From Navy Chief to West Virginia’s Country Roads Champion, Jerry Bain on Episode 292

Retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Jerry Bain joins Big Rich to talk adventure, public access, and preserving West Virginia’s unmaintained road network. Jerry shares how high school mud trucks led to a lifelong passion for motorized recreation, a 20-year Navy career seeing 51 countries, and ultimately founding the Country Roads Coalition to protect and promote legal access to historic state roads.

Highlights: 

- Discovering off-road early; the draw of adventure and going where few can 

- Building capable rigs: XJs, a Comanche on 37s, and the iconic “Boogie Van” Econoline 

- West Virginia’s unique resource: legal unmaintained state roads rich with history and scenery 

- Country Roads Coalition’s mission: stewardship, access, and education—not just “overlanding,” but motorized adventure tourism 

Get Involved: - Find Country Roads Coalition on Facebook and Instagram - Bring a group to West Virginia—Jerry loves to guide and share the state’s history and hidden gems.

Transcript

[00:00:05.100] 

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.

[00:00:46.400] 

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[00:01:12.360] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer who found off road in high school and loved it for the adventure. He now runs the West Virginia Country Roads Coalition. My guest is Jerry Bane. Hello, Hello, Jerry Bane. So good to have you on the podcast. I'm looking forward to talking to you all about West Virginia and your life and off roading and everything that ties into that.

[00:01:44.040] - Jerry Bain

Well, thanks, Rich. I appreciate it. It's an honor to be on your show today. Anytime I get the opportunity to speak about my favorite subject, which is Wild Wonderful West Virginia, that's my favorite thing to do.

[00:01:57.100] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. So let's start off right away And with the same basic easy question that I ask everybody else, where were you born and raised?

[00:02:07.280] - Jerry Bain

So I was born in Bladivale, Arkansas. My dad was in the Air Force at the time, so I was a military brat. But by my first birthday, my dad was back home in West Virginia. So the only home I've ever known is West Virginia. And of course, that's where he was from as well. And I've lived here my whole life, except for the 20 years that I was in the United States Navy. So I left home in '89, joined the United States Navy, went to boot camp, off to multiple ships, multiple countries, and then came home in 2009 and came back to West Virginia.

[00:02:48.280] - Big Rich Klein

So I'm going to assume that if you went into the Navy in '89, that that means you probably graduated high school around '88 Well, actually, that's good.

[00:03:03.260] - Jerry Bain

I was actually a little older. I graduated '86. Okay. So I'd spent a couple of years here in West Virginia. But you know the job market was different in the '80s than it is today, right? Yes. There really wasn't a lot of opportunity at all. And I always enjoyed traveling, as I do today. So I thought the Navy was the right way to go.

[00:03:28.340] - Big Rich Klein

Yep, not a bad one. Get to see, what do they say? See the world, one port at a time?

[00:03:34.280] - Jerry Bain

See the world? I actually, I have a map that my wife got me. We have it hanging on the wall, and you get to scratch off the countries you've been to. And after I got finished, I'd been to 51 different countries around the world.

[00:03:50.500] - Big Rich Klein

Wow, 51 different countries. All right. Yes, sir. That's quite the toll. Mine was really easy to do. I've only been to six, and two of those are direct neighbors. So it's...

[00:04:04.870] - Jerry Bain

Right, right, right.

[00:04:08.260] - Big Rich Klein

And I haven't cruised anywhere, although we were looking at doing this cruise that they had that was like, I want to say it was like almost two years long or something, but it went to... It went like all around the... You know, everywhere a cruise boat could get to, nearly. And so you ended doing like 100 and almost 200 port-a-calls or something like that. And it was pretty incredible. And maybe someday still, it's on our life list.

[00:04:45.760] - Jerry Bain

Yeah. You know, that's the right way to see the world, really. I always wanted to travel, which is why I joined the Navy, and showing up, you can fly into a country, but when you see the country coming at you from the ocean, it's a different way of approaching. And I remember, I'll never forget, coming into Rio de Janeiro in South America and seeing sugar loathe and everything right there. And that's always been something that I've always enjoyed, is approaching a country I've never been to from the ocean. And so I would definitely suggest that for you if you guys had that opportunity. Man, what an amazing way to see the world. I tell you the thing, I guess, that I'll never forget my first deployment. We left North of Virginia, and we were headed to the Mediterranean. And we were about 13 days in, and we were out in the middle of nowhere. And when you stand out on a bridge wing and you feel that that ocean air and smell the ocean, and you think, I am 13 days from anywhere right now. And you realize just how small you truly are in the scheme of things when you have seen nothing for 13 days and know you still have that same distance to go.

[00:06:24.660] - Jerry Bain

It's truly, to me, I really did enjoy that part of being in the Navy.

[00:06:31.960] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty cool. I don't have an experience like that. We've done a cruise where we went down the West Coast of the United States to Cabo and then to Porta Viata and then back. But on a cruise ship, on one like that, you're never that far from land. And then on our boat, when we brought it from Kema, Texas, down to the Corpus Christi Bay, at Portarances, it was... I mean, we went like four to six miles off. We didn't go out into the shipping lanes because of the fog and everything. And we didn't want to be in the heavy traffic. But still in that fog being four miles offshore and you can't see anything. And you know that... I mean, we were only running in about 60 to 80 foot of water, but still that's a lot of water.

[00:07:28.880] - Jerry Bain

Sure.

[00:07:29.620] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah You know, at that point.

[00:07:32.800] - Jerry Bain

And you know the thing about four to six miles off the beach and 400 miles off the beach, it all looks exactly the same. Once you get into that blue water, the ocean does turn a different color at a certain distance, and that has everything to do with the continental shelf. But when you really get out there and you get out in the middle of nowhere, that water turns to just the deepest, darkest blue because of the depth. And it's just amazing once you get... So there is a little bit of a difference, but I'll never forget the differences in the ocean and the color of the ocean, depending on where you are and how deep the water is.

[00:08:15.340] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So let's talk about those early years in West Virginia. And growing up, you weren't by the ocean then. No. And what drew you as you were growing up to the ocean, or was it just job opportunity?

[00:08:35.400] - Jerry Bain

Well, no. I knew, while it was a job opportunity, the question was only, which branch, right? My dad was Air Force at He had already gotten out, of course. My oldest brother at the time was in the Air Force. My twin brother was in the army, and my sister was, my older sister was in the Marine Corps. So the only branch we hadn't covered at that point was the Navy. And for me, adventure has always been something that I thought about a lot and that I really wanted to experience. I knew that if I joined the Navy, I'd be put on a ship. And whether I liked it or not, or more importantly, whether I liked it or not, the worst thing that would happen to me after four years was that I will have gotten to see the world and I would have gotten paid to do it. Right? Right. I figured even, Zerich, I figured even if I didn't like it, right? At four years later, the worst I could happen is that I would have all of those experiences and gotten paid to do it. So that was why I chose the Navy over everything else.

[00:09:56.520] - Big Rich Klein

That makes sense. That makes sense. So when you were in school and everything, what student were you?

[00:10:04.080] - Jerry Bain

Oh, I don't know. You know, it was the '80s, Rich. I was, it was a different time, right? I was as good a student as I wanted to be. I was a wrestler So I had to maintain a C average, no matter what. So that was really important. So I was always that good of a student. And I probably could have been a better student, but I guess I was just I was one of those kids that always had my head in the clouds, and I was always thinking of what I was going to do next instead of what was going on right in front of me. Well, that is true, with the exception of history. So West Virginia, in eighth grade, they don't anymore. But back in my day, eighth graders, everybody had to go through a course called West Virginia History. And West Virginia history had its own textbook, and that was the beginning beginning of my love for history, which is one of the things I do now, is I volunteer and I lead groups across West Virginia, teach them the history of West Virginia. Because I'm a firm believer that you can visit somewhere, Rich, right?

[00:11:18.640] - Jerry Bain

But if you don't meet its people and you don't learn its history, you'll just always be a visitor, right? So one of the things I tell people when they come to West Virginia, I said, When you leave here, you'll be family. And you'll be family because I'm going to teach you the history, and then I'm going to introduce you to the people. And then, Oh, by the way, along the way, we're going to see the most beautiful state in the Union and some of the places that a lot of people don't get to go. So my love, my true passion was always history to the point where at one point in time, when I retired from the Navy, I had considered becoming a history teacher, just because I enjoy it so much. Okay.

[00:12:06.120] - Big Rich Klein

I have to say that at one time when I was going to high school, that was my idea as well. I wanted to teach history and then hopefully do photography as well, teach photography classes, so be able to do both. But once I was in college and going through getting my degree in Commercial Photography, I decided that teaching was not going to be for me.

[00:12:32.740] - Jerry Bain

So photography has always interested me. And I think photography is one of those voodoo things, like applying tent to a car window, right? Some people are just naturally good at it. And I'm always amazed by some of the pictures that I see that the true professionals take, because I've tried to do that as well. And that's just not as easy. And you guys don't get near enough credit for that, because, I mean, being able to capture, to be able to see something no one else sees, right? And I'm sure that's not taught. That's just something because you enjoy doing it.

[00:13:12.580] - Big Rich Klein

I agree with that completely. It's just having that eye. There are certain things, I mean, it's like a painter or somebody that can take colors and apply them to canvas or even ink or charcoal or and be able to give you that depth of field to where it's like 3D. There's an art. I mean, it's innate. You can teach somebody to do it, but if they don't have the base talent to begin with, then there's no hope. You can't really teach that expertise that ends up coming. And the same thing with photography. You have to have... There's picture takers and there's photographers, and there's a big difference. Our phones have created that to where you can really see a difference. There's more people are taking pictures than ever, and some of them you can tell, wow, that person could be a commercial photographer or be in the industry. Is there any money that nowadays? No, not really. Right. Unless you just totally specialize in a small portion of it. But everybody can do it because of digital and your phones nowadays. So that's why I got out.

[00:14:48.360] - Jerry Bain

You know, with me, that's a perfect example of I always wanted to learn to play the guitar. And while we were stationed in Japan, we were out on the economy one day, and there was a guitar shop, and I started looking at some of the guitars, and my wife was like, Yeah, get one. So I bought a guitar, and I spent the next two years trying to learn to play guitar. And every song that I tried to play, sounded just like all the other songs. I seemed to know only one. I mean, I learned the cords and everything, right? But no matter how hard I tried, I just did not have that in me to be able to do, right? I took classes, I took everything. So as much as I wanted it, I always say to people, they say, I do a lot of things, right? And they're like, Is there anything you can't do? And I said, Well, there's a couple of things. One is dunk a basketball because it can't. The other one is apply tent, because I've tried tenting my car windows 50 times, and I'm terrible at it. And I cannot play a guitar no matter what.

[00:15:57.220] - Jerry Bain

But most other things I'm relatively decent at.

[00:16:00.000] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I find that if it requires a lot of super intense detail, I'm probably never going to be real good at it. My dad was a machinist, tool and die maker, and he could just make one little tiny part by hand. And this is way before CNC and all that stuff, right? And he could make one little tiny part and make it a million times, and they'd be identical. I'd be lucky to make two on something that's a little larger where you've got some leeway.

[00:16:39.320] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, that's the thing. Doing something once and being successful is much easier than doing it multiple times and producing the same result in anything in life, right? Yeah. So, yeah, no, I get it.

[00:16:52.920] - Big Rich Klein

When we bought, my wife bought a house to flip, and we've had done this a couple of times, but the first one where we actually went in and we did a lot of work ourselves, she was like, okay, we can do this. And I'm like, you seem to think that I'm a carpenter or a craftsman. I walked top plate and did framing and built decks. I am not a Finnish carpenter, so you're going to have to give me a little leeway here on what these things end up looking like.

[00:17:33.060] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, they call that the trade, right? It's like my brother, when he helped me build my house, when we retired, we came home to West Virginia and we built a house. And my twin brother, was Carpenter. And he was a framer just like you, right? So you come in and the framer, he said one thing to me. He's like, You know the framers? He said, no one likes the framers because we take too long and nothing's pretty. He said, but when you bring in the trades, like the tile people and all that, he said, man, they get all the attention. But at the same time, that's really where a lot of the specialty stuff comes in, too. Right. But so I understand exactly what you're saying.

[00:18:14.820] - Big Rich Klein

Somebody that can build a stairway and before it's covered or finished, and it actually looks appropriate and everything works the way it's supposed to, especially if it's got a bend in it or something like that, and it's out of wood, I'm just like, how did they do that? I mean, being able to cut the wood so that it's always the same length.

[00:18:39.420] - Jerry Bain

Hey, did you do any drywall work at all? Did you attempt that?

[00:18:45.200] - Big Rich Klein

I tried and realized I am never doing... I've been asked to do drywall a few times by my wife, and yeah, no.

[00:18:55.560] - Jerry Bain

So what I'll do is I'll put the mud on and then I sand it all off. And then I put more on and then I sand it all off. So that was another thing I guess I was never really any good at. So we ended up bringing it. I thought it was something like, you look at stuff and some people make things look easy. And you see those guys walking around on stilt and slapping mud on there. And I think, I can do that because you know what? A drywall work costs, right? And so I thought, well, I'll do that part. Yeah, I didn't. But that is definitely a specialty for sure.

[00:19:29.660] - Big Rich Klein

I I'm amazed at these guys that can drywall like arches and they use a single piece, and they backcut it and it all just flows. And it's like, how did you pull that off? I don't get it. Yeah.

[00:19:44.920] - Jerry Bain

I mean, some things you pay for, you know what I mean? If you really want it. I mean, that's and that's with anything in life, I guess.

[00:19:52.580] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. It's like a surgeon. I'm going to go to a surgeon. I don't like the idea that they're still practicing, that they have a practice, them and lawyers. But they got a lot more practice than anybody else.

[00:20:06.540] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, agreed. Yeah, 100.

[00:20:09.460] - Big Rich Klein

So when you were growing up and going to, you said you wrestled and You said you wrest, and you needed to stay at a C to keep wrestling. Was there anything else that you did in school besides just the normal day to day math and English and whatever?

[00:20:29.360] - Jerry Bain

You know, No, I mean, I probably liked... I mean, I enjoyed math, I guess. I remember taking plain geometry and enjoying it. But I mean, I was just a regular '80s kid. And in the '80s, I mean, it was the best decade in my... I mean, I guess everyone says it, but in my opinion, I mean, it was before the Internet, right? It was before airport security and a world where you had to look over your shoulder more. It was the '80s. We had the greatest music, we had the most freedom, and we were able to just be kids and grow up. So I really feel lucky to have been in that era. What we did was we looked for... During wrestling season, of course, I went to wrestling practice every night. In weekends, we went to tournaments and things like that. But in the summer, All I thought about was running around in the evening and going to skate in ranks and parks. That was a big deal, right? To cruise around the city park and hang out and cruise the street. I mean, that's all I wanted to do during that time frame.

[00:21:44.360] - Jerry Bain

Meet people, hang out with my friends. Because we didn't have video games. Well, they started having. I mean, I guess there were some video games out, but we didn't have any. So, I mean, you had to go out and meet people where they were on the street. I was telling my wife I was reading the local newspaper today, and they have this little article in there every week where they... It's this same date 20 years ago and this same date 40 years ago. And they put a little excerp of what was going on in our town then. And I guess 20 years ago, they were filling in our city pool because it had just become unmaintainable. So they were filling in. And I always hated that, that the pool went away because I have such fond memories of going to the city pool. And then my wife and then the county over just put a new pool in. And I was telling my wife, I was like, that would be tough to put in a pool in today's world, where kids don't go out much anymore. I said, I guess I wouldn't look at doing that unless I looked out and saw all the kids riding around on bikes again.

[00:22:56.420] - Jerry Bain

And there are some of that is coming back. But in the '80s, Rich, that's what we did. We were on bicycles. We were out till the street lights came on. And we went to school, but that's not what we thought about. We thought about just being out with our friends and enjoying life and being present, right? Not worrying about the next day or anything else. We were just present, and we weren't worried about doing scrolling or anything else or playing video games all the time. I mean, we were Just out there on the street having fun. And again, I think I'm very lucky to have been part of that generation.

[00:23:37.860] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, the last of those generations. That's, because after that, that's when it all started exploding.

[00:23:45.200] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, the video games became popular and kids stayed home. And then once the and once kids were able to stay home and still be with their friends, with their phones and devices and and then playing video games and talking to each other. Once that happened, kids didn't need to leave the house anymore. And I think that's where the big change happened, Rich, with our love of deals and our love of machines, right? Because growing up in the '80s, your driver's license and your car were important because they were your freedom. They were your ability to go somewhere and see someone or to meet with your friends and all that. But now kids today, they don't have the same relationship with the machines like we did. They don't need them to be with their friends or to do what they want to do. They're able to stay home in the comfort of their home and still be with their friends and do what they want to do. So a lot of the recreation that we did, skating rinks and places and malls calls where you could meet your friends, things like that, those things aren't as important or they're not around as much as they were, bowling alleys, things like that.

[00:25:12.080] - Jerry Bain

Places we could meet that weren't at home. So I think that's where kids became disassociated for the first time in the '90s, the cars. I remember, Rich, I remember being in first grade, and one of my earliest memories was sitting in class drawing cars on my notepad. And it was the '70s, right? It was the '70s, it was early '70s, and street machines were in, right?

[00:25:48.120] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[00:25:49.110] - Jerry Bain

Do you ever remember the movie, one of my favorites, was it, Corvette Summer?

[00:25:53.540] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[00:25:54.760] - Jerry Bain

So the way it was painted and how you had the big white tires and shackles and all And that's the way I drew cars when I first started drawing cars. So my love affair with vehicles started as early as I can remember. And of course, growing up, the Dukes of Hazard and all those shows that the car was the main character, right? Smoking the Bandit, all of that. And the car was the main character. Absolutely. So I'm sad about that. And it's one of the reasons, Rich, that I really... That when I'm out in the woods or when I'm doing events or things like that, anytime we can get the kids out there, anytime we can bring that next generation out into the woods for all the reasons, right? For the natural beauty of it, just to get them away from their devices. I was with Mountain State Overland a couple of months back. He was coming through my area here, Jason Speck, and he's like, Hey, man, you I want to tag along? I'll be bringing a group through. And I said, Yeah. And we took lunch the second day at a creek, at a stream, Access.

[00:27:09.320] - Jerry Bain

And I went down to the water. We were actually picking up trash. Always try to do that when we stop for lunch. I walk around wherever we're at and I pick up whatever trash I can find. And there was a couple of kids down there throwing rocks. And I went down and I taught them how to skip rocks. Because in the end, those Those kids, teaching them something or giving them an experience that they can remember was huge. And I think that's very important for us to do. As adults, Rich, we tend to, when we're out there in the woods, we're with our friends, we're talking about shocks and and mounted and lifts and tires and beat locks and coil ever. All of these things that we like to talk about. And then we tend to and then the kids tend to go off and play by themselves. So I always try to, when I am out with kids, I always try to at least spend a little bit of time with them, you know what I mean? Try to teach them something, because if you can bring them into that fold, right, then we can support the next generation of kids, enjoying my preferred form of recreation, which is adventure travel or motorized recreation.

[00:28:27.240] - Jerry Bain

You know what I mean? Right.

[00:28:28.740] - Big Rich Klein

So then, what was your first... First, let's talk this. Did you work at all through high school before and job-wise, or what was your first Real job.

[00:28:46.840] - Jerry Bain

You know, I did. There was a... Well, I did, and I definitely worked every summer. So there was a local... So Rota Dendrons, it's West Virginia State Flatware, right? Okay. The Rota And they had a rotodendrum plant. And basically all I did was, they had a potting machine where we would take trucks out to the greenhouses and pick up the small plants and then bring them over to the potting machine. And they would take them and put them into bigger pots so that they could be sent out to all the different companies to be sold. So I worked there most summers, 16, 17. Well, I graduated at 17, so probably 15, 16. And then I started working at a place called Wurt Inflatable, which made life preservers for the Navy, which is weird. But we made the life preservers because I always said that when I was on the ship, I'll be like, oh, this one was made in my hometown. So you probably don't because it would say where it was made. I was like, you probably don't want to wear that one. You probably want one of the other ones. But it was fine.

[00:29:58.960] - Jerry Bain

But I went to work there and I remember Rich, it was 1980, probably 1987, early '87, and I'd work a 40 hour week and my paycheck after taxes was $103, right And at the time, we spend that at dinner nowadays. Right. And it was funny that at the time, that was my haul. But in high school, I didn't work full-time or even evenings, really. I worked summer work because we wrestled and stuff. So that was pretty important in my family, wrestling. So nothing got in the way of that.

[00:30:41.500] - Big Rich Klein

And your first What did you learn to drive in?

[00:30:48.620] - Jerry Bain

That's an awesome question. So my dad, he always... We always had station wagons growing up because it was five kids, right? But After Tom went to my oldest sister and brother went off to college, or not college, but to the military, and it was just us three younger kids, my dad, he bought a brand new 1985 Chevy Chevette.

[00:31:21.040] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, wow.

[00:31:21.540] - Jerry Bain

It was yellow, right? And we called that thing the Tweetie Bird. He brought that thing home, spanking brand new, shiny yellow paint. I have no idea why my dad would have ever thought that that was a cool car, right? Because it was a two-door car, too, right? So it was a two-door, and it was a five-speed, a little four-cylinder five-speed car, and that's what I learned to drive on. And I'll never forget the first trip I took in it, me and my dad and my twin brother John went down to see my oldest brother, Tommy, who was stationed down in Abilene, Texas, at Dias Airport space. And we were headed down and dad let us drive. Dad's like, I'm going to get in the back. And we drove straight through. We left later in the afternoon. And I remember we rolled into Texarkana, and I woke my dad up and I said, Hey, we just rolled into Texarkana. And dad laid his head back down and he said, Yep, you're halfway. And see, at the time, I didn't understand that. You know what I mean? You don't understand how big Texas... Because you crossed it.

[00:32:28.760] - Jerry Bain

That's why it's funny, right? Anybody that's crossed Texas knows what that's like.

[00:32:33.250] - Big Rich Klein

Because by then, you'd already gone through Tennessee and Arkansas.

[00:32:36.680] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, we'd been through Kentucky. We left West Virginia. We'd gone through Kentucky and Tennessee, probably whatever was next, Arkansas. Yep, down to Arkansas. And then, so I'd watched all these states go by, right, while dad was asleep. And then he woke up and was like, Yep, you're halfway. I thought, How is that possible? We've been through three states, but I'll never I forget that. That was probably my earliest memory of a road trip in that car. But that was the car I learned how to drive in.

[00:33:06.600] - Big Rich Klein

And what was your first car? Personal car.

[00:33:10.340] - Jerry Bain

My first car, man, my first car after I was legal to drive. Well, I had a Gremlin, and it was in there early, and I had a red, I guess I had a little '79 red Chevette, which was probably the first one, but it was just like a $300 car that didn't run for very long. The first car I ever bought was, and this was... Now of the days, this car, if I would have just kept it rich, it was a 1982 AMC AMX. Oh, wow. And if you remember that car?

[00:33:58.830] - Big Rich Klein

Just saw one today. It What's that? I just saw one today while I was driving around town.

[00:34:05.240] - Jerry Bain

No, you didn't. Yeah.

[00:34:08.300] - Big Rich Klein

Amx Javelin. Does that have a file on the hood? What's that?

[00:34:10.820] - Jerry Bain

All a Javelin.

[00:34:11.720] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah.

[00:34:12.320] - Jerry Bain

So this car was based off the spirit. Okay. The AMC spirit, the little two-door, right? And it had like flames coming up the hood and it said AMX on it. Okay. And it had vendor flares. So it was based on the spirit platform.

[00:34:30.000] - Big Rich Klein

All right.

[00:34:30.500] - Jerry Bain

But, man, that car. I don't know if you've seen pictures of my van. I've got a- The Boogie van. 91 Econoline. Yeah, the Boogie van. So if you can tell, I like the decals, and I always have. Because when I saw that car sitting on a car lot, I knew I had to own that car. Right? And it's one of the ones that, at the time, you don't think anything of it when you get rid of it. But looking back, that was one of the car. That was the car, really, my first real car that I had that I absolutely wish I would have never let go.

[00:35:09.620] - Big Rich Klein

And tracking down another one of those might be difficult. Oh, yeah.

[00:35:13.160] - Jerry Bain

Oh, yeah, almost. I see them every now them then. But man, there's a real big price tag on them nowadays, of course. You know what my daily driver is now, Rich?

[00:35:21.720] - Big Rich Klein

What's that?

[00:35:23.560] - Jerry Bain

It's a 1988 Ford Country Squire station wagon. It was wood So I'm not kidding you. It's funny. I always had Silverado trucks because I was always towing, right? So I've always owned something GM because I'm a big platform in the 605. 3 motors. And then I bought a Colorado. I downsized in 2021 to a Colorado, and I bought a new one. It had that new 3-0 in it or that new, was it a 3. 6? That thing had 300 horsepower from the factory in a six-cylinder in a Colorado. And I really liked that truck. And just to go off point for a second, in high school, if I could have ever And I found any truck from what? What was it? From '89 to '91, they made a Baha S10. And I don't know if you remember it, but there was a white, and they made it white, black, and red, but it had a Baha package package on. It had a big bow tie on the hood and it said Baha on the back. But growing up in high school, I saw one and that would have been my dream vehicle. So when I saw this truck, I ended up doing a decal package on it.

[00:36:44.820] - Jerry Bain

I bought it new as a plain Jane White truck. And then I did a Baha package on it because I couldn't find one of the old ones. And I loved that truck. It was awesome, right? And I towed with it. And then they called me one day and they were like, it was during COVID, and they were like, Hey, you're three years. You need a new truck. And I said, No, I don't need a new truck. This one's only got 19,000 miles on it. And they said, What do you want to sell it? And I said, Well, I don't know. What do you want to give me for it? And they came in at a thousand dollars less than what I paid for it three years earlier. Oh, wow. So of course, I let it go. Yeah, so I let it go. It was COVID, they didn't have anything to sell. So my wife's like, Don't do that. You're just going to go buy something more expensive. And I told I said, No, I don't think I will. I said, I think I'm just going to stay with the old stuff. And Fred Williams, I had met him during Ultimate Adventure 2023.

[00:37:43.520] - Jerry Bain

Last year, Ultimate Adventure 2023. And I told him, I said, Freddie, if you find me a station, it's always one of a station wagon. Growing up as a kid, that's what we had. And I want the wood grain. I said, Keep an eye out because he's in wine country out there in And I said, If you find one, let me know. He calls me one day. He's like, I found you want to sit down the road? Two thousand dollars. And I said, I want it. And he was like, All right. So he ended up buying it for me. And then I sent him the money, and then he fit me the title, and I got it legal. And then Tina and I jumped on an airplane, and we flew out to California. And when we got there, we I went in a car and went up to Fred's. And man, sure enough, it was a beautiful, rust-free 88 Grand Country Square. And we got to look at it over and everything. The transmission flood was a little dark, and it was at AOD. And if you know anything about Forge, you know that's a problem.

[00:38:51.120] - Jerry Bain

And I had 3,000 miles to go. So we ended up jumping on the phone, and I found an AOD transmission up in Up near San Francisco. There was a guy, a hot rod shop up there, and he sold them rebuilt. So I called him and he was like, I don't have any right now. And I told him what I was doing. And he was like, Man, we'll build you one. And we build them for the Mustangs up here. He said, So we use all the R4100 stuff inside the old AOD transmission, so it makes it tough. So he was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Tina and I jumped in the rental and we went over to Yosemite And then we went down to Sequoia. And then we're down in Sequoia and a guy calls me. He's like, Hey, man, we got it done early. You can pick it up Monday morning. So we went back across the state to Fred's and I said, Hey, Fred, can you be there tomorrow? I said, Can I use your lift? He was like, Heck, yes. So we threw it up on the lift and dropped the transmission out and I threw it in the back of a Kia rental car, went up, traded it out, came back, put it in, got it on the ground about five o'clock.

[00:39:59.040] - Jerry Bain

Tina and I drove 20 minutes to the Coast, had dinner, watched the sunset, and then headed for West Virginia. And we hit Route 66 and ran it all the way back across the country. That was a year ago, a little over a year ago, maybe a year and three months ago. And that's now my daily driver. Nice. And that's what I drive every day.

[00:40:18.170] - Big Rich Klein

So it's got the wood grain. But what's the base color?

[00:40:22.880] - Jerry Bain

Oh, it's dark blue.

[00:40:23.900] - Big Rich Klein

Dark blue.

[00:40:24.460] - Jerry Bain

It's a dark blue car with dark blue interior. It's got the 5. 0 AOD. But I did because of the way those wagons were made and how much wheel well they had in the back and how narrow the rear axel is. I went ahead and threw a set of 50s on the back on a 10-inch steel wheel and on the front. And then I found me an old set of poverty caps from a '73 Torino or something. And then I put a eight-inch wheel on the front with a '60 white letter, of course, threw some poverty caps on it. And that's what I drive back and forth to work every day.

[00:41:00.000] - Big Rich Klein

Very nice. Very nice. That's awesome. So then you go into the Navy, your shipboard, seeing the world. What's your duty? What's your job?

[00:41:18.240] - Jerry Bain

Okay, so my job, most people, any Navy movie you've ever watched, there's a dark room with all the radars and people writing backwards on glass boards. That was my job. I was an operations specialist. And so we ran all the radars, all the communication on the ship. And it's called CIC or combat information center. So the war on the platform on the ship is always fought from that location, from combat information center. My specialty a few years later would become the Harpoon weapon system. So my specific responsibility was a ship to ship long-range missile called the Harpoon.

[00:42:12.800] - Big Rich Klein

And you never had to sink another ship, right? Not in combat.

[00:42:21.400] - Jerry Bain

I'll say this. During the Persian Gulf War, I did launch a Harpoon missile.

[00:42:27.240] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:42:27.660] - Jerry Bain

It did leave the rail of the ship during the Persian Gulf War.

[00:42:31.480] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And what, you did 20 years in retired?

[00:42:39.080] - Jerry Bain

Yep, 20 in a day. You know, at the time, I had to decide whether to stay because I was actually eligible for shore duty. In the Navy, you'll do a ship duty, you'll do we call it sea duty. But a sea duty, you're away from home a lot, right? I mean, a lot. I would say in my 20 years, I was away from home, probably 11 or 12 of it. So you would do a five year tour at sea, and then you get to go to three years of shore duty. And on shore duty, you're typically just on a base somewhere and you get to go home every night and you don't have to deploy. So I was actually eligible to go to shore duty. And the longer you stay, the bigger retirement you get and all that. But We wanted to come home. I wanted to come home for sure, and so did my wife. And we have the Treasury Department here. And it's not my hometown, but it's where we work. It's probably about 20 miles away. And it's It used to be called the Department of Public Debt, and we manage the nation's debt.

[00:43:50.040] - Jerry Bain

But now it's got a different name. It's called the Bureau of Fiscal Services. So I work at the Bureau of Fiscal Services. But at the time, we were leaving the Navy. I said, well, if we leave now, there's a Democrat in office. Right at the time. I said, if a Democrat in the office, typically government grows. And if a Republican gets in while we're on shore duty, then typically the government gets smaller. Right. So one of the reasons we probably chose to go ahead and retire at the 20 year mark instead of staying a little longer was that the jobs that we knew we wanted were government jobs, right? That was our So we went ahead and made the decision that we thought we would have a better chance of finding employment by going ahead and retiring during that time.

[00:44:41.620] - Big Rich Klein

So you had it well planned?

[00:44:43.840] - Jerry Bain

Yeah. Well, it worked out because we both now work for the Bureau of Physical Services, which is real nice, but it keeps us busy. And all the work we do, it has to be while we're not working. A lot of people see, they follow us on Facebook and Instagram and stuff. And since my my page says Retired Navy, everybody thinks I'm retired, right? Right. Like, oh, you're retired. You're good. I'm like, guys, I'm not retired, right? I go to work every day and put in my time, and then what time I have left over is when we do everything else.

[00:45:21.020] - Big Rich Klein

So let's start talking about that everything else.

[00:45:24.140] - Jerry Bain

Okay.

[00:45:25.060] - Big Rich Klein

You're you're heavily involved with West Virginia off-roading, and how did that all start off? When did you start off roading?

[00:45:38.620] - Jerry Bain

So I started off roading back in high school. My buddies all had off road trucks. It was back in those days, in the '80s, it was all square bodies, right? They weren't. And then there were some CJs and stuff like that running around. But more than anything, it was full size mud trucks, right? And so that was the culture. I didn't have one, but my buddies all did. So I was always out with them. And of course, I always wanted one. And I guess for the same reason that I do things today, it was the adventure, right? It was going someplace that most people don't get to go, right? And there's something to that, right?

[00:46:26.910] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, absolutely.

[00:46:27.920] - Jerry Bain

You can do something and go somewhere that most people don't get to experience. And I think that's why I'm a big fan of overlanding. And I use that word loosely, right? Because really, I call it adventure tourism or motorized, motorized recreation/tourism. I hate to pigeonhole it into a, into overlanding because it's really so much. I mean, that's a part of the market, But you could call it adventure camping. I got a buddy that refuses to use the word overlanding, and he calls it adventure camping, right? But it's really all the same thing, right? It's motorized adventure. It's going places that most people don't get to see because you have a vehicle that's capable to go places that others can't. So again, back to your question. I started running around with my buddies, and that's how I got into off-roading and my love of it. Unfortunately, I had to wait 20 years to make it a reality. And I got out of the Navy in '09, and almost immediately, I owned a 2001 Jeep XJ. I do 33s on that bad boy and put a small cut on it. So I didn't have to use much lift.

[00:47:58.080] - Jerry Bain

It was a park lift. We were building a house. We didn't really have jobs yet, so I couldn't put a lot of money into it. But I knew I was ready. And that's what I started in, was an XJ, right? And it was in really good shape.

[00:48:12.410] - Big Rich Klein

Great platform.

[00:48:14.260] - Jerry Bain

I'll be honest with you, 100 %, the most capable vehicle off of the showroom floor with no with no Mods at all, right? None at all. Because, even if you set it next to a TJ, the TJ's wheelbase, at least in West Virginia, hampers it. Right? Stock. Because in West Virginia, you're doing one of two things, Rich. You're either off camber or you're climbing.

[00:48:45.740] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, you're uphill, downhill or off camber. Yeah, you're not.

[00:48:48.690] - Jerry Bain

That's one of it. You're one of those things. And I always say this about offroading or about vehicle capabilities. I always say anyone with lockers can carry a tire. So say You're in Harlem, Kentucky, and you're going through that Lower Rock Garden. If you've got lockers, you can carry a tire. But in West Virginia, there's a lot of ledges and cliffs and waterfalls, and it's all climbing. And if you When you climb, if you can build a rig with the right anti-squat, right? That that thing will set there at full throttle, and you can turn right and left, and it'll just set on the ledge and burn tires and heat them up. If you You can build that rig, then you get to be in a different class, right? Instead of just bouncing.

[00:49:36.300] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:49:36.840] - Jerry Bain

So I guess the first time I saw a rig do that, that's when I got interested in building and suspension, right? That's when I got, and that's when I really learned a lot about the XJ and that platform, because out of the box, man, that thing at a 101-inch wheelbase, you could slap a set of 33s on that thing. And a lot of these kids will be out there with that 4. 0, AW4, I mean, 231, eight and a quarter rear-end, 8. 30 front. That thing would do amazing things.

[00:50:14.860] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I'm sold on them. I love it. I got a 92 that's- Yeah, nice. That's beat. It's the rig that I use for recoveries and setting up race courses and rock crawling events and everything. It's on 35s. It's got an Atlas. I mean, it's built. If you look beyond the raisin to body and the different mismatched colored doors and tail gate and that thing. Sure. If you look under it, and it's got an internal cage and everything, you can tell that it's been done right. I'm I'm building a '98 that actually has a 6'0 and a 700 R4 and an Atlas J T44s out of a gladiator, front and rear. Sure. Yeah, bigger. Yeah, and four linked in the rear. And it's going to be quite capable. Right now, we're waiting just on the AC to be finished because I'm not going to bring it home until it has AC. Otherwise, my wife will just tell me to take it back.

[00:51:37.720] - Jerry Bain

So let me ask you this, what are you going to do? I know that that AC compressor gets in the way. Are you going to move it up? What's your plan with that?

[00:51:50.960] - Big Rich Klein

That portion is all done. The AC compressor, God, I don't even know where it sits in there because it was a Novate conversion did the engine build and conversion for us. We're finishing the AC by having... We had to remount the... After the suspension was all done and we went to charge the AC system, we realized that there was a few deficiencies, and one of them was we had to remount and redo the condenser and having to find the right clips because of the GM clips for the AC and everything. And so we've got that part solved. We're just waiting for them to remount the condenser so that it'll work off road. The way it was mounted previously when it was first installed, it probably would have failed on the first I took a trip on the Rubicon. It was not- So you're going to run the Rubicon soon? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it'll be next spring, probably before I can take it on the Rubicon. But I should have it back here in another month. And then it's bumpers and getting the winch on and doing some body armor. And then it's going to go to a friend for a custom cage down in Vegas.

[00:53:13.500] - Jerry Bain

How do you do an interior one or you want to go with the next?

[00:53:16.660] - Big Rich Klein

I'm going to do a hybrid, I think. I think I'm going to do an interior cage, but tie it into a roof rack as well and then take it down the So the A-pillar for an interior cage on an XJ takes up a lot of space. And now that I'm getting older and my knees are bad, it's harder to get in and out. Plus, I'm a pretty big guy, and so it's really hard to get in and out. So I'm going to do an external from what would basically be the A-pillar, will be external, and then go down in through the fender the to the the slider. And then I'll tie into an engine cage as well, something to stiffen that front-end even more.

[00:54:15.760] - Jerry Bain

So. Yeah, I tell you what, that my, when I, I guess probably my third rig, you know how progression goes? We started, I started that little XJ, but the crowd I was running with, everybody was moving, right? Everybody was moving up and up and everybody else was trying to keep up, right? Right. And fast forward three years later and we're all in purpose buggy or purpose built buggies, trailered to the trail heads. Right? And it's amazing how quickly that happens. Right? And that's the way I did an XO on it because I had an XJ before that that had an internal cage. And if I had a helmet on, I mean, I was always hitting my head on it. And I'm What a tall guy. That's why I was asking you. Then from that rig, I started going backwards. I started going the other way. What started that was, so John Harig, Crawl magazine, he did that Crawl Across America every year. I was part of a Jeep club, and one of the guys in the club was like, Hey, did you guys read in Crawl magazine where John Harig is He's crawling across America.

[00:55:32.000] - Jerry Bain

And I said, huh? And he was like, yeah, of course, we were fan boys. We were building rock crawers at the time. So Crawl magazine was what we were looking at, right? And so I said, really? And he's like, yeah, man, he says to reach out. So I got on the phone and I called him. And I said, This is Jerry Bane from West Virginia. How are you? And he was like, good. How are you? And I said, just wanted to invite you to West Virginia. So I know you're doing your event. I said, It's best crawling on the East Coast. I said, Come out. You won't be disappointed, blah, blah, blah. And I could tell he was really... Because I guess at that point, you got to make a decision whether you have to decide whether those guys are crackpot or not, right?

[00:56:18.010] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:56:19.180] - Jerry Bain

But I think I want him over, and he came, and then he came back again every year because that was one... He absolutely loved wheeling here because he's from Washington State. So West Virginia is similar, right? A lot of loose rock, a lot of wheel speed. It's not crawling. It's more you got to get up on the wheel and you got to use wheel speed and momentum.

[00:56:44.490] - Big Rich Klein

Trees to bang off of.

[00:56:47.400] - Jerry Bain

What's that?

[00:56:49.200] - Big Rich Klein

Trees to bang off of.

[00:56:51.240] - Jerry Bain

Oh, yeah, lots of them. So he came out. Yes, so John came out and then he came back. Any time he was coming through the area, he would stop. So again, Purpose Belt Crawler. And this was nine years ago now. I know that for sure, because that year, that maybe, well, that was more than that, because He had came three or four years, and then he got a hold of me when we were leaving, we were sitting around the fire one night, and he said, Jerry, I want to do a ride. He said, I've met so many great people across in the country, and they've shown me their state. He said, I'd like to show them mine. He said, Help me put together a ride, and I'll invite you and all the people I've met to come out and run the Rubicon. And it's called Crawl the Con. And I actually came up with a name for that and created the first Facebook page Crawl the Con. But I couldn't go that first year. But my twin brother got to go, and he had an XJ. He still has it today. It's on JK 44s, 35s, right?

[00:57:59.420] - Jerry Bain

And he He got in that thing and he drove it across the country from West Virginia, drove the Rubicon, and then came home. Perfect. He drove it back across the country. And I was watching the whole trip, and I told my wife, I said, That's it. I'm done crawling. And I sold my rock Crawler and I built a Comanchi on 37.

[00:58:21.500] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:58:23.380] - Jerry Bain

And I wheeled it for a long time. And then our youngest went off to college. And when our youngest went off to college, my wife had nothing to do. And again, I've got something going on every weekend. And she's like, What are you doing this weekend? I said, well, I got to go down here, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, Can I go? And I was like, Well, yeah. So she jumped in the Comanche. And you are the next Jay, so you know how small the front floor boards and everything are. She's got this big purse, right? And nowhere to put it. So it's got a topper on the back, so she has to put it in the back. And so she starts running around with me. And finally, I said, Are you going to keep going with me? She's like, Yeah, this is fun. And I said, We need something bigger. And I said, I had a matchbox when I was a kid. And I said, I always wanted to build it. So that was the inspiration for the Boogie van. So that was actually based on a matchbox that I had that was based on the 1970s '79 to 1981 Ford free wheeling package that Ford put out.

[00:59:35.920] - Jerry Bain

And the Vans... Now, the stripes are the same. The colors are a little more brighter than the ones that Ford used, just because I wanted a little more pop. But that's why I built the van, the way I did was so that I could still guide people, because I do a lot of guiding here in West Virginia. So I could still guide and explore and have room for me and the wife. And that That was the reason for that. Now, that's segueing in to you just said you're going to run a Rubicon in the spring. I was just talking to John Harrig, and he's going to run the 10th anniversary of Crawl the Con. And he asked me to bring the Boogie van out. So I'm going to bring the Boogie van out and attempt to be the first van full size, to run the Rubicon. Now, that being said, there's another, there's a guy on YouTube somewhere that's building one on 42s to do the same thing. So I may not make that. But I'm going to 40s, and it's got tons under. Now it's got 60 front and a 60 rear, but I'll be going up to 40s.

[01:00:42.880] - Jerry Bain

So I'll be going to a Superduty '05 in the front and then a 10. 5 sterling in the rear. Bf Goodrich is going to send me some tires. So we're pretty excited about that new build. So in July of next year, I will be in California, or at least as far as the Rubicon. And we are super excited to get this.

[01:01:05.020] - Big Rich Klein

How cut are the fenders openings?

[01:01:10.480] - Jerry Bain

Well, they're not at all now. I'm on six inches of lift right now. And 35K and three. So I've got another van that I bought. It's a 72,000 miles survivor panel van that I bought out of a warehouse in Kentucky. And I bought it a couple of years ago, and it was always meant to replace the Boogie van. Meaning, so the Boogie van, she looks really good from 20 feet, but I've already had to do work on the floor And I had to do work on the drip rails. So I have always kept my eye out for something to replace it. Also, it was well used, like the doors, they had been open and closed by people that didn't own it, by the workers. My van is a cargo van, and it was when I bought it, it was an old electrical van. It still had the shelves and everything in it. So the doors, whereas they shut fine, they don't always feel so good, even with the rubber. Just because they've been tweaked a lot. This new van I have, I'll be taking everything that's currently on my van and moving it to the new platform.

[01:02:25.100] - Jerry Bain

And it'll look exactly like the one I have. And that was always the plan. So what this did was just give me the opportunity to already have a platform for the new build, right?

[01:02:38.080] - Big Rich Klein

I guess what my question is, is to put 40s under it, then, are you going to tub out the Thunderwells and everything, or are you going to just lift it?

[01:02:48.560] - Jerry Bain

No way. Yeah, no way I can keep lifting. I'm on 6 inches right now on 35s, and I've got about 4 inches of up travel right now before I bump, right? But I've got, of course, down travel is not limited. So with the new van, I have no intention of lifting it at all from what it is now, 6 inches, right? So everything else has to come out of the body. And I've always, ever since Trent McGee did a cutting section on that Scout that he built for UA, I've always wanted to do that. I wanted to make the wheel well bigger. And I've got a couple of parts vans that I bought over the years. So my intention is to go in and create a factory wheel well, but just by adding to it and moving it up. You know what I mean? And I've always wanted to do that. So since I have that lower stripe that covers the body, that orange, I can cover up all my bodywork with a decal and I won't have to paint.

[01:03:54.580] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, there you go. Cool.

[01:03:56.620] - Jerry Bain

All right.

[01:03:58.600] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. So let's Let's talk now about the Backroads Coalition.

[01:04:06.640] - Jerry Bain

No, it's called Country Roads Coalition.

[01:04:08.320] - Big Rich Klein

Country Roads Coalition. That's right.

[01:04:10.560] - Jerry Bain

Yeah. And if you want me to, I'll just start with our little spiel, right? Our little mission statement.

[01:04:19.930] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[01:04:21.580] - Jerry Bain

Yeah. So Country Roads Coalition is dedicated to preserving and promoting access to unmaintained state roads to promote motorized recreation/tourism in West Virginia. Through education, advocacy, and responsible land stewardship, our mission is to ensure those vital pathways remain open for exploration, fostering a community that values both the thrill of adventure and the preservation of our natural landscapes for future generations. So So that's just basically our little spiel, right? That is our mission statement for Country Roads Coalition.

[01:05:06.460] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And the difference from what we're used to out here on the West Coast, say Colorado West, is that we have a lot of open public lands. Especially east of the Mississippi, there is very little public land. It is It's mostly private or still private, but Corporation-owned, like old logging and mining, operational land, that thing. And so you guys are, it's not so much trails like what we have, but you have county roads, but they're unmaintained, but they're still registered as county roads.

[01:06:02.160] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, that's exactly right. So West Virginia has a very extensive background or a network of unmaintained county roads or country roads or county roads, but there are state roads. And so what makes a road become unmaintained is it reaches a point where there's no more tax paying residents homes, right? So if you're going out of road and it'll be pavement, typically to the last home on that road, and then it'll turn into a gravel or a dirt road. And then from that point, unless there's another house on the other end of the road or whatever, everything in between, they don't maintain anymore because there's no reason to spend resources on a road that is no longer needed to access your home or property.

[01:07:02.440] - Big Rich Klein

Especially for emergency services and stuff.

[01:07:06.060] - Jerry Bain

Right. So the unmaintained network. So West Virginia, as these older farmhouses on these dirt roads, as these farms go away and the houses fall in or they're torn down, and as people no longer farm like they did a hundred years ago There's no one that lives on these roads anymore. So we have a very extensive network of these unmaintained roads. These are the roads that we love for that very reason. We like the washouts and the ditches and the exposed rock and all of the things, and all of the things that are still on those roads. I was reading an article the other day by a gentleman who talks about West Virginia having a resource for tourism that no one else really on the East Coast has. And that's a historic component. And what I mean by that is like, North Carolina, they tore down everything and built new things. But West Virginia, we just got less people, right? So all of that, everything that was there 100 years ago is It's still there, or 200, whatever. It's still out there. Now, its condition has changed, but it's all still out there, unlike any other state.

[01:08:42.060] - Jerry Bain

So when people come here to recreate, right? They get that history component that no one else has. One of the things that I say when I go to the Capitol, I was just down there a couple of weeks ago at a Senate subcommittee. We're trying to get the the map system digitized so that Rich, say you were coming to West Virginia and you wanted to download the current West Virginia County road system by road surface into your, into your garment so that you could travel wherever you wanted to go and know you were on a legal right away. Right. So that's what we're working on. And whenever I'm down there and I'm talking to those guys, I tell them this every time, every time Senator Maynard They asked me to come down and speak, I tell them the same thing. I tell them my goal for Country Roads Coalition is to keep as much of the current road system open and available until West Virginia realizes how big of a resource it is, and then I'm going to be able to retire. So our goal is just to keep it open and maintain or to keep it open, because Because at some point in time, Charleston, West Virginia, the capital is going to realize how important adventure tourism is to West Virginia.

[01:10:11.820] - Jerry Bain

At this point in time, we have what we have because to this day, they haven't. So I tell them we're the last true, with exception, in the Lower 48, we're the last frontier for exploration. I lead groups of people all the time. Milestar came a few years ago, and they brought Skyjacker and a bunch of other people in. And I led them through West Virginia because you almost need a guide to know where to go and where not to go because you don't know. So that's one of the things we're working on here right now is to try to get... Like Colorado does, if you want to go visit Colorado, they'll send you maps, anything you want. Oh, here you go. You can go on this road, you can go on that road where you want to go. Climb this path, do 10 cup. Do Taylor. Here's Taylor Pass. Do it. It's a great road. So Colorado has done a great job of that. And so the model already exists. We just haven't talked Charleston into it yet. They just don't realize it. I was talking again a couple of weeks ago and I said, look, I said, motorized wreck is not the answer to West Virginia's problems, but it's part of it.

[01:11:34.000] - Jerry Bain

Without coal, that's a good point. When I came back and what got me into all of this, really, was when Tina and I came home to West Virginia, it changed a lot in 20 years. And one of the things I told her, I said, I feel like I should be helping if we can. And that's why I started this organization was I It's not like that that could be a part of West Virginia's future, to replace when we lost coal. So when coal started going away. So tourism, we have the one thing that everybody wants, and at least right now in America, there's almost a revival of people wanting to go out and explore.

[01:12:20.400] - Big Rich Klein

Right. People want to experience this.

[01:12:23.280] - Jerry Bain

Yeah. So we really need to capitalize on that. But again, next year will be 10 years that we've been at this, Rich. And I'm not saying we haven't made a good progress, because we have the fact that I'm talking to you right now is progress, right? Because of your audience.

[01:12:42.920] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[01:12:43.840] - Jerry Bain

So Being able to tell West Virginia's story to your audience, it's the same reason every year I lead groups. We bring in social media influencers in the industry. When we bring them in, because I want to hijack social media, right? For at least for a couple of days. And I take them through parts of West Virginia that most people don't know about. And I do little mini experiences. We don't just off road all day. So say last year, this last August, we left Snowshoe Resort up and over the mountain, and we pulled into Cash Raleigh, and they had a locomotive sitting there smoking, right? And I loaded everybody on it. And these are very special locomotives. They're the Shay locomotives. They're actually 16 wheel drive. They don't just have the real wheel drive because the inclines in West Virginia are so steep. We had these very special steam locomotives called the Shays. And they back us up the track and then they take us on a little tour of the machine shop. And then I put them back in the rig and I take them up a dirt road and I take them on the old battlefield that no one knows about.

[01:13:59.080] - Jerry Bain

And the old Earth and Works are still there from the Civil War. And I tell them about the reason the West Virginia, Virginia State Line is where it's at is because of this battle. And that's why one county stayed Virginia and one didn't. And one became the new state of West Virginia. And then it's like that. We wheel, we see some stuff, and then I stop and I teach them the history. And we do that for three days. And I do that. I do a tour like that twice a year. And then, of course, we do West Virginia Tread Lighting Day, which we just finished doing Forrest next weekend down in the New River Gorge. And then we got Expo in the spring down in the New River Gorge and then another event. So every year we are bringing more and more people in, right? So I do appreciate you letting me be on here to go ahead and let everybody know about this place.

[01:14:55.100] - Big Rich Klein

And how can people find out more? You have Facebook page?

[01:15:02.060] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, we are a grassroots organization. We're not a 501(C) or anything like that. That's mostly because everybody in the organization is just volunteers, right? We all have jobs. Right. And I always tell my people, I tell them, because I'll be doing an event and I'll be like, Jerry, I'm sorry, I can't get there. I had this with the family. And I always tell them the same thing. You know, never feel bad about having to do something else. I only want you to give me as much as you can give me, and not a minute more. So if you don't mind, I'd like to mention all of them real quick.

[01:15:45.120] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely.

[01:15:46.600] - Jerry Bain

Yep, so we got Senator Mark R. Maynard. He's on the board of Blue Ribbon Coalition, of course, and he's also our legislative representative. Myself, Jerry Bain, I'm the director. Brian Holmes is our adventure bike rep. Eric Larch, he's opening up him and his partner, Christopher Ingram, has opened up AOT, a new off-road park in near Charleston, West Virginia, and that's going to be the largest. That'll be next spring And that'll be the largest off-road park on the East Coast. That's going to open next year. And there are side-by-side representatives. Thomas Burton, he's our roads rep. He keeps track of what's going on with our road systems, if there's any issues. We have Mike Bush, he's our club rep. He takes my liaison between all the clubs in West Virginia. So if I need to reach out to the clubs and get some information out to him, he's my guy. Nico Bowden is my full size representative. And Chris Shannon, he deals with campgrounds, dispersed camping locations. He keeps track of all that stuff in the legislation. We also have a county representative in all 55 counties in West Virginia. And what that means is that if something happens to a road, you know how you are in your own county, you know every dirt road there.

[01:17:03.700] - Jerry Bain

And we have reps in all our counties and they keep track if there's an illegal gate or something like that that might go up. So again, we do have an organization, but it's only so that we, because I was in the military and I need organization, right? But officially, we're nothing more than a grassroots organization. Our Facebook page is Country Road Coalition, and that's both on Instagram and Facebook.

[01:17:28.940] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, cool. Well, and this is, Senator Mark Maynard is a big part of this. I met him at the Ormhoff Gala a year ago or two years ago, and really, really great guy to talk to.

[01:17:47.520] - Jerry Bain

You know, he is. And really, I didn't give him enough credit right there when I say we started this. How it started really was that I had been called down. I was in a Jeep club, or an off-road club up here. And he got a hold of me. I don't know how you heard about me, but he got a hold of me and asked me to come down to the Senate subcommittee to speak on motorized rec. And when we were done, we talked a lot afterwards. And as you know, he's a real nice guy and really easy to talk to. And he's very passionate about motorized recreation. And he said, Jerry, he said, When I came to Charleston and I thought I could just walk in. He said, I thought they just didn't know. He said, I thought I could just walk in and say, Hey, guys, look at this. Look at this. There is so much growth from this industry that we could bring into West Virginia. He said, I thought they would just all jump on board and that would be that. But that's not how it happened. So he said to me, he said, Jerry, I need help.

[01:18:57.100] - Jerry Bain

So that was really the beginning of Country Road Coalition, was that help. Because from that conversation, I thought, you know what, until we in West Virginia come together under a single mission, then we're never going to have a voice. And that's one of the reasons we also do Tread Lightly Day, because I absolutely love Tread Lightly's Tread principles. I think it's something everyone can live by and no one has any problems with. And we also, I was talking to the old director, and actually I've been talking to the last three directors, and I tell them the same thing. We need a Tread Lightly rep in every state in the country. And that Tread Lightly rep needs to create his own network. And we need to bring our entire community under one umbrella, under one mission statement, and under one set of rules, stewardship and all of those things. And that's really our only chance. I love Blue Ribbon Coalition, but by the time they get involved, you know what I mean? It's a court battle. It's a fight.

[01:20:22.620] - Big Rich Klein

They're the law dogs. They're the ones that's definitely needed.

[01:20:27.760] - Jerry Bain

Yes, 100 %. But we We need to get in front of a lot of this, right? So, one of the reasons I do Tread Lately Day and one of the reasons I wanted to promote those Tread principles in West Virginia, is because for a couple of reasons, but the big reason was just to show the entire state to include the environmentalist side of it, that we are the stewards of the land. We are the ones that are out there taking care of it. We are the ones. So I was talking to the lobbyist, the lobbyist for the Environmental Council of West Virginia at the Capitol a couple of months ago. And I said, the part that you don't get is that there's five % of every community that you just are never going to reach. There's another five % that we can reach. And the other 90 %, we're already doing the right thing. I said, so our job as the stewards is to reach that 5 % that we can change and then to police the 5 % that we can't So not only are we the stewards, but we're also out there in force, taking care of the side of our community or any community, right?

[01:21:55.840] - Jerry Bain

That 5 % that just wants to get in trouble. So I I told her, I said, I call our country roads the ribbon of access. And I said, this road that's been there for 200 years or 150 years, this little ribbon that runs through a vast wilderness. I said, if you leave that to us, we'll use that ribbon and we will be stewards for all that's around it. You know what I mean? Right. So we do tread lightly day to show the country we do, we show our state, that the people were not 1985 hit the hole in a big mud truck. That's not our community. You know what I mean? Our community is going out and and wildlife viewing, right? And then what's around the corner. And West Virginia has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles And you have no idea what's around the corner. And that's what we're trying to save as Country Mirage Coalition.

[01:23:06.420] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. And you are the chairman, correct?

[01:23:12.640] - Jerry Bain

I am. Yep. I call myself the chairman, but it's just because no one else wanted the job. But again, I'm an old Navy Chief Petty Officer.

[01:23:25.400] - Big Rich Klein

Somebody's got to be in charge.

[01:23:28.120] - Jerry Bain

I have no problem being in charge, and I'm passionate about it. I really am. I think it's important. Everything we do. I love being in the wilderness and not knowing what's around the corner. I love adventure, travel. And I want to try to save that and then try to bring it to the masses.

[01:23:50.180] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Excellent. Jerry, I want to say thank you so much for sharing your life and your passion for West Virginia and motorized recreation with myself and the listeners to this podcast. And I hope to get to meet you personally someday. We know a lot of the same people So hopefully that'll happen.

[01:24:19.320] - Jerry Bain

Yeah, you know, absolutely. I'm going to be out in California next year. Maybe we can meet up. And I want to say to all your listeners, West Virginia is open for business. Get a hold of me. If you want to bring groups in, I like to guide and I like to show West Virginia to people. And for you, Rich, I've watched your stuff. I've seen you around, and I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and let me get my message out.

[01:24:54.000] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Well, thank you so much, and it was my pleasure. And you have a great rest of your evening. And say hello to Tina for me, even though we've never met. And keep up the good work.

[01:25:07.020] - Jerry Bain

All right, sir. Thank you very much.

[01:25:08.670] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Thank you. Goodbye now.

[01:25:10.350] - Jerry Bain

All right.

[01:25:11.920] - Big Rich Klein

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.