Ever wondered how the legendary Johnny Carson's boyhood home looks like or what the town he grew up in has to offer? Join us on a captivating journey to Norfolk, Nebraska, as we uncover hidden gems, local secrets, and the world of geocaching that make this charming town a must-visit destination.
Our exploration takes us through the Norfolk Geo Tour – the first and only one in Nebraska. We discuss the delightful blend of history and geocaching in this town, and chat with local resident Jason about the various activities and attractions you can experience. From the revitalized downtown to the Johnny Carson Comedy Festival, Norfolk has something for everyone.
As we reminisce about our adventures through the town, we share stories of visiting Johnny's home, completing the 10-stage Adventure Lab, and even encountering a DeLorean. Discover the treasures of Norfolk, Nebraska, and join us in celebrating the legacy of the King of Late Night.
Josh Youtube Ep 1
Josh Youtube Ep 2
City of Norfolk website
Geocaching in Norfolk
411 Restaurant
Comedy Festival
Ever wondered how the legendary Johnny Carson's boyhood home looks like or what the town he grew up in has to offer? Join us on a captivating journey to Norfolk, Nebraska, as we uncover hidden gems, local secrets, and the world of geocaching that make this charming town a must-visit destination.
Our exploration takes us through the Norfolk Geo Tour – the first and only one in Nebraska. We discuss the delightful blend of history and geocaching in this town, and chat with local resident Jason about the various activities and attractions you can experience. From the revitalized downtown to the Johnny Carson Comedy Festival, Norfolk has something for everyone.
As we reminisce about our adventures through the town, we share stories of visiting Johnny's home, completing the 10-stage Adventure Lab, and even encountering a DeLorean. Discover the treasures of Norfolk, Nebraska, and join us in celebrating the legacy of the King of Late Night.
Josh Youtube Ep 1
Josh Youtube Ep 2
City of Norfolk website
Geocaching in Norfolk
411 Restaurant
Comedy Festival
Now, craig, if you're getting a hotel key at a gas station, you're thinking to yourself what are you thinking? Yeah, what are you?
Speaker 2:thinking The accommodations are going to be like okay, i'm thinking, i'm thinking cockroaches. I'm thinking, you know, i'm going to have to check the bed for bed bugs before I jump in this thing. You know, i'm going to, i'm going to, i'm going to the black light, the black light. No, i wouldn't go that far because I knew I'll be out of there before that.
Speaker 1:Do you love the outdoors? Do you love to travel? Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA?
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Joshua And I'm Craig, and welcome to Treasures of Our Town, the podcast that takes you on a journey to explore the unique and charming town scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.
Speaker 2:On today's episode we're heading to a little known town and known to some as the home of the King of late night.
Speaker 1:Josh, the home of Johnny Carson Here's Norfolk Fork, norfolk, norfolk We don't know what to call it.
Speaker 2:Well, you say you've been there. Do I have to be there I?
Speaker 1:know, i've been there And I think I know the right answer of how to pronounce Norfolk. Yeah Well, it doesn't look like Norfolk, but I believe it's Norfolk.
Speaker 2:N O R F O L K. So if you're not from there, then obviously it's going to be called Norfolk. But if O L K is folk like the folks around, people like people, folks, so yeah, norfolk, but apparently that's not the way you say it.
Speaker 1:No, if you walk around that town and say it wrong, they're going to look at you funny.
Speaker 2:Well, they weren't looking for it. They just know that you're from, not from you, from out of town. That's true?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's in the Midwest. It's a very friendly town, that's for sure, because I have been there to Norfolk, nebraska. Craig, i'm excited to talk about this Me too, for many reasons, yes, but one of the reasons is that we've never mentioned on this podcast I don't think once any town in Nebraska.
Speaker 2:No, we haven't. No, this is our first Nebraska in town.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been to Nebraska? I know you took a road trip across America. I did. Did you drive through Nebraska or did you go down through Kansas? I don't know if you hit it. I went through Kansas, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i went through Kansas because I went from Cincinnati and went through your Indiana, illinois, missouri, and I went through Kansas. Josh, i went just the lower part, but you missed it, but no, because I did go up and duck into Nebraska before going to Wyoming.
Speaker 1:Oh, you ducked in.
Speaker 2:I had to get one cash, one year cash, just to get that tick, because I never thought I'd be back here in America again.
Speaker 1:Funny me, so technically you have been to Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, i have been to Nebraska itself personally and I have got one geocache in Nebraska, i do believe.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I have spent. I've spent a lot of time in Omaha, Nebraska, for work. And we're not here to talk about Omaha, but let me just say. Omaha Greg it's a sleeper town, another one We find these things everywhere. Yeah, it's a great community.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So many great places to eat. It's right on the river, but Norfolk is also on the river.
Speaker 2:Right. So, firstly, people don't know Omaha is. Where's Omaha, josh, if you don't? in the middle in the middle, in the middle, but on the edge, on the border.
Speaker 1:So okay, let's talk about where Nebraska is. I'll be more specific. It is for those uneducated It is west of Iowa, like directly, like most, they border each other. Yeah, it is south of South Dakota.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It is north of Colorado and Kansas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then it is east of Idaho. Is it Idaho? Wyoming, wyoming, nevermind, sorry, okay, i don't have a map in front of me.
Speaker 2:I should know, but I figured you did. I figured you did. So people probably best to get there. Everyone knows really roughly where Omaha is. So where is then Norfolk compared to Omaha?
Speaker 1:Omaha is on the border of Iowa and Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's just say that first. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so Norfolk is roughly, i think, two-ish hours northwest, okay, northwest of Omaha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's about five hours from Minneapolis, st Paul, so we're right here in what they call the Heartland. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The.
Speaker 1:Heartland. That sounds like an incredible place to visit The Heartland.
Speaker 2:It does. It does. Now, why did you go there, Josh? So why did you actually go there? Why did?
Speaker 1:you go to Norfolk, so if you listen to our podcast regularly, which I hope you do, because what is what show number? Is this eight, nine, what?
Speaker 3:Nine, we're nine.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, we're almost hitting 10. This is fantastic. Well, the last episode, Craig, we talked about Geo tours.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you're listening to this and you searched like Norfolk, nebraska, and just our podcast just popped up. we are a travel podcast that is guided by our hobby of geocaching, which geocaching is a worldwide scavenger hunting where people use GPS to find hidden containers all over the world. Well, in Norfolk they have a geo tour, which is a series of geocaches put together by the city to highlight their city. So it's like it's like your own personal tour guide going around the city looking for these amazing boxes.
Speaker 2:In the palm of your hands.
Speaker 1:Yes, and Norfolk is get this. the first and only geo tour in Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Oh really, you know that? No, i didn't know that Personally, personally, in Nebraska, wow, wow, there you go, there you go. So now why else did you go there? Like who we said before at the start of the show Johnny Carson, tell me more, josh. Tell me more about Johnny Carson. If people don't know who Johnny Carson is, because there's some people who may not Oh, i know Who's Johnny Carson. What did he do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're a millennial or Gen Z and you're listening to this, first of all, good on you. Yeah, because we're a bunch of Gen X dudes. Yeah, exactly. So this conversation is going to age us a bit. If you're a baby boomer or a Gen Xer, you're going to know who Johnny Carson is. Johnny Carson was the longest running host for the famous Tonight Show Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Are you impressed? What? Who succeeded him? This isn't in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Jay Leno. It was Jay Leno, wasn't it? Yeah, jay Leno. And then who succeeded Jay Leno?
Speaker 2:Oh, I got no clue.
Speaker 1:Conan O'Brien Oh there you go. And then he was unfairly kicked out.
Speaker 2:There we go. So, now you know what we're talking about when we're talking about late night entertainment, late night television.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now Jimmy Fallon has it. Oh, of course Of course, so yeah.
Speaker 2:So four hosts ago from Jimmy Fallon is who we're talking about here, and that's Johnny Carson. So was he his hometown? What was his childhood town, was it Josh?
Speaker 1:It was his boyhood home, boyhood home. Johnny Carson was born in Iowa, but I believe he moved there. I might have this wrong. I believe he moved there when he was like eight years old And he, johnny Carson, claims this City nor fork, nor fork Gotta get it right as his hometown and so you visit there and you see his picture up.
Speaker 1:There's a beautiful mural of him, like it's huge of Johnny downtown. In the Elkhorn Valley Museum There's a whole section on Johnny Carson. You can actually go to his boyhood home, like the whole city. The whole city is just. There's Johnny Carson stuff everywhere, so they certainly claim him. Yeah but he also claim, of course he is so proud of his town. Yeah, that's a. That's a rare thing these days. You know Johnny was proud of his town. You don't see that every day.
Speaker 2:And we're gonna have we're gonna wrap this up soon because we're gonna talk to Jason as well from from Norfolk. We talk to Jason, he's the local. He's a local there. We can talk to him, talk to me very shortly. But I should say this, josh, i did research this whole Norfolk, norfolk, the whole lot right now. When settlers went there they they called it north, as in north, south, east, west, north and Fork, because of the fork in the river.
Speaker 2:So it was north of the fork in the river. So that's what they said and that they get. Post office was going to be north fork, but it was very confusing for some of the locals and when it comes to writing it, so Americans probably been. Americans try and simplify it a little bit and that's where they come up with. Nor They started Norfolk as in NLR FLRK, but then they changed it to NLR FOLK.
Speaker 2:So pronounce it nor fork, but still pronounce it nor fork, that's where the fork comes from, the fork in the river. Exactly right, exactly right, and it's got a population currently of 25,000 people. So there you go. That's a perfect size.
Speaker 1:It is, it is it's the perfect size for this podcast. I'm loving those, these what we call not tiny, tiny towns, but I love these middle-sized small towns, exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean before we go, before we talk to Jason as well. Josh, i've recently been to a very small town here in New Jersey, only last week, and I did a video about it as well. Again, one of those towns where you you don't normally go, but there was so much of the treasures in that town and If you haven't seen my video, go on my channel and have a look as well and you'll see, josh, you'll see this beautiful red mill and it's a. It's a flour mill, but it's based off the actual river itself and they make a small, very small fake Waterfall that goes down and so, as the water plummets over the waterfall, it turns the, it turns the, the wheel, the water wheel, you see it which then causes the grain and the, the flour, to be done. So it's a, it's a mill area, but, josh, it was so beautiful, like this red building was just pristine, that had this beautiful, gorgeous Cream-colored metal bridge going across the river as well, with hanging, hanging baskets of flowers.
Speaker 2:So when we talk about treasures of our town, they are everywhere, these little towns, yes, and so I'm very happy that we actually are going to Norfolk Norfolk, nebraska as a small town, as opposed to all the large towns. We have been let's be honest, we have been saying a lot of large places on this podcast And now we're actually with honing in, josh, we're honing in, so I love that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so Let's, let's throw it over Jason. Let's have a conversation with Jason, who is a resident of Norfolk. Hey everybody, we are with Jason Jutt, also known as Geo Jutt in the geocaching world. If you're a geocacher and How you doing, jason, good to see you. I'm doing great. How are you guys? We are doing fantastic. Now We have asked you to come on the podcast because I Am assuming well you're. You're much more of an expert than we are about Norfolk, nor north fork, norfolk I. I know I just watched the video of my visit there and I know I mispronounced it several times, but let's just clear the air right away.
Speaker 3:Nor fork nor fork is how we pronounce it here locally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yes, and you are an expert. I visited, i think it was in 2021, fall of 2021.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:I believe, had a great time. I believe I was there for three days and so I'm sure you know Craig and I felt like it would be great to get some information from expert.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I'm keen to learn to. Josh, let's be honest, because I mean, i've watched your videos, obviously, you know, several times and watch them again just before making this recording as well, and I'm still getting like FOMO. I'm still like I still missing out on something here. I still need to go and see Norfolk. So, yeah, i still need to actually go and see this place. Johnny Carson, obviously, was big Worldwide. He was bigger in in America, obviously, than he was in Australia, but we still knew of him as well. But you and I, josh, were the same breed. We love movie themes, we love locations, we love, whether it be films or, you know, sitcoms, whatever it might be. So there, this is this location in Norfolk, mate, i'm telling you I need to go, i need to go, but, josh, you were there for this geo tour.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's one of the reasons we brought Jason on, because, jason, when I looked at all the geocaches, your name was behind all of them, most of them.
Speaker 3:Well, we, i worked with the local visitors bureau here They're, they're the, the, let's say, the money behind paving the way for this. I worked with Tracy there. But as far as the, the muscle will say the muscle behind it, i'm, yes, i'm the legs on the ground and and put all, physically, put all the casters together and went out and placed everything and So, jason, in that case, and how many actual geocaches are in that area for the tour?
Speaker 2:that in total?
Speaker 3:there. There's a total of 40. The vast majority of them are right here in Norfolk But the the Norfolk area visitors bureau and that's where the area of Norfolk area visitors brokens and they cover more than just Here in town. They there's a couple of smaller communities There's Pierce to the north and then there's Madison to the south, and so they wanted to Include Norfolk. But they wanted to branch out and include their entire area that they serve. So we did put a few of the casters 32 of them are here in Norfolk, but there's four of them that are in Pierce, to the north and there's And there's another four that are in Madison to the south, so that you can kind of get a full experience of the entire area.
Speaker 1:One of the things that you I love about GeoTours is that it often does a great job highlighting all the great places to visit in that area. So tell us, jason, about some of the areas that this GeoTour will bring a person.
Speaker 3:Well, we tried. You know, we were kind of when we first were setting this up we were like, okay, what kind of angle do we want to take? Do we want to focus on, you know, maybe food or history or you know just different locations? and we thought, you know what? let's just give them a taste of everything. So we kind of incorporated a little bit of food locations, a little bit of some of the beautiful parks that are in the area, some of the history. We've got a bunch of famous people, more than just Johnny Carson, that are from this area. We've got other, just various historical pieces of the puzzle that are that a lot of people don't know about this area or Norfolk specifically, and so we just we kind of wanted to showcase a little bit of a little bit of everything that the area had to offer.
Speaker 2:I was going to say like so there's 40 of them in total. Jason, how long does it take for actually people to do this? the GeoTour itself Like to do all four, because you have to do all 40 to actually obtain the coin etc.
Speaker 3:You don't, you don't actually have to do all 40. We set up the passport that you would download to do the tour. We've got it set up so that you can, you can find all 40 caches and that'll give you. We've got basically a point system So you can find all 40 caches and be done.
Speaker 3:Or you know, maybe if you're on a on a time crunch and you don't have time to do all 40, you can do however many caches for the for points that you need. But also, if you stay at a hotel here in town or the area, you'll earn bonus points for the hotel stay. Or if you you know, if you eat at a restaurant or do some shopping or you know just various things like that, as long as you get a total of the amount of points you need, you complete the tour and you can earn the coin. But of course, the majority of cashers want to find them all because they they want to get that digital souvenir as well. Exactly, and in order to do that you have to. You have to find all 40 of the caches.
Speaker 2:But I love that, i love that idea with a point system. You know, again, it's more than just more than just being about geocaching, it's about experiencing the whole area.
Speaker 1:Jason, i've done several geo tours now And I'm curious if you've done other geo tours and what do you feel like makes this tour unique?
Speaker 3:I have done other tours I've done. Well, the HQ has a tour up in Seattle. I've done there's. What is it? West Virginia, tim's, the very first. I think I'm drawing a blank on the name. I think it's Berkeley, maybe Berkeley County or something.
Speaker 2:That's it, the Berkeley County tour. That's the one.
Speaker 3:Geo tour out there. I've done trying to think I've done. oh, we did last year up in Canada, we did the geo tour up there that was, that was around the the gig event And I've done some others too. You know, as far as those you know, like West Virginia, tim's, his was all about the gadgets. I would have loved to have been able to put together a big gadget series here in town, but we just, you know, we didn't have the time and didn't have a lot of people involved to do it. So, yeah, no, no, no, no. we didn't have a team of 40 people.
Speaker 2:that that we could build all that.
Speaker 3:But as far as what sets us apart from other other geo tours, i would say I don't know if, if quaint is the right word, but we're just a little, you know, just a smaller community. It is easier to get around. We've got there's a lot of history here. We've got the. The parks are amazing Caches themselves. I wouldn't say it's it's about the caches themselves. It's more about the, the, the locations and the experience and the kind of the knowledge you get from you know, from being here.
Speaker 2:Although I will say you're saying it's not about the caches themselves, but I will say this, and that is after watching Josh's videos and, as always, people links are in the description, including Josh's videos There's a lot of ammo cans and as geocaches, we love the size, and there's lots and lots of ammo cans and they're well marked with the sticker on them as well, and and so again, I only know this because of his videos, but to me it's not about the geocaches themselves in terms of the gadgets and stuff, but there's still a high quality type of cash to actually find, and the ones we love to find as well, which is the largest size ammo cans.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, in fact, the I would say probably 90% of the caches, at least when the two were first started, were all ammo cans, and I wanted to wanted to do that partially because, just like you said, it's nice to find the larger ones and not have to, you know, hunt around And of course, ammo cans typically go missing, And so, you know, we had to find creative places to put them. There were a few. Well, like, for example, the library. It's not, you know, it's not real easy. We wanted to do it inside of the library, so it's not real easy just to plop an ammo can down in the library. So got a little more creative on that one, and there's actually a series of riddles you have to go through, and it's it's the one that people complain about the most, and when I say complain like friendly complain, but it's also the one with the most favorite points, because it's, you know it's, you got to put work in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to put the work in and it's a challenge, and then it's got a fun container at the end too. That isn't just an ammo can sitting on a shelf, so, but as time has gone on here, we've had to change some of them over because they did go missing or whatever, so we had to get a little more creative on some of them. So some that used to be ammo cans aren't anymore. But but yeah, i wanted to wanted to give that experience or make it easier, especially because we had a lot of at the very beginning. Especially we had a lot of people that had never geocached before, and so I wanted to give them a, you know, a nice experience and have the vast majority of them be pretty easy to find too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was very smart because a lot of times people their very first experience with geocaching is actually checking out the geotourists. So, to make it accessible and the ammo cans are great for kids to find swag inside of them I thought that was really smart And you did. A strategy that I'm seeing a lot in geotourists is that you'll utilize a multi-cache where it'll take you to a historic place where an ammo can won't fit. You'll get some information there and then it takes you a little bit farther outside of town where you can actually find the ammo cans. So, mixing that that history with a good container, that's such a great strategy, Yep.
Speaker 3:Yep, and just like you said, you know a lot of those historical areas. You can't, you know, you can't just leave an ammo can there because it might look a little suspicious or, you know, in today's world you never know what it could be. So, yep, and that way we could still have that ammo can and give them a nice box of trinkets and a nice location to take them to out on a trail somewhere.
Speaker 2:Although, in saying that, jason as well, i just I rewatched Josh's videos, obviously this morning before recording this. I've got a question for you Has the brick been replaced from that ammo can there?
Speaker 3:It's funny because that you know, believe it or not, that brick was not an original part of the cache Oh really, that was not swag But actually where that cache is at, that's actually the second location at that building, because the cache kept getting raided. I don't know if some kids or something found it and they kept just empty in the thing out. And so we moved it to a little bit different location on the property there And they started later on, they started doing some construction and left a pile of bricks around, and so I think eventually the kids found or whoever it was found the new location and they plundered it. It's still frequently plundered. And then I think at some point somebody stuck that brick in and thought, oh hey, this fits in here, let's just put this in here.
Speaker 2:If you haven't seen Josh's video, i suggest you go and rewatch it And you'll see his Josh's face. He picks up this ammo can, just to give you an idea. So, josh, obviously you know Josh is excited sort of fellow. He picks up this ammo can and it's got some weight to it and his face changed like this excitement, this level of excitement. His eyebrows went up, his eyes went wider, his pupils dilated and he's like there's so much stuff in this one Yes, it's my first one. Then he opened it up and then the disappointment and his whole face dropped as he just pulled out a brick, yeah, and he's like, oh, it's a brick.
Speaker 1:It was mostly confusion because, yeah, that was all that was in there was a brick. So, Jason, to get a little bit away from geocaching now let's talk a little bit more about Norfolk Other than geocaching. what are some things that people go there to do outside of geocaching?
Speaker 3:Well, we've got quite a bit here in town, of course. You know we've mentioned about the parks. We've got several parks, but we've got two parks that are very good sized. One has a lake in it, and so a lot of people like to go there, for you know all the usual things you would do at a park biking, running. You know, each of the parks has a disc golf course. We've got that. Of course, we've got fishing. One of the things that's kind of unique to this area, though, is we've got the cowboy trail that runs from Norfolk. Actually, the trailhead of the cowboy trail is here in town, and it runs 321 miles to the west, out to Shadr in Nebraska. It's a rails to trails conversion. I'm trying to think when they, when they decommissioned it, but it's been the trails been around for 20 some years, and it's something that people come out here to, they'll, they'll, they'll bike, or sometimes they'll run the entire trail all the way out, or or they'll start out west and come all the way, and, you know, and finish in Norfolk. People that have been known to do that We do have, i would say, none not just our visitors Bureau, but the city in general have have been working really hard to and revitalizing our downtown.
Speaker 3:At one point, you know, like I think, like a lot of cities, the downtown areas were kind of on their last leg and fading, and ours was right there too. Ours was on the brink of just completely going under and they've really done a great job here in the last few years of just revitalizing it, kind of like a like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. We've got a lot of just new businesses, restaurants, they're actually putting on concerts, there's a. There's a large mural downtown of Johnny Carson and that used to just be a parking lot right in front of that. Now it's actually. They've actually redone it into an actual like a park with some benches and different things, and they do farmers markets there that people like to attend. There's a lot happening, yeah, so there's a lot going on in town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you mentioned you. Sorry, just quickly, and I'm going to go off script here because you mentioned fishing, and I do love my fishing as well. I enjoy fishing and I didn't realize. So I've just looked up on the map itself and is it the best fishing spot? Is it in the Elkhorn River or is it in the in the Skyview Park in that?
Speaker 3:I would say between Skyview Park, and then our other big park is called Tahazooka and that's an old Native American term.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I'm for the life of me. right now I'm drawing a total blank. I used to know what Tahazooka meant. I can't. I can't recall at this moment, but those, those two parks, are actually stocked in Nebraska. Game and Game and Park Commission actually come in And stock both of those lakes, so that's probably the best place to fish. are those two parks? just because of that stocking, that they do.
Speaker 2:So, just to let you know, tahazooka is believed to be translation of the name of the Amha, indian chief, meaning Elkhorn or Horn of the Elk. There you go, it's Google. So you just my quick fingers in Google. As you said, i didn't know. I'm there Googling with my fingers, google, google, google, google.
Speaker 3:As soon as you said that, I realized that and why they call that. That is because that's the Elkhorn River that goes along the Elkhorn, it goes right through there.
Speaker 2:So yep, yep, no, i say Josh going off script about fishing.
Speaker 1:So I Google it to and it pulled up. the Greek for Tah Tahazooka is I'm sorry, so I think I think yours is right.
Speaker 2:Greg, yeah, mine, mine's probably a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, different. Being a visitor of North Fork, i can attest that the real highlight of their city is that beautiful downtown. You're right, jason. A lot of the downtown areas throughout our country have have fallen, and usually due to some mall that was built in the 80s and this downtown was just absolutely beautiful with food and, as you said, there's that beautiful Johnny Carson mural, but there's murals throughout the whole downtown area. you guys really have it going on downtown. you can spend a lot of time there, and The one thing that Jason, you and I spent time down there was the 411 restaurant. Oh, yes, yeah, which was Fantastic. I would love to hear what are some of your favorite places to eat in Norfolk.
Speaker 3:Well, that's, that's one of them as far as, as far as local restaurants go, definitely, definitely the 411, and ironically that that actually ties into our geo tour as well, because that a lot of people don't realize that that is where Hallmark greeting cards got their start here in Norfolk as the Norfolk postcard company, and The actual location of where that started is where the 411 restaurant is now and there's one of the geo-jure Cash is right out in the front of that and it was a tough one.
Speaker 1:That was a tough one to find, not because it was necessarily that tough a cash, but it's a heavy muggle area, oh yeah. So and there were a lot of places to look, so that one was tough.
Speaker 2:All right again. Sorry, that must be a local thing. You call it the 411 because I'm looking online and they call it the 411. Oh, really, okay. Yeah, online is class as the 411 In in Norfolk There you go.
Speaker 3:No, the locals all say the 411, so I guess I don't.
Speaker 2:That's a local thing as well, see so if you say if you're local you go, say I'll meet you at the 411 in Norfolk, if you're not local, you say I'll meet you at the 411 in Norfolk.
Speaker 1:I mean, i mean Craig, we just. I just want to be sure, because I know there's often some cultural- You know, you know differences. Yeah, you know what 411 means, right the 411.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i've got the. Yeah, the download the 411.
Speaker 1:The information. You know why it's 411 right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Why do you know? I don't know why it's for no, i don't know what it's for. Okay.
Speaker 1:I'm okay, here we go.
Speaker 2:Is it a place I?
Speaker 1:always love. I love is love educating you on stuff like this. If you need information Mm-hmm, i don't think I don't know if people do it anymore You can actually call the number 411 and you get information like you can get somebody's Like phone number or whatever like back in the olden days back, back back when you have to do the circle dial on the telephone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, connected by a cord in your home?
Speaker 1:Yeah, i remember in the 80s We were like I don't know this person's phone number, so we would just go 411 and then we tell them the name and the place and they tell us the phone number, josh, you're, so you're giving out good information here on this podcast.
Speaker 2:There's another little tidbit for everyone. So there you go. I did not know that, at least for the arcy. Well, yeah, at least for me, a minimum for me, if you didn't know. If you didn't know that, then make sure you comment somewhere on our social media And let us know that you learnt something here from Josh saying where the 411 come from. Anyway, the 411 restaurant delicious. This is what we do, jason. This is what happens on this podcast. So What, what, what's that? What was your favorite meal then, josh, when you were at 411?
Speaker 1:Oh, I believe I had. I had the sirloin steak. Oh, get this. I had to write down. In preparation for this, i had to write down the what it said on the menu get this, it's a sirloin on a bed. House of mashed potatoes, cherry jam, blue cheese crumbles, fried onions, asparagus and a choice of honey, bourbon, garlic, herb, butter drizzle. Whoa Geez, you had me up until the.
Speaker 2:The blue cheese crumble. I'm not a fan.
Speaker 1:It was so good, it was so tasty. That's what I had. And the crazy thing is that was almost two years ago and I still remember it.
Speaker 2:Wow. So, jason, apart from this sort of location like by the sounds of it it's a little bit more sort of upy sort of area restaurant-ish Where can people go, for instance in Norfolk, if they've got like a family and they want meals like with their families and stuff as well? Is there any other place like local burger joints, that sort of thing that you can think about?
Speaker 3:Again, this is off script, i know, but anyway, well, as far as family I mean the the 411 is family friendly I mean pretty much everything here in town. I mean there's nothing really risky. you know we're, you know yeah. Small small town.
Speaker 3:And so they try to keep everything pretty much available for everybody now, and we do have one of my other favorite restaurants is local restaurants Is the Black Cow, fat Pig And that's that. That used to be more of a what would you say Ritzy type restaurant, but it but it's really. It changed owners here a few years ago And they kind of scaled that back and made it into more of a maybe more of a sports bar-ish type atmosphere, but it's more of a family friendly atmosphere And so a lot of people will go there. We do have I guess not really family friendly, but we do have a lot of craft beers. If you're into craft beer, there's, there's a local place here that actually is called Divots Because it started out west of town. We've got there's a driving range and mini golf And that's where the Norfolk Lodge and Suites Hotel is, and they've actually got a brewery that they put in out there And they started some of the downtown restaurant started serving those craft beers, and now they've actually got a second location that they've actually opened up downtown.
Speaker 3:That's Divots downtown, and they've got another brewery right in there. So they've got some, some local creations that they've come up with. Sometimes they'll they'll do a if we've got a special event or something going on in town. For, for example, we just had the Great American Comedy Festival was just here recently. They'll do a special brew in honor of Johnny Carson and and serve that during the Comedy Festival time. So just a lot of fun, creative things like that going on.
Speaker 2:I can just say Josh as well, you think about this, right, if there's a brewery attached to like a hotel or somewhere to stay, you know where I'm going to stay, don't you? I'll be staying at that hotel You think about. You can drink all you'd like then and just walk, walk back to your room and stumble back to your room. It might take you twice as long to get back as what it is to get there, but that's OK.
Speaker 1:Where are some of the best places to stay in Norfolk? if you were to spend a weekend or a long week in there, well, the Norfolk Lodge in Sweets that I that I just mentioned.
Speaker 3:That's probably our I would say, our best hotel all around here in town. I mean, we've got there's a lot of you know, we've got like your, your Hampton ends, holiday Inn Express, you know various places like that. But if you want somewhere has a local atmosphere to it but it's probably, i dare to say, the nicest hotel in town just because of that, because it was done by local people. But it's, it's just got a homey feel to it, it's in its and it's very, very well done. Yeah, and I think I think that may have been where you stayed, josh, when you were here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was where I stayed And you know I stay in a lot of hotels for my, for my work And I. You know you go and a holiday and express that all those rooms look the same wherever you go. They Hampton Inn, they all kind of have the same consistent vibe, which is a good thing because you know what you get. But the thing I loved about the room when I stayed there was it did feel completely unique, like I never stayed in a room like that. The whole, all the walls. It felt like I was in like a log cabin, but a really nice log cabin. It was really really well done.
Speaker 3:And if, coming up here to the, actually they just within the last year or so they did open up. They took one of the old buildings in downtown Norfolk and converted it. It's called the River Point Inn that they just opened up And I can't recall how many rooms are in there. It's a smaller, smaller hotel because it is right there and down to Norfolk. I think it may only have about 10 rooms in it And I haven't actually been inside myself, but just from what I've heard they tried to make it kind of that, that old timey feel. But yet you know, with the modern conveniences and modern some, some modern look to it. It hasn't opened yet, but one of our, i would say, historic buildings here, it's right right on the main street in downtown Norfolk. It's called the Kensington And back in Johnny Carson's time it was actually called the Hotel Norfolk And when he first came to town, when they first moved here when he was young, they stayed at Hotel Norfolk And then over the years it changed names, changed into the Kensington.
Speaker 3:It was still a hotel for quite a few years And then it became apartments And it was apartments until just recently and some people bought it out And they're in the process of converting it back into a hotel As soon as that opens up. You could. You can kind of get the full Johnny Carson experience Because you could. You could go stay at the same hotel that you know that he stayed at when he was young.
Speaker 2:Talking about Johnny Carson. Obviously Johnny Carson is a well known sort of comedian here in America. You guys then host the American Comedy Festival, or a type of American Comedy Festival here in June. Did you know much about that, Jackson? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yep, the Great American Comedy Festival, and that it's usually it's around Father's Day weekend every year And they've been doing it, boy, i think it's been going on for, i want to say, about 12, 13 years, something like that.
Speaker 3:It's a multi-day celebration to kind of celebrate the life and legacy of Johnny Carson, give new comics a chance to showcase their talents, but it also they also bring in some of the, you know, the more famous comics that you've probably heard about, including, let's see, i've got Louie Anderson has been here Paula Poundstone, drew Carey, martin Short, paul Reiser, i think it was last year the Smothers Brothers were here.
Speaker 3:They came out of retirement actually to come here, and then just this last weekend, vicki Lawrence was here. So they, they're the headline act of Saturday nights, the biggest of the multi-day show. They'll usually do, you know, they'll do their act and they'll, but then at the end of that they present them with an award in honor of Johnny Carson for their you know, for their achievements that they've done. And many of these people actually were on, you know, were featured on the Tonight Show with Johnny and sat with Johnny and were able to talk with them, many of them while they're here in town too. They'll go two or three ways old house, and in fact there's a big wall inside of his childhood home where a lot of these comics have signed their names on the wall.
Speaker 2:I did, i did see that.
Speaker 1:I did see that in your video, josh Yep, it's very much the spirit of Johnny Carson to have that festival. I think it's so neat that that has been brought to your community because Johnny got many, many comics their start by being on the Tonight Show And it was always a big deal. if Johnny really liked you he would invite you over to talk to him, and so it's so cool that this comedy festival is there and it sounds like up and coming comics. it's a place to go and to give them an opportunity to get their talent out there. So I think that's amazing that the city has chosen to host this comedy festival to continue the spirit of Johnny Carson in launching people into the world with this comic talent.
Speaker 2:So that's so cool, that is cool. And, as always, our links for all that we talk about are in the description below. Now, jason, one last thing before we let you go. I heard on the grapevine. oh, actually, i didn't hear.
Speaker 1:I saw.
Speaker 2:I've seen with my own two eyes. The user are one of those rare owners of a DeLorean.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, the back to the future car is like a lot of people like to call it. Of course, mine doesn't look like it did in the movie.
Speaker 1:So what is the? what is the history there? Have you are just a fan of the movies? Are you just a fan of the car? Is it both?
Speaker 2:Was it just cheap at the time?
Speaker 1:What prompted you to to purchase DeLorean?
Speaker 3:Well, it was kind of kind of my my childhood dream car. I, you know when I, of course I was, you know, just a little kid when the, when the movie first came out of the theater and I didn't realize at the time that that was an actual car, i thought it was just. I thought it was something that Doc created in the movie and, you know, had no clue that it, that it was an original car, and we were, if you, you know, fast forward past past, seeing the movie, it might have even been a couple of years later. We were actually down in Omaha for something and we were going through an intersection and and stopped at the at the intersection. There, going the other direction, was a DeLorean and I kind of did a double taken.
Speaker 3:I'm like that that's a real car. I didn't know that, i didn't know that that was an actual car. So, you know, it kind of built from there And when I finally got to a point in my life where that was something that I could pursue, i started hunting around and found somebody that had one available and purchased it and I've had it for does it turn?
Speaker 2:heads. Oh yeah, Turn heads as you driving along.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i get people all the time that you know, if I'm on a two lane, two lane road, they'll come up next to me and they'll give me a big thumbs up. Or really, when I probably unless I'm at a car show, obviously people you know will come up at car shows, but if I'm, if I'm just out and about, sometimes I'll go out and run some errands in it and I'll stop it.
Speaker 3:I'll stop and get gas. And that's usually when it really turns heads is when I pull up and out and the door swings up and and of course a lot of people don't realize this where you put the gas in is actually in the trunk, which is in the front of the car, And so I have to actually open the hood to remove the gas cap to put gas in, So that really that grabs people's attention to the like. What is he doing? Why is he putting gas into his trunk?
Speaker 2:You know now, i've seen, i've seen, i've seen on Josh's video. I've seen he actually gets in. Josh actually gets in the car himself and closes the door. So my next question for you is do you still have the DeLorean? Yes, yeah, so Josh didn't actually take it. Oh no, no, no, no, no, maybe I have it in a different timeline possibly. Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:I wonder, jason, when you pull up to get gas, do people that really know the movie or don't know the movie so well, say, oh, is your Mr Fusion not working, or did you run out of plutonium? I have had that a time or two.
Speaker 3:Usually the thing I get is where's the flux capacitor? And ironically, i do have a flux capacitor that I that I put in there in car shows And a lot of times when it when it were. When I'm not at shows, it's in the trunk. So if they come up to me at the gas station I'll just pop the case open and say, oh, it's right here, and they'll like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And if they're real fans, they would know that the car is still powered by gas. It's only the flux capacitor that is powered by plutonium and Mr Fusion.
Speaker 3:You're exactly right, yeah.
Speaker 1:And yeah, the car is a celebrity and it does make an appearance, along with Jason, in the video of the Geo tour.
Speaker 3:And if you want an ironic tieback to Johnny Carson, johnny Carson was an investor in the DeLorean Motor Company. So whoa, so there's.
Speaker 1:Wow, my head just exploded. Yeah Well, jason, thank you so much for sharing with us the treasures of your town in the North Fork, nebraska And I'm just going to say it, nebraska is a sleeper state, and if you haven't spent any time in Nebraska, north Fork is a great place to go to spend a long weekend. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:No problem.
Speaker 2:Pleasure to be here. Thank you, mike. There you go, josh, now you're going to say it. Wow, you know what?
Speaker 1:You just really got to appreciate somebody that's proud of their town. He's proud of his town. That is a rare thing these days. You slipped in two in one episode, josh, i know.
Speaker 2:You slipped in two.
Speaker 1:That's really good. That's really good.
Speaker 2:Oh man, what he said. it's true about everything in terms of where to go and whatnot as well.
Speaker 1:He knows his stuff, he knows his stuff And you know, I tested something out this last week because I knew we were going to be talking about North Fork.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was playing with a little chat. GPT, are you proud of me or are you ashamed of me A bit? of a little bit of both, but this is a great travel tip. Slash travel hack, craig Yeah. What's that It's all about giving chat GPT the right prompt. I asked chat GPT to give me a weekend itinerary for Norfolk, Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:To give me, like a literal like, just give me an itinerary. What should I do, yeah, and what should I see? What should I eat? I was amazed. You want to hear what it said. It gave me a day.
Speaker 2:I'm hanging on my edge.
Speaker 1:It gave me a day one and day two. So Saturday morning you're going to start your day with a breakfast at a local cafe. You could go to the black cow fat pig pub or Johnny's Cafe or Penny's diner. We talked about that.
Speaker 2:I know Jason talked about the fat pink. Well, fat cow, black cow fat, whatever that was.
Speaker 1:This is crazy. We don't even need to talk to Jason.
Speaker 2:We can just chat GPT, yeah. So what do you do after breakfast? What do you do?
Speaker 1:then. Then later in the late morning, you go to the Alcorn Valley Museum. Explore the history and culture of the reason through exhibits and displays. What Then afternoon? try a delicious meal at one of Norfolk's local eateries, such as Depot Restaurant. Didn't he mention the Depot?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did. He did because that's where the brewery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a Italian restaurant where Whiskey Creek Woodfire Grill, and then in the afternoon later, after you're done eating, go to Taha Zoka Park. What, what, what.
Speaker 2:And do some fishing.
Speaker 1:It offers beautiful scenery, walking trails, picnic areas and a lake. You can rent paddle boats or kayaks, explore the water or just relax by a peaceful surrounding.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:This is just the first day. Then in the evening go downtown. It mentions more restaurants And then it says you can catch live performance in the downtown which he mentioned, or at the Johnny Carson Theater. There you go, and I'm not going to go through it again, but then it gave me a full day too. Like Craig, we are becoming obsolete as we speak.
Speaker 2:We are, ai is taking over. Although, in saying that you can't get a human interaction with AI, josh, you can't get this humor that we've got.
Speaker 1:Exactly Yet. Pretty soon, pretty soon, chat GBT might be funnier than us have better personalities, who knows? But, for now we need Jason. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're going to get back on track because I want to talk to you about you and your experience when you were there. So you were there predominantly because of the GeoTour.
Speaker 1:That's what brought me in there, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was approximately five hour drive again for Minneapolis, and I completed the GeoTour in flat out two days, which is really good for me. All 40 caches in two days, that's really good considering all the filming.
Speaker 2:I did Filming. You're doing too, yeah.
Speaker 1:It actually was probably about two days and then I had one more extra morning, but most people could complete it in two days And it brought me here's the whole point, geocaching aside it brought me to really all the treasures of this town. Yeah, a lot of the stuff that Jason mentioned And there was also an adventure lab there. That was really amazing. That took me to where Johnny went to elementary school, where Johnny the apartment that they lived at It was 10 stages brought me all over town And one of the things we didn't mention.
Speaker 1:Craig, if you watch the video, i based the video off of a old special that was on television in 1982 or 83 maybe, and it was called Johnny Comes Home And basically it was just like a little documentary about Johnny coming home from California to Norfolk and he Norfolk and he just visited some of his relatives. He visited some of the places. So a lot of the places that the GeoTour took me were places from that special. So if you watch the video, craig did a great job editing this. We made it, we turned it into. Instead of Johnny Comes Home it was the Geocaching vlogger goes to Norfolk.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Norfolk and made it feel very similar to that Johnny special.
Speaker 2:Well, obviously, josh as well, I watched the Johnny special before doing your video And, yeah, and I really enjoyed it. Like, here is this guy and he goes home and he's literally showing around the camera crew and obviously then the viewers, his town, and I love. The fact is that you reenacted a lot of the things, even walking across that train bridge, which is no longer a train bridge, it's a walking bridge now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the start of that cowboy trail, yeah, yeah, but he walked across it as it when it was a train bridge, and then and then he actually hung off the bottom of it. And now this is this is this is a star, an American TV national superstar, hanging off the bottom of a rail, like railway track, under a bridge, while the train goes over No safety harnesses. You know, we're talking the Tom Cruise of yesterday. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:Like, which is pretty amazing. I guess the people that I talked to about that said that was very dangerous. The crew was very concerned about Johnny, but it was. but you could tell Johnny when he was visiting those places he was just going back to his boyhood. This is where he hung out when he was a boy. Yeah, and it was fun to get pictures on that bridge, because that bridge was on, i think, like a life magazine or something like that.
Speaker 3:So I have a picture of me standing exactly where Johnny stood.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and you even went to his boyhood home. Now he's boyhood home, i saw as well. Someone obviously owns it And instead of owning something like the place like this, and then shutting it down and living in it, this guy has opened it up to the public, hasn't he?
Speaker 1:Or if you know somebody it wasn't really it wasn't open for tours but our friend Jason got me in there and because he has connections with the visitor bureau there, so I actually got to go in there. Not everybody gets to do that.
Speaker 2:Not everybody.
Speaker 1:I got to walk upstairs to Johnny's room Room. Yeah, it's all redone, it's all remodeled.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they were right. You ring the doorbell and what plays? The Tonight Show theme plays.
Speaker 1:There's jokes that are played when you ring the doorbell. So there's a lot of hidden Easter eggs in there. And then downstairs they use some of the wood that they used some of the original wood of the house. They put it into the bar, so there's a bar downstairs with the wood from like Johnny's room. It was really I felt really special to be able to visit that And if you've watched the Johnny Comes Home special, there was a boy living there in Johnny's room and Johnny plays basketball with him out in the driveway, and so what did I have to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, to play basketball. I had to play basketball. There's a basketball And it's still there. The ring's still there as well, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a newer basketball hoop than the one that was in the east.
Speaker 2:I can't recall Josh, because when Johnny was there in the show he actually sunk three free throws in a row. Three, three pointers Three three, sorry, three, three pointers in a row. Yes, so the boiler alert. if they haven't watched your video, did you sink? three, three pointers.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to watch the video, how's?
Speaker 2:that for a tease It's in the show notes or in the description and show notes Did.
Speaker 1:I sink three, three pointers in a row. You got to watch the video to find out.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go, but there's also as well, going back inside the house, there's also that wall that Jason spoke about, where comedians come over, and they do sign this particular wall around a big photo of Johnny Carson as well, and I saw that on your video too. Obviously, your video is now almost two years old.
Speaker 1:It'll be two years in the fall, because I visited there in the fall of 2021.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, now that you reckon, that's a good time to visit. Norfolk. Oh yeah, what do you think, personally, is the best time to visit Norfolk?
Speaker 1:I mean, i love the fall and I think the fall in the Midwest is great And actually at the beginning of the Johnny Carson special he actually says there's nothing like Nebraska in the fall, In the fall. He does So take the words of Johnny to heart, that's a great time to visit, i think, although. I would love to visit during the comedy showcase the great comedy festival, which is actually in June.
Speaker 1:In June. That would be a neat time to visit as well. But, craig, can I talk about the Elkhorn Valley Museum, because this was a highlight.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So the Elkhorn Valley Museum is like a museum for the County or Valley but, there's a special Johnny Carson section in it.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 1:And you'll see it in the video, and a lot of his Emmys are in there. I don't know if I've ever seen an Emmy in person.
Speaker 2:Oh I think a lot of the real ones.
Speaker 1:Yes, a lot of his suits are in there. You can actually sit at a Tonight Show desk and you can get photo ops with Johnny, like Johnny's interviewing you. I thought that was really cool.
Speaker 3:That's cool. I felt really special. That's really cool, yeah.
Speaker 1:And when I was there, i was there during the weekday and I had the whole place to myself. So Oh, wow. But if you're a Johnny Carson fan or a fan of comedy, comedy, comedy in general I mean, he was such a champion for young comedians This is a place you got to visit. You can't miss the museum And it was so cool. Like I said, i had the whole place to myself, so I took some time there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, that's really cool. And museums in general, josh, i mean recently you and I went to St Louis and we went through the museum there with the slugger.
Speaker 3:Oh, you mean Louisville.
Speaker 1:Slugger baseball bats.
Speaker 2:Louisville. Sorry, what'd I say?
Speaker 1:St Louis.
Speaker 2:St Louis. I'll suss with L in my head, But yeah, we went there and we saw the slugger the Louisville Slugger Museum. You got to go to these museums.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:They teach you so many things you know and you learn so much. It's incredible. So, yeah, we did that And we even went to the little. this wasn't really a museum, but the Lincoln Memorial. And what I say, if you are a Patreon, you would have got a little golden nugget from the Lincoln Memorial, josh.
Speaker 1:Oh, we love the golden nugget Nuggets. We're not talking about the ones from McDonald's, although those are delicious.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But we love giving out those golden nuggets, for sure.
Speaker 2:People talk more about that in a very, very shortly, but just to finish off the talk to Josh about your tour itself as well, when you were there, what kind of apart from the museum, was there any other part? I think there was a. Did he say something about it? There's a bike trail like a cowboy trail, yeah Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what's that bridge that we were talking about?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that's the start of the cowboy. The cowboy trail used to be for a railroad, but it goes 321 miles to the west, Wow Yeah. So it's a bike trail, It's a walking trail, It's a running trail. That's the start of it. It's really cool, And so the river is right there. It's a. You got to get out there. If you're visiting Norfolk, You got to get out and just it takes you outside of town and you just get us. It's a beautiful area. It's like the prairie If you've ever watched Little House and the Prairie that's what it feels like.
Speaker 2:It feels like Little House out there. You really do. It's an escape, and it's an escape for most people to get away to. So, by the sounds of it, norfolk in Nebraska needs to be placed on your bucket list to attend at some time in your life, whether you're a geocacher or not.
Speaker 1:I do have a really odd place that I stayed. Oh yes, tell me this tiddy. So interesting because so when you do a geo tour, you want to be strategic, because you want to figure out like, what order do I do them in right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the quickest and the best order.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, as Jason said, sometimes they can be spread out, you know, beyond the city. So there was the farthest South geocache of the tour was in Madison, Nebraska, which is about 15 minutes South of Norfolk. 15 or 15?, 15.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's like 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to be strategic because I knew I had I was going to have to get the geocache in that town. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to figure out a place to stay in. Madison, nebraska, for just like the first night so I can get that geocache and then go north, and then I don't have to backtrack, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I did the old Google search And let me just say Madison, nebraska. We should look it up Like what's the population?
Speaker 2:I'll look it up. You can tell me about where you stayed.
Speaker 1:So well, first of all I just want to give it. it's a very small town, i would guess probably the population was maybe 2000 people. That's what I'm going to guess. What is it?
Speaker 2:Okay, let me. oh, look at that In 2020, the census says 2283.
Speaker 1:Whoa, look at you. How is that?
Speaker 2:Look at you.
Speaker 1:That's man. That's a skill, to be able to just look at a town and go. I bet you that's how many people live there.
Speaker 2:That's about 2000 people live there.
Speaker 1:So most towns that have 2000 people. There's probably not going to be. There probably won't be a hotel at all, or they'll be like a very small something, right? Like a roadside inn right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, and there was a hotel and I was shocked because it had 3.9 stars. 3.9 stars okay, Like the Holiday Inn Express, I would say would be is like a three and a half to four star hotel, right. Yeah, yeah this had 3.9 And I was like, okay, i'm gonna trust it. It had pretty decent reviews, so I pull in That Friday night and all I see, craig is a gas station. What? it's just a gas station.
Speaker 2:Is that where it said the address?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it says this is where you go. You go. And I was like there's a gas, it's just a gas station, like where's the hotel? and then, when I got my confirmation because I did have reservations that said, yeah, go into the gas station for your key. I was like what, oh?
Speaker 2:So I walk in.
Speaker 1:Walk into this gas station and, sure enough, that's where I pick up the key for my hotel room.
Speaker 2:Oh, Oh, from the gas station itself, the attendant the gas station, i'm like what is Okay?
Speaker 1:I've traveled a lot, i've never experienced that. and so now, craig, if you're getting a hotel key, yeah, at a gas station, you're thinking to yourself Yeah, what are you thinking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you think in the accommodations are gonna be like? Okay, i'm thinking, i'm thinking cockroaches. I'm thinking you know, i'm gonna have to check the bed for bed bugs before I jump in this thing. You know, i'm gonna, i'm gonna, i'm the black light. Black like. No, i wouldn't go that far cuz I knew I'll be out of there before that. I'd be checking the mirrors, josh, and the, and the sensors in the roof for little little lights, and you're right and cameras.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I get my key and they're like, okay, just go around back, around back.
Speaker 2:That's even worse now.
Speaker 1:Go around back. I find my room. Outside looks pretty decent. It almost, it kind of almost look like a pole. I don't know if you know what a pole barn is Like. A pole barn is like a pretty cheap way to build like a lot of farms. Instead of building a barn They'll build. Build like a pole barn which is just like has beams in it, but the outside is kind of okay. Okay with the Siding right kind of a pole barn, but it looks pretty new actually, right, it looked new.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:I opened up that room, craig, mm-hmm, gorgeous, really It was really nice. Wow, i was shocked. I was like okay, Thank you. Google reviews. Yeah, this is a 3.9 star hotel No cockroaches, roaches, very clean and it was almost brand new.
Speaker 2:Now We're talking of the comfort, ridge in and sweets.
Speaker 1:That's does. That's a gas station.
Speaker 2:It doesn't, and by the looks of these photos, it is a 3.9 star as well. 3.9 stars with 47 reviews. It doesn't show anything about a gas station at all, but it does show that that. That the front photo, which looks kind of new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was very new. They built it. They built it Either it's. I don't know if it's attached to the gas station, but it's right by. So clearly somebody owns the gas station And they're like I have all this extra land, let's build a hotel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then my gas station attendant. I can pay him to be my attendant and he can also be the attendant of the hotel. So two for one deal for the owner perfect.
Speaker 1:So that was a very Travel moment, but I was, i was pleasantly and again another travel hack.
Speaker 2:I you got to trust, sometimes you got to trust, the star ratings on On your Google searches. Yeah, let's be honest.
Speaker 1:And the Google reviews are going to be more honest because the Google reviews are not associated with like the like, the hotel chain. Sometimes hotel chains will have their own reviews. You're like wait. Yeah, this person's only reviewing that for a free hotel room and I I like Google reviews because They're they're typically more positive, like Yelp reviews. A lot of times people go to Yelp just to complain.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Yelp is gonna skew?
Speaker 1:I think negative. Where this one. The reviews were more like it was a pleasant surprise, Oh there you go, there you go.
Speaker 2:There's. There's a tidbit and tips for for everyone else as well. But, josh, getting back now to our golden nuggets, yeah, we've got it. We've got to talk about our golden nuggets and we're gonna talk about patreon as well, because we've got new patreon members. Josh, we've got 19 Patreons now.
Speaker 2:Wow and and we thought about this when we were together last time in Kentucky, and you come up with the idea of This with the word called golden nuggets. Yeah, i think we spoke about it on our last episode. But just to reiterate, a golden nugget is something that a little bit extra that There's either be audio only or it could be video as well, that you and I would do that, that only our patreon's get it could be.
Speaker 2:It could be five minutes, like one. I think the Lincoln Memorial one was like five minutes long. I think the video we did at the Jim beam as well, i think that might have been six minutes long. Yeah but then when I spoke to you, josh, about your Germany tour, that was that was a 20 minute interview I had with you Do?
Speaker 1:you know that, 20 minutes Yes and so that's patreon only.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you're listening to this show and you enjoy this show, then why not? why not? why not hit us up on patreon Josh? How could they do that on patreon itself?
Speaker 1:Yeah, by supporting us, you're gonna be helping us create better content. Keep this free for everyone. So just go to patreoncom backslash treasures of our town And easy you can support us. I think there's three different levels there, and we're just gonna want to continue to bring value to those that that are supporting us, and I just thank you so much to the 19 people that have chosen to support this Fairly young podcast that we're not even at 10 episodes Exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:I'll just, i'll just name just a couple now off the top of my head, just quickly the new ones. Okay, the number one, number I can't say his name Josh- Walter will be can of yours, walter, walter, that's it.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you You much for joining us. Mate, to real to thank you for joining us at Tyrone shoelaces as well. Thank you for joining us. And did you see? Dale and Barb are also now. We had a one in the show and now they're patreon. See now their patrons Brett Arnett from WA. He's there, and and Garrett as well. Garrett, is it England? I'm gonna say England, garrett. Ain't got to say it incorrectly. I do apologize, but but yeah, they're the new patreon's. Josh We've got. So we're gonna have to wrap it up now because, look at the time again, we're going over time every single time, josh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you know We got a lot of treasures to talk about.
Speaker 2:We do, we do, but this town especially had a lot of treasures in a small town, and this is a total podcast that we actually enjoy Making and creating. So, on our next episode is also hidden, josh. We're not gonna tell people what it's on the next episode with secrets, so you need to tune in for that one. The hint hint for it, though. Josh has actually traveled there as well. You've traveled there, yeah. So, josh, how can people find or contact us if they wish to?
Speaker 1:feel free to reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmailcom, or you can follow us on Facebook, instagram, twitter and YouTube. So that's our show for today.
Speaker 2:Please subscribe rate review on your favorite podcasting app and, as always, josh. Bye.