TRAINER'S EYE #77 - "Lady And The Eevee" ft. GrantNAlex

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by GrantNAlex, a Pokemon Trainer couple from New York City who stream to their community on Twitch.

GrantNAlex shares their Pokemon journey from each of their perspectives. While Alex only became familiar with Pokemon through Pokemon GO, Grant grew up with the franchise starting during Pokemania in the 1990s.

Eventually, Pokemon GO led GrantNAlex to becoming full time content creators on Twitch where they would host Raid parties and their Shiny Hunting adventures to a live audience. They also share how they enjoy hunting and the places they visit in New York City.
 
Finally, GrantNAlex share their experience doing a cross-country road trip around the United States visiting 48 out of the 50 states and trying to catch a Pokemon from each state in Pokemon GO.

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with GrantNAlex: Twitch | Twitter

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, and Happy Valentine's Day from us to you. If you're single like me, Happy Single Awareness Day from me and my dogs. Our journey takes us to New York City, where we're introduced to a couple who met through streaming. Together, they launched a Twitch channel based around Pokemon Go. Where they would shiny, hunt and host raids with their community. Furthermore, their journey took them to a cross state adventure across the United States in an attempt to explore and catch a Pokemon from every state in the us. How did the journey go? What surprises came their way? There's only one way to find out. Here's their origin story into the world of Pokemon. This is Grant and Alex. And today I'm joined by Grant and Alex. Welcome to the show.

Grant and Alex: 1:35

Thank you.

David Hernandez: 1:36

I appreciate y'all taking all this time to come on to the show We were talking a little bit beforehand and the one thing I want to dive into because you're the second couple I've had on my podcast and I'm a little bit of a hopeless romantic at heart And the one thing I want to dive into first is like how did y'all two come together? Like how did y'all meet?

Grant and Alex: 1:52

yeah, so obviously we stream on Twitch now. Yeah but funny enough, the way we met was on another live streaming app. Yep. So, on the broadcasting app in 2016, but we met in person for the first time in 2017. Yeah, it was an app called Live. me. I think it's still around. It's around. It's just not the same. It was, you just streamed from your phone and it was kind of, it was kind of an interesting app. It was. Yeah, we met on there. she lived in Brooklyn, I lived in New Jersey. Yeah. And then we met up in person for the first time at a concert, actually. and we were friends for a while. I didn't know he was gonna be there, so I was just kinda like waiting for the show to start, and like all of a sudden I get like a little tap on my back. and I was like, It like, freaked out and like, essentially like, jumped on him, so. She told me was going to it. She was trying to convince me to go to it. I'm like, uh, I had to work today. But yeah, I surprised her there. Yeah. And still, we were friends for a while though. Like, we didn't start dating anyway. then like, a year later we started dating. Yeah. we weren't really live streaming anymore for a while until Twitch in like, 2020. 2020.

David Hernandez: 2:49

So before that, y'all doing your own thing. Y'all met at the concert and y'all just stayed friends for a bit and then eventually y'all just got together.

Grant and Alex: 2:55

Yeah. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 2:56

When did y'all decide to want to do live streaming together?

Grant and Alex: 3:00

Again, that's how we originally met, was on live streaming. and yeah, we kind of like put it on the side for a while, but, we both played Pokemon a little bit when it like first came out, actually like a lot when it first came out. Yeah. For me, a little bit for her. But that was before we knew each other, and then 2018 hit, I think, and that's when it came out with like friendship levels in Pokemon Go. Yeah. that got us back into the game, so we were pretty hardcore into the game for a while. And then when 2020 hit and like, I was going back to school. She had just lost her job. So we started live streaming, uh, with the remote raids. Mm-Hmm. actually, because that was like a big thing and that's how we kinda like, you know, first started doing it. it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. We didn't know if anyone's gonna watch at first or anything. Yeah. But like, doing the remote raids helped get like a, like a group in, uh, you know, there's a lot of people that just came into the raids, but we made a lot of friends during it too, and connections community. Yeah. So it was pretty good.

David Hernandez: 3:46

It's kind of a unique way to spend time together as a couple in my opinion because I know y'all stream consistently Y'all do rate our I and it's like y'all get to spend time with each other Consistently as well as in front of a live audience. So the audience gets to experience y'all's connection together.

Grant and Alex: 3:59

Yes. Yeah, for sure. it's interesting, yeah, because we basically, we're basically together all day every day. Yeah. So, you know, it's good and, you know, it can get annoying at times, but, you know, it's mostly good. It's mostly good.

David Hernandez: 4:10

What was y'all's experience individually with Pokemon before Pokemon go

Grant and Alex: 4:15

I didn't really play much Pokemon things or watch many Pokemon things until the game came out. Well, you were born in 98. Yeah, so I didn't So, like, the initial wave of Pokemon Yeah, For me, I'm a little older. I was born in 92, so when they first came out with the cards and everything, like, I was heavy into it. I still have, like, my original cards. In the binder, so like that was like the thing, I was into that, like the first two gens especially, like, I was heavy into and then I kind of fell out a little bit after second gen. I'd still like pick up the, the games every once in a while, like some of the games throughout the years, but I didn't really get heavy, heavy back into, into a Pokemon GO.

David Hernandez: 4:50

Okay, so you're mostly into like Gen 1 and Gen 2 and then you kind of went in and out but mostly sounds like you were kind of distant away from Pokemon up until Pokemon Go.

Grant and Alex: 4:58

Yeah, I would play some of the new games, like I remember playing Diamond and Pearl a lot, and I would pick up like cards every once in a while, like just a pack of cards here and there. But yeah, I wasn't like, into it like we are now again.

David Hernandez: 5:08

Do y'all have a favorite Pokemon at all?

Grant and Alex: 5:10

Right now, my favorite is Squibbit. And apparently that's an unpopular opinion, so.

David Hernandez: 5:16

That is a rare one. I think you're the first one I've ever met, but Squovet. Okay,

Grant and Alex: 5:21

so cute. She loves Obsession with berries. Yeah, that's really

David Hernandez: 5:24

I thought it was maybe because it was a squirrel.

Grant and Alex: 5:26

That too, it's really cute. my favorite Pokemon's always been, Eevee. Just cause like, from the first gen, like, from like, when I was a kid, like, it was the only one that could evolve into different things, and I thought that was so cute. so it was always Eevee for me,

David Hernandez: 5:38

Do you have a favorite evolution you like at all?

Grant and Alex: 5:40

Yeah, I mean, I like fire, so I like, you know, Fire Emblem, but also like, Jolteon was like, always like the fastest, so, again, I like the OG ones, I like, more, but then, you know, friggin Umbreon's awesome too, so.

David Hernandez: 5:53

that's

Grant and Alex: 5:53

hard. I really, I really want to, I know everyone's been waiting, but I really want a dragon evolution. Yeah,

David Hernandez: 5:58

Oh my gosh, that'd

Grant and Alex: 5:59

that'd be so cool.

David Hernandez: 6:00

Yeah, how do you envision that would look like? Have you ever thought about

Grant and Alex: 6:03

yeah, yeah.

David Hernandez: 6:04

ha ha

Grant and Alex: 6:04

In my mind, creatively, it looks kind of like a mess, but I think they can make it work. I think they

David Hernandez: 6:10

It has, like, dragon claws and it's in scales.

Grant and Alex: 6:13

Yeah, I think it can look like, kind of, you know, badass, for sure.

David Hernandez: 6:16

I've always been a fan of, hopefully, a steel Eeveelution. robotic cyber Eevee, yeah, like that.

Grant and Alex: 6:23

It's like a Registeel meets a Yugi.

David Hernandez: 6:26

what was y'all's experience with Pokemon Go? Like, when did y'all first start playing?

Grant and Alex: 6:30

I started playing in 2016. and again, I played for about a few days with one of my friends. But then kind of left it alone because there wasn't really much to do on the game. And then we met and then came back to it in like, 2018? 2018, yeah. Yeah, when the Friendship came out in the game, because one of my friends from Wisconsin got me back into the game. Yeah. for me it was, I started in 2016, I was on vacation when I started, and then like, I went like crazy into it, like I'd go to Central Park every weekend and grind for 12 hours straight. And I pretty much got everything in the decks except for, uh, like regionals at the time. and so like at that point I kind of like hit a wall, it was like winter coming, there weren't raids yet or anything, I kind of hit a wall and I kind of stopped playing for a bit until The Friendship came out in 2018.

David Hernandez: 7:15

what is it about the friendship mechanic that brought y'all both back into the game? It's pretty interesting that that's the one thing that really kind of brought y'all back into Pokemon Go.

Grant and Alex: 7:23

Yeah, well at that time we were dating too, so like we were, but um, again yeah, my friend from Wisconsin was still playing it, and he was telling us about it, and he's like, just give it a try again, and I'm like, okay, and like so we could send gifts and stuff, and then uh, ended up walking to a nearby raid, and there's like a bunch of people there. And, like, the one guy gave me, like, a QR code for a local Discord as well. so we found a local Discord at the time. It was a pretty big Discord. It got kind of torn apart over the years through politics, but But, um, but it was, it was, there was a, there was a golden age of that Discord. It was really good, and we made a lot of, like, really good local friends off of it. Yeah, that we're still close with, like, to this day. yeah, so just starting the game back up and then I was just, like, walking into, like, some raids, like, in town. Yeah. And yeah, met people that, you know, were part of the discord and we joined that. That really got us into it because then we had a lot of local people to play with too. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 8:11

Like, what would y'all do? Like, I would just do raid trains all the day. like, how was the community at the time?

Grant and Alex: 8:16

especially the raid days, like with the birds and stuff, we'd do like these huge raid streams. Yeah. we'd try and like organize like carpools and stuff like that. community day, we usually have like a fully carloaded, like, you know, one of us was driving, like we'd have a fully carloaded and We do, like, around here, we do a lot of parking lots, because the spawns are really good in the parking lots around here. And now we have, like, lifelong friends, so. Right. Now we don't use the Discord really as much, but we have people we've met off the Discord that we still, like, hang out with and organize with and do stuff.

David Hernandez: 8:44

That's awesome. And it's amazing how Pokemon go brought, I know y'all two together kind of came a little bit separately, but brought y'all friends y'all could get to connect with and do things still. And you kind of share that with your community on Twitch. I feel like, because I know, I don't know where y'all go to when y'all do y'all shit screams, but I noticed that sometimes y'all just drive around and y'all hit these cluster spawns a lot. Is that kind of the same place as y'all played back when you were with the community in New York?

Grant and Alex: 9:07

Well, this is actually, we're, just outside New York and New Jersey. So yeah, it's like, parking lot hopping is kind of like the most optimal way, like, in our town. For clusters, yeah. we have a couple, like, abandoned parking lots, and they still have really good spawns, so it's really good. But, yeah, that's pretty much how we play. We in New York, it's a little bit, you know, different because it's, like, sort of traffic and stuff, Well, actually little bit off topic, but we used to go to the college campuses a lot for, um, Ingress. Niantic's other game. Basically, we grinded the crap out of Ingress for like two weeks. It was like our life. Like, there was nothing go I remember at the time, there was like nothing going on in Pokemon Go. And we grinded the crap out of Ingress for like two weeks straight. So, so only so that we can get to level 10, so that we can submit portals. Which would become Pokestops in Pokemon. it was such a grind, but it was, it was before, now of course you could just submit stops in Pokemon Go, but at the time you couldn't. actually built our area up a lot with like stops, uh, Ingress and doing it that way. cause we wanted like more gyms in our area and stuff like that.

David Hernandez: 10:03

you know, at the time when y'all were trying to play Ingress to, you know, add more stops and Gyms, would y'all just map things out? Or like, how would y'all find stuff to submit is, I guess, is what I'm asking. hmm.

Grant and Alex: 10:13

just that was the reason we started playing because we had a lot of stuff that we knew probably could go through like just like some like playground and some like we have a lot of like, John Bazelon was like a war hero, he was from our town, and there's like so many like plaques of him, and like statues of him and stuff around, and like all this, all this like historical stuff could like easily probably go through, so that was a big rea Like, we know like the town, cause they don't know what's around here, but there isn't really many people that submit all this stuff.

David Hernandez: 10:36

how's your area changed since doing those kind of submissions? Like, how was it before to how it is now?

Grant and Alex: 10:41

Yeah, and well there's definitely more people that submit now too, that were like, when we did the Ingress, they were helping us out, doing it with us, and then now obviously you can do it in Pokemon Go, so there are like a few things that pop up still, new. But it's great, because like, when we do raid hours, we still sometimes do it from home, but when the remote raids were unlimited, we could do it from home easy, because we could see 13 djinn from our house, so. Yeah. originally we could probably only see like, maybe like 5.

David Hernandez: 11:03

Oh wow, that's a big increase.

Grant and Alex: 11:05

It's grown.

David Hernandez: 11:06

I know y'all started y'all's Twitch based on remote raids, and of course Niantic has nerfed it to a point to where it's more difficult. Do y'all miss how remote raids were compared to how it is now?

Grant and Alex: 11:15

Yeah... A

David Hernandez: 11:19

You can be honest, I'm not gonna judge you. Like

Grant and Alex: 11:20

no no! It, it sucks, but. Especially for certain things, right? Was it the tour or the GoFest for Rickwasser Raids that were unlimited? Oh, that was so good. It was Hoenn Tour,

David Hernandez: 11:33

Oh, and tour. Yeah.

Grant and Alex: 11:34

Yeah, when they took the limit off, that was, that was great. We did so many. We did like 300 Rayquaza Raids. Yeah, we should We streamed from like Friday to like It was a long stream. To like Sunday night stream, yeah. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 11:49

Y'all really went hard on those Rayquazas!

Grant and Alex: 11:51

Yeah, they brought it back the Unlimited. They don't do that often, so when they do, it's like, we go And it was Rayquaza, you know? Like, Rayquaza hadn't been back in a while.

David Hernandez: 12:00

Were y'all trying to hunt for a Shundo or a Hundo what was y'all trying to go for?

Grant and Alex: 12:05

still trying to hunt for a Shundo. I had the Hundo already. She got, she got like six Hundos that day. It was ridiculous. Yeah. Or that event. That event. I don't know how. It was five or six. I got, it was five, and then eventually I got a sixth one, but Shundo, Shundo, Shundo, I really like that. Well, and loading up on shinies to be able to lucky trade. Yeah, to eventually get one.

David Hernandez: 12:22

my gosh. how close have you gotten to Hundo? Like I'm sure you've probably done lucky trades too.

Grant and Alex: 12:27

They're always awful. For other causes, they're always awful. They're so it hurts. I don't know why. It's just, yeah, not great.

David Hernandez: 12:35

Oh, what's y'all's way to play Pokemon Go? I know you drive around. Do y'all like to shiny hunt, or do y'all just like to catch.

Grant and Alex: 12:40

We shiny hunt quite a bit. Mainly shiny hunting. Mainly, yeah. We'll catch stuff if we need candies for it, or like If there's like a Stardust bonus, yup, yup. Then we'll catch, but mainly hunting.

David Hernandez: 12:53

I've loved y'all's reactions because I saw some of y'all's old videos And I love how sometimes y'all would both get shiny Pokemon at the same time like I remember a Deoxys And y'all just are both surprised like that's gotta be kind of a fun feeling when y'all both get the shiny at the same time

Grant and Alex: 13:07

it's wild because like, I get it if we, I don't know how to explain it. Like, when we get a shiny both at the same time, Especially in raids. Yeah, it's like, what are the chances of that? It's kind of like crazy because it's like really small odds that that happens. It doesn't happen very often so it's a nice little shock. Especially when it's like the first one or like we're really hunting it. Yeah, the first time it ever happened I think we both kind of lost our minds a little bit. Yeah. So.

David Hernandez: 13:33

something else?

Grant and Alex: 13:34

I think Deoxys was one of the first ones. It was one of the first ones. Uh, it was either Deoxys or maybe Genesect. but like, it actually just happened for the Hisuian Samurott raid day. But it was a little, uh, for, uh, for, tell me what it is. It happened for, um, why am I blanking? Syphlosion, yeah. And we, it actually was crazier, and this is the first time this happened, we both got a shiny at the same time, but it was the same cP, which has, like, never happened. Uh, and Only it could've been a Shundo. If it was Shundo, I think we both would've just, like, went down a little bit, but it still, it was still, like, mind blowing, because, like, we've gotten a Shiny at the same time of Legendaries, but never the same CP. It was crazy.

David Hernandez: 14:16

That's awesome. Like, yeah, what are the odds y'all both get both a and the same

Grant and Alex: 14:20

Yeah. I don't even know, I don't know what the odds of that are. They've got very, very tiny odds.

David Hernandez: 14:25

Somebody listening to this, if y'all know math, do the math for us because of us aren't, I'm good at math, but I don't know how to do the math right now for that.

Grant and Alex: 14:32

It's just not happening for me.

David Hernandez: 14:34

Uh, who has the most shinies between y'all two?

Grant and Alex: 14:36

We throw a lot out, too, because we do community days and stuff. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 14:39

Of

Grant and Alex: 14:40

And we end up getting way too many on the community days. But right now I have 2432. And I have 2101, so he has a bit more. better at managing her storage though, I think. A little bit.

David Hernandez: 14:51

you a bit of a hoarder?

Grant and Alex: 14:52

Well, no, it's just like, I get, like, on the community days, like, I gotta go back eventually, and I don't do it right away. Like, I have, like, a million Mareeps right now that I gotta delete. Yeah. But, we do actually have, the same exact Shundo, though. gosh, yes. Yeah. Yes. It didn't happen on stream, but it was actually right before we started streaming, I think, actually. I think so. It was, a wild Gyarados. before Mega Gyarados was out, there was some event where Gyarados was spawning in the wild and it was shiny boosted. It was like 1 in 64

David Hernandez: 15:20

Mm hmm.

Grant and Alex: 15:20

and we were stuck in traffic. I don't know And so, you know, I just had to be open or like literally bumper to bumper traffic. I opened the game and I clicked and it was shiny And I told her to check it, and it was shiny for her too, and we were just so shocked at the time that it was shiny for both of us. Right. I didn't even, like, IV check it at the time, because I was just, like, so shocked that it was shiny for both of us. And then, like, the next day, I remember IV checking it, and I'm like, oh my god, like, what the heck, like, I'm like, wait, is this the one you got? And then, sure enough, it was the one she got, so yeah, it was, We have the same Gyarados, you know, it's got the timestamp Shundo.

David Hernandez: 15:52

gosh.

Grant and Alex: 15:52

was, yeah. It was, you know, it was boosted 164, but still, I mean, We didn't even know it was a Honda, like, now some of the, like, locals and stuff will call out Hondas around here and we know, but, like, this was not, like, where we were from, we were just stuck in traffic, so. Yeah, it was, it was insane. It was pretty crazy.

David Hernandez: 16:06

That's so cool. Like I like y'all both have that Gyarados kind of connected with y'all's journey. It's kind of cool.

Grant and Alex: 16:12

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a really cool one.

David Hernandez: 16:14

You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. I know y'all's twitch stream has had to change because of the remote ray nerf So how do y'all like approach twitch streaming now with Pokemon go like what do y'all try to show the audience and what do y'all? Hope people experience when they watch you.

Grant and Alex: 17:45

So, I guess before, we used to do it, like, mostly, like, raining. Yeah. Right. A lot of times, actually, even, like, we would either both be at home and we could just do the raids, like, that we could see from the house. Or I would stay home and he would go I would go out and she would, like, organize the queues. so we definitely had to change our setup a little bit, to, like, have it so that we could both be out. you know, we have our phones that both have service. We have a third phone that has service for, like, the camera while we're outside. And then we have, like, two other phones that we hotspot, so it's like, we kind of have, like, a little mini studio in the car. Yeah. but yeah, so we definitely had to change our setup a little bit and, like, figure out how to work it so that we can both be outside and both manage the streaming because we're outside a lot more either doing the raids or just shiny hunting. We try and, like, figure out the best ways to get like the new things and stuff while we're, you know, while we're going. We also stream inside. We do stream inside sometimes. We do stream inside, yeah. But definitely not as much. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 18:33

yeah, I think all the time I've watched y'all, y'all have only been streaming from y'all's car, so I

Grant and Alex: 18:38

Yeah. Yeah. Usually on like, on Fridays we'll come inside. Sometimes, right hour. And then the other thing we do virtually every day is our daily incense every day. I think we both have all the birds. Yes. Now we do. I caught each one in a Pokeball. That was my mission. I

David Hernandez: 18:51

Oh my gosh.

Grant and Alex: 18:52

Yeah. That was my mission. And I, I got that done. I've caught a few of them in a Pokeball. I was trying to do it like, kind of color coordinate. I don't really know cause I caught one of them in a Pokeball, Great ball and then an ultra ball, but also I think I've caught like two birds in a pokeball now or three I'm not sure. I can't remember Yeah, so she wanted to get like match the colors with the birds. Basically Right, yeah

David Hernandez: 19:14

which is more difficult because you're trying to color cadenate the birds that are going to always run and him catching with Pokeballs. It's kind of difficult. I feel like that'd both be challenging.

Grant and Alex: 19:24

it's just well, that's why we do it pretty much every day. So we have the most chances But then there would be streaks where, like, there was like a streak at the end of last year where between the two of us we saw, like, five birds in three days, so, it's very streaky. It's very random.

David Hernandez: 19:36

So eventually Go Fest comes to y'all's neck of the woods in 2023. What was it like to have Go Fest in your area?

Grant and Alex: 19:45

I was super excited when I heard the news. Yeah, we were, we were hoping that it was somewhere closer and then it ended up being in New York and it was very exciting. Yeah, because we went all the way to Seattle the previous year. Yeah. And, obviously, it's a lot cheaper here for us, you know, it's a lot, it's just easier because we know the area. I like traveling places too, but, during the events, you can do too much sightseeing. Right. In Seattle, we had a day of sightseeing and stuff. Yeah, not too much. but it was nice because, yeah, we know all the places, especially with the city experience, we know kind of, like, where to play. Right. And how to play. I was not a big fan of the island, the park. Nope. It was a, it was an odd choice, an odd choice for me. There's a lot of spots that could have done it that I think would have been better. Even if it wasn't even like right in Manhattan, like outside of Manhattan, other parks and stuff and especially at the time, like we scouted the park out a couple weeks beforehand and like made a little video and stuff. but we saw there was going to be a problem right away because there was construction going on in the park and that made it hard to funnel people through a certain area. Yeah, their timing wasn't really But I was happy it was in New York. The park stunk because of the construction mainly, but also it was hard to get to the park for a lot of people. I mean overall it was great because it was right here for us. Right. And the city experience days were just insane.

David Hernandez: 20:53

what Park do you think would've been a better fit for you in y'all's opinion? For Poco? Go Fest.

Grant and Alex: 20:57

It's hard because like, I think Central Park wouldn't make sense. It's way too big and even if they did a section of Central Park it would be hard for people to find. Yeah, I, I think Prospect Park would be nice. Prospect Park already has a lot of events going on throughout the summer, like Yeah, so we closed them down, I don't there's a lot parks, there's a lot of big parks in like, Queens and stuff like that or like Brooklyn that are just like, it would just be less chaotic, you know what I mean? And it wouldn't be too far. It's still in New York City technically, and it wouldn't be too far from like the main city of Manhattan, like. Anything but Randall's Island or any of the islands. I mean, there's also Governor's Island, like any of the islands, because there's so, it's so hard to get in and out of there. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 21:37

Yeah, that was the one thing I didn't like about that park either because I had to go I walked across the bridge

Grant and Alex: 21:41

Yeah. We walked across the little bridge. I don't,

David Hernandez: 21:43

the little bridge.

Grant and Alex: 21:44

so there's two bridges. There's one south and there's one north. There's a car bridge, and then there's like a little bridge from Manhattan, at least if you were coming from Manhattan.

David Hernandez: 21:51

Okay. think I took the big bridge

Grant and Alex: 21:53

With it?

David Hernandez: 21:54

from uh, Thomas Jefferson or Roosevelt or something like that.

Grant and Alex: 21:57

Yeah, with the cars on it. Were The Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We avoided that one. There's, but we had to walk a lot farther though, but.

David Hernandez: 22:04

man. Where were y'all when I needed y'all?

Grant and Alex: 22:07

But that bridge just seemed crazy and there's so many people went I But imagine, like, when, I think the worst was probably, we played in the morning, luckily. I don't know if we played in the morning or the afternoon. I heard, like, terrible stories in the afternoon because everyone was trying to get out at once. at least in the morning when they shut it off, people might go to the shop, people might hang out for a little bit. Not everyone's leaving at once in the morning, but, like, in the

David Hernandez: 22:26

point,

Grant and Alex: 22:27

Everything's shut down, everyone's just leaving all at the same time.

David Hernandez: 22:30

Where'd y'all go to grind the city experience?

Grant and Alex: 22:33

mostly Lower East Side. It's like our favorite part of Manhattan. It is.

David Hernandez: 22:37

okay.

Grant and Alex: 22:38

Lower East Side mostly. we were actually car grinding still for a lot of it. a bit. Cause we were streaming, and it's just, when we're streaming, to hold like all the phones and have the chats, like we have a whole bunch of mounts in our car and everything, it's just so much easier to do it from the car instead of trying to juggle five phones. So yeah, we city grinded for a bunch of, we, you know, just kind of basically kept going from like east side to west side. But my favorite park experience ever for a Dolph fest was Chicago. Yep.

David Hernandez: 23:02

Oh, you went to Chicago.

Grant and Alex: 23:04

In 2019. They need to bring that back. That was the best park experience ever.

David Hernandez: 23:08

Did y'all go together or

Grant and Alex: 23:09

Yeah. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 23:10

what was it like for y'all to go to Chicago?

Grant and Alex: 23:13

That was good. We drove actually. It was like a 11 hour, 11. Yeah. Drive. funny enough, my friend who got me back into the game he lives in Wisconsin but one of his work offices was in Chicago so he was working there that day. We left at like 3 in the morning, we got to Chicago and we picked him up from work. Yeah. And then we checked into our hotel and then we went out and did Raid Hour. So after an 11 hour drive we got there.

David Hernandez: 23:35

My gosh, I just live in that car.

Grant and Alex: 23:38

no, well that time it was in Chicago so we were just walking around doing the Raid Hour. Um. and yeah, we did the raid hour, and then the next day was our day of GO Fest and it was really good, our day, like, the connection was fine, everything was fine, the park was so good, it was decorated really well, it was a huge rectangle, that's what made it so good, it was just a huge rectangle, so you could walk down one side through all the different zones, and then walk back the other side through the zones, and it was just so, it was a perfect layout, really.

David Hernandez: 24:02

Well, we've talked so much about GoFest. So if somebody was on the fence about going to a GoFest, what would you tell them?

Grant and Alex: 24:08

As long as it's not at Randall's Island, you go. I mean, best, best about GoFest is just, also meeting up with people. Yes. That's the best part about GoFest. Yes. I feel like. That's half the reason, if not more, that I want to go. Right, because I mean, you have a global GoFest. Yeah, they have other things like there's time to play, right? But your friends and people that you haven't seen in months or more is like most especially like us. Like, you know, and like the online community, like yeah, there's so many people that are spread out so far and this is like the only time they all come together for the most part. So it's like,

David Hernandez: 24:38

Do y'all meet a lot of people online whenever y'all went to the GoFest?

Grant and Alex: 24:41

yeah. Yeah. Like, so we did a meetup, at, eat in the East Village out of Pizzeria. That was a lot of fun. And then, We, you know, met people in the fall. Yeah. We hung out quite a bit with, friends. But it's always, there's always the problem is that, like, you always miss someone. Yeah. Like, there's so much going on, there's so many people there. And it goes by so fast that you always miss someone, unfortunately. It sucks. oh, Someone else that you interviewed, uh, a good friend of ours, uh, Mike Nerdlaw.

David Hernandez: 25:05

yeah.

Grant and Alex: 25:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we, we missed him this time. We saw him when we were in Seattle. Yes. And he's such a nice guy, but we couldn't find him in that whole We weren't in the park for that much, and he was in the park the whole time, I think. but he's such a nice guy, we didn't get to see him. No. so that's, that's the one thing that stinks is like, there's so many people there that it can be overwhelming and hard to organize everything, but it's cool to see like, a lot of people that you don't get to see, outside of that event.

David Hernandez: 25:28

speaking of meeting people, y'all actually took a trip around the states earlier, right?

Grant and Alex: 25:32

We did. Yeah, and our mission was to catch a Pokemon in every state. we, again, we haven't put out like the content from it yet I'm trying to like edit it in the best way. The best way, yeah. But it was, yeah, it was a lot of fun. We went to all the continental states, so 48 states. We caught a Pokemon in every state, we tried to do an activity in every state. Yeah, yeah, we didn't want to just go and catch a Pokemon in every state, right? Like, that's cool and all, but like, while we're in the states and like, exploring states that we might not be back in, we wanted to at least do something everywhere. We tried a bunch of food places in all different states. It was, it was a break, right? So it was kind of a nice like, of mixing like, Pokemon with traveling,

David Hernandez: 26:08

How long was the trip just overall? Like how long did it take y'all to get around 48 States?

Grant and Alex: 26:13

for a little over a month. so the Northeast, we went through pretty quick, because most of the states we've already been to, you know. and they're all smaller states, right? Once you get in the middle of the country, then they're all bulky, and it takes like a day to drive through them. we rented like a van, so actually we put like, one of our friends gave us this foam that we could put in the back, so we could actually sleep in the back at like rest stops and stuff. Sometimes, sometimes we got hotels, but sometimes it was just more convenient to sleep in the back and, you know, save some money, my favorite place for me personally was Yellowstone. It was beautiful there, and I'm not a big nature person, but it was just so nice there. the service stunk a lot, except, like, at, like, big, like, landmarks there so I did catch a Pokemon at Yellowstone at, uh, Old Faithful, actually.

David Hernandez: 26:52

Wow, that's crazy.

Grant and Alex: 26:53

Um, so that was so cool to see Old Faithful. What was your favorite spot? My favorite spot is kind of hard to choose, but I think if I had to choose one, besides Grand Canyon, it would probably be Idaho? Is that what that was? Well, because she got to feed baby bears. I got to pet and feed six cute baby bears, and I don't know if anything could beat that. Um, so, I think that has to be my favorite.

David Hernandez: 27:20

Now were they wild baby bears or were they like at the zoo or?

Grant and Alex: 27:23

was a zoo, it was like a bear sanctuary. Basically. Yeah. I them with a baby bottle.

David Hernandez: 27:30

Oh my gosh, that must have adorable.

Grant and Alex: 27:33

They were like little babies.

David Hernandez: 27:35

I was worried if mama bear was behind you and it's like

Grant and Alex: 27:38

Oh yeah. No, we got to see, we got to drive in a circle and got to see like big bears and like different other animals. but with petting, it was like baby bears that they like take care of there. And They're, they're like cute, messy eaters and it was just really cute and I want to go back.

David Hernandez: 27:56

did y'all have any like things that went wrong during the trip?

Grant and Alex: 27:59

Uh, yeah, like one of the first days I like pulled a muscle in my leg. It's not funny. Getting out, getting out, it was like freezing cold. I don't know why I'm laughing, but. And I got out, I was trying to jump out, because again, we were like sleeping in the back, like the back pulled down with this van and I was trying to like jump out and I think it was a combination of me being cold and jumping out and I It was. I pulled a muscle in my leg. it got kind of bad. We actually ended up going to the hospital in, like, Montana. Idaho, actually, Idaho. But everything was fine, it was just like, because I had this massive bruise on the back of my leg. Yeah. that was really the only big hiccup. Yeah. It was, yeah, this was pretty good. Quite the adventure. We made it through all 40 states. We didn't get pulled over once, which is, you

David Hernandez: 28:38

That's impressive.

Grant and Alex: 28:39

know, I know. Isn't it? That was pretty good. we met up with a couple people, like, from different states as we went, and played, like, Pokemon people or just people that are our friends, like, that we ever see, like, yeah.

David Hernandez: 28:50

My gosh, I need to do that someday. That sounds like so much

Grant and Alex: 28:53

it was really fun. I would say for a road trip through all the states, I think, like, six weeks, six weeks would be more optimal. there were, like, some days where we were kind of, like, you know, rushing a little bit I think six weeks would be like, yeah,

David Hernandez: 29:06

Would y'all ever want to try that trip again? Or have you thought about it? Ha

Grant and Alex: 29:10

there. So not every, not all 48. Cause Lord knows I can't do that. Um, but

David Hernandez: 29:17

You did it once before!

Grant and Alex: 29:19

about this is it was like a sample, right? Yes. That's what, yeah. Yeah. So now we kind of know the places that like, Oh, there's like some cool stuff here. I never would've thought of. And then like some other places were like, Oh, like there's not really much here. Like, you know, we checked it out. We didn't, there wasn't really much. So now we know, like, kind of like, you know, regions or areas that we'd want to go back to and explore more. Yeah, that would be more, realistic if we could just, not stop at all 48 and just go to the ones that were like, Oh my god, I want to go back there, cause like, that's there, or this, I think the most different part of the country is definitely, like, the Southwest, like, the deserts and stuff in, like, the Southwest. That was, like, the most different. Yeah. It felt like a different world sometimes. I think the dust in the air was killing my lungs, but it was so, beautiful and so different that I really, I really enjoyed that. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 30:01

I think the way y'all said it was like it's a sample, right? You got to sample state, and now y'all can figure out which one appeals more to what you want to explore more into.

Grant and Alex: 30:10

Yeah, for sure, and that's why the trip was really nice, yeah. Yeah. we did actually have some amazing barbecue in Texas while we were there. And Alex shot a gun for the first time at a shooting range in Texas.

David Hernandez: 30:19

Ha ha ha ha

Grant and Alex: 30:20

You know, we figured Texas, right? It was, yeah, I'm afraid that if I start talking about how that experience felt now, we will be here for 24 hours.

David Hernandez: 30:28

Let's

Grant and Alex: 30:28

That experience. the gun range was a different feeling, like, my body did not come back to reality until we were driving out of there for ten minutes, it was crazy, but also like, adrenaline, like, rushing. And then, yeah, the barbeque, the barbeque place that we went to. Yeah, there was like a barbeque shack we went to in Texas. It was like a barn. What was it, Beaumont? Beaumont. Beaumont, yeah. Oh my, if you ever are there, go. Because it is like one the best, like, it's probably my favorite food that we, I had on the trip. I want to go back so bad.

David Hernandez: 31:00

I was gonna say, did it feel therapeutic when you pulled the trigger? Cause sometimes some people in Texas go there therapy reasons. Ha

Grant and Alex: 31:06

It was, I think it gave her anxiety, first of all, if it was, I, I think I would like to describe that experience as anything but therapeutic I mean, the guy who came in with us was super nice though. He was like ex-military. He was like, he, he was like probably like, 30, I guess. Like, yeah. He literally told us how old he was and I forgot he was the, like, nicest dude ever. He was really funny. Yeah, He, like, was with us, the whole time and, it was very nice.

David Hernandez: 31:30

Well, Alex and Grant, thank you all for coming on the show. Before you go, if people want to connect with you, if they want to check out your content, if they want to watch out guys on Twitch, where can go? By all means, please plug away.

Grant and Alex: 31:42

just Grant and Alex. Grant, well, Grant the letter N. Grant N. Yeah. Alex. Yeah. On basically anything. On everything, yeah. Twitter, TikTok. Yeah. Twitch. YouTube as well. We're trying to do more YouTube content. We haven't really done a ton of YouTube, Yeah. But mostly, we're live almost, every day, at least six days a week on Twitch. Yep.

David Hernandez: 32:00

Cool beans. I'll make sure to include links to everything they said in the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash as the pokeball turns. Now, if you aren't able to support the show financially, you can always support the show by sharing it with your Pokemon community, because this show wouldn't exist without listeners like you. Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.