Let's rewind the clock and savor the treasures of yesteryear! Our latest episode is a nostalgia-packed journey, where we contrast our childhood entertainment with the American pop culture gems of Australia's '80s and '90s. From the echoes of catchy tunes that haunted high school hallways to the Goonies house and the thrills of geocaching, every story we share brings a chuckle and perhaps a dash of inspiration for your own New Year's resolutions.
Buckle up for a trip through wine country geotours, even if it means battling a cold to capture the essence of Lompoc's vineyards, or enjoy the behind-the-scenes storytelling of a father-son Albuquerque adventure. As we share these tales, we can't help but marvel at the mechanics of Munzee and reminisce about our pizza trail quests, all while debating if Cleveland truly rocks—based on more than just podcast downloads. It's an episode that maps out the quirky, charming, and fascinating spots we've discovered, and trust us, you'll finish with a travel list longer than your arm.
We wrap this episode with a glimpse into the future, highlighting the excitement bubbling for upcoming geocaching events, including the much-anticipated Geowoodstock in Arizona. If your hometown is hiding a geotour or a fantastic little-known fact, we're extending an open invitation for you to reach out; your gem might just star in a future episode. So join us, share a laugh, and maybe even find a new place to explore—it's all here in our latest podcast adventure!
Let's rewind the clock and savor the treasures of yesteryear! Our latest episode is a nostalgia-packed journey, where we contrast our childhood entertainment with the American pop culture gems of Australia's '80s and '90s. From the echoes of catchy tunes that haunted high school hallways to the Goonies house and the thrills of geocaching, every story we share brings a chuckle and perhaps a dash of inspiration for your own New Year's resolutions.
Buckle up for a trip through wine country geotours, even if it means battling a cold to capture the essence of Lompoc's vineyards, or enjoy the behind-the-scenes storytelling of a father-son Albuquerque adventure. As we share these tales, we can't help but marvel at the mechanics of Munzee and reminisce about our pizza trail quests, all while debating if Cleveland truly rocks—based on more than just podcast downloads. It's an episode that maps out the quirky, charming, and fascinating spots we've discovered, and trust us, you'll finish with a travel list longer than your arm.
We wrap this episode with a glimpse into the future, highlighting the excitement bubbling for upcoming geocaching events, including the much-anticipated Geowoodstock in Arizona. If your hometown is hiding a geotour or a fantastic little-known fact, we're extending an open invitation for you to reach out; your gem might just star in a future episode. So join us, share a laugh, and maybe even find a new place to explore—it's all here in our latest podcast adventure!
But yeah, we're talking about a special, a special benchmark. Gosh, this is nerdy.
Speaker 2:It's my start, josh.
Speaker 1: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 explores the unique and charming towns 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, Josh, we're going back in time, we're going to discuss 2023, the year that was and also we're going to look into the future.
Speaker 1:Into the future. That's what you like. Yeah, yeah, we're going back in time. Bum, bum, bum butter.
Speaker 2:That's why people tune into this podcast to hear me sing random things Exactly right and have your banter in terms of the amount of pop culture that you actually really do know. It's funny. You know a lot, mate, well, yeah.
Speaker 1:My parents call me rerun because I just say the same things from every show. But I was just going to say with the singing part. When I was in high school my locker mate the person that had their locker next to me could not stand my singing, and not because it sounded bad, but I would get a song stuck in their head for the whole hour. So I'd come to my locker singing some song and then all of a sudden the next hour they come and like oh, I can't stand you. I had that song stuck in my brain this whole last hour. And then I'd sing another song. I'd like well, now you have a new one. I'm just like a radio.
Speaker 2:But then also pop culture when it comes to movies as well. Movie quotes yeah. You know, we can't deny you of that either. You've got movie quotes coming out of your ears.
Speaker 1:Did you not watch as many movies as a child?
Speaker 2:Oh, not as much as what you have by the sounds of it, but also also, I mean I'll be honest with you as well. I mean I'm a 75-bottled, I'm 48.
Speaker 1:So you've forgotten things because you're old. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And selective, I think selectively forgotten as well. Now, what I was going to say is that I don't think America really really started to influence Australia until the 80s and 90s. 90s was America's biggest influence in Australia and so, yeah, we didn't do. We had movies and stuff, but we didn't have that much TV time either. We had three channels, josh, in Australia. Three channels, that's it. There was no cable. There's no, you know what do you call it here? Netflix or any of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2:that was all on demand None of that at all. So we had three channels, of which only two of those channels, at 8.30 PM every night, had a movie. So, and me growing up, it wasn't until I was like in my teens Josh, 12 to 13, that I was allowed to sit up and watch that movie from 8.30 PM to 10.30 PM. That was that movie, that was the movie time, with the commercials in between. So I think that's what it was for me, more so than anything else. We did have, obviously, the local video store and whatnot as well, and we used to walk up and, you know, select our videos every Friday, like most of us did. But yeah, but for me personally, it was the three channels. You know, that's what it was. Plus, I was an outdoors person as well. Like, believe it or not, you wouldn't look at me now and go, oh geez, he was really sporty, but I was back in the day, you know. So my weekends were busy, josh busy.
Speaker 1:So that's funny because it's sort of reversed for me. When I was a kid, I probably spent a lot of time inside watching movies, playing video games, and it was geocaching that actually got me outside more to become a real life goonie.
Speaker 2:Now, that's fair enough for it, fair enough. Speaking of goonies, josh, I do remember you going down to the goonies location and did you hear that they sold the house and the new guy that bought the house is welcoming?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, Up again now. That's good, that's really great. I've actually been trying to get a hold of that guy on Instagram because I want I don't know if it's 2024, but I want to revisit a story of Oregon Again. It's, it's my happy place. When I visited there the first time with Tammy, we were like I could see us moving here like when we were tired. So I it's a magical place and, yes, the guy that owns the goonies house is fully embraced goonies. He's a fan and he makes people do on his Instagram profile. He makes people do the truffle shuffle. I knew I was waiting for that.
Speaker 2:I can do that really well at the moment, just saying and me too I'd stop. I'd stop the truffle shuffle, but it'd keep going. Like you know, show would keep it moving for the next five minutes at the moment.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's one of our resolutions for that, for the new year is that we will not be as good at the truffle shuffle as we are right now.
Speaker 2:And and let's be honest with you with new year's resolutions, Josh, so that's going to last for a total of three or four days. It's what happens, and happens to all of us.
Speaker 1:Speaking of that, happy new year, Craig.
Speaker 2:Happy new year to you, buddy. Happy new year to you, mate. This is season two. We're going to start now, so this is the episode one of season two. So we're going to do seasons in years. What do you think of that?
Speaker 1:I want to do that. Let's go back through 2023. And as I was looking at our podcast list, just high level reflection. This is one of the best travel years that I have had personally. And here's a little tip and advice for people If they want to travel more. Here's a tip Get yourself a travel podcast, Exactly Because you're going to need stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2:But in saying that, josh, I'm going to ask you a big question here. You're ready for this? Yes, Now you said. You said last year you traveled a lot. Like you, travel is probably your best travel year to date, I guess.
Speaker 1:Probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember, though you didn't get your TSA until the end of it.
Speaker 1:That's funny. Actually, I got my TSA this summer, so I should say the first half of 2023 was the best travel year, but as soon as I got the TSA pre-check that you told me to get, I'm cursed. I have not even used it yet once, and I got it in August. I am ready to get on a plane and we'll talk about that as we venture into 2024. But can you believe it? I haven't used my TSA pre-check once.
Speaker 2:Because every time after that you've actually been on the road yeah, Driving around Short road trips.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that doesn't count. Just drive around the Midwest, it doesn't count. I need to get on a plane.
Speaker 2:It does count. It does count. All travel accounts and this is what we have podcasts has always been about is that you're finding your. If you can't get out and travel like on aircrafts and stuff like that too, you can get around your own local area and find the Jim's as they are, I like to say, and treasures and Jim's all over the world, right out your front door.
Speaker 2:I want to share with you some should we say some stats before we move on to the actual year that was oh, I love stats. Stats are cool. Everyone who's like a geocacher or you know some sort of gameplay like that. We love our statistics. Yes, you know, josh, our first published podcast was on the March 16th of 2023. So that long ago. We started in March, josh.
Speaker 1:I thought we started earlier, but we were talking about it earlier. That's right and we'll get to that. We spoke about it in January. Yeah, we haven't done it full year yet, so our year anniversary is coming up.
Speaker 2:Exactly 22 episodes in total. But the biggest, the biggest I'm going to say surprise, and pleasant surprise at that for me was the amount of download. So this podcast is really, and slowly picked up, picked up, picked up with each episode. We're at 20, just over now, 27,000 downloads in 22 episodes.
Speaker 1:You keep telling me that's a lot, and I believe you.
Speaker 2:I believe you, but I'm skeptical. I Google, I know, I Google this right, I Google. Well, you know our partner app, buzzsprout. They've been great with us as well. They're fantastic.
Speaker 2:If you want to start your own podcast, I'm telling you now, reach out to me and I'll let you know everything that I've done in regards to it, and Buzzsprout has been our best platform to boost us as well. They told us, josh, we're in the top 25% of all of Buzzsprout, or all podcast, All podcast. So the average podcast, the average episode, gets 150 downloads. Josh, we've got 27,000 downloads in 22 episodes. It's over a thousand per episode, nice, and the average gets 150. So that's what I was like. I mean, we're not Joe Rogan here, don't get me wrong. You know what I mean. Yeah, we're always learning, we're always aspiring for each episode to try and better the one before, and yet I don't think it has to be honest with you. There's been ups and downs in our episodes and we're going to discuss that. But yeah, I'm just starting to say the numbers themselves represent our, our, our personal you know hard work over the last 12 months, which is really, really cool.
Speaker 1:It feels good to be above average.
Speaker 2:You've always been above average. What are you talking about? I know you. I know you. Our most listened episode, josh without I don't think you read the show notes yet, but have you read the show? What do you think our most listened to episode was?
Speaker 1:You, you don't think I read the show notes. Oh well, come on, I do know our most listened episode. Our most listened episode is does Cleveland actually rock, and did that actually surprise you? No, it didn't, because that was a great episode.
Speaker 1:It really was a great trip and we'll talk about it. Maybe we need to title all of our episodes A question. Yes, yeah, because that was the only one that was a question. Mm, hmm. So maybe it intrigued people to download it because they're wondering does Cleveland actually rock? And the answer is listen to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, I just do a spoiler. Yes, it does. Our most listened platform, Josh, is Apple iTunes, so most people listen and I'm talking when they I'm talking. I'm talking 76% of the 27,000 downloads on Apple iTunes.
Speaker 1:I think they're just most.
Speaker 2:that's mostly me 41 countries, Josh 41 countries.
Speaker 1:Now, that's a little bit surprising.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a little bit surprising. I mean not surprising the most. You know, the biggest country is the US, because that's what our podcast is about. Traveling the US yeah, that's true, we did have a German one in there once, but, yeah, traveling the US. 71% is the US, 4% is shared by Canada and Australia.
Speaker 1:Oh, you, you, you bring in those Australia lists. No, I'm bringing it in there.
Speaker 2:And then New Zealand, germany and UK share 3% as well, so 3% each for them, so they love that. New, zealand, new. Zealand. Well, we say Australia and say New Zealand is the most eastern state of Australia, and they hate that.
Speaker 1:You know why. You know why Germany, that's our only non English primarily speaking country. It had to be the gamify, your adventure, when we did the interview with the grandson of Carl's, the strawberry farm place. So I'm sure I'm sure Carl's shared our episode.
Speaker 2:And that that spin off episode was obviously inspired by your travels there and your videos there as well. So that's the best thing I think about this episode to Josh is that we don't do. This is an audio, only podcast. So they don't see us. You know, sunday mornings, when we record this with our eyes all black and then the half asleep, and you know we don't have to do it here, we just chuck our hats on. They don't see any of that, but what they they can do is they can listen to this podcast. If they want to visualize it more, they go to your YouTube channel this is true.
Speaker 2:Check out the YouTube link. So yeah, this is true, this is one.
Speaker 1:This podcast is kind of just unpacking my videos and your videos as well, but I like that, someone, someone that I like that and that's one of the reasons I think I said yes to doing this podcast. Should we, should we, get into the to this last year because and just high level, we're going to go through this last year. We're not going to probably deep dive into each episode. If you want to listen to the episodes, go back and listen to them. We got some good stuff out there, yeah. But yeah, we're going to go kind of episode by episode and try to remember what we remember without repeating ourselves too much. And you know how we are, our brains will probably divert to different topics and that's the part of the charm, although our friend Minnesota boy, he's like I, he's like I really enjoy the podcast, josh, but sometimes you guys go off on a two, four.
Speaker 1:Tangents as like. Thank you, tim, for that feedback. Feedback received and feedback denied they make ignore.
Speaker 2:Poor Tim is a great mate, tim and again another great patron too of the of the show. But we're going to do that first. First up, josh. Our first episode birth in a hot tub.
Speaker 1:Birth in a hot tub. I think that got a lot of downloads because of the title. That's a great title, it's a good title, but it's true though, too this podcast was a water birth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was it was and we're going to get into get into that. That's a possibility that may happen again in 2024.
Speaker 1:Are we going to have a hot tub?
Speaker 2:I don't think we're going to have a hot tub.
Speaker 1:We're going to fit in the bath, though We'll do that. I try. We know you love your baths.
Speaker 2:This is true If you follow me on. What's that be real? Yeah, that new app that you be real, I do.
Speaker 1:I do enjoy it, but Craig gets so excited when be real goes off in the tub.
Speaker 2:The opposite. I don't get excited because I go, oh not again.
Speaker 1:We're going to just think I just, you just stew in your old filth. That's exactly what Tim says.
Speaker 2:Anyway, josh, moving on to episode number two, living the high life in Lompoc, california, that was a cool second episode. Let's be honest, josh, that was a good episode, I believe personally for especially for a second one.
Speaker 1:Yes, we went to Lompoc, california, which is wine country. I learned that it was wine country when I was there I was like, as I'm sitting in a winery with a cat, a wine cat sitting next to me, a wine cat, and I love that wine cat, it was sitting on you. Yes, it was a very friendly cat sipping my wine. I turned to the lady that owns the wine place we're at and I'm like are we in wine country? I was like what's the definition of wine country? And in fact we were in wine country, but we weren't there for wine, we were there for a Geo tour.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we had a great host with this as well. So Scott from GSS GSM times two, and he was a great host as well, the host of this there in Lompoc, and of course, tim was along for the drive. Well, he was along for the drive.
Speaker 1:Yes, so that was really awesome. I was sick as a dog. Do you remember how sick I was?
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, I know oh that was rough so just to give everyone, just to give everyone visuals.
Speaker 2:This is what was basically happening. And then we drove up because we're in California for a Munze mega event first, yes, and then we, you know, stayed an extra night, if you like, and Tim drove up, but in the car. So think of these people and you see it on, like the amazing race and other, you know, survivor, all that sort of stuff whereby you have the driver, the driver is Tim, you have the camera guy, sound guy, etc. He's in the backseat. That was me with my cameras in my hands, getting everything sorted out. And then you have the talent.
Speaker 2:The talent was sitting in the front seat. Unfortunately, he was very sick at this time and he was coughing and he was drinking, sipping tea or whatever and having throat loss, hinges, and you were sort of ducked down with your hat on, like, oh, I don't really want to be here. But yeah, that was your job is to sit in the front seat and just ride along for the ride. But then, josh, as talent is, we get out of the car, we go to film and you, bam, come to life. You smile, you come to life. There he is. I'm like, oh, there, he is back, that's not a problem. Yeah, blows his nose for a little bit, then puts his tissue back in his pocket and keeps going.
Speaker 1:So if you watch those videos you do notice my voice sounds. I sound sick. But yeah, you know, when you're on, you're on. And we were there to film some. A really unique place, like, yeah, I've ever visited a place quite like it. It was, it was, it was a beautiful area.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny enough to I think personally we were on doing the hot tub, were in the space coast of Florida and then Lompoc is technically the space coast of California.
Speaker 1:The other space coast the other space coast.
Speaker 2:That's where they they rockets launch over that side as well. So a first and second episode run the opposite sides of the country, but still with space themed. I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't even plan that, really.
Speaker 2:No, we didn't, and I didn't even think of it until just then. All right so episode three, Josh. Now I will say this episode three. We had a discussion before we made episode three and you're like I don't really want to do this sort of episode. You know it's one of it's, yeah, but guess what? This is our second most downloaded episode.
Speaker 1:Well, that doesn't mean people liked it.
Speaker 2:Well, they downloaded it. So that's the top 10. Top 10 spring trip locations in the US. So, yeah, you're one of person of the style of host that likes to be there and give you or you know honest opinion rather than just Google. Right, that's the sort of that's what you've always been wanting to, but in saying that, google is your best friend, if you want to travel and you don't know where to go, then this is, this is what you do, your research, and so we did the research for them, josh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and some of the places we had mentioned, I believe I had been before. Yeah, you know, most of our episodes this last year have been places that we have been at least one of us has have been. But some of these episodes, like even our last episode or Christmas episode, a lot of those places were aspirational and actually the research was kind of fun because I was even thinking about 2024 and where I wanted to do my Christmas special and I now have 10 different ideas of where where I could go to do our Christmas.
Speaker 2:Christmas special for this year? Are you going to give us, you're going to give us a little sneak peek as where you think it might be?
Speaker 1:I really would love to go to get a top three. I really would love to go to Seneca Falls, the home of it's a Wonderful Life, because I watched that movie every, every holiday. Tammy had never seen it before, she had never seen it's a Wonderful Life and she was skeptical. And when she finished watching it she was like, oh my God. She was like that's the best Christmas I was. I was like it felt so good. It felt so good to be right, Because a lot of times I'm not right.
Speaker 2:I was very rare being a husband as well. I know right, but I was right.
Speaker 1:She loved it. She thought it was the best Christmas movie. So Seneca Falls, if you listen to our last episode, is the town that Bedford Falls is based off of from the movie it's a Wonderful Life. So I think that would be great, but I think more likely the Christmas episode could be in Chickasaw. Chickasaw, because I think I think in 2024 it is likely. We've had some discussions. Oklahoma is drawing me in for lots of reasons. Chickasaw is where the leg lamp is. As we talked about the last episode, there's a Geo tour right outside, just north.
Speaker 2:You're a sucker for Geo tours too.
Speaker 1:North of Oklahoma there's a really epic Geocache they're called Infernal Device which is basically like a room like from the movie Saw.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and it's almost like a breakout run of those breakout room type styles as well.
Speaker 1:So, craig, I know you've been to Oak City before. I don't know if they call it Oak City.
Speaker 2:No, they say Oak Casey, oak Casey.
Speaker 1:I know you've been there before it would be. You know it would be cool to meet there for a long weekend?
Speaker 2:It really would be, because I could show you around a little bit. You know, let's be honest, for me, oklahoma City itself, they've got an area and I can't say exactly where it is. It's not in the downtown region, it's a little bit further south of that but there's a manmade canal going through, and on each side of the canal is old, like brickworks, and old industrial buildings that have all been turned into restaurants and bars, and you know that sort of life and you can walk each side of it, and there's bridges going over the canals and there's canal rides going through as well, and you go from one end of the canal to the other. You know so, and there's some beautiful waterfalls manmade waterfalls along the canal as well. So that's really, really nice location.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that kind of reminds me of have you ever been to San Antonio? Yes, yeah, like the Riverwalk downtown they have like this. It reminds. It sounds a little bit like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly right, anyway, Josh, moving on to episode number four, we had we had Silly America on Valerie, valerie, one of our. Well, she was actually a second guest on the show. So Valerie from Silly America, she's been doing some great things, especially over Christmas time. I see on her Instagram recently.
Speaker 1:Yes, she's been the Chickasaw.
Speaker 2:She's been to that. She's been to the giant leg lamp.
Speaker 1:I saw she did some dancing around the leg lamp.
Speaker 2:I saw her on Instagram. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:And she had a book come out, a road tripping book, which is just like perfect for this podcast, and, yeah, it was great talking to her. I think we should have her on again. She's a big, big fan of Route 66 as well, so there's a lot that she has seen in a lot of places I'd like to go. And that's another thing like, well, we're not, let's not get into 2024. Let's do that at the end. Not this yet, but it's likely that we might be near Route 66.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it, but Valerie's done, because that was back in May, josh, so she's done a lot of traveling as well since May. That I've seen on her Instagram channel. So, yeah, it'd be great to get her back in this year.
Speaker 1:I would love to have her on at least like once a year.
Speaker 2:The same with Megan. Yes, megan was a great guest. Yeah, Megan was on two episodes.
Speaker 1:We'll get to Megan. Cause that's coming up.
Speaker 2:The next one we went to was in New Mexico. You broke bad in Mexico, Josh.
Speaker 1:Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. Green, smoke green, smoke green smoke.
Speaker 2:We speak about your favorite movies, favorite Christmas movies. Do you think Breaking Bad would be your favorite series?
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's my favorite show, but it's up there. It's up there, yeah, but it's my son's favorite show. So, yeah, I'm a father-son trip, so I even appreciated Breaking Bad even more after visiting Albuquerque.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, because it did Albuquerque, so it represented so well. Like what you see in the show is Albuquerque.
Speaker 1:It is New Mexico I love that style.
Speaker 2:I love that the dryness, the desert sort of style. You know the heat, the, you know the dust.
Speaker 1:Yes, I don't know if I said this on the podcast, but so Hayden and I flew it out. Hayden and I flew into Albuquerque. We flew in later, went to the Airbnb the next morning I was like I want to get some coffee. So what do I do? I search best coffee shops in Albuquerque. Yeah, I don't know if I shared the story. We go and we find a coffee shop that is also a tattoo parlor and when I walked in there, when I walked into this coffee shop slash tattoo parlor, I felt like I was literally walking into the show. The owner. The owner had tattoos on his face and he was he was the nicest guy. But he was like oh my gosh, you look like you are from this show. It was so. It was. Hayden was loving it. He's like did I just walk into Breaking Bad? I was like, yes, you did, yes you did.
Speaker 1:It was so cool. I loved it. How was it? How was the coffee, though? It was great. It was great. And then he opened up the tattoo parlor just so we could like walk around and look at stuff, because he had just like a ton of like cool stuff in the tattoo parlor. But yeah, it was. It was so cool. And you know, we, we said you know why are you here? And he loved the Minnesota Vikings, so we made that connection. But then we said we're here because we're fans of Breaking Bad. And then he was the owner, was talking about like he had all these inside stories and I couldn't tell if he was telling the truth on how he was like tried to like make a pass at one of the actors and like I was like I don't know if this, you know, if he's just giving me bull. I kind of felt like he was, but because he was kind of breaking but I was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is Breaking Bad. We are here.
Speaker 2:It was fantastic Love that that was. That was a great episode. That was really good, because I'd been to New Mexico as well previously and did a full big drive trip around, but I didn't. I didn't, Josh, I didn't do any of the Breaking Bad stuff. You know, and we spoke earlier in this episode in regards to the Goonies house. Let you know now don't, don't. If you're going to go to the Breaking Bad house, don't go across the road. Don't have to. They're not very welcoming of guests.
Speaker 1:You have to go, you should go, yeah, you should go.
Speaker 2:Stay on the other side of the street, yeah.
Speaker 1:But Craig, you know, craig has edited some of my videos over the last year. I'm just going to say the Breaking Bad video that you edited for for me was maybe some of your finest work this year.
Speaker 2:Oh, you like it. It was really good, especially the ending, especially the ending.
Speaker 1:Oh, I gotta get back Remember the ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding ding, ding, oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Well, that was Hayden, though I know. And that's the thing, josh, I think personally as well. It's not just, it's not just the edit itself, it's what comes in first. And so, hayden, I'll tell you now, if people don't haven't seen Josh's Breaking Bad video, know back and watch it. And even if you have, go back and watch it again, because the way Hayden works on camera, he works, but you can't tell Like this is the best part.
Speaker 2:You see the good actors out there, and actresses or whatever else as well, but you see them whereby they make it look easy. You know, it's the same as dancers, dancers, good dancers make it look easy, make it look natural, and that's what Hayden is. He's a natural, and so when he does different works, you know, when you're in that shop with the candy store shop, you know, and you come out and he's doing it all. He's exactly like you know, jesse Pinkman, like it's incredible, hayden. Yes, mate, yes, yes, yes. I'm thinking to myself, hayden, where did you get this from? Obviously your mum, because your dad can't act this good, just saying.
Speaker 1:He went into full. Yeah, if you watch that video he goes into full Jesse Pinkman mode. Yes, he fully embraced it. It was fantastic, I think, the video. We'll put the video in the show notes as well.
Speaker 2:Put the video in the show notes. Absolutely, and moving on, josh, it's spaced out on the Florida coast was the last one in May. That was a great trip we had Dyle and Barb on Remember.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:We had two yes, dyle and Barb, from Spacecoast Geostore. That's spacecoastgeostorecom.
Speaker 1:Not sponsored, but we love them. No, we do love them. We love them because they're listeners to the show.
Speaker 2:And patrons as well.
Speaker 1:And patrons. Thank you. So what is your, what is your biggest memories of this trip? Here's a couple memories for me. I'll start as you think.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The SpaceX launch. Yes, I never thought in my life I'd get a chance to see a space rocket shoot into the sky. That was really special, that was really cool.
Speaker 2:I'll always it was. It was the heavy one as well, Like it wasn't just a basic rocket launch, it was actually the the the heavy, so it's the biggest one that the SpaceX do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we got to see it like go up and then come back down on the platform. It was just I was watching that. I was like we're in the future.
Speaker 2:Yes, fantastic.
Speaker 1:And then and then we were there for a Munze event.
Speaker 2:And I was doing.
Speaker 1:I was kind of like Tim. I was mostly the driver and you were just like you were capping Munze's and let me just say like crazy, and you know this past, this little. Here's a little Munze talk. If you don't know what Munze is, another location based game based on QR codes, it's all point space game. It's like if geocaching and Pokemon go had a baby. I think that's a good way to yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a really good analogy, A way to think about it. I was driving you around the space coast and you were just capping so many Munze's and you got a million points while I was driving. And now I think about that because this last week you passed me In point and Munzie points you. You passed me up and I think it's the reason you passed me up is because I Helped you oh, josh, well, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2:You helped me to a certain degree, but if people don't, if you are a Munzie player, you'll understand this next part, and that is Munzie is a game whereby you can, if you start the game, like I did, you know when, when Josh first did your first video of it mate, you did it, you know, back in 2015 or something you need a video on it and and so you put up a QR code and I scanned your QR code. Therefore, I became one of your Referrals. Now, I just looked at the stats for referrals, just so you know. You are the number one person for referrals in the world, and I'm world, the world, and I'm talking by far, josh, I'm talking. You're over 1500, 1500 referrals. Now, josh, you got 80 referrals this month or I don't even watch that.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got 80, I got. I got six this month and I did, I did the tutorial videos as well, but no, josh, he's still gets 80 this month. So 1500 Referrals, josh. Well done to you, mate, and I am one of those referrals. What people don't understand, though, is if, if, like whenever I get points, I get so many points and then, josh, you get some of those points as well because you're my referral person. So for me to catch you and then surpass you, I'm gonna do more than the normal person.
Speaker 1:Well, I Do get points from you, but let's be honest, let's be honest here. For every 100 yeah, munzees you capture, I get 10 points. That's right, that's not?
Speaker 2:a lot. That's like a greenie, that's like me capping a greenie for every 100 you get, Anyway.
Speaker 1:Anyway, maybe the.
Speaker 2:Munzee talk. I know the space coast was amazing.
Speaker 1:I it was. We don't talk about the weather, but boy was it cold. I'm hoping for better.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm hoping for better in.
Speaker 1:Orlando and I know a couple weeks here.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but just quick, quick little bit more talk about the Munzee stuff, and that is Recently I'm talking a Christmas time just gone in in 2023 our good friend Rob Vardeman he's the president of Munzee and his wife, lou she's. She's in charge of all the events, etc. They were in Florida. Josh and I saw on their Instagram page as well that they saw a space launch as well. While they're like it was a heavy to, it was a heavy as well, that's. And Lou said the same thing to you. The same thing is what you just did, and that is she never thought that she would ever see Something like that in her in her lifetime. In real life. That's, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Sitting down and watching a heavy launch. So yes, space coast, one of the best places to go, george, that's one of my.
Speaker 1:That's up there. That's up there for me. That was such a fun trip. And another thing that is sort of been kind of our thing, craig I At least I, wanted to be our thing. We always try to find some cheese cut cheesy thing to do Wherever we are. So we went to the Mall of America and I did so badly wanted you to Do the log ride and it was closed. So we went to the. We went to the mirror maze, which was easy, but the cheesy thing that I love doing I really enjoy it and I want to do more of it in 2024 Is more mini golf. You know more putt, putt.
Speaker 1:So we might need to. When we are in Orlando in a couple weeks, we might need to find a pop-up place keep the tradition live.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and and of course, rob played pop-up with us as well. That that trip, and and so did Carson. Yeah, I'll cast and play with this as well.
Speaker 1:Buckeye Kesha and they're all gonna be in Orlando in a couple weeks so we can make do a rematch. I believe you won. I believe you won last night, yeah well. I've been practicing all year. I'm oh, I'll bet you have you just, you just wait.
Speaker 2:You don't like losing.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't like being below average. No, you know.
Speaker 2:You do. Anyway, moving on from the space coast, and again big thanks to a shout out to Dale and Barb for for being on that episode with us. That was great, josh. We went to Owensboro, kentucky, and it was the Bourbon bluegrass and barbecue.
Speaker 1:Another great trip.
Speaker 2:I know another great city, wow City or town, would you class?
Speaker 1:I'd say it's, it's. It's an in-betweener, it's in between, or two days it is. It's pretty big. It's not tiny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's, but it's. I think it's a very attractive town as well in terms of the scenery. That river walk that you, that we did, you know and and we, I still remember one of my, one of my biggest memories of this Is that when we did the river walk was one afternoon, josh, it all the events are done and dusted, and you and I were like sort of winding down at this point in time and you're like you know, I just want to go for the room for a lie down for a little bit. So we did, we went to our separate rooms and had a lie down for a little bit and then you messaged me and you like, do you want to come and do a live with me on tick tock live? And so we did the river walk as a tick tock live, on your tick tock, and we found the Found that the geotour cash is along the river walk. That was pretty cool. I enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed that that's funny because I don't think we talked about that when we talked about owensboro. There's a lot. There was a lot of fun. We had an owensboro. It's a great city. Yes, I love the bourbon tour. That that really, that really is stuck in my mind. Every time now I run into bourbon whiskey, I think about that tour.
Speaker 2:And we. You learn a lot when you do a tour like that as well. Even though you've still got yours. I don't have in mind and lift anymore, but anyway.
Speaker 1:I have so much left. Oh my gosh. Well, I forgot what I was gonna say shoot something about owensboro and I can't remember it. Maybe it'll come to me later. Should we move on? We should move on, oh.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, it came to me.
Speaker 1:It came to me. Yes we did our. We did a lot. It was the first year of our podcast. We did a live.
Speaker 2:Show. Oh, yes, yes, and that we published that as our next episode as well. The live show. It was it was horrible.
Speaker 1:It was great in person. Horrible, no, we couldn't figure out the technology no well we, we, we did, but we didn't.
Speaker 2:And when I say we did, but we didn't in, that is, we didn't have the right person. Who's? Normally in charge of their sound system, and so I could not plug in to their sound system to record it on there from their sound system, from the microphone, from their good microphones. So what we got instead was literally a microphone in the middle of the stage. Yeah and recorded everything.
Speaker 1:So all we apologize, all that, yeah, yeah, I encourage you with that, josh. Yeah, I know you did. I encourage people not to listen to that one.
Speaker 2:I Remember because that published. You said to me josh, you go, oh, should we just pull it down? That's what you said to me. Should we still?
Speaker 1:I. Should we still pull it down? No, not. But you know what we did. You know we did we posted. We posted a episode that following week, right away. So it was not, it was not the most you know the most updated one just guy, I wasn't. It didn't sound good. No, you know, we take pride, or pride in ourselves, for quality here at this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and audio quality like I can't stand. I'll be honest with you, and that is if I'm driving and I listen to podcast myself. But I don't. I can't listen to a podcast that hasn't got good audio. There's got a lot of background noise happening that maybe that's the old man in me. You know where my, when my ears can't differentiate that much anymore as opposed to you know these good quality microphones and it's just literally smooth voices back and forth, back and forth. So, yeah, that one we struggle with, but we, we replaced it. We replaced it, josh, with a little quick episode of Geocaching across borders an unexpected venture with an uber driver.
Speaker 1:Yes, this was a preview, I believe, of our hidden nuggets. We wanted to show people the type of stuff that they would get if they supported us on patreon. Yeah for the and that was. I thought that was a great story. It was a story of me and retired guy Taking it uber to slavakia to get a.
Speaker 2:I know it was really cool, really really cool, but uh, I, I, I enjoyed that, but again, it was one of those things whereby we had to sort of replace it with something Just to get the heat off.
Speaker 1:The other one and it wasn't a store, it wasn't a usa story. So we went out, we ventured a little bit outside of our yeah, our niche, which exactly our niche is, you know, kind of big but also a little bit small. At the same time. It's interesting.
Speaker 2:It is. It is. We tried to go bigger than what it is because it's. Yeah, people think this is a geocaching podcast, and it's not. We like to think of it as a travel podcast, first and foremost, and then we are travelers guided by our love of geocaching. We say that often, true, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because most of the places that we talk about, we're there primarily because of geocaching or monzy or monzy, or now, well, I play. Do you play pokemon go? Do you still play, don't? No, I open it up, or once in a while.
Speaker 2:It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1:If I've run out of things to do, there's always to be caught.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Uh, moving on, josh, our next episode was his Norfolk in Nebraska. Uh, that's the tonight's show theme if anybody, and we had another guest on that show as well, with us as well. Jut.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's? He's jason jason jason jut. I'm thinking james jason jut. So yeah, he's he's on that in that episode with us as well. So he had he's a local there in Norfolk and he gave us some really good local insights because he hosted when you went there to do the Geo tour and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, he created the Geo tour in Norfolk and I'm not sure how long that's going to be, because I've heard, I saw on social media that Jason's moving away Did you see that I did, I did.
Speaker 2:So I think I saw that he sold his DeLorean oh yes, that's so sad because he didn't sell it to me. Oh, you wouldn't have bought it anyway, tammy wouldn't have.
Speaker 1:Well, if the price was right, gosh, that would be amazing.
Speaker 2:It's never going to be right, and then, and then you'd have to. Actually you can't have two DeLoreans in Minnesota, in Minneapolis, oh, sure you can. Why not?
Speaker 1:There's never too many DeLoreans.
Speaker 2:Anyway, george, norfolk, nebraska, what was your favorite part, do you think, when you visited Norfolk?
Speaker 1:Visiting Johnny Carson's childhood home because the owner of the place opened it up just for me. Say again, it's one of those things. Yeah, the power of YouTube. It's like a flash around. Now I can flash around my silver play button and I can get into places. They should have like a silver play button like membership card or something, so you can. That would be a cool idea.
Speaker 2:You might have a middle like an ant. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the owner of the home opened it up to me and he like showed me like secret parts of the house and that was really.
Speaker 2:That was really special, I love that, I think, one of my favorite parts about that because I edited the video for you for that one as well and my favorite part was actually my research that I had to do, whereby, literally, you mimicked the things that Johnny Carson did when he returned to his childhood home in his special. And so I managed to get this special. And then Josh overlay is special than Josh overlay, Like when you played basketball and stuff as well in the in his childhood home.
Speaker 1:You're so good at that. You did a great job with the Christmas story episode. Do it, you know, especially especially the fact that you hadn't seen those things You're. I was just impressed with your research. I'm impressed with the time you have like your hands to be able to do all that.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you for that. No, no, no, no, Any time any time.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, look what's next this is so simple. Like I would never probably have visited this county unless it was for this. Never. But this was so good and I think this episode got a lot of traction too.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the episode we're talking about is the Pizza Geo Trail in Seneca County Ohio.
Speaker 1:The Pizza Trail that was so fun, Greg. Yes.
Speaker 2:That was so fun and you know, josh, on Instagram, especially on Geocaching Instagram, there's so many people that go out there and do it now, like so many go out there and I'll see you on Instagram, you know, and they have their shirts, they're flashing their coins, you know, and they are enjoying the drives around and the types of cashers, because they were good sized geocaches as well. They weren't just you know what. Do you call it a no on a tank? You know those sort of ones.
Speaker 1:Nancy did a great job with it and the gentleman that is like in charge of the Chamber of Commerce I'm blanking on his name, I'm so sorry, I don't know if you remember. It's like yes, bryce, that's right, good job, good memory. Yeah, he, he did a great job, like promoting it and making it awesome, and it's just like this. This episode is, to me, the pinnacle of what this podcast is about, because this we discovered the hidden gems, that we discovered a lot of pizza, and what I loved about it, craig, is that we took our time with it and we made a commitment to like try to visit as many pizza places as we could. I mean, we got pretty full, but very full very quickly. But we took our time and, you know, got to, you know talk to people. Even the last day we went to that pizza place, we just sat up at the bar and talked to the bartender and you know and had pizza, of course, and I love that we just sticks as well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the breadsticks the breadsticks in that very first place.
Speaker 1:I want to go. I'm hungry for those right now. But yeah, that was. That was really the epitome to me of what this podcast is about In Seneca County, ohio. I don't think we would have spent time there unless it was for geocaching and this pizza tour and got one of probably one of my favorite geocoins that I've ever gotten. There's. There's a deep satisfaction in getting the geocoin that you earn, and boy did we earn that one. Yes, eating and geocaching.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. Yeah, for me. For me, geocoins themselves. People don't know what geocoins are. They they're like a challenge coin. People don't challenge coins. They're like a challenge coin and it's got normally. It's got a cute like a code on it of some sort where you can register the, the actual coin, to have it in your inventory online as well, and then people can discover it, etc. For me, geocoins are memorable when you obtain them by doing extraordinary things or putting a memory to it, like an event or a mega or a gig. You know those sort of things as well. They you put a memory to the coin and it becomes special by the coin from headquarters or wherever. That's all well and good and I'm happy to support people and support events, but when they come with a memory attacks, that's when. That's when they were the quality coins, yeah.
Speaker 1:And the coin. That coin, oh my gosh, it's so good. First of all, it shaped like a pizza.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But the pizza came out of it. A slice it came out of it, it's like a slice and they put it in a tiny pizza box.
Speaker 2:That that was quality, with, with cheese, with the, with the gold.
Speaker 1:Golds cheese.
Speaker 2:Which is the? What do you call it?
Speaker 1:It was like cellophane, but you know the confetti sort of confetti paper or whatever but whatever it was, but it was gold that looked like cheese inside the box.
Speaker 2:So that was really cool, josh. We moved on as well and we did our second episode in that same trip. But we moved on and we went to Cleveland and this is when we said this is our biggest one. Does Cleveland actually rock it? Does it does rock? Yeah, our best episode.
Speaker 1:Well, not best maybe, but most downloaded. Most downloaded because there were so many cool things. There was the duct tape factory.
Speaker 2:You and your duct tape factory.
Speaker 1:I mean, a geocacher loves duct tape, so it's true, but we didn't even get in.
Speaker 2:No, no, well, we got into the front doors but no, no, there was no further than that. And there was a duct tape vending machine there you could buy some duct tape from. But anyway, you and your duct tape For me personally, it was the was the, the, the actual rock and roll hall of fame. You know, and experiencing that with you Because you we said at the beginning of this episode how, how pop culture you are when it comes to songs and movies and genres and all that sort of stuff, and to actually walk through this with you.
Speaker 2:And this is where I feel, where I see what Tammy sees in you when she's experienced something with you that you're really excited and happy about it. It rubs off, josh. And so, even though some things, some things I didn't get, but I got more because you got it and you were excited about it, and I'm like, wow, and I think that's what that's for me as well, watching your videos. That's what comes across in your videos More than anything else is your excitement level, you, and, it's natural, enthusiasm for what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So yes, Thank you. I was excited, especially the Beatles area. Oh, when we sat down and the and watch the Peter. Jackson version of the Let it Be stuff, but it was in like a different format. It was like like wide, wide, wide screen, wide, wide screen.
Speaker 2:It was like oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:But, craig, I don't know if that was really your favorite part.
Speaker 2:What do you think was the big stamp? Like what else is the oh what?
Speaker 1:else what I think your favorite part was sitting on the porch of our Airbnb and seeing fireflies for the first time.
Speaker 2:I forgot that was part of that trip. Josh, I'll be honest with you, because we saw fireflies when we were in the Ohio as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, in Seneca County.
Speaker 2:In Seneca County. Sorry but we saw that the fireflies in Seneca County after that one night in Cleveland.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just so fun to watch because it was so magical, because I remember seeing fireflies for the first time when I was a kid. But it was like you went into fall, like I'd seen Craig as a six year old just seeing these things, but slide up.
Speaker 2:I know, and then, and then have you explained it to me, and then where I'm looking around, and then you, you know, then I had to do some Googling online, you know, which is, you know, a six year old today could do, but not six year old Craig, back in, you know, not in 81. But but yeah, having that idea and seeing something brand new and they are, let's be honest, they are magical stuff because again, again, we see that from an outside, from outside the USA, usa point of view. We see those sort of things on movies, you know, at TV shows and stuff, but until you see it for yourself in real life, in real time happening, you don't have the appreciation level of it. Yeah, you know so Well, even in movies.
Speaker 1:Even in movies it's probably artificial, like you know, and it's like computers or animation, right, so to actually see that they're real, real, like it's actually a real thing, yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's not just Peter Pan and think about lighting up a butt. You know, let's Moving on, josh, because we're at 48 minutes already. I know we're going to have to go fast. We'll go fast now.
Speaker 1:One thing I will say, and that is the the Peter trial one and the Cleveland Rocks.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed that one more so than any others as well, because I experienced it with you. You know it's like the Space Coast one as well. Experience it with you, the two of us together, it's next level. Yeah, we do do podcasts where we research, like the trips away and stuff. We do a lot of research, we do a lot of research, we do a lot of research, we do a lot of research, we do a lot of research, we do the trips away and stuff. We do do podcasts where one of us has been there, or we've both been there, but separately, like the Mexico, but actually do experience this with you. That's the next level. That's so great for me.
Speaker 1:Well it was. It was really cool too because there was a lot of variety in that trip, because Seneca County was very rural but Cleveland was a city, so we got a look like kind of the best of both worlds on that trip.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Moving on to the last one, in August we had chasing waterfalls in Buffalo and Niagara Again. This is one of the ones where we'd both been there, but separately to experience separate things.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and we discovered that we went to the same restaurant without even talking to each other. That was really weird.
Speaker 2:That's right, I forgot about that, yeah, exactly Right. Exactly Right. And Nancy up there from Delia's Caches, she was great, like reaching out. Yeah, as soon as you start sort of logging her munchies or her geocaches, because she's a she co exists as well, which is really cool. Yeah, she reached out to me Like you need to try this, you need to try this, you need to try this.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, as I think about all of our episodes, of all the people we talked about in different places, I would say Nancy was the most proud of her town. Wow, it's episode one of season two. She's proud of her town. That's a damn rare thing these days when you visit Buffalo. She's got the list, she's got the actual. She probably sent it to you. She has an itinerary that she's printed out of all the things you need to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's proud of her town. She's so proud I knew you'd get it in somewhere, josh. Anyway, moving on in September. The first one in September was gamifying your travels, and this is the Adventures app. It's your next tour guide. That's the one in Germany. That's when we had the Carl's guys on there.
Speaker 1:We felt like it was okay to venture outside the United States because we, you know, because you can do adventures, slash lab caches, lab adventures anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're worldwide and they're massive amounts as well in the US. Yes, Just saying so. Yeah, definitely, but the Adventure Labs I'll say this, Josh, and that is to me personally they're not. It's not about mostly nowadays not sending you to places or whatever. It's about the numbers you know. So Adventure Labs in my mind at the moment is more geocaching numbers, the little Munzie version of geocaching, if like, because when you get the what do you call it? The art, you know stuff like that too, that you literally you're singing your car and you're not even reading the questions, Just multiple choice, multiple choice until you get it right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're going to get rid of those. You know, craig, we agree on a lot of things, but I think, if I think about adventures or lab caches, yes, you can Adventure Labs, you can boost your numbers and that's why this I think this year I had probably the most, most fines. I mean a year. I think it's inflating the numbers. That's fine, but Craig, it did. It has brought me to places I wouldn't go to otherwise, some do, don't get me wrong, some do.
Speaker 2:And when I did a fantastic one in Minneapolis with you, you know that brought me around and showed me all Prince locations, you know again that that's what it's, but that's what it was made for. Yes, I believe personally, it was made for that person and they made Adventure Labs. They made them with that in mind, not realizing that some people can sort of, you know, do it out of context.
Speaker 1:My guess is that you know their eye is on that, that I think the cream of the crop will rise to the top and they'll find ways, like favorite points in geocaching, to highlight the ones that are really amazing and the other ones people will either do just for the numbers or, you know, and Craig, like I, I I was thinking so funny, I don't have any favorite points to give. I know you have zero favorite points. I talked to, I talked to, I talked to almost any other cashier. They're like I got 600 left. I was like sick, I was like but that is because my fine, my quality of fines is so high, like like yesterday I found a great geocache, I drove 30 minutes to find it, to find one great geocache, and I would have gave it a favorite point. But I'm completely out and I did not find any other geocaches. Most people don't cash that way. Most people don't. Most people find like 20 and they're like oh, I found one good one and that's like how that's. You know the ratio of favorite points.
Speaker 1:That's how it should be.
Speaker 2:But 10. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I am one of the only people I know that doesn't have any to get. I don't have any to give. On my logs I literally write this is really getting into the geocaching. But on my logs I literally write I will give a favorite point to you when I have one to give, cause I feel I feel bad. I feel bad, I go to a great cash and I'm like I don't have any favorite points.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And people see, they, people see your deck, their own cash is on your social media like TikToks and whatever else, and they go oh, he found it, he really liked it. Look at what. He how excited. And then he did give him a favorite point. But he didn't give me a favorite point Like get exactly the next one. The next two episodes, josh was was Iowa revealed and adventure journey with Megan, and then the wonders of the Hawkeye state, a deep dive into Iowa's quirks. Josh, that started just people don't understand, people don't know. But that episode it started with just one episode.
Speaker 2:It was going to be just one episode and we got an hour into it and we paused it. We said let's pause, megan, can we just do a second second hour and we'll do two episodes out of this. She's like yes, let's do that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was cool. The whole state of Iowa is what this podcast is about. There's so many little towns in Iowa and so many little hidden gems in Iowa. She was a great guest, Dare I say one of our favorite guests.
Speaker 2:I won't speak for you, but for me one of my favorite guests.
Speaker 1:And you know she. She put out a book this year called hidden. What was it called? Hidden secrets? Hidden secrets Iowa revealed Our reviews. Yeah, that's the one, but it's all about hidden secrets in Iowa. And and Craig, here's a little new content for you. I was in Iowa for the holidays this week and I found a hidden gem that I don't think Megan's even been to.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:What did you find? Well, one of the secrets that I don't know. If you know this about me, but I kind of I've been in the past a closet pro wrestling fan.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. There you go.
Speaker 1:You didn't know that. No, wrestling fan no.
Speaker 2:I've heard you. I've heard you mention like, but I just thought that was in your 90s genres, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, I get into it for a while and then I back off and then I get into it for a while, like I've actually been to like pay-per-view, like live shows. Wow, wrestling, yeah, my most, one of my most viral YouTube videos this last year was when I went to Hulk Hogan's Beach Shop in Clearwater.
Speaker 2:Florida I saw that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that. That video still is getting traction. Anyway, marshalltown, iowa is this place. There's a restaurant that my parents found it is pretty new, it's a couple of years old called the Flying Elbow.
Speaker 2:The Flying Elbow.
Speaker 1:The Flying Elbow and it's a restaurant. It's a restaurant themed off of pro wrestling.
Speaker 1:Like all the all the I mean the whole place is decked out, of course, with wrestling memorabilia and all the. The menu is like named after all, like famous wrestlers. I had the Jabroni burger, which is the Rocks burger. It was basically like a Hawaiian burger. Reese had the punk hot dog, based off of the wrestler CM punk, who I guess is from Chicago, so it was basically just a Chicago hot dog. It was so cool. Keep an eye out on my YouTube and my TikTok because, of course, I had to take video.
Speaker 2:Well, here you go, because back in the 90s I actually enjoyed wrestling as well. I wasn't like I was a fan but not like huge fan and whatnot as well. But who was your favorite character growing up then? Like growing up?
Speaker 1:in the 80s. In the 80s, my favorite wrestler was the Ultimate Warrior.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, that's why you do the yes.
Speaker 1:No, he's not the no, that's Daniel Bryan. Oh, so later on, when I became an adult, when I became an adult, the yes chant guy is Daniel Bryan, and he is currently my favorite wrestler.
Speaker 2:He's awesome. Guess who mine was, josh. Guess who mine was.
Speaker 1:Was he a good guy or a bad guy?
Speaker 2:Bad guy. Ooh, I believe it or not? Yeah, I was into the bad guys.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm gonna guess. Here's my favorite bad guy from the 80s Rowdy Roddy Piper. Oh yes no, that's not him, Okay. Andre the Giant.
Speaker 2:No, he was close second for me.
Speaker 1:Sergeant Slaughter no. The Iron Sheik no. The Million Dollar man, ted DiBiase no, I'm thinking of all the bad guys who give me a hint he was really quiet, never spoke a word.
Speaker 2:George the Animal Steel, no, the Undertaker. Oh, yes, okay.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Now he, you know he was actually.
Speaker 1:He was, yes, in the late 80s, but in the 90s, in the 90s, he was most popular.
Speaker 2:So I was a little bit thrown.
Speaker 1:I was a little bit thrown by that, but he started, yeah, late 80s. Yeah, Undertaker's great. Are you impressed about the amount of wrestlers I could just name off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:I really just did. I'll be honest with you. That just blew me away, cause some of them are like no, no, we're gonna do a spinoff podcast all about wrestling.
Speaker 1:It's gonna blow him up.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. No, don't even think that that's not gonna happen, Not with me in the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, the flying elbow Marshall Town, iowa. Check it out. It was great.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:Maybe on special wrestling.
Speaker 2:We had. We had the proudest, the proudest episode that we've ever had, because this is all about Minneapolis, Minnesota. He's proud of his town and that was.
Speaker 1:I visited you.
Speaker 2:I visited you, mate. I visited you, that was really cool.
Speaker 1:That was another great memory. You surprised me. And then I came home from work and I was like getting the car, I had a whole itinerary just like in my brain right away. We did so many cool things. It was a busy, busy weekend. I wanted to make you. I was just thinking in my brain like if I had two days to spend here, what would I do. We went to a Twins Minnesota Twins game First MLB game. We're in the hat right now.
Speaker 2:We're in the hat right now, exactly. Funnily enough, josh, I went to Pennsylvania just for a drive across the border the other day and I was wearing my Twins cap as well, and we're walking down the street and there was not that many people around, it was a bit misty, rain or whatever, and this guy was pushing his pram across the other side of the road and all I heard was him you got go, twins. I looked across, I'm thinking what's he talking about? And I thought, oh, I'm wearing the hat, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:We're everywhere. We're everywhere. We're proud of our Twins.
Speaker 2:In Pennsylvania. There you go, and Tim visited us as well when I came to Minneapolis, so we had spent some time with Tim. And that leads us now into the next episode, which is that you and Tim, by yourselves, without me, you and Tim went to Disneyland of Geocaching, that's Grand Forks and Gilby in North Dakota. That was a weekend trip away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was great fun. Yeah, it was fun. We missed you. We missed you, but we had some Miller High Life in your honor during the trip and gosh you could go up to Gilby and there's. You know, every year he puts out great new caches. So if you're a geocacher, it is a destination for sure.
Speaker 2:And Josh, I'm going to make it without going too quickly into the preview for this year. It's on my list to do this show. There you go there you go, we move on, we move on. After that one, we move on to. We've got Georgia on our minds and we had Katie on Geocaching, katie, she was on that. That was a great episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my favorite. My favorite, probably the most bizarre place that we mentioned on the podcast was mentioned in that one of the Babyland Cabbage Patch Delivery Center Hospital. They call it a hospital, josh.
Speaker 2:Yes, they called it a hospital, but all it is is literally just the center where the cabbage patch dolls are born or made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could watch a live birth of cabbage patch dolls there.
Speaker 2:It was so bizarre and it's funny enough after that episode I spoke to my wife about it and she spoke to her friend, her college roommate, of all sorts as well, because they both had cabbage patch dolls growing up and stuff as well and her roommate is a bit so I would say quirky and she's like how did I not know about this? Guess what, guess what. It's on their list, josh to go and visit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's on their list to go and visit it After that episode. So there you go. I love that. There you go, I know that's cool. Next up, Josh. We had some great responses about this guest we had on as well. We had Aurora's Across America a van life journey with Jeff Wag.
Speaker 1:He's been to every Aurora in the United States and one in Canada and one in Canada. That's right. We need to have Jeff on again. He's a van lifer that lives in Chicago, I believe. But he gets around in his van, so yeah, but he makes special quirky trips and he made a quirky big trip to visit every Aurora in America.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that we need to have Jeff on again. He's full of stories.
Speaker 2:And he's a good podcaster as well because he has his own podcast. And again, a shout out to Jeff on his podcast, a van life journey or, yeah, a van life journey with Jeff Wag and, yeah, great podcast. He had a good voice and had some good information to come through as well, so I really enjoyed that and we got some great positive responses from that episode as well, so that means we need to have them back.
Speaker 1:We need to have them back on the show.
Speaker 2:Speaking of which, we need to have this next one back as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2:We will. She was great.
Speaker 1:My daughter December 11th, reese the Rock Johnson. She talked about her college town, bowling Green, kentucky. Caves, cuisine and culture yeah, I'm not really a car girl. Yeah, bowling Green, the home of the. I've been to Bowling Green so many times that I need Next time I go to Bowling Green, I need to go to the Corvette Museum.
Speaker 2:I need to, just to see the sinkhole.
Speaker 1:We're filled with cars, yeah, corvettes. It's so cool.
Speaker 2:And last but not least, josh, we had our top 10 Christmas themed locations in the US, which is a research type episode, which was really cool, and I think it was a good episode to have for our last one, on Christmas day as well. Christmas day came out. Love that that was posted right on Christmas day.
Speaker 1:We don't take a day off here on the treasures of our day, treasures of our town podcast. No, we just go, we just go, go go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And speaking of go, go, go, 2024 is here, 2024. Where are we going to go, josh? What are we going to do? Well, we know for sure that I will be able to use my TSA pre-check. Finally, yes, finally, the curse will be, the curse will be broken in a couple of days too, not long after this episode is released.
Speaker 2:So there you go. No, this week it's happening. You're flying, you're flying Josh, and so on.
Speaker 1:Yes, and hopefully the TSA pre-check. Hopefully it works. Yes, you told me to get it and then you cursed me because I never traveled again.
Speaker 2:Well, by air anyway.
Speaker 1:Yes, but we're going to Orlando, which, I'm just going to say, not my favorite airport. Maybe, my maybe my least favorite airport in America.
Speaker 2:It has. It has a good virtual in it, Josh, let's be honest the guy with laying down on the on the luggage. That's a pretty cool virtual, unredeemable quality.
Speaker 1:but you know the terminals are messed. There's two like separate terminal terminals, usually most airports. You go through security, you can get your way to where you're supposed to go. I went the wrong way, had to go all the way through security, which has been usually horrible in Orlando, had to leave and go through security again.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh.
Speaker 1:That's that happens in olden times, Really. Here's your tip for the show. If you're flying Orlando airport, pay attention.
Speaker 2:Make sure you know where you're going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So we're heading there this weekend, Josh and we're going there for a Munzie mega event as well, which is really cool. We're going to meet up with Rob from Munzie, the president of Munzie and my other co-host on the Munzie podcast as well, so we're going to meet up with him. We're going to meet up with Tim. Tim's going to be there from Minnesota. Boy. We're going to meet up with Carson like I cash out, Dyle and Barb are going to be there. It's going to be a pretty cool weekend event.
Speaker 1:It's going to be the who's who of Munzie. Yeah, we're going to be there as well.
Speaker 2:So he's, he's getting up there. I think he's number two now in the world overall.
Speaker 1:I'm going to see him a little bit here because I'm going to a Munzie event in a few hours here.
Speaker 2:Oh, there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1:I wonder if you, I wonder if you'll wear his short sleeves. We got snow on the ground.
Speaker 2:We're hardy, we're hardy.
Speaker 1:Finally, Finally. We're hardy people here in Minnesota, and so we will. You know we'll wear shorts out in this weather. Well, my son will. But here's the thing, Craig. I don't know if I haven't talked to you about this yet. I have a friend that lives in Orlando and I asked her.
Speaker 1:I was like I need hidden gems, I need local secrets, hidden gems, because Orlando pretty touristy town. She gave me all these ideas for restaurants. She gave me like the locals know about, yeah, and so I have a list. Craig, oh, you do Cool. Hopefully we can go to a few of them. Yeah, and now we're going to be. I'm not going to have a car, so we're going to have to convince Rob Rob.
Speaker 2:That's going to be. That's not going to be hard to convince.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As long as it's got B, then Rob Some of the places are breweries too. One of the like, one of the like.
Speaker 1:So I've got, I've got some non touristy, more local places to go. Hopefully we'll have time to do it. We won't be captain onesies the whole time and if we, you know, if we want to leave an area, we'll just, we'll just blast the area, let's blast it Exactly, blast it and then move on Exactly.
Speaker 2:But we'll say this as well While we're at breweries, let's give a shout out to Rob. Rob has got his own YouTube channel and he needs some more love on the YouTube channel. He really does. If you follow him, follow him at Beersnob. Rob. I think that's a great name too.
Speaker 1:That's a great name.
Speaker 2:He does a lot of beer reviews and whatever as well on that channel and that's predominantly that's what his niche is is his drinking him drinking beer. So what a great channel that is.
Speaker 1:I just watched this morning he was drinking Ciders in Epcot Center. Yes, In the France, the France Pavilion.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he did a world tour in the in the Disneyland of the breweries in Disneyland, so drinking all beers from around the world. That's really cool, josh. After Orlando, what else have we got coming up?
Speaker 1:It looks like it's happening. It looks like it. I don't have my flight book yet because I don't know why.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:have your flight. You have your flight book for this already.
Speaker 2:Not yet, not yet.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I just need, we need a little bit more, a little bit more confirmation, but it's, I'd say, I'd say we're at 95% that this is happening. Yup, yup, bama Ramma geocaching event. It's a second annual time that they have done this, I guess last year, if it's in the Gulf shores area of Alabama. Guess, guess what, craig? I've never found a geocaching in Alabama, can you?
Speaker 2:believe it.
Speaker 1:Really, it's one of the states I'm going to get a souvenir. I'm going to climb the. I'm going to climb the souvenir Wow I'm going to get. I'm going to get up there with Doug McCrae Not really.
Speaker 2:Bama Ramma is a mega event. So in other words, it's people there, almost 500 people or more are going to be their geocaches themselves. This Bama Ramma event itself. You want to have a look at it? Even the event links will be in the show notes, but it's. It's a lucky. It's over a week long, josh. They have events almost over a week, over a week long. We're not going to be there for that full week, we're going to be there for the mega event on the one day.
Speaker 1:Well, it's going to be. It's going to be a long week for us because, after Bama Ramma, we're going to drive over to, to, um, what's that state? Oh, louisiana, louisiana. Yeah, and I'm going to visit for the third time. We're going to go together, yeah, home on Louisiana, that's right, it's a tour tour which has we're deep in Bayou country, deep in Gator Gator country.
Speaker 2:Oh, here we go. I love that show. That's the best show, but they've got a they've got a geotour there, Josh. That's what's getting us over there too, it's a geotour.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've done their previous geotour, but they've refreshed the whole thing, and this one is themed on some of the Cajun food. So we it's perfect, perfect for travel, perfect. So Home on Louisiana, I'm excited to visit again. We're going to be down in that area almost for for a week, almost a week. So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:And letting people know as well. Our next episode, josh, is going to be recorded live between the two of us and even Rob may be on as well from Munze in Orlando, so that's going to be really cool. And then, obviously, with the Bama Ramah and humor I say humor, what, homer, you say Homer, homer, we're going to, that's going to get. That's going to be an episode on the show as well, so that's really cool. The other one, josh, the other one that's going to be is pretty much locked in for us for the for 2024 is Geowoodstock and Flagstaff, arizona.
Speaker 1:It's the Super Bowl of geocaching. How can we miss it? And how can we miss it in this location, flagstaff, arizona? I've never been to it, craig. I've never seen the Grand Canyon. I was. I was at a holiday party and people were like you know, what do you, what do you want to do for 2024? And I said 2024 is the year I'm going to see the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2:So that's a biggie, it's a biggie it literally Arizona is literally the the foot here, like the footing stepping stones to to the Grand Canyon, which is really cool. Also, it's really cool at the moment as of recording this they've got 1500 willa tens. That's a lot. Halfway that's a lot, but they're halfway to giga status. They need 3,000. 3,000. So they need 1500 to get giga status, but it's the second giga in the U S.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people, that's a lot of people to get willa tens. It's going to be okay if it's not giga, but that would be really cool, but it'd be really cool if it was giga.
Speaker 2:So yeah, if you're a geocacher and you're thinking about it and have a look at it, do some research and try and get there. Josh and I will both be there as well, so come and say g'day to us from there as well. Craig, are we going to find?
Speaker 1:are we going to go find the geocache? Yeah, benchmark, that's right, that's your, like we did in Florida. Yes, are we going to find the find? Well, it's not really the final one, the final one's in Iraq, but we can't get it. It's at the Iraq airport.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, we're the base force, military base force.
Speaker 1:I know, and you, I asked the military guys like what's the chance that that I could just be exploring the Iraqi Baghdad airport? They're like he's like no chance at hell.
Speaker 2:No, no, especially, especially not now.
Speaker 1:anyway, but, yeah, we're talking about a special, a special benchmark. Gosh, this, this is nerdy. The benchmark is a thing in the ground, but this one is special because it has the geocaching logo on it. So I've found, I've, I've found all of them, except the one in Arizona which is like out in the middle of the desert. So Minnesota boy, who is also wants to go to geowoodstock, he's also making it his, he wants to find it too. So I don't know this. It's north of Phoenix, near Sedona, yeah, which is also a beautiful place, by the way. I don't know, we'll see if we have time but yeah, yeah that could happen.
Speaker 2:That could happen. That could happen. We could could get the geocache, as you like to say. Now also, I will say this, and that is 2024, is is a little bit. You know it's still available for us, you know. So, if you, if you listen to this show and you think to yourself, you know what my town, josh, my town is, is great, I think you make a great episode for these guys to come, etc. Then reach out to us and and give us information and we'll go back and forth in regards to how we can attend your Area, your location and do a feature your town on this podcast.
Speaker 1:Especially videos as well.
Speaker 2:So especially if you have a geo tour in your town, yeah, yes, and especially if you're really proud of your town, yeah you have to be proud of your town, you have to be proud, or else you have to be proud.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:That's, that's the number one rule. We've got it, we've got it. You got to mention that. You got to mention whoever brings us to their town. You got to mention them and say that they're proud. So, yes, that's number one. So, yeah, definitely reach out to us guys on any of the social medias and and we can try and hook it up from there and arrange it, if possible. What else, josh, do you have coming up in 2024?
Speaker 1:well, we talked Oak City maybe.
Speaker 2:I already talked to you, tours Seneca.
Speaker 1:Falls, new York, craig, mm-hmm. Are you coming back to Minnesota for Munze mania Maybe, josh? What? Yes, you are, yes, I that's, it may that's it may, I know in May.
Speaker 2:That's coming up quick again, geez. But I'm hoping all the snow is gonna be melted within May, I dare say. But it's gonna be muddy and sloshy, or is it gonna be okay in May? It should be okay, it's usually it's may is usually beautiful. Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's cool. That's cool it's. I mean, think about it. It's usually the opposite of May, for weather is September. So yeah, april is April is October weather, may is more like September weather.
Speaker 2:So September is beautiful. Yeah, yeah, so that'd be really nice. That's really cool, josh. We've mentioned already before on this podcast about the patrons that we've had, and you know Dale and Barb and Tim and a few other others as well. We've got a few patrons, but we can always use more. We can always use more Josh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially if you're a patron or you're listening to us. We'd love to hear from you. But we have a lot of this. First year we had a lot of geocachers, because that's what we're kind of known for. I'm really interested in knowing. Please reach out to us if you're not a geocachor, if you just like found our podcast somewhere else and like you're a regular listener to us, we want to know that. Please talk to us and Reach out to us and, of course, anybody we're, we.
Speaker 1:You know it costs money to do podcasts, the hosting and all the stuff. Craig does all that behind the scenes and he tells me it costs money and so and we don't, you know, we don't want to have a bunch of commercials and we don't want to have to like have sponsors and we don't even have like pre. You know a lot of podcasts nowadays have those pre-roll like Advertisements, like in the middle or at the beginning. We don't want you to have, we don't want you to have to fast forward anything. No, no. So this podcast is completely Listener supported and we just are so thankful for that. So, thank you so much, and I, craig and I've been talking about About doing some, some things that might be a little bit surprising to people, but it's only gonna be for patrons, and I'm not gonna tell, say what it is yet, because I don't want to commit fully.
Speaker 1:If I, if I speak it out on the podcast, people are gonna like, where is it? But we have some ideas to even make being a patron of the treasures of our town podcast even more appealing. Yes, I'm speaking really slow and we know what happens when people speak slow on podcast. So if you've been enjoying our podcast, we really would appreciate your support. By supporting us, you're helping us to create better content, so please consider joining us. Write it down. Well, not if you're driving patreoncom Backslash treasures of our town and there you can get gold nuggets. There is a free level, but we don't put anything on there for free. Well, I should say a couple. There's a couple things out there.
Speaker 2:There is. There is. So, if a next episode, josh, as I said before, we're gonna go to Orlando, florida, and we are going to be recording live in Orlando together, you and I and Rob on the show as well, which is really cool. But otherwise, josh, as I said before, how can actually people contact us if they wish to reach out and and have us explore?
Speaker 1:their town. Reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmailcom, or you can follow us on Facebook, instagram, twitter and YouTube.
Speaker 2:So that's our show for today. Please subscribe, write and review on your favorite podcasting app and as always Joe me.
Speaker 1:Your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing hidden gems around the USA. See you next time. Bye, bye. Happy new year for all the quaint and people.