Combatant Matt Westrich brings his experience to land-use on Episode 180

Land use warrior Matt Westrich brings his Army experience to the battlefields of organizational combat. Matt has great experience and knowledge to share with all of us. It’s a great listen, be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.

4:44 – Al Bundy is modeled after me

8:30 – Utah, where the heck is Utah?              

22:36 – I get into announcing because nobody else in the club wanted to pick up a microphone 

26:54 – Craig goes to push me, and I’m like, what are you doing?

39:27 – In the land use community, we have had to fight heavily to keep the area from being developed

45:39 – Land use is a fickle thing; nobody wants to talk about it

53:17 – I did $19,000 worth of body damage to my PowerWagon

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

[00:00:05.290] - 

Welcome to conversations with big rich. This is an interview style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off road.

[00:00:46.350] - 

Whether you're crawling the red rocks of moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two. Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:12.860] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high quality, well written, four wheel drive focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4Low is the magazine for you. 4Low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4lowmagazine.com to order your subscription.

[00:01:39.780] - Big Rich Klein

On today's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I get to talk to an old friend, Matt Westrich. Matt or, as he is known in the Four x Four industry. Big Sarge has been an announcer for various rock crawling events along with other types of events. We'll get into that. He has been involved with Red Rock Four Wheelers, Utah Four x Four association. Been a board member of Blue Ribbon coalition. All sorts of different things on land use. So I want to say, Matt, thank you so much for coming on and spending some time and talking about your history.

[00:02:15.440] - Matt Westrich

Well, thanks, rich. I appreciate you reaching out to me and inviting me on the show today.

[00:02:20.080] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, let's get started. Where I get started with everybody. And where were you born and raised?

[00:02:26.420] - Matt Westrich

I was born and raised in St. Louis County, back in St. Louis, Missouri.

[00:02:30.780] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow. Okay.

[00:02:33.400] - Matt Westrich

In fact, couldn't probably spell jeep or truck until I went in the army in 1979.

[00:02:43.630] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:02:45.000] - Matt Westrich

I didn't know anybody with a truck. My one buddy in high school had a 53 chevy five window. That was a POS. In fact, if you took a turn too hard, it was all you could do to stop it, and you had to move the cab back off the brake pedal.

[00:03:03.520] - Big Rich Klein

That midwest rust.

[00:03:05.840] - Matt Westrich

Midwest rust. And it is still to this day in pieces in his garage in St. Charles, Missouri.

[00:03:13.050] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. So you were there through high school, then all the way until you went into the service?

[00:03:21.300] - Matt Westrich

Yep, all the way till the time I went in the service. And my first tour of duty was in Hawaii. And I got my hands on my first four x four. It was actually a six by six truck. And I thought, hey, this is kind of fun, bouncing through the lava fields. And I bought a four x four wagoneer that was rusted POS, fixed it up and sold it, and then we left.

[00:03:43.280] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so let's backtrack a little bit to those early days there in Missouri. You said St. Charles was the town.

[00:03:55.360] - Matt Westrich

St. Louis was where I was born and raised. St. Louis county.

[00:03:58.140] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:03:58.530] - Matt Westrich

On north side.

[00:03:59.430] - Big Rich Klein

All right, northside. And what were your interests back then, say as a young kid, were you in Scouting or anything like that?

[00:04:09.540] - Matt Westrich

I was in the Boy Scouts. The Cub Scouts? The Webelos. The Boy Scouts was a scout master over in Europe for the army.

[00:04:17.280] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:04:17.850] - Matt Westrich

And yeah, so I've done some good stuff with the Scouting and went to work for a company my dad was an executive for called Brown Shoe Company back in St. Louis and worked at a few shoe stores and decided that stinky feet was not a life for me. And I went down the street and saw the army recruiter.

[00:04:41.200] - Big Rich Klein

So you didn't want to become an Al Bundy?

[00:04:44.800] - Matt Westrich

No, I was Al Bundy. Bundy's modeled after me, let me tell you. In fact, I worked for a while in a women's shoe store, the same as Al Bundy.

[00:04:56.560] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice. So in school, what kind of student were you? Good. Indifferent.

[00:05:07.240] - Matt Westrich

I got out of there, let's put it that way.

[00:05:09.130] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:05:10.840] - Matt Westrich

But I didn't make it up later in life, through the VA. I got two degrees. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business and a Bachelor of Science in Computer information systems.

[00:05:21.220] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent, most excellent.

[00:05:25.580] - Matt Westrich

I got through high school by the skin of my teeth.

[00:05:27.960] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. I was going to say so what were your interests then, back then? Besides some of the Scouting you did? Did you play sports or was it just all girls?

[00:05:38.400] - Matt Westrich

It was mostly girls. Band, choir and church were great ways to meet girls.

[00:05:44.480] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, I guess so. I went a different route. I didn't hit any three of those.

[00:05:51.680] - Matt Westrich

Oh, did you played sports?

[00:05:55.440] - Big Rich Klein

I played sports and cars.

[00:05:58.920] - Matt Westrich

There you go. Yeah, cars. I didn't learn to start wrenching on cars. Well, I was probably about 17 when I started wrenching on my own cars. I started taking classes at the community college in that and it really came in handy when I was stationed in Hawaii. And I was a buck private. And you were lucky back then if you had two dimes to rub together, let alone two quarters. And so anything that went wrong in my car, I had to fix it myself back then. I couldn't afford to take it to a Hawaiian mechanic.

[00:06:35.230] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so what year did you graduate from high school?

[00:06:40.760] - Matt Westrich

19 79.

[00:06:42.150] - Big Rich Klein

79, okay, so 79, you're working as a shoe salesman so that you could afford just life, I guess. And then you decided you had to get into the military, right, that was the next step.

[00:06:58.940] - Matt Westrich

I decided I wanted to get out of St. Louis. It was a nice place, all my family was there and everything, but I just didn't see me going anywhere doing anything. And so I decided that let's join the military and see the world. And I did 15 years.

[00:07:18.030] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, wow, 15. All right. And where did you get stationed first?

[00:07:26.340] - Matt Westrich

Well, my first duty station, I was assigned my first permanent party. I went to two military schools before I was sent to Hawaii, and the second one was Air Force firefighter school. So my first her duty, I went to Hawaii where I met my beautiful wife Christine and started having kids and stuff like that. And we decided we didn't want to stay in Hawaii, so we transferred out. I became a communications tech component level and went to Georgia for a while. And then they sent me to Fort Knox for my next duty station. Spent about a year and a half there and they sent me where I drove checker cabs part time.

[00:08:11.220] - Big Rich Klein

Really?

[00:08:12.500] - Matt Westrich

I drove the last of the checker cabs.

[00:08:17.540] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty cool.

[00:08:18.340] - Matt Westrich

They sent me to Germany. That was kind of cool. I mean, I would love to find myself an old checker and restore it.

[00:08:25.560] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:08:26.130] - Matt Westrich

Except there were such rust bombs.

[00:08:27.980] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, I would imagine, yeah.

[00:08:30.760] - Matt Westrich

And they sent me to Germany. I did two back to back tours over there. And then they wanted to send me to Washington, DC. To work, and I said, hell no, I don't want to raise two kids in Washington DC. I said, thank you for the interview, I appreciate it very much, but no. And then they said, OK, we're going to send you to Utah. And I was like, Utah? What the heck is in Utah? And there was a signal battalion here in Utah. And they sent me to it. And it was an absolutely wonderful place, and I've been here for 34 years.

[00:09:03.220] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Never in your wildest imagination thinking that you would end up in Utah?

[00:09:09.700] - Matt Westrich

Never.

[00:09:12.260] - Big Rich Klein

What did you know about Utah before going there? Couldn't even spell it. There you go.

[00:09:18.410] - Matt Westrich

I don't think I could have spelled it. Where's Utah? I don't know if I could have found it on a map.

[00:09:26.700] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, Lord, let me backtrack a little bit. What kind of stuff did your family do when you were growing up for vacations or anything like that? Did you guys go camping at all or anything?

[00:09:44.430] - Matt Westrich

No, my dad was an executive for a shoe company. He was an absolute wonderful father. But when it came to camping, he was a city boy. He was raised in St. Louis City during the Depression. And so him and my mom and my mom was raised in the same was my grandfather was a taxi driver, bus driver, limousine driver, and my grandmother worked for the telephone company. And then my mom's mom was divorced and she worked for the telephone company. And that's how my mom and dad got together, was through the two working at telephone company. Back when people introduced each other's kids to each other and ended up getting married.

[00:10:31.520] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:10:32.800] - Matt Westrich

I don't have it.

[00:10:33.990] - Big Rich Klein

No.

[00:10:34.640] - Matt Westrich

And anyway, neither one of them were into that in any way, shape, or form. Now they did, like, a nice like, we went to Aspen, Colorado one year. We traveled and we went to North Oak, Virginia, where my father was stationed when he was in the Navy during, you know, we vacationed like that. Camping was just not a thing. And man, I'll tell you what, the army changed me on that. I got to camp a lot in the army.

[00:11:07.820] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Here's your clothes, and here's a tent to match.

[00:11:11.690] - Matt Westrich

And here's a sleeping bag. Have a nice day.

[00:11:16.060] - Big Rich Klein

So then when you're in Hawaii, what was that like, being going from St. Louis and then finding yourself in Hawaii?

[00:11:26.410] - Matt Westrich

I mean, St. Louis is a very diverse area, and so going to Hawai was a little different for me, and it was very diverse, and I enjoyed it. I got to out and met local people. I had some locals that I worked with, and they introduced me to more local people and half the islands related to the other half the island. So once you got in good with locals, it was an easy life. On my days off as a fireman, I only worked every other day. So I went to college on my days off and worked on cars a little bit in my garage.

[00:12:03.100] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, and you were stationed on the Big Island?

[00:12:05.840] - Matt Westrich

I was stationed on the Big Island at a place called Bajakaloa. Not to be confused with Bajakalo lolo.

[00:12:11.550] - Big Rich Klein

Well, yeah, absolutely. No confusion there whatsoever. So what's your favorite Hawaiian meal? Locomoco.

[00:12:26.660] - Matt Westrich

Just about anything cooked in teriyaki.

[00:12:29.240] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:12:30.900] - Matt Westrich

Before I met my wife, I knew a couple of local girls, and either you ate what they fixed you or you starved. And as a private, I ate what they put in front of me. So I learned to love shishimi and sushi and ahituna, and all kinds of rice, rice and more rice. And then when you got tired of the rice, you got noodle.

[00:12:57.640] - Big Rich Klein

So that's a real big change from what you were probably eating, what you grew up.

[00:13:05.840] - Matt Westrich

Know, fried chicken, pork, steaks, stuff like yeah, you just went to the corner way back then, it was a lot different for those who've been over there. Now if you've gone to Kona, kona was nothing, really, and, you know, not near as big as it is. And they didn't have the mall. We didn't even have a Walmart on the island. Back in the day, there was, like, a five and dime store that was it for finding things cheap.

[00:13:36.690] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Yeah, it's different now.

[00:13:41.320] - Matt Westrich

Yep. You got Walmart, and you got the malls, and you got at and T, and you got pretty much almost everything you want. It can take a while sometimes to get some things. Like, my family is still over there, and recently I was ten weeks out and $5,000 to be installed for the cheapest garage door I could get.

[00:14:03.210] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:14:04.260] - Matt Westrich

So it's a beautiful place to visit, it's a beautiful place to live, but the prices can sometimes just drive you a little bit nuts.

[00:14:12.780] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. We went for a vacation over there, and it's too small.

[00:14:22.520] - Matt Westrich

That's called rock fever.

[00:14:24.370] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Because I definitely got it. I think within the first three days on the big island, I'd driven every single paved road and probably a lot of the unpaved roads, like, twice.

[00:14:39.380] - Matt Westrich

Yeah. And it used to be more dangerous, like, if you went up over the saddle up to where I used to work at. I worked at about the 28, 29 miles marker going up the mountain. It's at 6500ft.

[00:14:55.820] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:14:57.220] - Matt Westrich

And it was a two lane road that was so bad that back in the day, rental car agreements had that you would not drive on that road. And now it's beautiful. I mean, it's just step over down and you go right past where I used to work at.

[00:15:21.010] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I'm sure I've been by it a number of.

[00:15:26.460] - Matt Westrich

Oh, by the way, thanks for introducing me to Sean over there. He's a wonderful oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:15:31.500] - Big Rich Klein

Yes. The four wheel drive club over there. Everybody there on the big island is just super.

[00:15:39.040] - Matt Westrich

Yeah. And I got lots of good people over there.

[00:15:43.370] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So then you were in Germany. What area of Germany were you in? Where were you stationed in Germany?

[00:15:50.990] - Matt Westrich

I was at a place called Ayers Concern, which no longer exists. It was a Luftwaffe airfield during World War II.

[00:16:01.440] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:16:02.370] - Matt Westrich

And then after world War II, it was taken over by the military, and at the time I was there, it was third armored division forward, which was Patton's old division.

[00:16:15.180] - Big Rich Klein

You said it was one of Patton's old divisions.

[00:16:18.310] - Matt Westrich

Yeah. In fact, it was the division that Patton was in charge of when he passed away, when he got killed over in Germany.

[00:16:26.060] - Big Rich Klein

Right. When the army decided that they didn't need him anymore.

[00:16:34.180] - Matt Westrich

Could very well be.

[00:16:35.300] - Big Rich Klein

I think that's one of those conspiracy theories. That's not a theory.

[00:16:40.420] - Matt Westrich

When'd be the first time something like.

[00:16:42.040] - Big Rich Klein

That know, he just wanted to march right onto Moscow, and the powers that be was like, oh, we don't want to open up that hornet's nest.

[00:16:53.240] - Matt Westrich

I think Churchill would have been behind that one, too, but yeah, that's a different story.

[00:16:58.790] - Big Rich Klein

Anyway. Yep. That's for the conspiracy theorist podcast.

[00:17:03.750] - Matt Westrich

I loved it over there. Loved it over there. Oh, my gosh. I had the opportunity to be a bus driver, so I was a bus driver over there as part of my additional duties. And I would take people on tours to crystal factories and parts of Germany for a three day weekend or something like that. We'd go places, do things under the morale, support people, and it was a great time. I left there kicking and screaming. I did. My wife worked for the government. I worked for the government while I was in the army, and my kids had good schools. I lived right down the street from the schools, and it was wonderful. I left there three months prior to Desert Storm I'm sorry, desert Shield. And my commander got so tired of me asking to go for him to send me back to my old unit in Germany that he finally gave me a lawful order and told me, don't ever ask him again.

[00:18:03.790] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:18:05.120] - Matt Westrich

Well, I spent six years in the same combat forward support unit. Nobody to this day does that, but they offered me extra money and said, hey, look, we'll pay you $200 a month to stay for another three years. I'm like, okay, well, I could get some really sucky unit in the States. I know this unit. That's not that bad. Why not stay? So we decided to stay. I loved being over in Germany. I did two tours over there with my family for six years. My new V Eight over in Germany that I had gotten from a kid who shipped a car with a bad engine, and I traded him out of that. I gave him an old Mazda I had for him and his family to get around, and I took his non running Ford pickup, and my mom and dad were coming over from the Stateside, and they put an entire rebuild kit in one of the suitcases for me.

[00:18:57.150] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:19:00.400] - Matt Westrich

That's back when we had great auto craft shops in the military.

[00:19:04.720] - Big Rich Klein

And you dropped out there when you told me what kind of car it was, what was it?

[00:19:09.540] - Matt Westrich

It was a Ford pickup truck with a 302 V Eight.

[00:19:13.090] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:19:14.420] - Matt Westrich

Kind of a rare duck over in Germany.

[00:19:16.940] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. I was actually conceived in Germany. My dad was stationed there. My mom chased him over there and got married. They got married in Germany the first time, and then when they got back to the States, they got married, got I've got some Germany in me, but only because that's where I was conceived.

[00:19:39.340] - Matt Westrich

So schnitzel and some good beer.

[00:19:41.350] - Big Rich Klein

Yep, pretty much. So then after Germany, you came back to the States?

[00:19:53.520] - Matt Westrich

After Germany, I came here to Utah.

[00:19:55.560] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:19:56.180] - Matt Westrich

And I was stationed with the eleven 19th and the eleven 20th signal battalions here in Ogden, Utah, on the old defense depot. Ogden, and that no longer exists. And I joined a club here in Ogden, Utah. I met them at a park one day for Roy days. I live in the city of Roy, and they have a big shindig every year. And I met these four wheelers at the park. They had a teeter totter set up. And I'm like, this is some crazy stuff. And I had bought a Ram charger while I was in Germany. It was a 1988, bought a brand spanking new from the PX at Rhine Main Air Base. First thing I did was drove it on vacation to Italy with my family.

[00:20:39.590] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:20:39.990] - Matt Westrich

And I literally drove it into the Mediterranean sea outside of Lavorno Pisa.

[00:20:46.980] - Big Rich Klein

On purpose?

[00:20:48.280] - Matt Westrich

On purpose. Just so I could say I did it. I just drove it in enough to get the tires, you know, Baja through the and I just went down the beach. I came back off, I said, well, let's see if somebody else say they did.

[00:21:03.980] - Big Rich Klein

So I peed into Mississippi once.

[00:21:10.140] - Matt Westrich

Great. What year?

[00:21:13.340] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, no, this was probably only about eight, nine years ago.

[00:21:18.380] - Matt Westrich

Okay. About five years ago, I put my mom and dad's ashes in there. Okay, we're good.

[00:21:23.440] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I was already out in the.

[00:21:28.480] - Matt Westrich

Mom and dad's ashes and the dogs.

[00:21:32.810] - Big Rich Klein

And the dogs, and the dogs.

[00:21:35.760] - Matt Westrich

Me and my brother thought we were going to go to jail for that one.

[00:21:38.020] - Big Rich Klein

But anyway, so the Ram Charger, you brought it back from Germany and you.

[00:21:42.330] - Matt Westrich

Brought it back from Germany, drove it out here to Utah and joined the four wheel drive club called the Bighorn Four Wheel Drive Club and met some wonderful people. And through the Bighorn, I got involved with other organizations. I was put on the board of the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association where I've sat for 33 years and help other clubs here in the state of Utah get started. I helped uplink get started in Southern Utah. Of course. I've worked wonderfully and enjoyed my time with Trail Hero. Have you ever heard of the Trail Hero?

[00:22:24.380] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, it's southern Utah. I heard about it.

[00:22:27.620] - Matt Westrich

Yeah, it's some great people putting that on down there.

[00:22:32.760] - Big Rich Klein

That could be debated.

[00:22:36.440] - Matt Westrich

I heard their parents are cool, though. Anyway, and I've worked with the Red Rock four wheelers for years, gosh, probably 20 years with them. And then with the Bighorn, we used to put on events here in Utah. We used to put on mud bogs out of Antelope Island, and then we started putting on mud bogs and demolition derbies and good fun stuff like that. And I got into announcing those here because nobody else in the club wanted to pick up a microphone and they didn't want to hire anybody. They said, Well, I'll give it a try. What the heck? And that's how I became the Big sergeant, because I was still active duty back then on the microphone. And I've announced mud bogs tractor poles. I worked with United Truck and Tractor Pulling for a while as an announcer for them. I've worked with URock, and then of course, I worked with you at we rock. And then ultra four, I've done some for them, so I've had a wonderful time announcing wonderful events throughout the west.

[00:23:52.860] - Big Rich Klein

And what were those early let's jump into the rock crawling part? What were those early days at the say, the first event you went to to story stories about that.

[00:24:10.890] - Matt Westrich

Have I got a story there. First event, Craig Stump brings me in for head of hmm, yeah, let's bring an old army sergeant in. Let's bring a young at the time, a young army sergeant in as head of security for an event first thing in the morning, the throttle stuck on a rig, and this is before we started using way before we started using the barriers and everything, right? The Jersey barriers and throttle stuck wide open on a vehicle and went straight into the crowd and ran over several people. And I get the call on the radio, me and Craig, we're booking it. Yes. There was a time in my life where I could book it and I could run.

[00:25:00.340] - Big Rich Klein

Mine, too.

[00:25:01.940] - Matt Westrich

And we get over there, and I just did what the sergeant does. I just went, sergeant. And I'm barking out orders, and I'm calling for medics, and I'm calling for an ambulance, and I'm doing all this stuff, and I'm standing right in the middle of it. I'm making people get back. I'm like, I want crowd control here. Everybody get back. I want these people working on it. I mean, I was just boom doing what needed to be done. And it was sad I had to do that. But anyway, the next night, and I really didn't pay attention to who it was, I paid attention to what needed to be done, right, and I didn't notice who it was who had gotten injured. So the next night, one of the girls who had been injured, her sister was still in the hospital. She was there. I want to thank this was part of the Captain Flandro crew back in the want. And she comes up to me at the awards ceremony that night down there by oh, well, I can say it's by the cracker Barrel, that big auditorium behind there where they do the dinosaur stuff.

[00:26:12.620] - Matt Westrich

And she comes up to me and says, Serge. And I said, what happened to you? And she says, well, I was one of them that got run over. And I said, oh, I'm so sorry. And she says, yeah, but I knew I'd be okay. I heard you standing over me. I heard you barking out orders. I knew I'd be then. And I think it was the same event. The browns were above me on a course. I had my back. No, I was an announcer. So I don't think it was that event. A later event I was out was and both of these were in St. George back in the day when we were on the southwest side of St. George yeah.

[00:26:51.990] - Big Rich Klein

Where snow canyon is at, right, right.

[00:26:54.750] - Matt Westrich

That's now all houses, right? And I had my back, I had my microphone, I had my back. And Craig was standing next to me. Me and Craig are talking back and forth and Craig goes to push me. Well, that skinny little guy is not going to push me. And I'm like, what are you doing? And he looks up, he points up. And as I'm looking, here comes one of the browns in the buggy in air, rolling off the obstacle right onto us. And I think that might have been the fastest I ever moved in my life. Yeah, I call that fun times. Anything to get my heart going, right. And it was great. Back before everything got so all the events, back before everything got so corporate insurance and lawyers and everything else, where.

[00:27:52.860] - Big Rich Klein

We were just rednecks on the rocks.

[00:27:54.930] - Matt Westrich

Yeah, we were just rednecks on the rocks, having a good time. What was one saying that fire and ice had? It was yard sale every time. Because back in that days, you drove your vehicle, I bet you 50% of the people drove their vehicle to the event.

[00:28:11.940] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:28:12.730] - Matt Westrich

Had their stuff in the back of the rig and they would roll and all their crap just goes across the course. Yard sale.

[00:28:25.070] - Big Rich Klein

Yep. Yard sale. Well, that's how the little hill there in moab got its name. Potato salad hill.

[00:28:33.170] - Matt Westrich

Yep. And then everybody, everybody would help pick up stuff. I mean, for participants and spectators know, because again, we didn't have the jersey barriers. We really didn't have that much in the way of flags. People had the common sense to get the hell out of the way. But now, as you well know, now the attorneys and the insurance companies and counties and everybody else want to say, you got to do this, you got to do that. And you can't even put an event on near a town anymore because there's no property near a town that can have an event or will take a risk of having such event on their true. You know, we used to use snow canyon, we used to use up what is now the new airport in St. George. We used to use rocky mountain raceway. That was really great. That was right in the middle of the know well on the west. You know, we set up a corner, so we left it there and we could use it the next year. And again, progress. That drag strip is gone. The young sold that to be, and it's now a subdivision out there.

[00:29:44.320] - Matt Westrich

Progress. Progress. I'm waiting for the first electric rock buggy to show up.

[00:29:51.700] - Big Rich Klein

Actually, we had that back in the early 2000s. Tony k, tony casabasich had an electric unlimited car. He campaigned it with us back, I think it might have been back in the cow rock days, in fact, before 2005. But anyway, it was around that time. And then he also I think it was the same buggy that he won. One of the event that was in there was a wendover there was a rock crawling event there that he actually won. And I think it might have been in the electric buggy.

[00:30:37.520] - Matt Westrich

I know Utah Valley University, their automotive team put an electric one together, but I don't think they've ever competed it. But it was pretty nice looking. I know I saw it at SEMA.

[00:30:49.040] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And I know right now there's probably five or six being built in various parts of the country. In fact, my partner in We Rock, Jake Good, him and Caleb, his son are building an electric buggy right now for Caleb to compete in. So be interesting. It will be interesting to see how they do. Instant torque. What else about those first early years.

[00:31:18.240] - Matt Westrich

At, you know, just the great people I got to work mean like Craig Stubb, you Ranch, the Pates and then all the I I could probably spend the rest of the day talking about all the great mean like Bart Jacobs. You remember Bart Jacobs?

[00:31:42.430] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[00:31:44.020] - Matt Westrich

Wonderful guy. And a lot of these guys in Uroc I had known through the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association because we used to put on quarterly trail rides together and guys like Kim would show up. Bret Davis. Creighton king. I mean, he competed in the early days before he became Mr. Maxis. Just, oh my gosh. Tony Jesse just my gosh. All wonderful, wonderful people and the great sponsors we had back then, too. I remember one time I said BFG in front of Jeff Cummings and he lit me up for saying BFG. It's BF. Goodrich. I said, yes, sir. Get that. Said, okay.

[00:32:43.960] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's awesome.

[00:32:45.800] - Matt Westrich

Another time I just asked him, I said, you remember the toyo models, right? How could we ever forget the toyo models? And I said, Jeff, I said, how come you don't have models? He says, I don't need no blankety blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank blank models to sell my tires. I said okay. I mean, you know, and then we jeff Cummings, he was, he was absolutely a wonderful guy. Well, he still is. I mean, he's a wonderful guy. The sponsors we had kind of a.

[00:33:26.200] - Big Rich Klein

Grumpy old cat, though.

[00:33:28.040] - Matt Westrich

He can be grumpy, but he can be a lot of fun, too.

[00:33:30.190] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. I'm giving him heck because I know he listens to the podcast and I'm going to be seeing him here in about two weeks, so I'm going to have to make sure that he listens to this one.

[00:33:46.220] - Matt Westrich

Yeah, I can remember some great times afterwards after the event. Everybody's sitting around having a beer. Kenny bringing some special stuff from back east. Apple pie.

[00:33:59.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yep.

[00:34:04.960] - Matt Westrich

And just all the local folks that would come out and stuff and good times. Sponsors like Skyjacker, Lonnie McCurry and a Skyjacker is still owned by the same family, the Curries, another great. One. We still got Greg out there doing Milky, doing Raceline Wheels and all the great saints. Oh, tom woods custom drive shafts. My shaft's. A woody is yours. And I used to work right next door to his shop for the government. Well, the local Budweiser distributor was between us, but, I mean, we were both out there, and it's good to see some of the families having some of the companies taken over by family. I mean, so many of them we have lost recently. Family doesn't want to run a business or they just get an offer that's too good to be true and the businesses go off into some big corporate mess.

[00:35:23.980] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's a perfect way of putting it, too. I don't blame the guys that have built their business to take the buyout and move on because it's not necessarily something that the kids want to take over. And sometimes those offers are life changing.

[00:35:46.100] - Matt Westrich

Yeah. Sometimes there's situations going on in people's lives where it really is a good time for them to make a move.

[00:35:53.320] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:35:58.180] - Matt Westrich

That's sad. And then at events like EJS, what once was five different booths is now one small booth representing those five. Then, uh, you know, then they get a lot more pickier, too, with their budgets. Know how they're going to support things like land s for raffles and stuff like that. And Lord have mercy, if a major company made a cash donation to land use. That's just taboo, I think.

[00:36:29.760] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I think that's happening across the board, even with, you know, with advertising and everything else. I mean, there's so much stuff has been turned into the social media side of things where everything is a clicker of you not necessarily counted as ROI in dollars. It's more like, well, if somebody's looking at it, then they're going to eventually buy it. And I don't always think that that's the case, but, you know, hey, that's not my place to say. I don't own one of those businesses.

[00:37:21.860] - Matt Westrich

As president of the U Four, it's difficult. And also as a member of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, it's hard to get corporations to donate. I have been very lucky, very lucky with having BF Goodrich as a sponsor for the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association, along with Warren Winch, factor 55 now as major sponsors. So we can give away great product at our raffles. And that's basically where I make all my money for the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association is raffles. And in organizations like the Desert Rats, which is the Winter Four x Four jamboree make a big donation to the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association every year. And through good work like that, the Desert Rats, if you're familiar with Sand Hollow, you would kind of try to park your vehicle, your truck and trailer up by the water tanks. Well, the Desert Rats got grants and we've raised money and everything else. And Utah Four Wheel Drive Association donated and UPLA donated and we now have a paved road up to the water tank so that people can get their vehicles up there safely, easily and unload and then hit the trail.

[00:38:42.780] - Big Rich Klein

Sand Hollow, when I first started wheeling, that was when I lived down in the mid 90s, mid to late ninety s. And I lived in Cedar City. We would go down there and wheel for the sand dunes, not for the rocks because we had three peaks and we had all that area out in that area. But we'd go down to San Hollow and we would have to park across the street from Walmart and then wheel in. There was no roads, there was nothing out there, there was no water tank, there was no lake, there was absolutely nothing out there. Man ed has all changed.

[00:39:27.560] - Matt Westrich

And in the land use community we have had a fight very heavily to keep that area from being developed. We had a great big problem where some BLM land was being they wanted to trade BLM land for this guy who they had said, well, you can't use this land for what you wanted to use it for because it's a turtle habitat area now and although you want it, we're saying it's a turtle habitat area. So they wanted to give a big chunk of right there the face looking down at the lake, at the reservoir up there to this guy to do a land swap. And we fought that tooth and nail and with help from the county, they said we weren't going to issue permits for the land and we had the city of Hurricanes that we're not issuing any permits for that area for water or sewer or anything like that. So you can trade for that land, I guess, but you're not going to be able to use it. And the next problem would have been if they had gone through with that. If they had gone through, you got to look at the entire picture, and the next thing would have been, well, okay, so we can wheel all around this area, we just can't wheel in this area because there's houses in there, and they were going to put, like, million dollar homes on the side of this hill.

[00:40:51.230] - Matt Westrich

And so it would have been million dollar homes, and the next thing they would have been complaining about would be the dust that we're raising out in the play areas. Well, yeah, because there are play areas and we raise dust.

[00:41:03.320] - Big Rich Klein

You know what, I've seen that area blow through there, the Haboos, or whatever you want to call them. It looks like the Middle East at the end of every event that I've ever done in that area. It seems like there's always a windy day during an event and you can't even see 20ft whether it's part of that area or not. But yeah, it's crazy what development has been going on and losing land to that.

[00:41:38.980] - Matt Westrich

I had actually put out to him that if he won and got that land, that I would be sure to tie it up in court so he couldn't get a permit for it so long that his grandchildren wouldn't be able to use it. Now I don't know if that helped her in any way, shape or form but I was ready. We have the funds and we had the power that we were going to not let this happen. But we got really lucky on that one. Some we don't get so lucky on it. We got lucky on that one that the city and the county both backed us on it and so it turned out pretty good. The next one that we have going on down there is at the west side. They want to put in a reservoir.

[00:42:26.740] - Big Rich Klein

Is that going to be like on the side of the west side of the golf course going up that canyon then yes. Okay.

[00:42:34.420] - Matt Westrich

I believe that's the area, yes. So that is going to happen. I mean we have to have water down here and the area is growing and we can't stop that kind of project but we're trying to make darn sure that anybody gets their hands on any of the property around it and puts houses on it for people to live on.

[00:42:55.250] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:42:56.160] - Matt Westrich

Camping area. Okay but building houses no.

[00:43:02.000] - Big Rich Klein

Especially if they put that reservoir in and to the east side of it where.

[00:43:10.160] - Matt Westrich

All.

[00:43:10.500] - Big Rich Klein

The activity goes on. Now for off road right.

[00:43:14.210] - Matt Westrich

I think we figured we would lose about two or three parts of a trail down there of trails down there with this reservoir going in. But again it's got to be done. Somebody has got to lose in this situation and for most people that land is not usable. For them it's only as crazies.

[00:43:37.720] - Big Rich Klein

True.

[00:43:38.310] - Matt Westrich

So it is what it is and we got to fight that. But then we have a very interesting developing thing out at I don't know if you ever heard of Five Mile Pass up here.

[00:43:49.580] - Big Rich Klein

No, I've heard of it but I'm not real familiar with it.

[00:43:53.200] - Matt Westrich

Oh, we got to get you wheeling out there sometime. And it's out in Tooele County. It's west of Lehigh, Utah and there's 740 acres that this is owned and it's an off road recreational area and it's spotted by all kinds of things. BLM owns most of it but there's private party interest in it, there is commercial interest in it, different plots of land everywhere. And on the north side, there is 740 acres for sale right now, or 714 acres. Anyway, 700 plus acres of it is for sale. And the company, I guess, is the one that bought Miller Motorsports Park, owns that property right now, and they want to sell it off, and they're asking $2.4 million for it with no water rights. And we're sitting there going well there's trails going through it. Do these people not realize that there is roads going through this property and that we have a legal easement that we're using through there. And everybody's looking at each other like we don't know what's going on. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. Some people were saying it'd be a nice place for a koa. And I'm like, out here.

[00:45:16.140] - Matt Westrich

To me, I thought it was a little crazy, but I think $2.4 million for that 700 acres is absolutely insane.

[00:45:28.160] - Big Rich Klein

Especially if you've got no mineral rights or water rights on it.

[00:45:32.770] - Matt Westrich

No mineral rights, no water rights, no rights. Except that you got a place to park.

[00:45:37.920] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting.

[00:45:39.120] - Matt Westrich

And property lines. I use the ox mapping system right OnX. OnX, yeah. And it shows me that the property line goes right down the middle of the parking lot that we use right now for the snakes out there, which it's a big trail that we use. And we drive through part of the property going out that way. And I'm like, well, this is going to be interesting. There's somebody decides to fence off this parking lot. Land use is a fickled thing. Nobody likes to talk about it. You want to get people to run away. Hopefully they're not turning up your podcast. You want to get people to run away, start talking about land use and donations and what it costs, because land use isn't just about going out and cleaning up a trail. It is about legal cases. We have organizations that have assets in the millions and millions of dollars that do nothing but go out and create lawsuits, because that's their job. That is what they're paid to do. And yes, I'm talking about SUA right here in Utah. That's my biggest problem child, is SUA. And when you're up against somebody who like that, who has millions of dollars in assets, millions and millions of dollars in donations, and then if they win a lawsuit, they turn around and get the money that they spent.

[00:47:17.220] - Matt Westrich

And I'm sure well, I'm not going to talk about what they charge per hour, but they get all that money back if they win their case. So if they spend $250,000 or $350,000 or a half a million dollars, the government then has to pay them.

[00:47:39.480] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:47:40.070] - Matt Westrich

And that's how these people make their money. That's how they survive. People are like, oh, save the spotted houdini owl that nobody can seem to know. Oh, that sounds great. Hey, we want to save this trail. Nobody cares. Except for us. Except for us. And we only have so much money. General Motors ain't backing us. Ford ain't backing us. Well, Ford's backing us a little bit, but it would be nice if they would back us and help us keep public lands public. 67% of Utah is public lands. 95% of Nevada is public lands.

[00:48:22.760] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And then you go to someplace like Texas where no public lands. No public lands. Yeah. 2%.

[00:48:33.240] - Matt Westrich

I'm going to say, east of Colorado, and you get no public lands really to speak of. I mean, yeah, 1-2-A state park. Never would have thought of such a thing back in my days in St. Louis. And there's a lot of great wheelers now coming out of St. Louis. I met some really great folks coming out here to safari and stuff like a they got to truck all the way across country to come out and play and play and have fun in an unlimited know make a donation to BRC today.

[00:49:11.220] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. And I think that one of the biggest failures right now is the UTV companies, power sports companies.

[00:49:20.830] - Matt Westrich

Oh, God, yes, I forgot about those.

[00:49:22.890] - Big Rich Klein

That they're creating a vehicle that basically can race around on and I mean, not just go out and drive, but race around on any kind of terrain. But they sell so many of them. I mean, they sell everything that they make, so they don't feel that they need to protect it. They don't need to throw money into land use or any kind of organization because they don't need the advertising.

[00:49:57.720] - Matt Westrich

Right. They don't. And the scary part is anybody can go out and spend sign on the line $30,000 for a very comparable, very competent Buggy and go out and play. I got good credit. I got the $40,000.01. Oh my God. At least with a rubicon, you can drive the dang thing to Bronco. Let's not know. Picky broncos matter, too.

[00:50:40.980] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[00:50:41.410] - Matt Westrich

And then Toyotas and the Toyotas and the Suzuki's.

[00:50:45.360] - Big Rich Klein

Do they even make Suzuki's anymore?

[00:50:48.660] - Matt Westrich

They do, but not in this country. They don't import them to this country. Suzuki went out of business after the great Suzuki of North America went out of business. I want to say it was like twelve or 13.

[00:51:03.360] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:51:05.880] - Matt Westrich

Stuck people with about $500 million in bills. Yeah, that was a big bankruptcy. But it was just Suzuki of North America. And I drive Suzuki still. I drive a Suzuki X 90. That man in a little car.

[00:51:25.520] - Big Rich Klein

So what's on the plate? What else are you doing? You're working?

[00:51:31.650] - Matt Westrich

Well, I'm working, and I'm on a new plan here at work. It's called 912 three.

[00:51:42.900] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:51:44.180] - Matt Westrich

They piss me off bad enough by 09:00 in the morning. I'll put my retirement paperwork in at noon, and I'm out the door at three.

[00:51:51.480] - Big Rich Klein

And where are you working?

[00:51:53.960] - Matt Westrich

Let's just say I work for the federal government.

[00:51:55.850] - Big Rich Klein

Okay? Yes, that's what I thought.

[00:51:57.970] - Matt Westrich

All right. We don't want people to tune out of your podcast or lose friends. I don't want to lose friends. I want people to still come up and talk to me at events.

[00:52:13.520] - Big Rich Klein

Are you still doing anything with the dealerships?

[00:52:17.680] - Matt Westrich

No, because the dealership I worked for, which was a family owned dealership, sold out to a corporation. That was kind of sad. And I've got a few friends still working in management positions within the dealership community. And I still occasionally will set somebody up with a good deal on a rubicon or a gladiator and stuff like that. And they still call me up, hey, I got something right up your alley. I get some call. I work also with a group called the Utah offroad Recovery team.

[00:52:48.990] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:52:49.920] - Matt Westrich

I helped form that, uh, cause me and Bret Davis been doing recoveries here in Utah that other people can't do for way before there was YouTube, right?

[00:53:05.060] - Big Rich Klein

Everybody's become a YouTube star.

[00:53:07.170] - Matt Westrich

Everybody's a YouTube recovery expert now, right? And there's some really good ones out there. But we form the off Road recovery team, and what we do is we volunteer and go out and do recoveries that other people won't do. And I took my power wagon up into the wasatch front to do a recovery. And have you ever gone down a trailer that starts getting narrower and narrower and narrower, and you're like, oh shit, oh yeah. Well, I got into it.

[00:53:44.330] - Big Rich Klein

I did it with a trailer.

[00:53:45.800] - Matt Westrich

Yeah. And I did $19,000 worth of body damage to my power wagon.

[00:53:50.710] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:53:54.000] - Matt Westrich

So my insurance agent is still talking to me.

[00:53:56.820] - Big Rich Klein

Amazing.

[00:53:59.280] - Matt Westrich

And it gave me a chance to do some different stuff to it. I took the factory flares, got messed up on both sides, so I put now the nice two inch pocket flares from Bush whacker onto it and redid all the decals down the side and everything. So it looks really good. It looks really good. It's just $19,000 worth of body damage. And this was the insurance company, this was the body shop. My insurance company said, take it to this company, they'll take care of. I said, okay.

[00:54:35.100] - Big Rich Klein

So my experience, I was doing the Arizona Peace Trail and had the raptor, and then had my adventure trailer that Rob Philandro built behind me. And that trailer tracks so nice, I can go through anybody's drive through, even like Starbucks, where they're really tight and it tracks within the wheelbase of the pickup going up. The road was fine, and it's uphill steep embankment up on one side, cliff embankment on the other side going down. And I get about a mile and a half up this road, and there's a washout. And I'm looking at it going, if I just bomb through this, I can probably make it across, give myself a 65% chance that I can make it across if I didn't have the trailer. Because all I could see was the trailer just sloughing off and pulling the back end of the raptor around, right? So I look at my options and I'm thinking, okay, I can't just turn down the embankment and drive down this cliff. I can't go around this because it's a cliff on the left hand side going straight up. So I start to back down. Now I got to back down.

[00:56:05.800] - Big Rich Klein

I had to back down probably a quarter of a mile until I found a spot where I thought I could go turn right and just off the embankment and make it to the bottom into a wash and then drive, go back around and find a different road.

[00:56:21.440] - Matt Westrich

Yeah.

[00:56:22.030] - Big Rich Klein

And that's what I ended up doing. But, my lord, it was no body damage, but there was some hairy moments. I can remember shelley going, what can I do to help you? And I said, close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes.

[00:56:41.140] - Matt Westrich

The problem with the power wagon, it's so powerful that I wasn't feeling hitting anything. I never felt a single twig hit the side of that vehicle, let alone the tree stump that hit it. Good, fun stuff.

[00:57:00.250] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome.

[00:57:03.400] - Matt Westrich

So I just got to be a little more careful with the recoveries I go out on. I hate the salt lake and the salt flats. I won't go out on those two.

[00:57:11.440] - Big Rich Klein

I don't like anything with mud. I think that if people get stuck in the mud that they can just stay there.

[00:57:21.780] - Matt Westrich

Well, unfortunately, in Utah, we have wonderful people who just make wrong choices in life, and they end up out there at dell in the mud flats. We've helped a couple of commercial companies. We've helped with stuff, and we've helped a lot of people have just gone out and oops. And I'll tell you what, I've been out there, too, myself. That stuff looks solid as a rock. And you put weight on it, doesn't feel bad, but as soon as you spin a tire, it goes right through that crust and down into the muck, and you're so we've we've got long toe straps and winching straps to pull people out, and we have lots of matt tracks. And in fact, the Utah four wheel drive association is now sponsored by matt tracks, and we appreciate their unfortunately, people go out there. They had a big concert out there, and it rained. It's some funny stuff to watch. And some of these people take motorhomes out there, and they just go sink right down. I hate to say funny, but yeah, it's funny.

[00:58:53.040] - Big Rich Klein

Caravans so what was the one event in your long, illustrious careers? Announcer and don't pick one that you did for me just because I'm interviewing you, but what was the one event that you really liked? The whole atmosphere or whatever. And what was that event?

[00:59:24.520] - Matt Westrich

Well, it was the truck and tractor. No. Okay. No gosh. All the events have always been great. Every event has always had a good feel, a good aurora to them, and I've always, always had fun. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. See, that's one thing I've never, ever announced for the money. I've only done it because I've had fun doing it with the folks that are out there, working with great folks, making family memories, with me and my wife spectators coming out there, making family memories. The teams out there, and the teams were all family and helping teams. I remember Becca Webster.

[01:00:25.100] - Big Rich Klein

Yep.

[01:00:26.020] - Matt Westrich

We were down at St. George, same spot, her son and this was like I was like my third event, third or fourth event, maybe. Her son fell, split his head wide open, and there was kind of a panic. Well, you know how family is. I mean oh, my gosh. And their trailer was blocked in. There was no way to get their truck out. I just tossed them the keys to my new truck. Here you go. See you when you get back. I mean, that's the kind of stuff we do for each other. I've had plenty of people help me out in the past, and it's always been a fun and a great atmosphere where we would all know each other out. I've seen sponsors help other sponsors, man. The funniest one was when it rained down in Phoenix at the Firebird Raceway.

[01:01:27.380] - Big Rich Klein

All right?

[01:01:32.560] - Matt Westrich

It was a very memorable event for me, because first off, it was like 117 degrees. And I'm asking the Patties and Ranch, are you guys trying to kill the fat man? What are you doing here? It was 117, starting that event off in the afternoon, and all these Phoenix people are like, it's a nice day out. And I'm like, you're out of your bloody minds. I'm like two minutes. My clothes have changed colors. I've got so much sweat on me. Anyway, I'm not built for that place. And so it started raining when we got done about 11:00 at night, 02:00 the next day. It hadn't stopped raining. And I mean, where we used to do it was out there at the old site where they had the they used to do the concerts before the concert stage burned down, right? Or burned up and got all messed up. And it was a big bowl. So I go out to pick up all the sound equipment, because we're like, well, this ain't going to work. We're just going to have to call it. So they called it, and I go out to pick out the equipment, and my brand spanking new truck slid backwards right into an obstacle.

[01:02:49.660] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[01:02:51.820] - Matt Westrich

But it was good. I mean, you know, good fun. I was having a blast blowing through the sand out there, trying to get everything all picked up and get it out of there. We had to hook up big huge bucket loader onto Creighton's rig to get his big old back when then we had that great big, huge class C tower and that beautiful Maxis mobile, and we had to hook up a strap to that to pull him out of there. And everybody was pulling everybody. It was hilarious. It was hilarious back then. They starting off with the that's back when we started with the cranes. Remember the big old forklifts?

[01:03:36.710] - Big Rich Klein

Right?

[01:03:37.070] - Matt Westrich

They all train and we happened to flip one. But all the good fun we've had back in those days, it was great family stuff.

[01:03:48.750] - Big Rich Klein

So what are you still doing what events are you still helping with?

[01:03:56.110] - Matt Westrich

There's so little around here anymore. Mostly what I do is I work with the Utah Four Wheel Drive Association. These days I've been having some physical problems. I was in the Er four times for my heart in January, I had heart surgery in February. April I got COVID for the first time and it was pretty smooth sailing, but I've had some lung issues going on since then, so I've been doing a little bit of here and there. When people ask for some help, I give them help, but mostly working on public lands and the events like the Winter Four x Four Jamboree, trail Hero getting us ready for Easter Jean Safari. Land use is a 24/7. We have a person at BRC, please go to Brc.com who does nothing but watch federal sites for comment periods. Because if you don't put in a comment, you get nothing. You can't say anything after the fact. If you put a comment in and you don't like the way they finally decide on something, you can then sue them. But if you do not put a comment in, you have no leg to stand on to sue them because you never said that you didn't like something to begin with.

[01:05:27.160] - Matt Westrich

So I got just took that all over the place on you, didn't I?

[01:05:30.360] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:05:34.280] - Matt Westrich

But funny vents, oh, my gosh, just so many of them. And it's great to help out people. Like at the Winter Four x Four Jamboree, I do the late registrations and fixing stuff, and that's what I do at work, I fix stuff. People come in and go, I'm not on the same trail as me and my buddies. And I thought we were all going to be on the same trail together, and I thought I signed up. Is there any space left? Now you're asking exactly. Sign up early, folks, and sign up, make sure for these events that you all sign up for the same thing. And so that's what I do is I try to get people on the same trail. Somebody else might say, oh, I don't want this trail, I want to go on that trail. So I got an open spot here, so now I can move you over here and stuff like that. Then people come up and say, well, I've got ten people to go on a trail today. What do you got? Are you out of your mind?

[01:06:33.150] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, you can hit the drive through a jack in the.

[01:06:38.000] - Matt Westrich

Know. Do we have drug testing over at god bless this one guy, he's in one of the clubs here in Utah, and he comes up to me and goes, sarge, you put me on that trail. And it was too much for me. And I'm looking at him like, what? He says, yeah, and he's shaking, he's still shaking. And I'm like, okay, let me look. What I put you on? Like I put you on a four, and you're driving a rubicon. What was wrong with the trail? That was too much trail. Okay. So I moved him down to a three for the next day, and he was very happy. And some people are like, you think you could have put me on an easier trail? It's like, well, I didn't even get.

[01:07:34.770] - Big Rich Klein

Out of the parking lot.

[01:07:38.420] - Matt Westrich

Oh, how many have had that problem? Then they can't get out of the parking lot. They want their money back.

[01:07:45.780] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:07:48.740] - Matt Westrich

Or it says in great big letters, no refunds.

[01:07:52.360] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. Because by then, all the work is done. Sorry.

[01:07:55.210] - Matt Westrich

Yeah, it's all the work is done. Everything's paid for. I'm sorry that now, there's been a couple where I've made exceptions, like you fell and broke your leg, and I actually know that you did fall, and I actually do know that you did break your leg. All right? That's a family emergency and stuff like that. I think during COVID we gave that back and stuff like that.

[01:08:18.640] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:08:19.680] - Matt Westrich

Then we had a big joke going around with a couple of us down there at Easter Jean Safari one year where they wouldn't let us put on the event because of COVID But you could have a funeral, and you could have a wedding, right? Well, I happen to be a representative of the Weber County Clerk's office. You look on the Weber County Clerk's office on who can perform wedding ceremonies, I'm your guy. So we're here making a joke that we were going to have a big wedding down in Mowen, invite everybody and just put on trails for seven days or ten days. Seven day wedding ceremony. Either that or I've got a cargo glide in the back of my pickup truck. And the other thing we were joking about doing well, you could have a funeral. Well, did you know that you can buy a casket off of Amazon?

[01:09:16.500] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, I don't doubt it. You can get anything off Amazon.

[01:09:19.220] - Matt Westrich

You can get a casket, and you get one for, like, $700. I was thinking if we put a casket in the back of my truck and slide the bed out all the way okay. And drive around and say, we're having a funeral all week, we could have a big wake, go out and do trails. Well, of course, we couldn't get away with that. My wife got a little mad about the wedding thing. Now you're talking about events. I got to tell you this. I did a wedding on a trail in Price, Utah.

[01:09:52.060] - Big Rich Klein

Really?

[01:09:53.100] - Matt Westrich

Yep. It was really cool. I got invited to come down to Price, and I don't want to do the same. I don't like to go to a wedding chapel and do a wedding. I'm not your guy for that. I want to do weddings in the middle of nowhere, Utah, on a trail, seven mile rim I don't get Dead Horse Point, Schaefer's Trail somewhere, a destination elephant Hill. Would be a great, uh, and people have had weddings out there. And anyway, I got invited down to downtown Price, Utah to do a wedding for Jen and her husband Brian. And we did it out on a trail. We had a whole bunch of jeeps lined up behind me, behind us, and we did it out there on the trail. I thought that was really cool. And then had a little reception back at the house that was really fun.

[01:10:55.080] - Big Rich Klein

To do and memorable. Having a good time.

[01:10:59.370] - Matt Westrich

Yeah, everybody's having a good time. And I can't even think of any offroading event. Demolition derby, rock crawl, tractor pull, mud bog where everybody hasn't had a good time. I mean, that's just fun stuff. I did get to perform in the Delta Center one time with my Ram Charger, one of my Ram chargers. That was a lot of tough truck. I was tough truck. And we did a mud bog down the middle.

[01:11:29.790] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[01:11:31.760] - Matt Westrich

A single lane mud pit. And I blew an engine, but it was time for a new one anyway. That's why I did it and built a custom 360 for that thing. It was really fun. Anyway. But yeah, all the event, it's always good how we've all treated each other and that's the important thing. And that's what family and fun is all about. And getting out there and doing the sports, people who complain about their team and their job and stuff like that. And you might not like your job, but I'll tell you what, I have never thought of it. When I was out there with you guys as a job, I was out there having fun, helping families make memories. And that, to me, has always been a very important thing, is to take care of families and take care of friends and take care of my family.

[01:12:33.510] - Big Rich Klein

Right? Absolutely. Well, on that note, Matt, I'd like to say thank you so much for spending the time and talking about all the things that you've done and your history. And I really appreciate your friendship over the years.

[01:12:50.360] - Matt Westrich

I really appreciate you and your wife and your family and all the great times we have had together. And everybody who's listening, who know me, I hope we've all had a great time together and I look forward to breaking bread.

[01:13:05.600] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. And you take care and go ahead and go back to work and we won't mention where you're working.

[01:13:17.040] - Matt Westrich

Take care, my friend.

[01:13:18.130] - Big Rich Klein

All right, you too. Take care. Bye bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest. Please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.