Lifelong outdoor enthusiast, Kurt Schneider in Episode 80. Wearing a lot of hats: teacher, coach, land use advocate, Kurt influences others, the right way, by telling stories
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4:59 – heads we go to Florida, tails we go west, and it came up tails
8:07 – Life is about experiences
12:01 – there are pine trees!
13:45 – my dad introduces me to Ansel Adams
19:31 – close the hood and walk away
24:20 – my kids are working on stuff on the side of the road, just like me
36:50 – no good story ever started with a salad
38:08 – started playing professional paintball
42:11 – hating on sealions
51:55 – here’s my confession
55:53 – Frank Sinatra has a cold
1:12:07 – in land use, we eat out young
1:21:07 – John Muir was about access
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich.
[00:01:23.210] – Big Rich Klein
We have Kurt Schneider, those that are back from the Pirate days. We’ll know Kurt as Kurtcules. At least that’s how I pronounced it.
[00:01:34.590] – Kurt Schneider
Not sure what was it? Kurtcules. Okay.
[00:01:42.490] – Big Rich Klein
I was always wondering what that was.
[00:01:44.060] – Kurt Schneider
Alright, everybody.
[00:01:45.370] – Big Rich Klein
Well, that’s like what was Wheelindemon. Well done, man.
[00:01:51.700] – Kurt Schneider
Yeah.
[00:01:53.760] – Big Rich Klein
Alright. So anyway, Kurt, thank you for coming on board. You got a long history in a lot of different areas. Wheeling, especially. Let’s just jump right in. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:08.760] – Kurt Schneider
Well, that’s kind of a long answer. Originally, I was born in Virginia. My mom and dad lived in Lura, Virginia, but my family, the Schneider family is all from upstate New York. Rochester, New York. My dad ran hotels, restaurants and golf courses. So we moved around a lot from there. But the summer between kindergarten and first grade, my father opened up a restaurant in upstate New York, right off of Lake Ontario. There’s a Bay called East Port Bay. My dad’s restaurant was right on the water so you can pull your boat up, drive a car down a Hill to get to it down by the water.
[00:02:54.600] – Kurt Schneider
And that’s actually when I kind of first got into Jeeps, those upstate New York winters are just miserable. You get the Lake effect snow that’s super thick and wet. And my dad knew he needed something four wheel drive to get not only down to the restaurant by the Bay, but get back up the Hill with the main road. And he bought a 1977 Jeep Wagoneer. And during the winter it would. A lot of people wouldn’t want to show up to the restaurant because they drive down the Hill to get to the restaurant and couldn’t get back up.
[00:03:33.960] – Kurt Schneider
So dad, get the Wagonner. Click that Quadrack track into four low. And back then, we use chains. There’s no tow straps. And my dad would tow everybody up that Hill. And, you know, when you’re in kindergarten, first grade dad is just my hero. And on those thick upstate New York winters, he tow everybody out of the snow.
[00:04:00.100] – Big Rich Klein
That’s awesome.
[00:04:01.190] – Kurt Schneider
But after about that’s.
[00:04:03.110] – Big Rich Klein
How you get customers to come back?
[00:04:05.590] – Kurt Schneider
Well, during the summer, it was great. You know, my dad can write a menu. And his restaurant was awesome. But winters by February, March we’re Destitute because we didn’t have enough customers coming into the restaurant.
[00:04:19.040] – Big Rich Klein
Right.
[00:04:19.400] – Kurt Schneider
So going in the third grade, end of the summer, my mom and dad decided we’ve had enough of these winters. We’re going to go back to Florida because we lived in Florida for a short period of time when I was really little, my dad sold everything, put a bunch of stuff in storage, bought an RV trailer. And essentially the day I was supposed to start third grade, we got in that RV and slowly started working down the Eastern seaboard. So we went to Civil War battlefield after Civil War battlefield, Washington, DC, just slowly took our time just exploring.
[00:04:59.760] – Kurt Schneider
And we got to Stone Mountain, Georgia, and in Stone Mountain, Georgia. We stayed there a week where my dad is trying to line up a job in Florida, and we literally flipped a quarter. My dad is, I don’t know if I want to go to Florida. It’s muggy lots of bugs. And my mom’s like, well, we got a job lined up. We flip the quarter heads. We go to Florida, tails. We go west, and it came up tails. READ MORE
