Dennis Walters - Part 4 (Adaptive Golf is Born)

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

You believe about how you kind of got back in the Golf Coast accident with the encouragement of your father, with the creativity, I'm sure, of a lot of different people, engineers, non-engineers, but just adapting the technology and the and the and the hardware and the the the to to to allow you to swing a golf club and and and hit good golf shots. So take us from there to kind of in your mind now deciding, okay, so what am I going to do now?

Dennis Walters 0:45

Well, what happened was the the original bar stool didn't last very long. It was not made for that. And so my dad knew a guy who owned a machine shop, and he we took this thing over to him and we said, Can you make this any better? And he made it, he made it better by the bar stool was made at all the underpinnings and everything were wood with a cheap swivel plate on it. So this guy made it heavy duty, all out of metal, and then that was prototype number one, and then I met uh I'm I'm the when this guy made prototype number one, he was really smart because he said, Do you want to have any movement in this thing? And so we said, Well, that's a tricky question because you can't have any movement on the backswing, because even though my legs are on the ground, they're not doing anything. If you if you have movement on the backswing, it's like a reverse pivot. So he said, Well, I'll make it so it'll have enough tension that it'll stay steady on the backswing. But when your right arm gets past the ball, the seat will move about five or six inches. And as it turned out, it helped my forward swing, but it also took the stress off my back. I I've hit, I probably have hit three or four million golf balls in my life. And if everyone had been a like on the bar stool, no movement, and you hit right into it, it's like a jolt, I would have thrown my back out after a very short time. But this took the pressure off that, and I've never really had any back issues, which is remarkable.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

Yeah.

Dennis Walters 2:29

And then the next the next step was I took it. We I met a guy named Gary Wyron, who is uh still to this day one of my mentors, and he he was he's a phenomenal person in golf. He's he's the one who wrote the book on instruction for PGA professionals. He's taught all over the world, and uh he helped me uh greatly during my career. He's also probably the best speaker I've ever heard, and I was really shy. I didn't like to talk, and I used to send him these little tapes of my shows, and he would critique me. I even sent him my practices because I didn't have any shows when I first started, and so he helped me a great deal with that. And he took me to EasyGo, and we went there and we met this guy named Frank Reese, and he was, I don't know what his title was, but he could fix or make anything. And anyhow, we said, This is what we have, can you make it better? So he said, Yeah, come back in two weeks. So we went up to Augusta and we came back down and we went up there, and it was uh this was uh 70, just barely 77. And he they they gave me a cart was red, white, and blue with this stars on it, and that glowed in the sunlight. It was the bicentennial cart. Oh yeah, and with this seat, now the seat that I have now uh is the same seat. Uh it's it's 40 like 47 years old.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

Yeah.

Dennis Walters 4:07

And so um it still works. Because he made it, he made it so it could have it only has one moving part, the handle that you releases the seat. And he said, if anything goes wrong with this, I want my 12-year-old son to be able to fix it. Well, his son's in his 50s now, you know, and the seat still works. And and so um that's um that's how I got a real uh my real golf cart. And listen, there was nobody else doing this. Every step that we made to build the seat, to build the golf club. We spent one summer just trying to figure out the lie to put make the clubs and the length to make the clubs and everything. And and it was one total experiment after another because you couldn't look it up in a book. You couldn't, you could there was no one else.

Bruce Devlin 5:04

I was like trial and error.

Dennis Walters 5:06

Exactly, and and I was like the I was like a um I was like a test pilot and a pioneer because we just tr kept trying everything to see if it would work. So once I got the cart, then when this happened to me, there were three golf courses that had benefit tournaments to raise a little money for me. So that was the the the that year I said to my dad, I said, Why don't we go over and show him that I'm playing golf? And he goes, That's a good idea. So we went and did it. The first one and the second one, I just I got on the first T and I said, This is what's different about how I'm playing now, this is what's the same. I said, You have to hold the club the same, you have to aim. I had a little arrow on my cart where it helped me aim. And uh, you know, I said you still have to have good uh balance, uh rhythm, timing, and um I said I have this seat on my seat is I have a strap that goes across my waist that holds me up, but the balance point then becomes the center of my body where it's less stable than if it if I was using the ground. Now my feet are on the ground, but I'm I'm not using the ground because I can't move or feel my feet. So the third one, when I was a kid, I played in the Met the Met Junior, and Paul Hahn Sr. was there, and he was giving a he was giving a show, an exhibition. It was at the Apalamas Club in New York. And for whatever reason, I was in the first row watching, but I never said, wow, I'd like to try that, hitting with a funny club or a three-foot high tee. And so I said, but it this is really cool. I liked it. So for the third show, I said to my dad, I said, You remember when I went to see Paul Hahn? Yeah, I said, Could you make me a three-foot high tee? Yes. So he made me a three-foot high tea and I practiced with it. Then when I went to the other thing, the last one, I did everything I did in the other place, and I was getting polite applause, and yeah, great. This is a but then he whips out this three-foot high tee, and I killed it right off the tee. And the place went nuts. And they're, oh, this is great. Can I, you know, could I try it? So all the members wanted to try it, and they couldn't hit it. They kept breaking it. We had extras, and um, so I said, Wow, I got a much better reaction. So I said to um Gary Wyron, he said, you know, they have a they have a film of Paul Hahn. The PGA has a film of Paul Hahn doing a show at Firestone 1960 at the PGA, right? And you probably played in that, Bruce, right?

Bruce Devlin 8:09

Firestone. Little a little bit before my time, but not much. I yeah, I was in I was in Philadelphia then at the uh second Eisenhower uh cup matches.

Dennis Walters 8:22

Oh boy.

Bruce Devlin 8:23

Is that the one where Nicholas shot the uh Yeah, where he broke Hogan's record, yeah, Marion. Yeah, beat beat me by like 16 shots. Thank you very much for reminding me.

Dennis Walters 8:34

He had a wooden shafted putter during that tournament, too.

Bruce Devlin 8:38

I'm not sure, but he still played some fabulous golf. He and Dean Beaman played well too. I finished one, two, and I finished third in it.

Mike Gonzalez 8:48

So oh boy, that was uh and they got to meet President Eisenhower as well during that trip because the Aussies won the inaugural at St. Andrews in 1958. And and so the winning uh the defending champs and and the U.S. team got to meet uh President Eisenhower in the Oval Office, right?

Dennis Walters 9:06

Wow, that's cool.

Bruce Devlin 9:09

I got a uh I got a photograph uh sitting in my office right now that I'm looking at just above the computer that I've got with the with the both the Aussie and the uh and the Australian team together with Eisenhower.

Dennis Walters 9:24

Wow, that's cool. The uh uh anyhow, I watched this film like 500 times. Uh I don't even think I gave it back. I don't know, I don't remember that. But I watched it on my wall and I'd go, I could do that one, forget it, maybe. And so I started to pick up.

Bruce Devlin 9:45

Pick out the ones you could.

Dennis Walters 9:46

I picked out the ones that I could do, and I started to practice, and uh I was doing it for my own amusement. I I was just fooling around. So then Gary Wyron said, uh, he got me my first show at the 1977 PGA merchandise show. Right. And I did a show behind the the believe it or not, the PG the merchandise show was at the contemporary hotel, and the companies would have they would rent like a a room, they took all the furniture out of the room, and that's where the that was their booth. So like Tidalus would have maybe two rooms or something, you know. And behind the hotel, there used to be a lake, it's not there anymore because I went to look at it years later. And so I was hitting ball, I was doing this uh show, an exhibition, whatever you want to call it, with Bob Toskey and Jim Flick. And that was my first show. And so Toskey and I were hitting the the tidalist guy gave us a grosser tidless. So tight uh Toskey and I are hitting balls in the lake, and we're trying to see who can make it skip the most. And so we we were having a great time, and uh then at the end there's like six tidalists left, right? So the guy says, Want them? I go, Oh man, I said, because I don't have anything, I hardly have golf clubs. And I said, Man, if I'd have known that, I wouldn't hit the rest of them in the lake, you know. That's right. And so that was the start of it. That was the first show I ever did, and I've done over 3,000 since then. And uh I've I've done a lot of things that I never thought I could do. I in the beginning, I had I didn't have any shows. Hardly anyone would hire me. And so, but in the meantime, I was getting a lot better because I was doing hundreds of shows at the back of the range for my dog, the birds, the squirrels, and the trees. And every once in a while my dad would uh he'd come up with a show and we'd do it. And so I I complained to my mom once, and I she goes, You don't like the job he's doing? Do it yourself. Because he was calling every course there was, and it was not like you could find them. Even if you called the PGA sections, they wouldn't give you the list, or they'd send you like a mimeograph sheet of paper you couldn't hardly read. Right, and um but er so she goes, You don't like it, do it yourself. So she gives me this book, and it she goes, You call them up, you write down the person's name, call them back in a week. Anyhow, I hated doing that because I had to call them up and tell them how great I was and all this kind of stuff, and I wasn't that great anyhow. So um, anyhow. Um after a little anyhow, I have about 40 of those, 45 of those books. And uh one time I was on the phone after I got going, my mom was listening, and she goes, Wow, that was pretty good. That was a good presentation. Anyhow, my dad wrote a letter around 1980. My dad wrote a letter to Jack Nickliffe, who at the time owned the McGregor Golf Company. And um my dad was trying to appeal to him as a father trying to help his son, Jack being a great family man and father. And anyhow, we went up to Albany, Georgia, or as they call it, Albany, and I had used McGregor Woods. I love McGregor Woods, and I met uh this guy, George Nichols, and a couple of these other guys who were real golf guys, and they were the four of them were running the company. Anyhow, we played golf, I did my show, called me back, we're signing you to uh George Nichols called, he said, we're signing you to a contract,$25,000. Wow, that's like more money than I made the whole time I've been doing this. But I wasn't, I still wasn't, you know, I wasn't doing it for the money, I was doing it to try and cope with what I consider to be a hopeless situation, even at this point. But my dad was going with me, and uh things were getting a little better, but my career took off once they signed me because they sent me everywhere junior tournaments, they sent me to corporate outings, charity tournaments. I did one at the memorial tournament. Sam Snead was like 10 feet away. Patty Berg, I was so nervous. All these people were there, and but the wind was blowing like 30 miles an hour behind me. All I had to do was make contact, and it looked good.

Mike Gonzalez 14:29

Look good, huh? And so you talked about seeing Patty Berg as a youngster and learning what Bruce and I have learned about Patty Berg now for Wilson and the 15, 16,000 clinics and exhibitions she did. You probably wish you would have taken better notes.

Dennis Walters 14:47

No, listen, I uh I I borrowed a few of her things. Every time I every time someone gave a clinic, I would go watch them. One time Sam Sneed was given a clinic, right? It was at uh it was at uh uh it was in Fort Lauderdale, and uh it was at Colony West. So I said to my dad, I said, Come on, let's go watch Sam Sneed. I said, Man, there'll be thousands of people there. I said, let's go early. So we're supposed to do it at 12, and we got there at 10 o'clock, and we're just you know passing time. Anyhow, Sam Sneed comes out. There's like 40 people there, and I'm going. I I was like right there. I was like on top of him. I asked him so many questions, he got mad at me. So um, so anyhow, my dad says, you know, we we were already doing the shows. My dad goes, Okay, hot shot. Next time you bitch and moan about a small crowd, remember that Sam Sneed had 40 people at Colony West, and he's a hell of a lot better than you are.

Mike Gonzalez 15:52

Uh so when when when you were signed by McGregor in 1980 or so, uh, had you then already appeared on the show That's Incredible?

Dennis Walters 16:04

Yes, I think so, yeah. I had. And um the um Was that John Davidson?

Mike Gonzalez 16:11

Was that the guy that hosted the cross?

Dennis Walters 16:12

Yeah, John Davidson, Kathy Lee Crosby. Crosby, yeah, yeah. And um the other one was uh Fran Tarkinton.

Mike Gonzalez 16:20

Yeah, there you go.

Dennis Walters 16:21

So um so they called me, want to be on the show. So they send this camera crew to my house, they're filming all this stuff, and we go out to the range. So the the guys, uh there's a guy, a cameraman with me, and then about 200, 210 out. There's another guy with a camera. So these guys know nothing about golf. So the guy says, Here's the idea. You hit it, try and hit the cameraman, and uh, you know, we'll film that, and then we'll do some other stuff, this and that. So the guy, I hit the first shot, and I'm hitting a driver, I'm hitting it like 210, right? And so it goes right at the cameraman. So the guy says, Hey, it's 10 feet to the left, tell them to get it a little closer. We hear that on the walkie-talkie, right? So we I'm saying, these guys know nothing about golf, you know. So we tried to explain to the guy that it's not a, you know, it's not a rifle. It's you know, I'm gonna be a little bit 10 feet off here and there. Anyhow, I was still peppering the guy with the driver. And uh so then they played our thing, and the guy calls me back and he says, that was really good. We want you to come back and do it. They every once in a while they would call someone back to be live in the studio. So they they said, We want you to be in the studio. So I said to my dad, this is our big break. 30 million people watch this show. We'll have more shows than we know what to do with. So we go to uh we get on a plane and we go, I said, Man, they'll pick us up in a limo. I said, We'll go to the Beverly Hills Hotel and we'll be eating steak every night. So the guy he we get off the bag, we're at baggage claim, the guy has a handmade sign that's incredible, right? Made out of like magic marker, right? And so on a piece of uh cardboard. So we said, Hey, that's us. He goes, come on, we'll get in the van and we'll go. Oh sh. So my dad, this was a cargo van. It had no seats, no limit, it had no, it wasn't finished on the inside, nothing. So my dad is sitting, in order for me to hit to fly, we had to have another seat to take with us because what happened was we had no shows to begin with. Then a guy wanted me to go to Puerto Rico, can't drive to Puerto Rico. Another guy wanted me to go to California. We're gonna charge 200 bucks and drive to California. Nope. Then another one, we had a show in New York, and the guy wanted us to be in Chicago the next day. So my dad and I were so naive, we said, that's a fluke, that won't happen again. So then I complained to my dad and I said, Listen, we have no shows to begin with, and now we just lost three because we can't fly. He said, The heck with it, we'll get another seat made, and we'll get we'll get the golf cart. You can get a golf cart at any course in America. So one of my seats is 47 years old, and the other one's 46 and a half. We went back to Frank Reese, he made us another seat. My uncle Nino made me a uh a seat. He knew how to weld aluminum. So instead of having that big bar stool, I had a little smaller seat that folds up. So even to this day, I still got it. I'm I'm flying to uh Minneapolis for the U.S. amateur in August, and I'm taking that with me.

Mike Gonzalez 19:52

Well, between uh that's incredible, which probably puts you on the map a little bit, and then and then you know you get sponsored really and and uh uh with the with the McGregor label, uh all of a sudden this thing becomes the Dennis Walters show. And so at what point did you kind of have this distilled down to a an hour show? You had your stick, you had the X number of shots you executed, you started with one of your canine companions in the show. When when did that all gonna come together?

Dennis Walters 20:23

Well, it was kind of like that from the beginning, only to a lesser degree. And like when we found out when I went to That's Incredible, I hit a ball out of John Davidson's mouth, and um he wasn't too happy about that. But um and we thought we were gonna get all these shows. So 30 million people watched average IQ was like 14, and we we got like three shows. And uh then uh I was trying I was in the process of trying to learn more shots. So I was using the ones I borrowed from Paul Hahn, plus these other guys that I went to watch, Paul Booman and uh Joe Kirkwood. Uh Joe Kirkwood. I read about him in a book who who um he was great. He he's an Aussie, too, right? Bruce, wasn't he? He should be. Wasn't Joe Kirkwood?

Mike Gonzalez 21:21

He did you know him, Bruce? No, I did not. No. I I met a guy won the Australian Open 104 years ago.

Dennis Walters 21:30

Wow.

Mike Gonzalez 21:32

I should have known him, shouldn't I? Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. He was the I think he's the first Aussie to win on the PGA tour, as a matter of fact.

Dennis Walters 21:43

Well he probably we uh I would I would borrow things from these guys or tried then I started making up my own shots and started to get My presentation, and um we found out that every time I did a show was an opportunity for someone to see it, maybe hire me for one of theirs. So the more shows I did, the more it built on. Then I met people who like McGregor sent me to True Temper for their national sales meeting, and the True Temper guy liked what I was doing, and he signed me as a sponsor. I I was using True Temper shafts anyhow, that's all there was.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

Yeah.

Dennis Walters 22:28

So then I would meet people and I I did a really smart thing without even knowing it, because they would say, Well, well, what do you what would you what do you want to do? You know, what would what what's the deal here? And I'd say, Well, I I said, if you pay me a small promotional fee, I'll mention you in all my shows. I said, but I really want you to do, what I really want you to do is to sponsor a number of shows. And that was really smart because instead of me trying to get all these shows, I would have five sponsored by this company, ten by this. And that way it built my schedule so I didn't have to start from zero. And it at the height of my career, I had like 75 sponsored shows a year. I just had to get the rest because I was doing a hundred, and a lot of these were repeats.

Mike Gonzalez 23:25

So um And let's not zigzag across the country. Let's focus on pockets and regions, right? That you could minimize the travel.

Dennis Walters 23:32

Yeah, that's a good idea on paper, but you know, didn't work out that way, huh?

Mike Gonzalez 23:38

Didn't work that way. You you go where the show is, huh?

Dennis Walters 23:43

Anyhow, the thing I learned, the thing I learned from right from the beginning, right from the very beginning, people were telling me I was giving them hope, encouragement, and inspiration. And I've come to believe I didn't realize it at the time, but I've come to believe that these are three of the most precious gifts you can give anyone. You give somebody hope, then you've done a really great thing. And I've also tried to prove with every shot I make that golf can be for everybody. And so I have uh I have tried to keep those things in mind, and I just I just did two shows, the last two shows I did. One was in Wichita and the other was in Manhattan, Kansas, and at both shows there was a person in a wheelchair, which happens almost every show, but these or there's somebody has a brother or a sister who's in a wheelchair, and they one of the last things you think you'd be able to do if you were in a wheelchair is to play golf. But if you see somebody do it, then you think you can do it. You can. But yeah exactly. And in each one of these shows was a young person who came there not knowing anything about golf, or even sure if they wanted to try it. But at the end, both of them were gonna get them access. The first T chapters in those two cities are gonna get them access to a solo rider cart so that they can try it. And I think that's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dennis Walters 25:21

And that's that's really the the summary of my whole career. My my whole my main goal in life was to make it through this world on my golf skills. And in the end, I did. But along the way, I've had the opportunity to positively influence others, maybe only by a little bit. And these are two perfect examples. These two are going to be able to experience the joy that golf can bring to their lives, where before they hadn't even thought about it. Yeah, yeah. But their mom brought them to the show just because she heard about it and said, Well, let's give this a try.

Mike Gonzalez 25:54

Yeah, that's wonderful. You know, you had your father on the road with you for uh quite a number of years, I think 17 you mentioned, but uh at some point he stepped aside and uh Sister Barbara stepped up to help you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about that.

Dennis Walters 26:10

When my dad couldn't go anymore, my sister said, I'll go with you. She was a teacher. She says, I'll go with you in the summer. So I said, She goes, but I ain't carrying that golf bag in every night. And I'm not I'm not pushing you and that dog around either. She goes, you know, let's get one thing straight. So I said, Well, how do you reckon we're gonna make this national tour? She goes, in a motorhome. I said, Have you ever been in a motorhome? She goes, Nope. I said, I haven't either. I said, Let's go. If you'll go, let's go take a look. So we go down to the motorhome place, and the guy shows us this first one, and I said, No, I I can't pull that off. Then he shows us another one, it's a little better. Uh maybe. I I I don't think so. But I said to the guy, I said, just show us the best one you got. All right, let's just go right to the top here. So he said, Oh, you're gonna like this one. So it had a it this was around in the uh early to middle nineties, and he said, Watch this, and he pushes a button and a side wing out like three feet. And this company perfected this the slide out. So it had one big slide out, the floor was flat. When the slide out was in, I could go from the front of the motor home to the back in my wheelchair. There was enough room to do that. I said, Well, I said, I think we're gonna have to, this is the one we gotta get. So we got that. It was my biggest expense. And so when you when the it was called the Newmark Company, they were they they've since been sold to uh Holiday Rambler, but they used to send this magazine. If you had a little, if you had a one of their motorhomes, they'd send you this little magazine quarterly, and I never actually read it, but one day I looked at it and it said it had all the officers for the company, and the first one in line was Craig Alexander, vice president of marketing. When Craig's not here at the factory, he's out playing golf. I said, This is a guy I want to talk to. Are you? Right?

SPEAKER_04 28:37

Yeah.

Dennis Walters 28:37

So I called him up and I said, he said, you know what? I'm coming to Fort Lauderdale. So I said, okay. So we met and we had a nice talk, and he liked my dog. And so he said, So tell me, what is it that you're looking for? I said, well, I said, I have one of these motorhomes, it's really great. I said, but it's my biggest, biggest expense, and I'd like to get rid of that. So what I'd really like to do is for you guys to loan me one for like six months while I go on the road, and then I'll give it back to you. And when I um if you like what I did, maybe you'll give me another one next year. I said, I I want to show people how great this is, and uh, I'll get a lot of exposure on my tour. So he said, I like it. He said it's a good idea. He said, but I just want to tell you, this is a very conservative company. It's owned by the Amish people in Indiana, and everyone hits on them. Motor, uh, NASCAR, movie stars. Uh everybody wants to get be partners with them, but they haven't done anything. He said, Well, give me about a week and then we'll touch base. So he he he called me up and he said they're gonna do it. They said, Wow, at least this guy's doing something positive. So he said, go back to the motorhome company and uh pick out pick pick one out. So I went to the motorhome company and I said, I wanna, I'm I wanna sell my motorhome. I had it for about maybe eight months. So I, you know, I took a little bit of a hit on that, but it wasn't, you know, I'm getting a free motorhome. So um that's a good deal. So I said to the guy, listen, I said, I just want the bare bones, just like the one I had. Uh I don't want to be greedy or nothing. I just want that. And he says, he says, you don't understand. He said, I'm gonna end up buying this thing. He said, so I want you to order this thing with every single option that they offer because it'll be easier for me to sell, right? So we had stuff on there we hardly ever used. One time we had a spotlight, we had like two spotlights on the motorhome. And so we used to park right at the golf course where we were performing. So we were we were like in Austin, and um you could almost feel the eyes looking at you, but you couldn't see them, but it was a feeling. I said to my sister, I'm turning on a spotlight. So we turn on a spotlight, we're right near the putting green. There's like 50 deer right on the putting green, and uh I said, I told you so. And so we uh we ended up getting that motorhome with everything on it, stuff we couldn't use, and I I got a new one. I was with them for like over probably about 20 years, 22 years, and almost every year I got a new one, and um it was fantastic, and as I and as I'm sure I sold some too because people would come in and and look at it and see it, and they weren't motorhomes like this were not that prevalent that yet. They were the luxury ones were starting to come into vogue, but um it was it was and and it was all on a handshake. The two best deals I ever had were on a handshake: the motorhome and Jersey Mics. They were 28 years with Jersey Mics still going on a handshake, and uh so this motor getting a new motorhome was great, and as I started to work with be with them for years and years and years, I said, listen, we need to make one of these things wheelchair accessible because there's a lot of people who are in my situation that would really like to go and use this, but they can't get in. Now, for me, I when I was in rehab, the um the guy who was in charge of physical therapy one day said, Is there anyone here that would like to use leg braces? So I said, Well, what's that gonna do? He says, You'll be able to stand up. You put these things on and you'll be able to stand up. He said, It's pretty hard to do, but if you do it, it would help your health. So I said, my immediate reaction was, Wow, if I'm standing up and I get rid of one of these crutches, I could probably putt one-handed. That's what I that's the first thing I thought of. I said, I might even be able to hit a ball. I don't know. So the first day they taped these uh splints to my leg and I stood up, and I I felt like I was 10 feet tall. I hadn't stood up in eight months, and it but it was weird because only half of me could feel it. So I couldn't feel my legs and below my waist, but yet I'm 10 feet, I feel like I'm 10 feet tall. It was the strangest sensation I've ever encountered. But what happened was I used to go everywhere on this on my crutches. I went, I used to go to the PGA show on my crutches because I hated being in a wheelchair. And that was like, you know, that's a million square feet under roof. And so I wouldn't even take my wheel. The only time I took the wheelchair was when I went to the airport. But my dad and I would go on the road in the minivan, I wouldn't even take a wheelchair. We didn't have room for it. And so when I had to go to the bathroom or take a shower, my dad would borrow the secretary's chair on wheels, and he'd roll me in and roll me out. And uh so as I started to get a little old, and the way I used to get in the motorhome was it had three steps, and we put a bar there on the left, and I hung on to that, and whoever was with me grabbed my legs and picked them up one stair at a time. And and I said, But to the motorhome people, I said, you know, not everybody can do that. I said, I've only met two people my whole life who use these things because it's very difficult to use. I still use them today, not as much, but I said, we need to make a lift and we need to make this thing wheelchair accessible inside, and that's what they ended up doing. And I had prototype number one and I helped them design it. And now they're the only company that has a floor plan for wheelchair access, and I know they sold a bunch of those, so it was a really good partnership, and I I love traveling in a motorhome. It was great because you're right there, you're right at the golf course where you're performing. All your stuff is there. You got your own pillow, your own bed, and the TV's there. I mean, every comfort you could think of is there. The only thing is, you got to go with someone that's e that buys in equally because you only got 40 feet, you can't go further than 40 feet from somebody. And so, in the right situation with the right person, it's terrific. And I really enjoyed going with my sister and some of these guys who helped me, and some, you know, I've had some great assistants, and I've had some losers too. So it's uh that was a big part of our tour.

Mike Gonzalez 36:23

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