The dynamic duo, Randy Kruse and Shain Chapman, from K2 in Mason, Texas join us for Episode 63. Wheeling buddies and business partners for over 20 years, Shain and Randy talk about the different properties, K1 and K2; how they got here and what’s in store for the future of wheeling in Texas. It’s a great listen with lots of laughs amongst these old friends.
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3:02 – you’re going to make the team!
7:51 –state champion chicken judging team
13:12 – squeezed four years into five and a half
13:54 –when I didn’t get into vet school on a whim I applied to law school
17:50 – we met at a party
19:58 – we spent the next couple hours trying to get me upright
21:14 – “Boy, this is Texas”
26:26 – how much would you pay?
28:53 – the nature of off-road
30:54 – I don’t think I have any pictures I can actually publish
33:55 – what’s the difference between West Coast wheelers and Texas? ….thought there was going to be fight
40:39 – but you were a bull rider? Yeah, that ride is only 8 seconds!
47:53 – it’s such a family sport
49:25 – we did have Ted Nugent out here
54:38 – I guess I’ll go clean the toilets
1:04:53 – where does the name, Katemcy Rocks, come from?
1:11:06 – Texans take their BBQ seriously
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:20.210]
All right. On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have the operators of Katemcy Rocks in Mason, Texas.
[00:01:30.390] – Big Rich Klein
This is Randy Kruse and Shain Chapman. I’ve known these guys, oh, probably about 20 years now or so. And we are going to get into the history of both of these individuals and how they became friends and how K1 came about and then how K2 came about. So guys, I want to say thank you for being here and talking about your history.
[00:01:55.940] – Randy Kruse
Glad to be here. Excellent.
[00:01:58.200] – Big Rich Klein
Then let’s start with Randy. Randy yet Randy, where did you grow up. And you know, I know that, that I’m pretty sure it was Mason County. You guys got roads named after your family. So I would imagine you started there to talk about that and what life was like growing up in early. Mason?
[00:02:21.770] – Randy Kruse
Well, I like that I was born and raised live pretty much my whole life in Mason except for few years of college. And but my dad was a farmer, a peanut farmer. I grew up raising peanuts, watermelons, cantaloupes, and all other kinds of vegetables. It was a good life back in the farm kid, you know, worked like a dog first to May to the first in November and make a decent living for the family. And then we spent the rest of the time hunting, fishing things like that.
[00:03:02.750] – Randy Kruse
You know, kid did a little maintenance on our equipment, mainly just we enjoyed the winters. My dad was also a big cat person. And then when I was young, we grew up with coondogs. So we go Haines two or three nights a week and just enjoy life, you know? Did all the small town stuff. You live in small town. If you want to play baseball, you’re going to make the team, you want to play basketball and your four foot tall, you’re going to make the team.
[00:03:35.810] – Randy Kruse
And so I grew up, you know, enjoying the opportunity to play all the sports that I wanted to play. You’re always a kid in your hometown. And so I live in my home town so I consider myself a kid. There were thirty three kids in my class and 11 of them were boys. And we just finished our 30th class reunion. And unfortunately, we lost three of those boys, but there’s still eight or nine of us that live right here in Mason.Pretty unusual for us.
[00:04:08.720] – Randy Kruse
But all my high school buddies live live right here and it’s a good place to be. It’s one of those friendly towns you find in Texas. And I’m proud to call it my home.
[00:04:20.810] – Big Rich Klein
I agree with your description of Mason. A lot of the listeners know that we now own what we call the Mason Square Hotel, and that originally was owned by your partner, Shain Chapman. And we purchased it from him. And we we we plan to retire there at some point. You know, and I know you’re a real estate agent, so we’re going to eventually we’ve looked at property. Eventually we’re going to find another piece of property and we want to build a barndominium or something like that on it.
[00:04:53.000] – Big Rich Klein
But, you know, yeah, I agree 100 percent. The community is really you know, we’re not there that often in the community has really taken to us. So and we’ve taken to the community. It’s a great place.
[00:05:06.050] – Randy Kruse
Yeah, I know. Even like yourself, you know, you’ve been here relatively short while. But, you know, when I see a lot of folks in town, hey, how’s Rich and Shelley? Where they at, what are they doing, when are they coming back? So it’s a friendly town. You know, thankfully, the next town over is Fredricksburg, Gillespie County. And I think they’ve been swarmed and overtaken by outsiders and the local people are not as friendly. So I’m happy to be in Mason and everybody likes to shake your hand.
[00:05:37.250] – Randy Kruse
I was excited to see new people, so it’s a great place to be.
[00:05:41.540] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, I 100 percent agree with that. And and Frederiksberg is well, you know, it is become really touristy and everybody’s bought second or third what they call homes, but they’re all Airbnbs now. So, you know, the. All the locals are getting run out. Yeah, so Shain, how about yourself? Where did you grow up?
[00:06:03.810] – Shain Chapman
I actually grew up in North Texas. My dad’s side of the family was from McKinney or actually outside of McKinney back when McKinney was small town that they grew up. We had a little family farm there in a place called New Hope, which my dad and uncle called No Hope. But it was, you know, that was a nice little area. Then my dad and my uncle were the first people on my dad’s side of the family to graduate from high school and to go to college.
[00:06:39.510] – Shain Chapman
And I was the first one from that side of the family to actually not be born there. On the family farm where I grew up, though, in Sherman, it’s about 30 miles or so from McKinney and spent all my youth there in that area. And it’s a much bigger area than than Mason, but still, by most people’s standards, considered a small town or small city with twenty five to thirty thousand people back in that day. I don’t know what the numbers are now.
[00:07:12.930] – Shain Chapman
Good place to grow up real close to Lake Texoma. So I spent a lot of time on the lake when I was a kid.
[00:07:19.260] – Big Rich Klein
Excellent. So did you did you play sports as well?
[00:07:23.820] – Shain Chapman
I did. We were a 5A school. I played soccer in high school before high school. I played football, baseball, soccer, etc. But in high school it was soccer. And then I was pretty heavily involved in FFA stuff. I was showing animals
[00:07:42.230] – Randy Kruse
Future Farmers of America.
[00:07:45.030] – Shain Chapman
Oh, yeah, I spent a lot of time doing that.
[00:07:48.060] – Big Rich Klein
Randy, were you involved with FFA as well?
[00:07:51.690] – Randy Kruse
Oh, yes, sir. We started showing animals. We started showing sheep when I was, you know, probably, you know, 10 or 12 still in junior high. And then when I moved to high school, I started showing steers and my brother and I showed steers all four years of high school big in the FFA and judging. And it was the ultimate on the state champion chicken judging team, big claim to fame. But I knew there was a lot of pressure here.
[00:08:26.280] – Randy Kruse
I can judge a chicken, buddy READ MORE
