us for a long time as we traveled throughout the world, 55 countries in  our van with our cats and uh two videos a week on YouTube showing you all the beautiful places that  we were able to see. Well, the dash cam was one of our most valuable and critical pieces of gear in  the camera bag. Now, we have other cameras that we use and we use a lot, but when we're driving  and we're showing you the roads and the scenes, it's dash cam time. Now that we're not traveling  in our van, we're traveling a lot locally here in Florida in our car. And of course, the other day  we were driving back and we missed a shot of some beautiful turkeys right on the side of the road  and we went to hit the dash cam and we didn't have one. So, thanks to Wolfbox, they sent us the G900  Pro. And I got to tell you, once I opened the box, I was super excited because right away you can  see this beautiful mirror that just clips over your existing mirror. It's a 4K mirror dash cam.  It also has a 2.5K rear dash cam. It has a GPS connector, a power supply cable with car charger,  a rear cam cable, all the adhesive strips you need to install it, rubber straps so that you can  strap the mirror seamlessly and easily around your existing rear view mirror, cable clips,  user manual, and it's even got the little tools to stuff the wire up in behind the molding so you  don't see that. So, today I got to install this camera. I'm going to show you guys this camera,  and well, I'm probably even going to take it for a little test drive. The first thing you'll notice  is the massive 12-in touchscreen. It's a twoin-one system that acts as your vision defense. It  comes with dual cameras, a 4K front-facing lens, and a 2.5K waterproof rear camera. What's really  impressive is the sensor. It uses an upgraded IMX 678, which basically means you get crystal clear  footage during the day and more importantly also at night. As we get this wiring tucked in, you can  see how easily the system is installed. Whether you're in an SUV or a camper van, this gives you  a realtime highdefin digital stream. You can even use the touchcreen to switch between the front  and rear views or just do a split screen if you want to see everything at once. One feature we're  really glad to have is the voice control cuz when you're navigating tight back roads or if you're on  a busy interstate, you don't want to be fiddling with buttons. You can just tell it to take a  picture or lock the video and keep your hands on the wheel. It also has a built-in G sensor,  so if there's ever an impact, it automatically locks that footage and protects it so it won't get  recorded over in case you need it in the future.

[00:07:17]And for those of you worried about the tech side,  it has a 5 GHz Wi-Fi. That's about four times faster than the old 2.4 systems. So downloading  clips to your phone via the app is actually quick and painless. We're really impressed with how this  Wolfbox dash cam works, and it's going to give us a lot of peace of mind on our next Florida day  trip. Plus, we won't miss any exciting footage.

[00:07:43]So, if you're looking to upgrade your own rig,  whether it's a van, an RV, or your daily vehicle, we highly recommend checking this out. I've put a  link in the description below where you can pick one up for yourself. Go click that link, check  out the specs, and let us know what you think.

[00:08:01]All right, guys. Enough of this fancy dash cam  stuff. Let's get back to the house because we need to show you an update on the patio. All right,  guys. We are at a point in the patio with the patio where I can take a pause and get some other  stuff done, but it has been a big hit. And so, if you can see right here, there's a little cat  door. So, the cats can come out here pretty much anytime they want. and they love to eat the spider  plants and the grasses. And so, of course, we have some there. And then we got this little planter  off of Amazon, so it was really cheap, like 20 bucks. And we built that. And around that, that  creates a little stair system and some lookouts out of the screen. And so, you can see Vanna  and G are up there. And of course, they've got a long walkway so they can run around and play. And  we're probably not completely done. It'll be one of those things that gets added on as we go, but  we also told you we went up to the nursery to get some plants. And one of the things that we wanted  to do was attract butterflies and hummingbirds and all sorts of birds. We've got a couple bird  feeders out there. Um, and we've got a hummingbird feeder here. So, we've got a lot of hummingbirds  and we just got a lot of pretty flowers. Uh, we got some butterfly weed and the monarchs  have already showed up. We got some beauty berry and some other decorative plants just to kind of  help lighten things up. We got some citrus trees, so some lemons, some oranges. And to be honest  with you, the drought here in Florida has been so ridiculously bad. You can see the yard, all  the grass in the yard is kind of dead. So, we've still got a lot of work to do. We got a little  bird bath out there, but the cats and we have just been absolutely enjoying this. And the whole  goal really was to bring the outside in. And so, this is like our new TV here screened in to keep  the bugs away. And here in the forest, bugs are definitely a thing. And the love bugs have showed  up in Florida. And so, if you guys know what they are, anybody who's ever driven through those, they  smash on the hood of your car and create a big mess. But anyway, the bug screen keeps them out,  keeps the mosquitoes out and all the other stuff, and the cats can just chill and enjoy, which  is exactly what they're doing. We can chill and enjoy. And guys, it's not done, but Kurt has  been busting his butt on this thing for weeks. So, it's done enough to take a little bit of a break.  But, um, I need to get the furniture situated. We got to get the tools cleaned up. We still got  to figure out what we're going to do on the ceiling and some touch-up paint. Little odds and  ends, but all that can wait for a little while.

[00:11:09]The most important thing is that those guys have  their patio. And Kurt told you it'll keep growing.

[00:11:18]Well, after Kurt got the patio and the porch  buttoned up enough that he could take a few days off from working, we did some relaxing. And it was  really cool timing because we had some family come in and visit. First, my baby brother, he popped in  and it happened to be his birthday. He brought his three kids with him. We had some good visiting  and we rounded that off with a little birthday cake to celebrate just how old he's starting  to get, even though he is my baby brother. Uh, of course, the cats had some good walking time.  And then Kurt's parents made an impromptu trip down from Oklahoma and uh popped in, stayed two  nights here with us. Uh Kurt took his dad and toured him around, showed him the trails he's  been making in the woods. We shared the birds and the hummingbirds and stuff with them. And of  course, Kurt and his mom both nights had extended Scrabble matches at the kitchen table. Uh I think  Kurt might have won both rounds this time. So, he's due to get beat next time they get together  for a Scrabble game. But it was lots of good visiting and uh just some relaxing, which we  needed cuz Kurt had been working so hard. And then uh we made a few trips to town, had some dinner at  the local little restaurant, just kind of getting to know our new home. And then as that was all  starting to wind down, I got a call from a really good friend of mine. And you all know that from  your past, you have some of these friends that are more like family. Um we we were in our college  ages together. And he just is one of my lifelong best friends. I don't believe you guys have ever  met him on the channel because I have not seen Nick in almost 7 years since before we moved into  the van. And he called and said he was going to be just up the road at a cool little event that  Curt's going to tell you more about. But when I found out he was going to be that close, we  hopped in the car and we headed that way. Now, the event that Snow is telling you about where we  were to meet Nick was advertised as a rodeo and it was a charity event for the local 4 age club.  And you know, we really didn't know what to expect to be honest with you. We were really going to  catch up with Nick. He's a fun guy, a cool guy, and a lifelong dear friend to Snow. So, we were  excited to go do that. He's also an extremely gracious host. Since this was his nephew's  place, he gave us the VIP tour. And it started with sort of like a little exotic animal tour.  And to be honest with you, I may have offended Nick because and I didn't mean to, but as we went  through and saw some of these beautiful animals, Snow and I would comment. For example, when we  saw the otter, we were like, we saw the giant otter in Brazil in the Pantanol where the jaguars  are and the giant cayman and the cappy bears and uh anyway, he's like, "Are you going to say  this during all the animals?" And we moved on to the next one, which was a cool camel. Now, I  think it kind of slobbered on snow a little bit, maybe even spit, but that's okay. It was all in  fun. But we saw the camels in Moritania. We also saw them in southern Morocco in Africa. And so, we  had seen the camels in the wild. And then we went on and saw the sloths. And if you guys know us,  you know we love sloths and monkeys and the and all that sort of stuff. And well, lo and behold,  we had seen the sloths in uh in Costa Rica. Well, and in other countries, Nicaragua, in several  countries, actually in uh Central America, we saw sloths in again in the wild. We saw this this  sloth carrying a baby and crawling slow across the road and uh in Costa Rica, and it was so cool. But  I gotta tell you, seeing this sloth up close here, it was in a tree, it was so cool. You could see  his cute little face and his little paws. And it was really, really cool. I think they had a macaw  there. And again, we had a special experience with the macaw in Costa Rica as well. But we saw a lot  of different macaw again in the wild throughout our journey in Latin America. And you guys know  we love chasing birds. So for us it was kind of a treat. But as Nick was showing us around  and explaining to the animals, it was kind of overshadowed by the fact that we had already seen  them and researched them. But there was definitely some animals there that we had not seen. There  was sort of an exotic deer. Now, this deer, I don't remember exactly what kind it was, but this  deer or this antelope we had not seen. Now, when we were doing the safaris in Africa, wow, I bet  we seen at least a dozen or more different types of antelope. And of course, we had some magical  experiences in Africa on safari, self-driving in our van, looking out the window with the big  cameras, and that was really special. But it was cool to see this other type of analopee. And I  believe this one was from Southeast Asia. So that hence we hadn't seen that one. And then well,  there was just a lot of different animals. And actually Nick took us back and they had uh I think  some Elon and some other big analopee back on a safari ride. Now the safari ride was not going on  today. So we didn't go on that. It was going on uh it goes for special occasions or I think  actually most of the time. But the rodeo was the main show. So, there was a lot of different  animals to see that we didn't even get to see, but I tell you what, it was a really special time  catching up with Nick, exchanging stories, uh, talking about some of our experiences, and as well  talking about his and learning about the local animals. Oh, and there was one more animal that we  did not see while we were out touring the world, and that was the kangaroos. And that was also a  special moment. Snow got to hold the kangaroo, the baby kangaroo, and we got to take photos,  and we got to hang out with Nick, and it was just a really special moment. Who is this little  guy? Jack. Hi, Jack. Jack. Jumping Jack. Flash.

[00:18:33]Jumping Jack. When you get big, you could probably  knock us all out, huh? Oh, he's soft. Is it a he?

[00:18:41]A jack. It's a he. It's a he. Yeah. Look at those  little fingers. You are precious. Yes, you are.

[00:18:54]Charlie. Look at that. Look at his toes.

[00:19:02]You're pretty chilled out. How old are you? He's  probably 6 months. Oh. And as we started to leave the I'm going to call it the petting zoo portion  of this place, I uh we walk over towards where all the vendors are set up for the rodeo crowd. He  was first. I think Kurt should ride the bull. What do y'all think? Start putting some comments down  there below telling him he needs to get on that bull. I don't think we've told you this place is  called the Mayhem Ranch. It's in [ __ ] which is um basically Williston. And to make that even  more easy to understand, it's probably about 30 to 40 minutes away from Gainesville and or Ocala  here in North Florida. They've been around for I don't know I think Nick said five or six years or  so and have just been growing and growing along the way. They hold different kind of festivals  throughout the year. So this is just one of their events but they've brought in lots of vendors and  this I think Kurt told you all benefits the 4. And we were hungry so we headed straight to the food  area where there were lots of tables set up. They were serving delicious barbecue and um some yummy  frozen lemonade drinks. The kids were playing. Uh there was a band playing. It was just a ton of  fun. And this is where we got to meet Nick's nephew who owns this place along with his wife.  Now whether or not he remembers it, I have met this kid before when he was probably maybe seven  or eight years old. So when I tell you me and Nick go way back, we go way back because he is a  fullgrown adult now with a really cool ranch here.

[00:20:40]Um but we enjoyed our lunch. They were gracious  hosts. wouldn't let us pay for anything. Don't worry, we put a bunch of money in the 4H tip jar.  So, we did pay at least for the charity portion.

[00:20:52]Um, but then it was time to head over and check  out the goats. Now, there were some baby goats doing some jumping around, some big goats, and  they definitely think you're bringing food when you come. But one thing I've noticed about this  place is it seems to be a wonderful place set up for children. They even have a little gold mining  station where they'll bring in kids like on field trips and stuff and teach them about that kind of  thing and let them see all the animals. They've done a really nice job here and it is a public  place so you can go to their website which we'll put down in the description and you can go visit  this place and if you have kids, younger ones, I would say this would be a really cool place to  bring them. But after that, we headed over for the main attraction, which is the rodeo. Now, I grew  up here in this part of Florida, which is pretty rural and pretty country. So, I've been to many,  many rodeos in my younger years, but it has been a while. And um it's hot. So, I'm very thankful  that Nick had us set up in the fancy VIP booth uh under the tent here in the shade. But Kurt went  over and took a little tour of the bucking shoots.

[00:22:06]So, let's see how that goes. All right. There's  nobody on the bull. Snow has decided she's going to go for a ride. Y'all know better than that.  Y'all know better than that. In my younger years, I have done that. Y'all will never see any proof.  Oh, look. You need to get one of these shirts. So, on the way over to the rodeo, now I got to  be completely honest with you. We are not big rodeo people. We were there to see Nick. And this  was a special event that's going on that doesn't normally happen at the Mayhem Ranch, but they had  all sorts of trinket stalls where you could get different local type uh souvenirs. And that was  pretty cool. They had a good selection. and they had a couple drink stands and they had a miniature  uh little furry cow display and so we got to go in there. I forget I think they're like Scottish  Highland cows but they're miniature so they're so tiny and they're so cute. Snow got to go in there  and sit next to those and Nick came in with us.

[00:23:14]And uh anyway, that was also very cool and a stark  contrast to these big giant bulls next door. Now, I was able to go on a special VIP tour, and  the cowboy over the rodeo gave us all sorts of information behind the scenes on how they  prepare the bulls for the event. And also, they had bucking broncos there. And so, I got to see  all those up super close. and they were just big muscular beasts and it was just impressive to see.  And then all of a sudden all the cowboys came in and started getting ready for the show. Now this  was more than just bucking Broncos and bucking bulls. They had a beautiful opening ceremony  with the cowboys and the flags and the music and the national anthem. And that was a really  cool moment. And then the show started. And being that we were in the VIP section, I got to walk up  close to see the guys as they sat in the shoots and started mounting the bulls. And those guys  were angry. And as soon as the shoot opens up, they kicked out. And of course, for those of you  who don't know, the bull riders have to ride the bull for 8 seconds and then they get scored. And  anyway, we watch that. We're fascinated by that.

[00:24:49]We also saw the horses and and one little treat as  we were saying goodbye to Nick is the little kids got to do the mutton riding. And so it was really  funny because these kids would jump on these lambs and they would be riding them I think most of  them backwards. And so they just like grappled on to these big old sheep and the sheep would  take on take off running. And again, it was a contest to see how long they could hold on. And uh  just really a family fun time. And uh we enjoyed the day. We enjoyed catching up with Nick. And as  Snow said, it was a hot day, but there was plenty of refreshments, but we were tuckered out and it  was definitely time to go home. I know last week we were talking to you about our brand new series,  The Florida Day Trips. And uh don't worry, next Saturday we're bringing you episode two of Florida  Day Trips. This was just kind of a wrapping up the catio and getting y'all caught up on all the  life events we have going on. And with that, we're going to take a sneak peek out the back  door here. The front porch, the patio may be done, but Kurt had to do a little bit of work on the  stairs coming in by back here where we park. So, he's hard at it again. And we will see y'all next  Saturday with Florida day trip number two from somewhere really, really cool. Cheers, guys. If  you like this video, be sure to subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell so you guys  know when we put out new videos. And don't forget, you can always follow us over on Instagram to see  what's going on in between videos. Cheers, guys.