Rudy, thanks for being here. Appreciate it, man.
Your story is incredible. I watched a few episodes of what
you did online, but only a little bit because it was so
intriguing. I just had to stop because I
wanted to hear it from you. So start at the beginning.
Tell me what's going on. So I rent snowmobiles and AT VS
and side by sides in Big Sky Mt and I'd rented a side by side to
a father and son throat and we could bow season and the dad had
texted me and said hey we're having a little problem with the
side by side could we trade it out with another machine?
I said sure. So I met up with him that night,
we swapped machines out and he's like my son shot a buck
yesterday and wounded it and we lost the blood trail because I
didn't have any snow. He's like, you know, anybody
that's got a tracking dog that we could hire to help us track
it down. I said no.
I said, well, I used to be a guide in my young days.
I pretty good tracker. I could come up tomorrow and
help you track. And so that was the plan.
They were camped up on the mountain.
So I just texted him when I was on my way up the mountain on the
four Wheeler and I got up to where they're side by side was
parked and I parked my four Wheeler and said I, I'm at the
side by side. He sent me a pin drop.
And I know that country pretty well.
So I knew it was north of here and, and West of there.
And, and I, I'm not tech savvy, so I don't have a app on my
phone that could, I could put that pin drop in.
It would just guide me right there.
And, and you know how cell phone service is, especially texting
that doesn't come through all the time right right now.
So, so I, I text him, yeah, I'm at the trail, I'm at the side by
side. Is the pin drop where you shot
the deer where you guys are camped or, or where you're at or
where you lost the blood trail? And I didn't hear back from him.
So I started hiking down the one trail 'cause it's off.
The trail that we go up on is nothing but a side by side and
hiking trail. The trail that I hiked down was
just a hiking trail period. You can only go down there on
foot or snowmobiles during the snowmobile season.
But I got probably a mile down that trail and he texts me back,
he's like, oh, it's better if you go down the Ridge instead of
the trail 'cause then you don't have to mess with the Cliff.
It's like crap, I'm already past the first Cliff and there's two
cliffs on that ridgeline. So I thought, well, I'll just
shoot between the two ridges up through the trees and then I can
go one way or the other because I texted him back and said which
Cliff is the first one in the cell.
Service out there, Yeah, OK. That's the one reason we really
like that trail is because you have cell service for probably
3/4 of it. But anyhow, I I thought, well,
I'll just shoot up through the trees and wait for him to text
me to tell me whether I'm going up the Ridge or down the Ridge
from where I'm at. I probably got 0500 feet into
the trees and I jumped a small grizzly bear, probably his first
year out on his own. He was laying down under a tree
and took off like a shot. That was the first you there was
multiple grizzly bears. You said that was the one that
got me. Was the second one I saw that
day? Yeah.
So the first one just took off and I pulled my 357 out of my
holster at that point and had it in my hand pretty much the rest
of the time. And that's my dad's old police
revolver. When they went to 9 mil, he gave
me his 357 and so I had that in my hand.
I kind of hiked up the Ridge a little bit and I saw some crows
circling and heard him squawking.
So I hiked over to the next Ridge and kind of watched the
crows and kind of hiked down that Ridge a little bit till I
came back to the spot where I jumped the first bear.
Then I got a text from George and he said, yeah, the pin drops
where we lost the blood trail and we left our backpacks there.
So I started shooting up the trail.
I found the backpacks. I text him, hey, I'm at the
backpacks. He's like, wait right there,
I'll send my son over. We're only 5 minutes away from
you. And so I thought, well, I've got
time for a sip of Gatorade and a beef jerky and, and I thought to
myself, at that point, I need to spend that cylinder 'cause I
always keep a dead shell in the cylinder that's going to fire
next in case my kids or grandkids get a hold of my gun.
So I I need to spend that just in case I need it.
Wow. And so I spun it and son came
and got me went, went over to his dad and he was actually
sitting just below the Ridge where I just walked by, just
down in a little clearing by some trees looking at the same
crows I was looking at. And so we're kind of came up
with a game plan 'cause we're we don't really have any tracks to
really follow. So we're kind of just spread out
along the hillside thinking that those crows are probably on his
deer, that it probably died overnight and they're probably
on, on his deer. So we just kind of spread out
like you see in the movies, where we could still see each
other but cover more country. And we started heading down the
hill towards the crows, and we got a little ways down the hill
and I kind of meandered a little bit this way and that way.
And I was, since I jumped the first bear, I was constantly,
you know, watching my back trail because I've been shattered by
bears and tracked by mountain lions before in my life.
So I'm pretty wary. I stepped over a log, looked to
see where George was, and there the bear was, coming at me
already. He was already charging.
Yeah, he was like this coming over the the down trees.
I didn't hear him growl. I didn't hear him roar.
I didn't hear him step on branches and break him.
I just saw him coming at me. I lifted my gun up because I
already had it in my hand. I fired it and it misfired.
I spun it right back to that dead shell.
That's one of the reasons I say, well, in my opinion, that proves
to me that this is probably meant to be in my life.
That, you know, what are the odds of me spinning it right
back to that dead shell? Reverse Russian roulette, I
guess. Oh my gosh.
But the next thing I knew, I it misfired and I probably said a
few choice words and rolled my eyes.
I don't know. But the next thing I remember is
his nose was about the same size as my fist.
And that's one of my bare strategies is to punch me in the
nose If if I had to, if it got to that, because anybody that's
hit a dog in the nose and nose, you know, what it does knows it,
it'll stop for at least a second of hesitation.
So that's always been my strategy.
And I got a hole here and a hole there.
And I'm assuming that's he got me when I tried to punch him.
But the next thing I remember after the click and the is he
had me by the jaw and he picked me up by my jaw off the ground
and I could see the father running towards me.
And I in my first edition there it says, you know, I yelled help
me. But the more I think about it so
I I don't think I could have said anything like them having a
hold of my jaw. But I know I thought helped me
in my mind to me I said help me and that at that point the
bearer bit down and I could just hear and feel it breaking my
jawbone. Oh my gosh.
And at that moment, I'm assuming I don't remember the rest of the
attack. The next thing I remember is he
was running away. I could just see his butt
running away from me. Wow.
And but he actually clawed my chest, collapsed my lung.
Oh. My gosh.
And. Then he bit my leg and you can
tell he bunched up my muscle right there when he bit.
And that's the hole hole that was bleeding the worst.
I knew I was bleeding more out of that puncture in my leg than
I was out of my jaw, but I'm assuming when he broke through
my jaw I probably fell to the ground.
That's when he stepped on my chest and bit my leg, and as
soon as he left, the father was to me within seconds.
This was a male Grisby grizzly. Probably the second biggest bear
I've ever seen. Oh my gosh, what's was it that
you spooked it? Well, in in my thinking, it was
all the worst circumstances at all the right time.
If you think about it, that little bear that I jumped first
is probably only a half mile from that Big Bear.
And every time that Big Bear was out looking for more food, that
little bear was probably in his stash eating.
So that's why he took off like a shot and why the Big Bear came
right right now, because, you know, he was expecting probably
to chase that little bear off again.
But I tell people all the time, there's three reasons a bear
will attack you. One, they got Cubs they're
protecting. 2, they got food they're protecting.
And three, if you startle them, you know, if they're sleeping or
eating and they don't hear or see you coming and you're there,
they're just going to react. And I had two of the three.
Oh my gosh. And I'm 62, so for me, you know,
I in the early stories I said he was mega 10 foot grizzly bear.
And you know, I was, I, I call it what, what do I call it?
Riding while intoxicated or under the influence?
Because I was on heavy drugs in the beginning.
But I'm 62 and he picked me up off the ground by my jaw.
So I figured that puts him at least at 7 feet.
What what made it run off? The father and son.
So they the bears there on you that it sees them running
towards you. It freaked.
Out they're yelling and screaming at it and throwing
rocks at it. And the father had a gun and he
said he shot a couple of times, but he didn't know whether it
hit it and he was afraid to shoot at it or shoot it while it
had me 'cause it was shaking me around like a rag doll.
But I, I assume too, once he bit through my jaw, 'cause I don't
remember the other two. I was probably pretty much
lifeless, so he probably figured the job was done anyway he could
come back. Did you hear the firing of the
the? I didn't hear them yelling at
it. I didn't hear the bear groan.
I didn't hear the gunshots. I didn't hear anything until
George got to me and he's like, Rudy, Rudy, are you OK?
And he's like, Nope, you're not OK.
I want to explain why I do these conversations.
Most people know me for backpacking, outdoor education,
and gear videos actually. But what really sits underneath
this channel is decision making under pressure.
A few years ago I nearly died in the Grand Canyon, and going
through that permanently changed how I think about risk
preparation and judgement. After my own survival situation,
I became absolutely obsessed with one question.
What actually keeps people alive when everything goes wrong?
That's why I talk to people who survived the worst moments of
their lives, whether it happened outdoors, on the water, or in
places none of us even expect. So if you want to see my own
story, I've put a link in the description to the Grand Canyon
survival video, where we had cameras filming the entire time.
It'll give you context for why these conversations mean so much
to me. Thanks.
So you were like, there's a whole moment of this time, of
this experience that was completely like a blackout for
you. And then all of a sudden the
next thing you remember is. The bears running away from.
The bears running away and you're.
Standing. You're laying there.
Then George got to me and he picked up my gun on the way to
me and he shot it in the direction that the bear.
And that's the first thing I remember hearing after the
crunch of my jaw, was him firing my gun.
I'm sure he picked up my gun thinking, man, you had him dead.
The rights Why didn't you shoot him?
Wow. Because he was probably almost
as close as you are to me right now when I pulled the trigger.
Oh my gosh. So he would.
Have looked like me. If the gun would have went off
and I wouldn't have, I probably would have been run over by a
dead bear, but I would have just been another hunter that shot a
bear in self-defense. Wow, so you're all there.
What next? George's phone had died and his
son's phone was pretty weak. So he asked me if my phone was
good. And I handed him my phone.
He dialed 911 with my phone. And of course, immediately
they're trying to assess what's going on.
He's like, well, he's, he's not in good shape.
He's, he's missing his jaw. And the bear bit him in the face
and neck and, and whatever, and they're like, well, can you put
something around? So we took my backpack off and
my shirt off when we tried wrapping it around my neck, and
I couldn't breathe at all with it on.
So it's like, that wasn't an option.
And they're like, well, we got search and rescue on the way.
And it's kind of funny 'cause Big Sky itself is in one county,
but the county that Bozeman's in, it's a different county, but
it's closer than it is from the head of Madison County.
So it was easier for them to say, hey, Gallant County, send
somebody up to come rescue this guy.
And they sent helicopters, but it took them two hours to get to
me. Oh.
My gosh. Oh my gosh.
And I was conscious the whole time.
In fact, at one point I thought to myself, 'cause the only way I
was comfortable was laying on my stomach with my arms under me to
keep my head out of the dirt. So that was the easiest for me
to bravely start with me leaning up against a tree and all the
blood was going down my throat and choking me.
So that was the easiest for me to do is just lay on my stomach,
put my arms up under me. I was getting a little weak, I
could tell, so I pulled my backpack so I could put my head
on my backpack and lay my head on my backpack so I didn't have
to hold myself up anymore. Like I said, I I knew I was
bleeding more out of the hole in my leg than I was out of my
chin, but I couldn't say anything and I was too late to
pull my belt out to do my own tourniquet on my leg.
Oh my gosh, did they put a tourniquet on you?
Not until I got to the well, I think when the search and rescue
got to me, that when they assessed and saw that my leg was
socially blood on my pants, that they, they investigated that and
it's like, yeah, I think that was one of the first things they
did was tied up my legs, so. Father and son didn't realize
that the leg was bleeding enough to tie it.
I don't think they knew it. I don't know.
I don't have any of my clothes. I knew they cut the pant leg off
at at the Yellowstone Club but I don't know how bad my shirt was
ripped or anything like that from the Clomite or the scratch
on my chest. I don't I don't know what I
looked like. All's I know is I could see skin
hanging down from my face dripping blood.
Oh man. And it was.
It perked me up a little bit when the first helicopter flew
over and I lifted my head up and I thought, you know, I'm going
to be OK. And George is running around.
He's like, we're right here, we're right here, land, we're
right here. And Lifelight helicopter,
medical helicopter, was the first one on the scene.
And they were told they couldn't land because they didn't want
them landing in a hostile environment and have a bear
attack. More people, you know, and
that's something I'm trying to get changed is, you know, if
there's guns on the ground or they need to have a gun in the
helicopter, if they're going in that kind of situation that, you
know, they can protect themselves.
And 'cause, you know, they were there probably 15 minutes to 1/2
hour before the search and rescue guys got there, that
we're all loaded up with guns and everything.
And so that half hour could have been the saving grace or the
demise of me. You know, oh man.
But once I heard that helicopter, it perked me back
up. And then then I heard them take
off once the second helicopter got there.
And I lifted my head up and I could see the helicopter flying
in a clearing just next to me. And the next thing I saw was
boots on the ground coming towards me.
And I knew I'd be OK then. And I never thought at any point
that I was going to die. I just, I don't know, the
thought never entered my mind that this is it for me.
I really won't see my family again or nothing.
I just, I knew it wasn't good, but I I didn't think I was ever
going to die. But that's one of the weird
things too, you know, the guy gets to me.
He's like, well, Rudy, you're doing OK, you're still with me.
And I gave him the thumbs up and and he's like, well, we're going
to do the best to get you out of here and we're going to check
you over. We're going to get the basket
over here, get you in the basket.
We're going to clean a trail over to the helicopter so we
don't stumble and trip with you. And then we'll get you out of
here. OK, Gave him the thumbs up.
And one of the pictures that you see online is that helicopter
flying, and it's kind of deceiving because there's a dead
tree right there. So it kind of looks like there's
a line there. But if you look over, there's a
line there. And if you zoom in on the
picture, you'll see the basket. So I flew in the basket hanging
from the rope to the Yellowstone Club.
Oh my gosh, how far was that? It was only a few minutes.
So yeah, you can spit almost that far to the Yellowstone Club
as the crow flies. But.
But yeah, it's like, and if you look closely, you'll see a guy
perched on that basket with me, riding with me, making sure I
was OK the whole way there. And then we get to the
Yellowstone Club and they flew me there because that was where
the closest trauma nurse was. And so they got me there and
they cut my pant leg off and, and checked me out and gave me
some drugs and, and the last thing I remember was I was
reaching in my pocket trying to get my truck keys out so I could
hand it to somebody. And I still don't know where my
truck keys are, but that's the last thing I remember.
The drug kicked in and, and I was, I knew I would say.
So I figured I'd, I'd just, I, I, I can relax now.
And the next thing I know, I woke up in.
Salt Lake, I don't even remember them flying me to Bozeman.
They flew me to Bozeman Hospital.
They cleaned all my wounds, cleaned my mouth and jaw out as
best they could. They did a trach tube, a chest
tube and some other things at the Bozeman hospital.
And then they they knew they weren't equipped to handle this
kind of reconstruction surgery, so they flew me to Salt Lake, to
the University of Utah Hospital. Wow, Have you spoken to the
father and son? I'd text him quite a bit.
You still took today. Yeah, and I'm trying to get an
interview with them at some point so that, you know, and I
want to get a, an interview with the search and rescue and the
hospital people to thank them all, you know, but it's hard to
get everybody together. Yeah, yeah.
It's tough. So what is this here on the
table? So that's a mold that they did
of my jaw, what was left of my jaw after the bear bit it off.
And if you look at the lines there, that's where they cut my
jawbone off so they could have a clean, clean edge.
And I, I believe, I don't know if that's nerves or what's in
the jawbone that they had to get to what was clean.
Oh man. And so basically I got one tooth
there, one tooth there, and the rest of it's all part of my
lower bone leg. Yeah, I they so they took part
of your bone and your leg, right?
Yeah, the small bone in my left leg.
So walk me through this whole next portion of the story,
because I've heard it's pretty extraordinary.
It's. They told we did that interview
when I first left the hospital. I was in the hospital for like 5
weeks and we did an interview at that point, a press conference
and I didn't talk very well. I, I think I said hello at that
interview and the rest. I was writing on the whiteboard
and my daughters were reading it.
But I walked like an old man, you know, crouched over like Tim
Conway doing the old man shuffle.
And, and then once I got my lip and teeth, we did another
interview press conference and and that's when I learned that
this was the first time they did this operation all in one day.
So they take the bone out of your leg and piece it together
in three pieces to form your chin bone.
And then they cut the skin and the muscle there that was
probably about that deep. They cut in to get my chin skin.
And this was the first time that they they actually put the post
for my teeth in the bone while it was still in my leg.
And I think one of the reasons they had a lot of problem, if
you look at at this, these teeth are bent over like this.
So I bent my jawbone over so the back of that tooth ends up at
the front of that tooth. So those this side of my teeth
don't even line up. Wow.
So I can chew really good on that one tooth on the back
there. I was not.
I wasn't expecting you to be able to take that off.
So is that magnetic? It's a pretty good Hardy trick,
isn't it? I could have.
Not expecting that. I get that a lot.
Oh, I could officially give you some lip.
Yeah. So it's just wow, they.
Did a phenomenal job. Magnets on the hate teeth.
Wow. But if you look at it, this was
done in March, not he matched my skin tone in March.
But you know, after the summer and motorcycle riding and
everything, my face is a lot darker than my chin.
So people look at me and think there's something different
about you, but they don't quite put it together until they do
that and. They're like it is.
You look phenomenal. I I, I can't believe.
It's one of those hairs that he painted on my chin.
He matched and did each one one at a time.
So those are silicone that he matched it so.
You're like, you're like, I got a permanent beard now, right?
It was, he's like, well, do you want some hair on your chin?
And I thought, you know, he's going to just glue a little
touched of hair under my lip or whatever, but no, it was like a
three day process. I came in and he did the mold
and then he did, did, did the thing.
And then the next third day he was matching face matched my lip
collar. And you know, I, I don't want to
say this online, but I lost my chin twice all riding my
motorcycle this summer. And, and I lost one of the
magnets out of there and it took me two days to find another one
that would fit. And it's not the same size and
it's not the same same. So I I got to talk to the VA and
see if they'll approve to make another one.
Wow, VA, if you're listening, approve it.
Well, I, I fought with the VA the whole time, Yeah.
And it's one of those things that I would love to get in
charge, contact with somebody in charge.
Where'd you serve? I was, I was stationed in
Virginia Beach and that's a whole nother adventure.
I worked on F Fourteens. I was an aviation electrician,
so I was on the flight deck working on F Fourteens.
I was in the Navy during the 82 to 86.
So we were sitting off the coast to Rio de Janeiro and Grenada
happened and then the barracks in Beirut was bombed.
So we sat off the coast to Rio for like 12 hours for them to
decide which way we were going. And the next thing we know we're
headed to the Mediterranean, to Beirut.
We spent six, most of our six months cruise off the coast of
Beirut. Wow, wow.
So take me back to the, the surgery and everything you're
experiencing because I, I, you, you had to learn to talk again,
I'm assuming, right? Like how to use this to be able
to make speech. You, you sound great.
And I sound worse once I take that off and my teeth off.
So it's amazing the difference just teeth and and the lip will
make for you. Wow.
I've actually gone to three of them casting calls to be on
Survivor since this happened. And the first one, I didn't have
my lip and my teeth, so I probably looked pretty scary and
I didn't talk very well. But they all said, man, that's a
hell of a story. And it's like, yeah, if they
started getting me on, I don't know what I got to do.
Wow, I, I, I mean, that's incredible.
But yeah, I was in the hospital and they gave me a thing to to
talk out of my trach tube, to put on the trach tube to talk.
And I had it long enough to tell my daughter, I love you.
Oh wow. And then they took.
It away from me 'cause they didn't want me to to stress my
vocal cords 'cause they still weren't sure how bad he got to
them and if I would even be able to talk again or not.
And. Oh wow.
So that was that was a tough moment, but but at least I got
to tell my daughter that I love her.
Yeah. And that was another emotional
time was after George called 911 and got through with them and
got them on their way. He's like to have somebody I
should call. And so I held my phone and I
pointed to my daughter's number, 'cause she only lives like 1/2
hour from me and she helps me with the business.
She's been answering the phones for the business for the last
three years. I usually turn them over to her
during the winter 'cause I get too busy to answer while I'm
snowmobiling. And she looked at her phone and
said, Dad, boy, this is a weird time for him to call.
She's like, hey, what's up? And he's like, yeah, I'm with
your dad. And she's like, oh, no, It's
like, yeah, he's been attacked by a grizzly bear.
And she's like, is he OK? He's like, no, he's not OK.
He's been attacked by a grizzly bear.
And she's like, is he alive? He's like, yeah, he's alive, but
it's not good. And she immediately found
somebody to watch her kids. Called my daughter who's a nurse
in California, and my daughter in California took emergency
leave. She's a nurse at the hospital
and hopped on the first plane that she'd get to Bozeman.
And, and by the time she got to Bozeman and they were headed to
the hospital, they heard that they were shipping me to Salt
Lake. Wow, did she write this?
My oldest daughter wrote that, yeah, while I was in the
hospital and we gave that to. Explain what this is 'cause you
handed this to me when you when you got.
Here, this is the first edition of of the book I'm going to
start writing. I've actually started it.
I've got to the point where I can't remember anything, where I
got to the All Stone Club and and I wrote this up because I
thought all those people who are taking such good care of me in
the hospital deserve to know my story and be the first ones to
hear my story. I'm not out of my mouth.
But as I saw it and as I remembered it, and still that's
not quite right. I can go through there and say,
yeah, that's OK, That's not, that's OK, that's not.
But you know, it's just like that game you play where you
whisper something in somebody's ear and you go down the line and
it changes all the time, so. So your surgery and your jaw was
a really big deal in. 12 hour surgery.
Yeah, it was the first time they did all this in one day.
And they asked me multiple times, you know, if I was OK
with it. And it was going to be a long
day and it would be hard on me. And you know, I I wasn't even
getting out of bed at that point still.
I was still bedridden. I lost 30 lbs while I was in the
hospital. But I said, yeah, I'm, I'm
willing to do whatever you think's best and whatever you
want to do on me. I'm, I'm fine with it as long as
we get it done. And I told him I wanted to be
the quickest bear recovery attack victim ever.
And I had to revise that, 'cause, you know, once you're
attacked by a bear, it's like you buy a car, you see a bunch
of cars like yours. Now, once you get attacked by a
bear, you see there's a lot of bear attacks out there.
So I had to revise it and say, you know, I wanted to be the
quickest throat attack, bear recovery ever.
And I said my odds are pretty good in Vegas because not too
many people survive that fact. I tell people 1/2 a tooth more,
I wouldn't be here. I'm only here by the grace of
God. Yeah.
It's only he that could have stopped that bear just short of
killing me. I believe that for sure.
Yeah. So you're learning to did you
have to what, what did it take to like have to learn how to eat
and. Well.
That's where the tube went into my stomach.
That's how I fed myself for six months.
Oh wow. So yeah, and that hole in my
chin right there. Yeah.
That was that was the main reason I couldn't eat or
swallow. Once that hole sealed up, then
it's like, OK, you can blend anything up.
They gave me some lung syringes. I could shoot stuff in my mouth
and it's kind of interesting because some things don't taste
good blended up. So I was like, well, if it
didn't taste good, I'd shoot in my stomach too.
If it tasted good then I'd shoot.
So what's what's eating like now for you?
Still not normal, it'll never be normal, but at least I can eat
almost anything. Still have a hard time with
lettuce and things that you really got to bite off to chew.
I can't eat an apple. I can't eat corn on the cob.
Some stuff I don't know. I gave the doctor a little crap
'cause she showed my mouth, shut my mouth.
Used to be out to hear, you know, I used to have a pretty
wide smile and a pretty big mouth and I said, you're trying
to shut me up. Who'd put you out to that?
It's so so if you if you've got a meal in front of you now,
like, yeah, could you eat a burger?
Could you eat French fries? Could you I?
I can eat pretty much anything but a burger.
It's like just eating a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich.
Yeah, I've got to squish it down and put it in my mouth.
In fact, I got a a thing to use on my mouth to try and spread
it. That that was her tactic.
Instead of cutting my mouth open more was to try and stretch it
open. And they gave me one and I
couldn't even get it in my mouth.
They had to order me a kids one and I got it finally to where I
could open it and now I can get the big one in.
So I'm I'm getting better, but I still can't.
It's like you give me a soup spoon.
I got to take take it back. If I go to a restaurant, you got
a smaller spoon because I can't get a soup spoon in my mouth.
What was the first thing you were wanting to eat?
Well, I told him in the hospital that we just got a Texas
Roadhouse in Bozeman, and I said it was too busy, It hadn't
slowed down enough for me to go there and try it.
So that was one of the first things I wanted to do.
And they heard about it and sent me a box of stuff and the.
Texas Roadhouse did. And the guy that's cool runs and
owns the one in Bozeman said, well, you know, soon as you're
ready to eat, bring your family and it's on me.
Wow. And he's actually paid for a
couple of my meals in there now, so.
But yeah. Did they ever find the bear?
They stopped looking for it the next day.
So they went up the next day and did a thorough investigation of
the area, found out that he was on a dead deer.
It wasn't the same deer that the son had shot.
And he had a stash of pine nuts there too.
So that was kind of his dining area, his stash.
They didn't see any blood. He was guarding a dead animal,
so they determined he was acting appropriately, that he wasn't
being aggressive and just about to attack me, so they called it
good. So his intent wasn't necessarily
to kill you, it was just to get you out of there.
Well, and like I said, that's the two reasons out of the three
that a barrel attack is they're guarding food, they're
protecting their food source, whether it's a bear, whether
it's wolves, whatever it is, they're going to try and protect
that food source. Or if you straddle him.
And I think I had both. So I think he didn't know I was
there till I was there and and he was guarding his food and he
didn't know what he was guarding it from at the moment.
Have you been back out since? Oh yeah.
You've been back out to that location and visited.
I haven't been to that exact spot, but I'm up that trail all
the time, every day. What was that like?
We buried my old dog, my big dog, at the fork of the trail
where the two trails where I started down the one trail.
So he's up there watching that trail now.
That's one of the reasons I got that dog was to protect my
youngest son. And I had a dream when I first
went and looked at him, that that he was with me, and he
stood off a bear. Wow.
In that dream, so that was the main reason that I got that dog
and he was a black lab mastiff mix, so he was £120 dog.
Oh boy, sorry to hear that. Oh, he, he was old.
Yeah. It's one of those situations.
Was there anxiety going back out?
No, really, no. I have no problem going back
out. I've been running the woods
since I was young, and bears are a part of life.
And I tell people, I've had people cancel on me because of
this. They're like, we're afraid to go
out there. It's like, well, I'm packing.
I've got bear spraying on my units.
You're in a big unit. They're not going to attack you
in a side by side. That's something pretty big to
attack. But I still had people cancel
and say that we don't want to go.
It's we're afraid of it. And it's like, OK.
Have you had any like issues with PTSD?
I'd like a week in the hospital that I had nightmares, but that
was it. I didn't sleep very good anyhow
in the hospital because in the beginning it's like I had to be
at a certain angle otherwise I felt like I was going to be
choking on my own spit and blood.
And you know, I'd have to be on one side or the other so it
could drain out. So it wasn't going down my
throat. So I didn't get, you know, about
an hour or two, sleep every night at a time.
So it's like an hour wake up, an hour wake up.
And actually one of the nurses, I think it was in the ICU like
day 2 or day three, she's like, you want to marry, you want to
look at yourself. I said no, no.
So the first time I actually saw myself was when they took the
catheter out and I could go to the bathroom for the first time
and I looked in the mirror and it's like, no.
But at that point they had, I don't know if you looked at any
of those pictures, but they had the nettle thing on my skin,
keeping it stretched out so it wouldn't all shrink up.
So they wouldn't have anything to work with when they put me
back together. And at one point that I had like
a metal band around it to protect it.
And I said you need to put a plastic beanie on me so I look
like I got a football helmet on. Oh wow.
Yeah, I'm, I'm a jokester by heart.
And I I, I tried to make it as fun as I could in the hospital.
Everybody loved me. And it's like, I started out
with one white board and then I had two and then I had three.
And it's like I'd, I'd wake up at night and I'd have a a
spiritual thought or a quote for the day that I'd write on a
whiteboard and I'd put it up on the wall and everybody would
come in and look at it and. Are you a spiritual person?
I am What? What did you talk about that?
I was before this, but yeah, I definitely know it was God's
hand in my life then. And, and actually it was like
the second or third day the Bishop of my ward.
Drove from Bozeman down to Salt Lake to give me a blessing.
And then that blessing. He told me that I grow from this
experience spiritually. And after that, that night, that
first night, I had a dream and I could see an invisible floor and
a voice told me to take the step up.
And I took a step up and he said, welcome to your next step
of spirituality. Then the next night, I had a
dream and it told me that this was my answer, my prayers.
And people comment to me all the time about my attitude in the
hospital, that you're so positive and everything.
And it's like, well, when you were told that you prayed for
this, how could you have a bad attitude?
And they're like, well, how did you pray for that?
And I said, well, I'm self-employed.
I own my own business and it's a seasonal business.
I'm the small guy. I run 10 machines to the other
guy's 90 and the other guy's 70. So, you know, I'm competing with
the big fish. And I don't have property of my
own. I don't make enough money to
even afford property up there. So it's like I've been praying
for years to have my father to help me financially if I'm going
to succeed, because I know what I do, it's a good thing.
I bring families together. I get people out in the great
outdoors to see what God created.
And so I know what I do is good. And I said, you know, human
father, if I'm going to keep doing this, I need help.
I need financial help. And I was expecting to win the
lottery or sweepstakes or I know a lot of rich people.
I expected somebody to say, hey, we think you're doing a great
job, We think you're needed in the community.
We want to donate some land to you or give you some money to
get some land so you're settled, that you got a permanent
foundation. And I wasn't expecting a Veritat
to be the answer to my prayers, but I was told in that dream
that this would open doors. And here I am.
On the third night, I had a dream that kind of laid out the
rest of my life that my business is so many days and other days
of the week, 2 days of the week I was going to be doing stuff
like this. Trying to.
That was one of the reasons I was told I was spared was to
share my story with as many people as I can.
Because, you know, I've had people say you're a hero and
you're inspiring, and I'll take inspiring any day.
I'm no hero. It's not like I was saving a
bunch of Cub Scouts from getting mauled by a bear or anything.
But I like to think that, you know, my story can pretty much
touch anybody. You don't even have to believe
in God to have my story help you.
It's like none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.
You know, don't take those little things for granted.
You know, like eating, breathing, talking, swallowing.
I, I got to think every time I swallow.
I can't, I don't just swallow naturally.
So, you know, all those little things, you know, if you burn
bridges, broken fences, you need to mend them.
You know, you don't have a guaranteed amount of time on
this or get it done. So, you know, just those few
things could help almost anybody out there.
How do you feel that God's opened the door for you since
this has happened? Well, I tell tell my story to
everybody. So I go to a restaurant, gas
station, whatever hotel, airline.
It's like the first airplane I jumped on today.
When I got off, I told the flight attendants, I said, well,
you can tell some people at home that you met somebody almost
famous today. They're like, Oh yeah, who's
that? And I said to me, I Google it
and show them one of the articles on me and they're like,
whoa, that's a story in the one flight attendant.
She's like, you should have told me that at the beginning of the
flight. I would have announced it.
That, you know, that guy with a tissue on his mouth, he's not
sick. Don't look at him like he's a
lipper. He was attacked by a grizzly
bear and survived. So yeah, I think, you know, I'm
expecting the doors to flood light open me to get rich right
now. But you know, it'll, it'll come
when God wants it to come. You know, I, I kind of expected
it to happen overnight and, and things to roll.
But you know, it all happens in his time and when he knows when
it's the time to happen. And you know, you saw my story
somewhere. You called me.
You know, somebody will see your story on me and they'll call me
and it'll just keep going. I keep telling people I'm going
to melt my 15 minutes of fame out for as long as I can.
And I, I started writing the book.
You know, this was the first edition I called, but I I sat
down and started with the first bear encounter that I had at 10
and. I don't know.
I can't remember if it's like 15 or 20 encounters that I've had
between that one and this one, and I probably had more than
that. But that's just the ones where
it could have went South and never did that.
The bear was actually close to note that they could have done
something but didn't. And then I got to the point
where I didn't know anything and I went to the hospital in
Bozeman and got their manuscripts of, of what happened
that day. And it's kind of funny 'cause
that's going in the book too, cause somebody wrote down there
that I was 123 year old woman when I got attacked by a pair.
Oh, all right. Good thing it wasn't a Peach,
huh? That's going to go on the story
too. But yeah, I'm at the hard part
where, you know, I don't remember a whole lot in the
hospital and I don't. My daughters did everything, you
know, they mark down dated when I took my first steps, when this
tube came out, when the chest tube came out, all that stuff.
So you know, that'll go in the book too.
Wow. And I thought I was in the
hospital, that, you know, boy, if this gets into a movie, who
would I want to play me? And I thought of a few names
and, and one of them that stuck with me was Cole Hauser from
Yellowstone. And he actually has roots in
Montana. And I actually met him in a
liquor store. He was doing a promotion for his
new bourbon there. And same thing.
I was standing in line because he was taking photographs with
everybody. And I was the next one standing
in line waiting to get my picture with him.
And I didn't have my chin or my tooth in.
So I was still pretty scary. I still had the bandage around
my head because that hole wasn't sealed up.
And the guy taking the pictures, he's like, we're going to take a
a little break. Is that OK with you?
And I said yeah. And as soon as I said yeah, Cole
goes like this and points at me and he starts walking towards me
and there's pictures online of him doing that.
It's like, it's like you're the bear guy.
I said, yeah, he's like, how you doing?
I said, I'm doing all right. He's like, are you going to get
back out there? I said, oh, I was out there
today. He's like, no good for you.
He's like, I heard you want me to play in the movie.
I said, yeah, but I didn't know how tall you were.
I said, and they're going to have to Gray up a lot because
you're a lot younger than I am. He's like, oh, they can do that
pretty easy. And I think he would have talked
to me for quite a while, but you know, he still has a line of
people doing it and just take photographs.
But he was pretty cool. That's amazing.
Now, I, I, I think I already know the answer to this
question, but I'm going to ask you anyway.
If you could go back and, and never have had this experience
in your life and never experience everything that's
come up until now, would you go back and remove it?
Nope. You know I was going to say
that, didn't you? Yeah, it was just meant to be
in. I don't think they're, you know,
I, I've, I've had instances in my life where I know God saved
me. It's like, you know, you never
think of things like, you know, you get out going to start your
car and your battery doesn't start, Your car doesn't start.
You put the jumper cables on, it starts right up.
You don't have a problem. You get to where you're going or
on the road to where you're going.
And there was a semi truck that rolled over and smashed the car,
you know, 5 minutes ago that you would have been there 5 minutes
ago. So it's like, you know, I, I
take everything, everything's got, it's good and bad.
And you can learn from every experience whether it's good or
bad. So.
Your your story is is absolutely incredible.
I I'm glad I only learned a little bit about you before you
came here because it's, it's I, I am absolutely blown away.
I, I think you are an inspirational person.
I think you have a, a story to tell.
And I'm a spiritual person too, just in case anybody's
wondering. I actually was in ministry for a
long time before I did this. And yeah, I think that's got a
an incredible plan for your story and giving you a voice to
be able to share what he's pulled you out of because
somebody else needs to hear that.
Well, one of my buddies, he's like, you know, I'll be having a
bad day thinking, yeah, what a crappy day I'm having.
And I'll just think of Rudy and say, well, I'm not having a got
my jaw bit off by a grizzly bear baddest day.
So, so, you know, even it just helps somebody that's just
having a bad day. Well, could be worse.
I couldn't have my jaw bitten off.
I actually talked to a cop because I was trying to round up
the people that searched and rescued me.
So I stopped in the police station in Big Sky, which is
real small. Their office is probably this
big. And the guy that was in the
office, he's like, no, I've, I, I heard about you.
He's like, but I wasn't on call that day.
Funny stories, like I was sitting in my recliner feeling
sorry for myself because I banged up my knee riding my
mountain bike. And then your story broke on the
news. It's like, well, my day's not
that fast. Wow, yeah.
So yeah, hopefully, you know, the more I can get it out there.
You know, I, I just think and I, I don't know, I prove every day
that most people are good. You know, everybody says how in
the world's going to crap and people aren't honest.
People aren't good people. It's like I run my business.
Like I want to be treated If I was going somewhere, you know,
I'm about as laid back as you can get.
I don't charge people till they come back.
I don't do deposits. I don't do all the stuff the
other guys do. It's like, you know, I don't
have sign damage waivers and look for damage.
It's like if you do damage, I expect you to pay for it if
you're not honest enough to pay for it.
And I get one a year. So 99% of the people in my
opinion are good people. If they do something, they're
going to tell you and pay for it and have no problem with it.
And it's usually that one rich person that you want to get it
out of me, you can talk to my lawyer.
That lawyer is going to cost more than the damages on that
snowmobile. Come on.
But yeah, I I say to myself, you know, I I proved that most
people are good. It's like the family that I had
out just the other day. It's like they're from Florida.
And they're like, well, you ever get down in our area, you come
see us, we'll take you out and show you around.
And they invited me to go to dinner with them that night when
they got done snowmobiling. I I've kind of done my business
that since I opened with, you know, they start as customers,
but they end up as friends or family.
You know, they're, they're lifetime friends.
I'm not here just to make a buck.
I'm here to have forever people. They want to come back and, and
go again. Anytime they're in Big Sky, they
want to see me. So I actually had some girls
came from somewhere back east. They actually kind of planned
their vacation. They saw my story and they
planned their vacation to Big Sky to come snowmobile with me.
Really. Yeah.
How cool is that? That was cool.
Yeah. And I didn't charge him.
I said, you know, you girls are are so fun.
We had, you know, every time we stop, they're just asking me
questions like you are, oh man, you're just so amazing, this and
that and the other. And it's like we get back down.
They're like, no, we're going to tip you anyhow.
We're going to pay them. And of course, you know, with
all the ways they can pay nowadays, it's like, Nope, they
figured out a way to tip me. Yeah, wow.
So if there's anything that you could tell anyone based off of
what has happened to you, what's the message that you want to
share? Well, one, if you're out in the
woods, you need to be bare aware.
Actually, who would have guessed I would have been show and tell,
but my granddaughter took me into her class for show and tell
and. How old is she?
12 and the problem is, is, is a couple of kids had lost their
father from a bear attack in her class Oh wow.
So the teacher's like, I don't have a problem with you coming.
I'd really like you to come and share your experience, but I
don't know about the two kids, how well they'll take it if you
know, you're really, if you take your chin off and all that
stuff, you know how they'll take it.
So my granddaughter did a whole tablet presentation on me and
everything else and had pictures from the Internet and whatever
and put it together. And I told my story and the
teacher asked me quite a few questions.
And then some of the kids asked questions and, and one of the
kids questions was so that comes off.
And I said, yeah, he's like, can we see it?
And the teacher's like, well, I don't know if everybody wants to
see it, so let's have a show of hands.
Who wants to look at it and who doesn't?
And of course the two kids dads didn't really want to see it.
And a couple of squeamish kids probably didn't want to see it.
But the rest of them are like, yeah, yeah, she's like, so if
you don't want to see it, just close your eyes, put your head
on your desk, whatever. And I took it off and, and the
last kid that asked me, he's like, could you do that again?
And, and the kids that weren't looking the first time, we're
looking the second time. And they're like, you know, and
the one kids like. So we go out in the woods with
our dad a lot. Do we really have to pack bear
spray and be that bear aware? I said, no, you know, if you're
just out hiking, you don't have a whole lot of chance of being
attacked by a bear. It's like if you're on a trail
and you're hiking, you're talking and, you know, whatever,
you're not being quiet. You know, if you're hunting and
you're being stealthy and quiet as you can be, that's when
you're going to have the problem.
And I told him, I said, you know, I haven't lived in a town
in Montana that we haven't had a bear in the City Park or in one
of the schools at some point, you know, like we just had a
bear in the park or in one of the schools last week or
something. I said, so you walk out your
door, you got to be bear aware. I said most of those that are
coming into town are probably first time on their own.
They don't know what the heck they're doing looking for food.
And they found out that people are a source of food.
You know, your garbage is their meal.
So, you know, I tell people all the time, I think bears are kind
of like people. Some are just you're going to
have a problem no matter what you do, but 99% of them are
going to go that way just as quick as you go that way.
They don't want any more problem than you do.
So I come that close to pet and the back black bear come once
thinking it was a hairy dog. Oh geez.
And it's like the mother was across the parking lot from you
and all I got was a look, and she just kept walking.
Oh, wow. So, you know, it's all
circumstance. I got a bad knee from another
Baron encounter, so really, yeah.
It's not a as good a story though.
It's. It's hard.
I don't have a bad knee from a bear encounter so it's better
than any story I got. Well, I went when I got out of
the Navy. I went to hunt and guide school
out of between Livingston and Gardner and the guy let me pay
it off by working for him that winter.
And so I stayed on after the guide school got done and we
would skin animals and dump all our trash in a certain spot and
all the bears would congregate there.
And when the guide school closed down, you know, the food source
wasn't there anymore. And this bear was his first year
out on his own and he came to my cabin that I was staying in.
I was getting a cabin ready for hunting season and and that
first night he poked his nose through the screen and he was
small enough. It's like crap.
I don't know if he's by himself or he's with mom.
So I closed all the windows and locked the doors and everything.
The next morning I went out and tracked, found out that he was
by himself for two weeks. He tormented me, chewed the cab
lights off the truck, chewed the seat off the floor.
Wheeler broke into somebody's camp trailer there, chased the
cat up over the roof, and it's like I shot him with my rubber
tipped arrows. I shot my guns in the air and he
just kept coming back. So I resorted.
I got a bucket of rocks. I'd sit up on the roof and throw
rocks at him when he'd come around.
And then one day I was outside linseed oil on the outside of
the cabin. I thought, well, it's time for
lunch. I went to go to lunch and I
walked by the window. I looked in the window and there
he was sitting on my table eating my loaf of bread.
So I opened the front door and went in the same window.
He went in, chased him out, grabbed my bucket of rocks and I
was chasing him, pelting him with rocks.
I stepped in a Gopher hole and twisted my nose.
Oh man, that was no dude. No hook too.
Man. That was my second worst bear
encounter. But the biggest bear I ever saw
was when I was 10, and that bear was so big they still ran cows
up in the National Forest first back then.
And you couldn't tell he was laying on a dead couch till he
got up to look at us. That's how big that one was.
I'm 62, and I could barely reach the bottom of his scratches on
trees. That's how they marked their
territory. It's like they scratch as high
as they can. Another bear comes in the
territory and say, oh, I can't even reach that.
I'm not going to mess with that guy, you know?
So. So yeah, we had bears.
We stayed up in those cabins that my grandfather had for that
first summer, and there was probably, hell, I don't know,
multiple times that we saw very grizzly bears and black bears
coming through at night and whatever.
And my brother and I used to spend a week up in those cabins
every summer for a few years just seeing if we can live off
the land. You know, I learned one thing.
If you want a bear to come cook bacon for dinner, he'll be there
by breakfast. But we were sitting there eating
our bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and the dogs started
going crazy. Like, what the heck's wrong with
him? We're looking out the window and
then we see a bear cross in front of the window.
It's like whoa. And he starts banging on the
door trying to get in. And the dog ran into the vent
and he's still barking. And all we had were 20 twos.
So we got under the bed and we're yelling and screaming and
whatever it got out of here and it finally took off.
But yeah, wow. I tell people.
A lot of times too, you know, bears will usually give you some
warning when they stand up on their ear legs.
They're checking you out. They're trying to discover what
you are, if you're a threat and what they're going to do.
And when they get down, that's when they are deciding, you
know, if they go away from you, usually you're OK.
I, I know, I think it was Todd or that wasn't the case.
The bear turned around and came back and attacked you twice.
But it's like usually if they turn around, they're going on
their merry way. You're good to go your way.
If they get down, they start lunging at you.
They're testing you to see what you're going to do.
And and they're deciding whether they're coming or not.
And that's if they lunge at you, you better be getting prepared.
And and I would say, like others have said that, you know, one of
your podcasts that I watched, it kind of amazed me because he
didn't remember hearing or hearing things either.
You know, it's like, yeah, it's funny how the brain works.
It's like you don't want to hear this, you don't want to see
this, you don't want to remember this.
Let's just shut it out. So it's amazing how the brain
works. That.
Where was I? Yeah, well, you were talking
about the. Other guys that have and what
their situations were like, Todd and that kind of stuff.
Have you talked to Todd? No, no, I haven't talked to any.
Better survivors. And, you know, that's one of the
things that I've had a question about ever since mine was, you
know, are bears like some other animals once they get the taste
of human blood? That's, you know, it's like my
experience that bear had to think, man, especially if he
would have killed me, that was a lot easier than killing that
deer. I didn't have to run or weren't
near as hard to kill this guy as I did that.
And there's not as much meat, But boy, that was easy.
Or if they get a taste of human blood, if they want it, and they
end up attacking more people. And you know, I don't know if
they even, I don't think they collared that bear or if that
bear was collared. I don't remember seeing the
collar. All I remember is that big head.
Wow. Do you remember some of the guys
that I talked to? That have been attacked.
They tell me that they remember what the bear felt like as far
as like what it felt like, and it's what it smelled like.
Did you do you, did you experience anything like that at
all? Well, I tell people all the
time, I said well. Usually you can hear a bear or
smell a bear before you see him a lot of times, because unless
they're hunting you or actually physically hunting, you know,
they're not terribly quiet. It's like they're breaking logs
and ripping up stumps and turning rocks over and, you
know, unless they're actually physically stalking something,
they're not really quiet. And they smell.
They're like, oh really? It's like, yeah, what do they
smell like? Well, yeah, put a dumpster and a
boys locker room together. That's what they smell.
All right, fair enough. So yeah, if.
You smell a bear. It's like.
You know, I smell elk all the time when I'm out there and I'll
stop on my snowmobile and people are like, what are you stopping
for? Well, I just caught a whiff of
elk. There's some elk in the area
here somewhere and but I didn't, I don't remember smelling him or
hearing him or feeling him stiff on my chest or biting my arm or
leg. It was just the jaws.
The only thing I how felt in your mind how fast?
Was this whole situation. Or did it feel?
Like it was slow motion for you it it's like a car accident or
anything else. Traumatic to me it was like it
was in the blink of the eye and it seemed to take forever.
So it's like it was a matter of seconds probably from when I
first saw him to the first initial attack was probably 2
seconds and the whole attack probably only lasted it was less
than a minute. Wow, I give my.
Kids crap all the time. I say, well, you know, they're
my son. My youngest son just got out of
prison. He's had problems with drugs
since he was 12 and been in and out of.
He's 27 now. He's been in and out of jail,
prisoner detention pretty much at least half the time from 12
to 27. And, you know, anytime he's
like, dad, you got a couple bucks I can borrow.
It's like, what would you have done if I'd have died?
You know, you guys got to prepare yourself to be able to
handle yourself without me being here.
And what's going to happen to my business if I'm gone?
You know, if you keep choosing the life that you're choosing,
you can't run it while you're in prison.
You know, my youngest daughter that has the grandkids, she
struggles sometimes with finances.
You know, she's a single mom and works three days a week and, you
know, doesn't make a lot of money.
She makes more money with me than she does working her other
job. So it's like, what are you going
to do when I'm not here? You know, you got to figure your
life out and and get your ducks in a row.
So when I do go, you're ready. I don't know.
That's another thing that I thought about was, you know, I
just went to a little seminar at one of the funeral homes in
Bozeman pre planning your funeral and pre paying for it
and getting it all laid out so your family doesn't have to
worry about that. I said, you know, then like a
near death experience to make you think about, you know, maybe
I should do what my dad didn't do and kind of plan for this to
happen. You know that it's not well, am
I going to leave my wife with no money and the VA is not going to
give her my benefits and it's not get everything lined out.
So when you do go, it's ready to go.
When you went in the hospital and you said they did all this
surgery in one day and you were the first to do that.
What kind of like nerve recovery have you been?
On like the. Pain and everything along with
that. There's no feeling there.
Do you have any feeling up through your face at all?
My face is all. Good, I've got.
Numbness from this hole here, my left arm and left thumb are
still numb. That finger's probably 75% back.
My whole hand was numb from that tooth hole, just one tooth hole
there. And that was the skin graft they
did to try and do a lip, but there's another two tooth hole
there. He hit a nerve just right there
that you know, that whole hand and arm was numb and it's still
coming back. They're like, it's a good sign
that you're, you've got feeling back to three of the five
fingers because that means it's healing.
It just takes time. You may not get it all back.
You may get it all back, it'll just take time.
My left leg, I don't have feeling down most of my left leg
and my toes are pretty much numb.
In fact, if I took my sock off, you'd see my big toes curled up
like that. It's hard to straighten it out,
but it's funny because I haven't done much rehab.
I didn't do much speech therapy. The lady talked to me one day on
speech therapy and told me what to practice and what to do and
physical therapy. As soon as I started walking and
keep walk, I I was, you know, starting with a stroller or
whatever and walking around the hospital and and then I get
without the stroller and then it's like upstairs and
downstairs and and it's like once I can walk up a flight of
stairs so that you're good to go.
Well, final word anything. Well, if I.
Can get them, do you listen, I'll hunt that one.
I'll, I'll, I told them I'll win Round 2.
I've not only got the 357, I got a 10 mil and a 45.
There you go. So, you know, be.
Prepared good well I. Appreciate you doing this.
You bet. I.
Appreciate it your your story is incredible and.
Thanks for being. Here and yeah, it's an amazing
story.