Treasures of our Town
Embark on an exhilarating voyage through the heart of America's captivating towns and cities with the enthralling travel podcast, "Treasures of our Town." Join your experienced hosts, Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger), as they unveil the hidden gems and extraordinary treasures that lie beyond the surface.
Delve into a world of cultural exploration as our hosts guide you through historical sites, natural splendours, and extraordinary local experiences. All their travels are guided by their love of outdoor games like Geocaching and Munzee. Whether you're a seasoned globetrotter or a curious beginner, our captivating city tours and off-the-beaten-path destinations will ignite your wanderlust and leave you inspired.
Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure? Tune in now and prepare to immerse yourself in the allure of "Treasures of our Town." Let us ignite your curiosity, fuel your desire for exploration, and set your spirit free as we unravel the secrets that make each town a true treasure trove.
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Website - www.treasuresofourtown.buzzsprout.com
Email - treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com
Treasures of our Town
Bizarre, Quirky and Totally Fun Adventures in the Midwest! w/Jack Norton
Can you imagine stumbling upon the world's largest mailbox or a museum dedicated to legendary stuntman Evel Knievel? This episode of Treasures of Our Town promises a delightful journey through the quirkiest attractions of the Midwest with our special guest, Midwest travel aficionado Jack Norton. Jack and his wife Kitty have swapped their guitars for travel guides, and they're ready to share their fascinating shift from musicians to travel bloggers. We'll also give you a peek behind the scenes of their popular "Travel with Jack and Kitty" blog and podcast, along with upcoming plans for a daily video series brimming with visual treats.
Our chat with Jack takes us on a whirlwind adventure through hidden gems tucked away in the heartland. Hear about the sleepy town of Casey, Illinois, where you’ll find objects that break world records, and the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa, where the spirit of America's wandering workers is kept alive. We also reminisce about the massive Ball of Twine in Minnesota and its quirky significance, not to mention the fascinating Pavik Museum of Broadcasting. Jack even sprinkles in personal anecdotes and dad jokes, making this episode a delightful mix of humor and travel inspiration.
We share our own travel tales, including a camper van saga that turned into a comedic yet frustrating repair ordeal. Despite these bumps in the road, our passion for uncovering the Midwest’s oddities remains strong. From Nebraska’s Carhenge to the Hodag myth in Wisconsin, and from Wall Drug’s kitschy charm to the Wisconsin World's Largest Six-Pack, this episode is stuffed with stories that will make you laugh, dream, and possibly plan your own quirky road trip. Tune in for a treasure trove of tips and tales that celebrate the unique spirit of Midwest travel.
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Email - jack@jackandkitty.com
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You know what, Jack? I think that's the first time that this podcast is going to now have an explicit rating.
Speaker 2:Well, no, I said Shih Tzu.
Speaker 3:It's the first.
Speaker 1:Shih Tzu's a dog. Oh yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2:I guess it's a Twitter joke. It's totally G-rated.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're still family friendly, Do you? Love to travel. Do you love to travel? Do you love road trips? Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm Craig.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's the podcast that explores the unique and charming towns scattered all 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 3:On today's episode wow, josh, you got this guy here for us. Apparently, he knows the Midwest, the entire Midwest, inside and out. He's brought the t-shirt. He's written a book he's several books about it as well. We're going to talk to Jack Norton from Jack and Kitty team. Also the Midwest Travel Podcast as well. They do a daily podcast, josh.
Speaker 1:He does so much as it relates to travel and I believe we'll talk to him. I've never talked to him before. This is exciting. He's a big fan of, like roadside attractions and he's written a book. He's written a book and we'll get to that All about the things we love Exactly All the little treasures and all the little towns. He knows the midwest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're excited to talk to him, but craig how have you been doing well, a few people out there already know this. We're going to talk about our delays and upgrades, are we?
Speaker 1:we're gonna get straight into that. Let's get straight into the upgrades.
Speaker 3:all right, all right, I'll do my upgrade first, because my delay is very, very, very annoying and very expensive. The upgrade for me itself is I've actually built out more of my camper van, my SUV, oh great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've put solar on the roof. There's actually big solar panels now on the roof, and the wires go through the car itself into this big extra battery compartment. Now, the reason why I did all that is because I've got a brand new fridge in there now too, josh, so I can actually have it's a real camper, like a kitchen out the back now as well, fridge out the side.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, a fridge that you can put your b, your soda, your snicker bars, anything you want to keep cold, tommy my miller high life, not sponsored.
Speaker 3:But if you're listening, mate, yeah, so that's been my upgrade, but ready for the delay. The delay is this I had a trip planned all around again, another nice big circle trip up to Ohio and to the Midwest Geobash up there as well, in Waseon, I think it's called Waseon. Yeah, I had that trip all planned out on my road trippers app. I've had it ready to go and then my car decides to go. I took it to the mechanic. It's an engine issue, major engine issue. So now I have to wait four to ten weeks for an engine to be rebuilt, like an engine actually be made and built for me, and then he's going to put it in, and at a cost of seven and a half k.
Speaker 1:so there you go yikes, yeah, yeah, that's a rough one, that's a rough delay I know, I know I haven't started a gofundme page. I'm not going to do it I know you were so excited about going to midwest geobash because you never had gone before no, and I've got my car camper already too, because it's a camping event.
Speaker 3:Like I would have stayed like five. I had my, my campsite paid for, ready to go as well. I was in like a little vlogger area with hail meister and and jeff from cash the line. Remember jeff? We had him on the show as well, yeah, and uh, chronically tired mom she was there as well. Lenisa she was there ready to go as well. So they're also going, but uh, just not me.
Speaker 1:That's also anyway, I'm sad for you, but now I don't have as much phobo because I couldn't make it.
Speaker 3:That's that. That makes me even more sad, because I like to make you jealous like that. All right, what about yourself, mate? What about your upgrades and upgrades?
Speaker 1:well, I didn't think about this in advance. But the sun is shining, the air is dry, we've got a beautiful day, a beautiful weekend in minnesota and you know, this podcast is all about the places, the things that geolocation games take us and I'm just kind of excited because let's talk about munzee. Oh yes, munzee, munzee this weekend. If you have some special stuff, yeah, we won't get into that. It's not double points, no, but triple triple.
Speaker 3:That's huge, absolutely huge. Exactly. Did you listen to today's podcast, the munzee podcast that I host with rob?
Speaker 1:I haven't got there yet because I also have the day off today, so I didn't do my commute, but I will. I will listen my triple points a day.
Speaker 3:I don't can't remember ever munzee giving triple points no, this is the first of triple points per se, but uh, I saw as well on on social media. Next month, josh, if you don't play munzee, jump in have a look and see what it's like. Next month for premium members, there is a triple point weekend on everything, not not not specific items, but everything you get triple points on if you're a premium member for next, next month. So, yeah, this is huge so much inflation?
Speaker 3:I know, I know. So do you have events this weekend in in minnesota mate?
Speaker 1:yeah, so that's part of my upgrade too. We have two events tomorrow which I'm excited about. We haven't had an event in like a month, so I'm excited to get outside tomorrow with my little boy, goliath, and we will adventure into the Munzee events. Munzee is celebrating its 13th birthday Exactly. Again, if you don't know what we're talking about, about if you're here for the travel and you're like what the heck are these guys talking about weird words munzee, what, triple, what? Um? Munzee is a location-based game. It's like if geocaching, if poke and pokemon go had a baby. Yeah, it's whimsical, it's fun, it's points based, it's leveling up, it's badges.
Speaker 3:it's a good time it is, and it's very it's very um communal as well, because we we play with other team members. You can join a team. You can do all this. There's so much to do in munzee. So, yeah, jump on, have a look. And if you want more information as well, josh, I have it in the show notes for my tutorials on youtube.
Speaker 1:So there you go I don't have a delay, I'm going to give you another upgrade. Okay, several podcasts ago, I told you one of my delays was I had an incident at a sack race. Yes, your shoulder, my shoulder, my back, I think. I broke a rib and I've been going to the chiropractor for over two months. Well, I have been officially discharged and I am healed. No more pain due to the sack races.
Speaker 3:So I'm healed. Well done. Well, here you go Talking of chiropractors. I never believed in chiropractors at all, josh, but then I went to one, and now I stand corrected. There you go.
Speaker 1:Dad joke yeah, dad jokes. Speaking of dad jokes, we should bring our guest, because not only is he a travel guru, but he is also a dad joke guru. Exactly. Welcome, jack Norton. Hey, jack and Kitty, welcome to our show. Thanks so much for talking to us today.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you so much for having me, Joshua and Craig. I appreciate you guys. Mate, thank you so much for having me, Joshua and Craig. I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 3:Mate, we'll get straight into it. Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself, Like where can people listen to you? I saw you've got a daily, a daily podcast, mate. What's going on?
Speaker 2:there. Wow Well, I had a lobotomy a few years ago. The result of that was a daily pot. No Well, I mean we started, my wife Kitty and I. We were musicians for oh gosh, 25 years. We still are, but that took us all around the world and we've always loved, grew up in Minneapolis both of us and met in high school and we primarily toured the Midwest.
Speaker 2:But I mean we ended up traveling the whole world but really do love the Midwest the best and basically kind of when the pandemic really hit, we lost about oh gosh, several hundred shows in the course of like live gigs. I mean we were just live gigging musicians and like within the course of a few weeks, everything was cut and we kind of just had to pivot and sort of think like, hey, what could we do? And we've always wanted to have a blog and we've kind of off and on been bloggers and never really took it seriously. And we just decided to sit down and, you know, take it seriously and and so we kind of created this travel with Jack and Kitty thing and have pivoted into that and it's basically consumed our whole life. We're not really doing gigs anymore, even though the world's opened back up. We're mainly just doing travel, blogging and then book publishing and we're trying really hard to build podcasting and YouTubing.
Speaker 2:So I guess it was in September of last year that we started a weekly podcast. September of last year that we started a weekly podcast, fell in love with it. I ended up interviewing as a guest Gary Arndt from Everything, everywhere, daily, and he talked about how important it was to go daily and how basically you just you'll build an audience quicker and you'll get better at it, and it's just. You know there's more, I don't know. So we've been playing with the tool.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I don't feel like we're quite as pulled together as you guys are, because we've kind of been messing with formats for about nine months now, 10 months, trying to figure out what it is we do, and so we're basically relaunching on July 23rd. So in a few days we've been daily for about six months, but in a couple of days we're going to go daily video and it's a totally new format where it's almost like making a mini movie episode. They're gonna be about five, 10 minutes and like really supported by a lot of B-roll stuff we shot, you know, on location, and then also just fun like visuals to kind of accompany the story and so, yeah, that's that's going to be our latest thing. But I mean, as far as where people can find us, it's jackandkitty is everywhere. I mean jackandkittycom is our website and that's kind of our whole world and we're. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know if we'll certainly, we'll certainly have all.
Speaker 1:We'll have all the links in the show notes. You're going to be able to find the blog. You're going to find the books. You're going to find the podcast. That is going to be is every day, which is actually very impressive.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes, youtube, I think I discovered you, jack, on Tik TOK. I think that's where I found you and I was like, oh, a guy with a sweet Minnesota accent.
Speaker 2:I wonder where he's from. You know you betcha? Oh, geez, yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I know I should take tiktok seriously, but I it's so hard because I'm, you know, I'm a horrible dancer, I'm horrible, I'm not a cute girl, so it's just got all those check marks against me.
Speaker 2:No, I should take it seriously, but I mean, I don't do as much as I should. There's only so many hours and we've been so busy building the blog and we really feel called to do like I don't know blogging and book publishing and by the end of the day, it's like what do you put on TikTok or Instagram that does anything, you know?
Speaker 3:what I mean. Well, well, jack, I've already you've already been outed by Josh as well, because I haven't seen you on TikTok. I'll say that now.
Speaker 2:And you said before.
Speaker 1:No one has. I've heard some dad jokes on there.
Speaker 3:I was going to say let's put you right on now. This isn't in the show notes, so here you go. Exactly, there's no notes for this. What's your best dad joke that you say on TikTok as you go, go now.
Speaker 2:Well, this isn't really a dad joke. This is actually a true story. A man, my neighbor, you're from Australia, yeah yeah. Hey, burt, you're from Australia, yeah yeah. So you don't know about Oli and Lena, right, you don't know who they are.
Speaker 3:No, okay, they're famous Minnesotans.
Speaker 2:They actually live here in Winona, minnesota. They live just down the road from here. And so, oli, he took his wife Lena to the zoo, right New zoo, and he was really disappointed because it only had one animal. And we were really disappointed because it only had one animal. It was a dog, just a dog. Oh, I know the dog. Yeah, it was a Shih Tzu.
Speaker 3:That's the one I do love. My dad jokes as well, jack. So yeah, it's very, very rare.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh gosh, I pulled it up really quick. It's very rare. What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? Dino snore?
Speaker 1:oh yes, I see, see, there you go. You know what jack? I think that's the first time that this podcast is going to now have an explicit rating.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it's the first it's the first oh, oh oh yeah, I guess I guess, yeah, it's a joker, joke. I mean, okay, totally g-rated, okay we're still family friendly.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, yes all right good so, speaking of books, you've written several and we're going to get to them, but the one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is I think your most recent book that I saw was get this guys, this is what it's called. Y'all are gonna love this, especially our fans that listen to this podcast, because I think they like it at least we like it 101 bizarre, quirky and totally fun adventures. Get this in the midwest, so all in the midwest. So we're going to talk about I think, jack, you considered the Midwest being was it 12, 12 states, is it 12?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I mean it is technically. We are go, we're very official here at Jack and Kitty World Headquarters and we're going by the actual census, like US government has issued a. This is the Midwest and there's 12 states. And so I know if you talk to a lot of folks in Minnesota or Iowa, they get really upset with Ohio being included in this because it's like that's East Coast. I mean you're like you know people in North Dakota, but yeah, there's 12 states and so that's kind of we. You know, when we first started blogging actually stemmed from when we first started blogging we were just kind of all over the map, because we had been all over the map but our passion was really the Midwest and we were like we can't do a blog just about the Midwest and we can't write books just about the Midwest. And it turns out, the more we do that, the better it is.
Speaker 2:And the more fun we have, and I think it's just because we have fun with it that the audience has fun with it. So, um, yeah, so we're confining our, our adventures to these 12 states here in the heartland.
Speaker 3:Wow, Wow, Uh. How many books before we move on as well. How many books do you guys actually have at the moment?
Speaker 2:Um well, we've got a guide to Iowa, guide to Minnesota, guide to Wisconsin. Um then, we're going to be putting out an Ohio one next month, and even though they're not. And then we've got the new one, 101, which covers all 12.
Speaker 2:And then my wife and I. She has been a writer for off and on for 20 years and so she created a series called Feel Good Stories and a lot of it are like real stories and then some that are, like you know, creative fiction, but most of them are based in reality. I mean they're true stories of it's kind of like chicken soup for the soul, but based in the Midwest, I mean it's all Heartland kind of stories. So she's got like five or six of those, I guess, and I sometimes write when she needs the bad dad jokes or I'll drop in there, but that's kind of her.
Speaker 2:But I mean we have our own publishing company and so I guess about a dozen now.
Speaker 3:So about six travel and six fiction I was scrolling through your website uh in in you know readiness actually for this episode and I saw one of your books you had out there as well and this really intrigued me and it was the Camping Journal, an RV travel logbook. Oh yeah, because I'm a big traveler at heart, especially RV camper that sort of style. So, yeah, what's that about, mate? What can people expect out of that?
Speaker 2:one. I mean it's really basic. I guess I didn't even think about it. I mean it's a very like it's very basic, it's really. It's a. I should have mentioned it because it's a good seller, but it's just a camping journal. I mean you have, like your campground details. You know where you stayed, and it's really helpful because I mean there's little check marks where you know is it pet friendly? Is it kid friendly? How do they have showers? What's the grill, like you know, pet friendly? Is it kid friendly? How do they have showers? What's the grill? Like you know? Would you stay next time? Who are your travel companions? So it's kind of like a journal diary mixed with just a kind of a helpful if I want to return. You know this is the lot number I stayed at, or this was the wi-fi password or just whatever. So we designed that and that's another thing.
Speaker 3:I guess nice, nice, yeah, no one actually does all the work. We do like checking off those boxes, Josh, don't we?
Speaker 1:Yes, we do so in this latest book 101 Bizarre, quirky and Totally Fun Adventures in the Midwest. You mentioned 12 different Midwest states. Can you just name the 12 states off the top of your?
Speaker 2:head. Oh my God, I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1:This is. This is what we're talking about, so.
Speaker 2:I wish we were visual because you guys can see out. Okay, I'm showing both my hands. I'm not looking at anything. Um no, uh, so Illinois, indiana, iowa, kansas, michigan, minnesota, nebraska, north Dakota, south Dakota, I'm going to, ah, missouri.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:I was going out of order Ohio and Wisconsin. Oh there you go. Those are 12.
Speaker 1:I think you got them. Yeah, I think you got them all he did.
Speaker 3:I've got the notes here.
Speaker 2:We're used in this.
Speaker 3:All 10 fingers and two toes. Sorry, I had's foot up as well, so that's all good.
Speaker 1:So, as the expert of the bizarre, quirky and totally fun adventures, what we're going to do, this is exciting, this is fun. We're going to go through each state. Yeah, jack's going to tell us a little bit about the bizarre, quirky and totally fun thing there. And I'm sure the book has many more other things. But and I'm sure the book has many more other things, but we're just going to give you a taste of it, it has 101. 101, yes, and we're going to talk about 12.
Speaker 3:12, one in each set.
Speaker 1:So we're giving them a little taste, jack, and then everybody's going to go and they're going to go to Amazon or to your website and they're going to buy this book and I'm going to buy it. And now we have a new checklist, because, craig was right, we love our checklists. Check.
Speaker 2:I've been there. I never have to go there again. Checklist you know, on my to-do list every morning I'll write stuff I've already done, just so I can check it off.
Speaker 3:Just so you can check it off, I did that yesterday, but man, am I killing it today? And Josh, I did see in the show notes as well some of these places. We've already had other people on mentioning it, like Olio as well. Olio in Iowa, for instance.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we've had her on the show. Oh, is she?
Speaker 2:on the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, and Valerie, from Silly America as well, has talked about a couple of these things, so we're going to have a couple of repeats, but not everybody listens to every show, and not only that, josh.
Speaker 3:I love the different aspects that different people have you see, so people can go see one thing, but have different experiences at it too, and that's what we're after too. So, all right, jack you ready for this, mate? I'm gonna start you off.
Speaker 2:We're gonna go illinois oh, are we going alphabetical? Are we going where I guess illinois is alphabetical?
Speaker 2:we can do it fast the town of casey. Oh there it is Bunch of stuff. I mean you go to Casey. You could just stay in Casey and get 101 things no, maybe not quite 101. But the whole town of Casey. I mean you should. Actually it's worth Googling and looking up Casey, Illinois, Because there's like I mean we write about the world's largest mailbox because it's the world's largest mailbox, but I mean there's the world's largest mailbox because it's the world's largest mailbox, but I mean there's the world's largest wooden shoes. There's the world's largest. I think they have a. I want to say there was the world's largest grocery cart too, I think. But like we focused on the mailbox, on this one, and you can send a letter from the mailbox and it's, you know, it's the.
Speaker 3:I mean it's an active mailbox isn't it yeah, and when you, when you put the letter in the actual, the red flag pops up, just to let you know, as everyone knows, I'm Australian. We don't have that in Australia. For us to post mail in Australia, we have to go to a dedicated post box, which is normally one or two in every suburb in Australia and they're on a corner of a street. We just chuck them all in the one post box. We didn't have this, this arm thing coming up the side of your letter. Well, there you go?
Speaker 1:I've been there and I've I've mailed a letter out of that mailbox, which Jack is, is I my favorite part of the town. But if you know, go on a non windy day, because they don't have the flag activated If it's too windy, they're afraid of that thing blowing off. No, you gotta, that's a, that's your tip of the day. Go on a non-windy day, yeah you're right, kasey's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no but apart from the mailbox jack, what's your personal favorite there in casey, what do you think?
Speaker 2:I mean, I really did get amped about the mailbox. Yeah well, it's interacting with simple pleasures you are myelostral.
Speaker 3:That's our answer is, in a way, like the myelobox.
Speaker 2:It's funny that you're australian and you're male because or mailbox because we had a. My wife and I, before all this, we had a show on pbs kids and it was like a little preschool show and it was kind of like uh, one one reviewer called us barney meets the black eyed peas because it was like hip hop for preschoolers. Cool, like one of our two breakaway characters was a kangaroo who was from Australia and he delivered the mail. Well, it was a sheet. We found this out after the fact, yeah.
Speaker 3:In her pouch. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's how I always thought it worked in Australia. I'm glad to finally talk to a real Australian.
Speaker 1:A real fair income australia might. So there you go, and I just want to make sure so we don't get hate mail before we move on from from illinois it is, they do pronounce it, they're kz illinois, just so you know. Really don't make.
Speaker 2:don't make that mistake. It's well they're gonna the audio book that's coming out, uh-oh, really, kasey, I've never heard of him Kasey, that's how they pronounce it. If you go there, well, I mean I can blame most things on my Minnesota accent. There you go.
Speaker 3:Like I do with my Australian too. Mate, I do exactly the same thing, exactly. All right, we're going to move on to the next one, and now in Indiana.
Speaker 2:Indiana. Okay, all right. Well, I took I mean I let's, I the world's largest I'm doing a lot of world's largest, but world's largest egg, which is just a 3,000 pound. Is it a real egg? I mean no. I mean, yes, it was delivered by this huge bird and they're still waiting for it to actually crack and they're going to make exciting. It's a world exclusive. Just on your guys' podcast I actually just heard this they are going to make the world's largest omelet as soon as that baby cracks. There, you go.
Speaker 3:I think it might have been made by that bird that you can't hear it go to the bathroom, the pterodactyl, because the p is silent. But anyway, see, see, oh man, oh yeah, oh yeah, you, you got them too so this is this is not good.
Speaker 2:There's just too much. It's too much.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I don't know if I should ever actually talk um, so this egg is in Mentone, indiana, and I'm looking at the picture. You would think that the egg would be like big side egg, big side down. No, they have it. A little stand it's, and the little and the small side it's upside down, let's it's upside down it's up.
Speaker 2:It's not the way your eye wants it to be oh really, so it's.
Speaker 3:It's it's facing, so it's the point, it's on its point. Basically, is that the way sitting on its point on a, on a stand, and is it the world's largest in terms of size or weight? Josh, do you know that?
Speaker 1:I'd have to look that up. It's 3,000 pounds.
Speaker 2:It's 3,000. Yeah, I mean, I think they're going off of probably the amount of weight.
Speaker 3:See some of these things that these places build, et cetera, as well. They're only the world's largest, until someone builds it bigger. Let's be honest, Right? You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, but the ball of twine.
Speaker 1:There's a whole controversy about that you know that right oh yeah, oh yes, we've talked about that, I bet.
Speaker 2:Julio talked about that, didn't you? Yes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did yeah, this was built in 1946, 10 feet high. It is inscribed with the egg basket of the Midwest.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's a symbol of the town's thriving egg industry. Good for them.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go. Could be anything else? Exactly, exactly, josh, you're up. Where are we going to go next?
Speaker 1:Okay, we're going to the state of my birth, that is, the Hawkeye State of Iowa, home of Oleo in Iowa. Let's just say I want to say we know If you've ever talked to Megan, we talked to Megan for two episodes. We know there's a lot of we, uh, we know there's a lot of cool stuff in Iowa, so uh.
Speaker 2:Jack, what's your bizarre, quirky and totally fun thing? I was going to talk about the gnome in Ames, but I'm assuming she already talked about the world's largest gnome right, yes so.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say the hobo museum.
Speaker 2:Have you guys been to the hobo?
Speaker 2:museum no no iowa, okay, hobo museum, brit iowa, brit is this little town and every year they have the hobo convention and hobos from all over all over america, or hobo aficionados or or just weirdos all the time and it's like a three-day hootenanny and party. But there's a, I think, the theater I want to remember, if I, I mean I probably wrote about it in the book, but it's uh, the chief theater, I want to say, and uh, I'm almost positive that's the name of the theater. It's an old theater and they turned into a museum and it's like, it's cool because you know, it has like the hobo art which is really cool and some of the like, graphics and some of the like. I mean, it's just a history of hobos, but it's like hobo, capital of america, brit, iowa and uh huh back way back in the day, like I don't know, when I was in my early 20s.
Speaker 2:So you know, two or three years ago I uh, I did snicker, I did snicker. I hopped a few trains so I mean it's close to my heart and I love. I mean I used to, you know, back in the day, I really you know, I feel like when you're into trains you're either two years old or you're 90. And for some reason I was 25.
Speaker 1:I was really so the hobo museum is really cool, so so jack, what's the definition of a hobo? Is it somebody that jumps trains? Is that the? Is that the? I mean? They're very.
Speaker 2:They're very particular about what the definition is and like tramps were one thing.
Speaker 3:I don't know if we actually included that, to be honest with you, because we wrote this a while ago, but I mean those were people that were like I don't want to get it wrong because they'll get really, I can tell you, I can tell you exactly, I've got it exactly for you, josh. It is a homeless person, a tramp or a vagrant but there's, there's different.
Speaker 2:No, they get really particular because there's like different categories and I think the hobo is like a skilled worker who's willing to work they're not like they're actively searching out work.
Speaker 2:I want to say that's the definition, whereas a tramp is just kind of like oh and around and like it's all like lingo from like the 30s, like they're in the great depression, where like there were different categories of people and I'm almost positive that hobos were like folks that were actively looking for work or would do you know, day laboring jobs and kind of I, uh, I didn't read all the way down, jack, I apologize.
Speaker 3:So that was the north american version. The north, apparently the north american version is different to the us version. The us definition of hobo is a migrant worker. There you go yeah there you go brit iowa.
Speaker 1:If you're following along, it's uh, it's north central iowa, so it doesn't look too far from the minnesota border I have never heard yeah, I never heard of the hobo museum.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic no, you should know. I mean, it's like right off of 35. You know, best thing to come out of iowa is 35. I'm just kidding. No, but the and joshua johnson and and oleo but you know no, but it's like, I mean it's. I think I want to say, if I remember, you take the exit for buddy holly and then you go. Yes I'm almost positive you hit buddy and then you hit the hobos it's about 20 minutes, 20 Clear Lake, iowa.
Speaker 1:So yes, that's very close.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go. I actually we used to stay at a hotel in Clear Lake, if I remember right, to go to the museum, but yeah, Very good I don't think there is a hotel in Brit Iowa.
Speaker 3:There you go. Hobo Museum in Brit Iowa Get there there you go. Hobo museum in brit iowa get there there you go, get there.
Speaker 1:uh, next one we're gonna have jack for you is kansas kansas yes, kansas topeak kansas evil kenevil baby yeah, really, do you know eva evil kenevil? Yes, I am aware of evil. What?
Speaker 3:happens in america happens throughout Evel. What happens in America happens throughout the rest of the world, but what happens around the rest of the world doesn't necessarily come to America. So I know American songs and pop culture and all this stuff, but you don't know Australian pop culture and stuff either, sue, no.
Speaker 2:I mean I love the Wiggles, Come on.
Speaker 1:I love Men at Work.
Speaker 3:There you go. They come from the land down under. This is true. I hear that song. Here you go, Jack. We're veering off now.
Speaker 2:This is what happens.
Speaker 3:I hear that song Men at Work, land Down Under. I hear that here in the supermarkets more in the last two years than I've heard it my entire life, 40 years in Australia. So there you go.
Speaker 1:So, Jack, we're traveling.
Speaker 2:They did the timey kangaroo. Yeah, the wobble board.
Speaker 3:Timey kangaroo. What's?
Speaker 2:his name, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You can't like him now because there's been issues with him like major issues with him.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no one likes him. Now. I like the disco guy. He's silly dancing.
Speaker 3:Oh yes, yeah, there you go, I'm not dying. There you go. Anyway, we're not about Australia, we're talking about Evil Knievel Museum in Topeka.
Speaker 2:It's really cool. I mean it's Topeka, kansas, and it's the Evil Knievel Museum and there's a lot of artifacts and it's kind of interactive and there's video elements and a big gift store that you could spend way too much money in. I love that era of American weirdness and he embodies so much of this strange showmanship. It was just such a great era. I don't think somebody like Knievel could exist today.
Speaker 2:I think they probably shut him down I mean maybe he could, but he'd probably be like a renegade youtube star, tiktok star or something. But I you know it's a very. It's really fascinating. There's a lot of personal effects. It's worth going to do they have?
Speaker 1:I do. I was gonna say sorry. You have a memory of, I believe, seeing evil kenevil in person oh, you have wow he died in 2007, but in the 80s I remember he came, I think, to. I grew up in lacrosse, wisconsin, and he came and I distinctively remember the car, his, his signature move was to drive the car on two wheels sideways yeah like they go up a ramp and yeah, and he.
Speaker 1:He was probably on so many different movies doing that, but that was his signature move he was very skilled in saying everything else as well.
Speaker 3:He was extremely skilled and obviously brave with the stuff that he didn't crazy into the stuff that he actually did. But to the his museum, though, uh jack, does he actually have like a big ramp up the side or anything that you can ride a motorbike up and over the top of the? Up the top of the museum?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's fully interactive. They make you sign a waiver, but exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:All right, josh, you know move on to the next one mate all right, this one.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be really bizarre. Oh, we're going to Michigan, what's in?
Speaker 2:Michigan Cue the horror music. When you're editing this, please drop it in the Nun Doll Museum. The what the Nun? N-u-n, n-u-n.
Speaker 3:N-U-N, n-u-n, n-u-n, n-u-n, n-u-n.
Speaker 2:N-U-N N museum like the religious people the no, no nuns allowed museum like all right hundred dolls dressed like wow, wow so we're talking about the religious sort of nun that you have in a church, and that's all that's bizarre we are, yes, that's what we're talking about wow, that's so.
Speaker 3:How many dolls are in this?
Speaker 2:museum what? There's 500, yeah, 500. Yeah, there's 500. It's actually crazy because we just wrote, I mean, since this book we're going to like, that's the other thing with this. Like these travel books is like basically every single year we're finding out.
Speaker 2:I actually like was watching a thing with Rick Steves on how he does travel books and it's like every year he has to put out a new edition because things change and he discovers new stuff, and we're already in second edition for the Wisconsin book and the Iowa book and it's like this we're going to like we discovered there's actually a little old lady here in Minnesota and southern Minnesota who created a cow museum and this reminds me similar to that. This, the nun doll museum, is a little creepier, but the cow museum yes, there you go, the cow museum is just. It's literally like if you want to visit the cow museum in minnesota, you have to call her and schedule a time and it's her house and you just go and visit the cow museum and it's not as creepy, but there's. We're starting to discover since writing this, there's like there's the world's largest nutcracker collection is in laverne, minnesota, and that's like that is the same thing where one lady obsessed over nutcrackers and donated it to the town and now there's more nutcrackers in laverne, minnesota, than there are people, our people, at this museum.
Speaker 2:We also found the sock uh, the sock monkey museum, which I want to say is in ohio I'm pretty sure it's either indiana or how we wrote about it and it's like the same thing where these people get these collections and turn them into something. So, yeah, nun doll museum, indian river, michigan 500 dolls dressed like nuns. What more could you want with a?
Speaker 3:filmification that could make, josh. That could make a great YouTube clip, like the horror music there behind it. You know we did that one in the library, josh, with the webcams. You know we could do something similar to that. It would even be better, I think, because you know these nuns, I reckon would walk by themselves some of them just to be be honest, like if you're not looking, just saying so wow, yeah, there's dioramas of nuns at work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can make your own nun. You're like they have little nun making doll classes, that you mean it's not. The monkey museum has the same thing though where you can go in and learn how to make a sock monkey wow, wow that cra.
Speaker 1:That kind of reminds me of our Georgia episode where Katie told us about where the Cabbage Patch. Dolls were born.
Speaker 3:Yes, have you heard about that one, Jack?
Speaker 2:No, because that's not that's outside the Midwest.
Speaker 3:No, we watched it.
Speaker 2:I will leave the Midwest occasionally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those Cabbage Patch Dolls at the actual place and they give live births to cabbage patch dolls every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every day from the actual patch. Don't they feel like they come out of the ground?
Speaker 1:by the other ground out of the ground.
Speaker 3:Well, it's a shady ground. There's like a tree over there's, yeah, there's a big tree over the top of it and uh, yeah, and they give birth every day. Daily, they give birth to new cabbage there's a weird hospital involved, yeah nurse, nurses dressed up as nurses as well, like yeah yeah, welcome to america.
Speaker 2:They said you can bring them, your broken dolls, to that hospital. I want to say, can you?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, you can. Yeah, it's actually a hospital, you can, they can repair that's. Uh, you know, broken cabbage patch dolls too.
Speaker 1:So there you go I want to also mention with the nunah museum. There is also there a 52 feet tall crucifix.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's a big crucifix wow, see, this even gets better. So in indian river in in michigan, we're talking about indian river, michigan. If you don't know what, want more information, obviously just google these things, guys, every, google everything everything you know. Nundong Museum, indian River, michigan. There you go. Next one, jack, we're going to on the list Wolf, yeah, minnesota, minnesota.
Speaker 2:Tell us about Minnesota, here we go, okay, well, minnesota, I mean I'm going with the ball of twine. I know that Orio talked about it. She can think the ball of twine. I know that Olio talked about it. She can think the ball of twine is somewhere else. That's fine. But what people don't realize is this is there's two important reasons why you got to go to the Minnesota ball of twine. It's in Darwin, minnesota. That's not one of the reasons.
Speaker 2:Reason number one biggest ball of twine built by one man. There's a distinction. See, yes, minnesotans, we can do it ourselves like nobody's business. And we did exactly so. Good old francis johnson, 29 years, made the old ball of twine. So that's number one. Number two weird al wrote a song about it yeah no, yeah, he did too.
Speaker 1:There you go jack, there you go. So in march we had a roadside attraction march madness, yes, where we put roadside attraction against roadside attraction. Yes, and I was. I was so hurt, jack, that that the ball of minnesota's ball of twine, I I all the aspects created by one man, uh, the song the guy like died of, like inhaling twine dust, I mean the thing killed him I mean his balls the thing he created killed him. It's, it's, it's up there, it's one of the top roadside attractions, everything around.
Speaker 2:There is like, like the cafe is the ball of twine, the hotel is the Ball of Twine Motel.
Speaker 3:Yes, They've taken advantage. What were you saying, though, joshua?
Speaker 2:Well, no, I'm just saying it's amazing.
Speaker 1:They rolled it into town. He built it on his farm and the town rolled it to downtown.
Speaker 2:I think they sent it to Carson, didn't Johnny Carson bring it? I want to say I don't know. I'm pretty sure they flew the world's largest ball of twine. Yeah, see, we had to cut a lot of stuff because we would write, like we did a lot of blog articles where we would write like a long blog article and then to fit them into a book. We kind of condensed it down to make it more digestible because, like you don't need to know every moment of you know the history of the ball of pine, even though that's what I wrote. Like I don't have it here, but I wrote a book about this dixieland band once and the book was 900 pages and it's like you can't even hold it really so I always have to edit stuff, but I want to say the ball of twine was sent.
Speaker 2:I think Johnny Carson, I think they had the guy on the tonight show and they flew the ball of twine on a plane.
Speaker 1:What I'm pretty sure it's amazing before they moved it to its new location.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure they did that that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Would have needed one of those army planes.
Speaker 2:I think it was. I think it was like a cargo plane or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's also a museum there, and every time I've been there the museum hasn't been open. There's a sign on the door. It's like if you want the museum open, go over and talk to Susie at the restaurant. She'll open it up for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've had these next time experience and it's like I want to buy stuff from them too, cause if you go on my website there's like ball of twine. You know swag and I want to get it, but it's like I don't want to bother her at the restaurant.
Speaker 3:Busy at the restaurant. Do they sell strands of twine?
Speaker 2:No, I think they said. I mean, the last time I checked it was like like it was, I don't remember. I remember there was something really cool that I wanted You're going to I. It wasn't like strands of twine, it was like there was something super cool.
Speaker 1:I want a statue. I want a little little bitty pewter statue of the ball, a ball of twine.
Speaker 2:That's what I want. I feel like it was a twine ball making kit. Start your own ball. No, I think it was. I want to say hold on, I'm trying to get there or we're going to their store. Yes, I was right. I, my memory is not okay, we're going to their store. Yes, I was right, my memory is not okay Twine ball starter kit $25. So you too can start your own ball. They have, like shot glasses, twine ball you know, Frisbee.
Speaker 2:I mean it's great. So that's my pick for Minnesota. I'd also shout out I would definitely, in addition to that, if you're in the Twin Cities and you're looking for something fun to do, the Pavik Museum of Broadcasting is in St Louis Park and it's one of it's my favorite museum in the Twin Cities. It's super cool. Not a lot of people know about it and it's basically history of radio and early television. Know about it and it's basically history of radio and early television and so they have like and it talked. I mean it's. It's really cool because you can see the direct link from like early early radio and early tv all the way to like youtube and spotify and it's it's usually empty. There's no one there. It should be no. I mean they do a lot of school groups, but every time I go it's like, why isn't this like a packed museum and the displays are awesome and like you spend hours there. Just it's self-guided. It's really cool, it's cheap to go and um free parking. It's great. Pavik museum, that's cool.
Speaker 1:So these ones. I've heard of it, but I've never gone in because I didn't think it was anything no, it's worth going in.
Speaker 2:It's super cool, like just if you're like kind of a history nerd or if you're just and they have a lot of cool stuff about like early. They have the minnesota hall of radio broadcasters hall of fame, so like a lot of like. I'm also really into like early, like 50s era, like such a cool movement in america. These like, um, regional children's musicians who would be like the one cowboy who, like was broadcasting every day of the week in Milwaukee or like you know, there was like one guy who did like and it was all live. So a lot of it has disappeared.
Speaker 2:And, um, there was a guy, uh Klyland card, who was like uh, um, he was a swedish comedian character and he did a thing in early, early days of uh tv in the twin cities and so they have stuff on him and it's it's just really cool. It's like. You know that I don't know if you guys know roger miller, the country singer, but he's got a song called kansas city star and it's all about like he's the star of kansas city because he dresses up like a cowboy and plays for the kids every 11, every morning.
Speaker 2:It's just such a cool thing. So there's a lot of like that era early TV, which was such a great. I mean you can see the foundation of so much Like. You can see the early like you know the early kind of like ideas of like how did Saturn and it live come to be? It was these early live wacky broadcasts where they were just like throwing anything to the wall and see what would stick, and they kind of have a lot of that document there. So it's really it's cool. Plus there's a theremin you can play too, like they just have a theremin where it's one of the original theremins. Do you guys know what a theremin is? You know I'm talking about I don't.
Speaker 2:What is it? Theremin is like it's the only musical instrument in the world where you don't touch it in order to produce sound. It's an electrical instrument and it's totally sound waves and it works off of your bodies your bodies. I'm not a scientist and I'm not smart, but it's like your body's energy. So like you go like this and it changes pitch. You go up and down and it changes pitch up and down with your hand and then you go side to side with your other hand and that changes volume and you can basically control and make really like a lot of the early sci-fi horror movies you hear, where it's like yeah, that's what that is and so okay. But there was like classical musicians in the 30s and 40s that were like doing you know mozart on the theremin, but it was just, it's just two metal rods that stick out of a box that plugs in the wall and you can play it without ever touching and they have one of those that's super cool to see.
Speaker 3:So you know it would be cool, josh, as well, because we're talking about this being treasures of our town and geocaching and location-based games. If you've got, you haven't been there, josh, but if you've got an Adventure Lab credit, you could push people to places like the Pavek Museum in St Louis, for instance, as well to show them these hidden gems that we were talking about before too.
Speaker 1:That's cool and with Adventure Labs you can do indoors. Yes, you can. So you could like do something inside of it.
Speaker 3:Exactly and if it's a costume.
Speaker 1:Jack Adventure Labs are kind of like geocaching, but it's more like virtual geocaching, where you go to the location and it takes you to a spot, you learn about it and you have to answer a question. Oh cool, and if you get like a find, for your find count.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of a different type. Yeah, they're different type and they're the ones that more take you to a location that's worth going to, you know, rather than just, you know, finding a hidden container underneath a tree, for instance, that sort of thing. So, yeah, there you go. There you go. All right, mate, we're going to move on now to Missouri.
Speaker 2:I mean it's very, very close to the Cabbage Patch doll. In the same spirit, but I'm going to go for the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, missouri, do you know? I mean, did they have Precious Moments in Australia?
Speaker 3:No, what's Precious Moments.
Speaker 1:Well, I know America, anybody that has a grandma knows yeah these little like figurine, porcelain figurine dolls. They have really big eyes. They're usually like blonde, typically kind of religious in nature. I'd say like yeah it's very kids.
Speaker 2:It's like a kind of bible belt thing. It's like, yeah, and you, you, kids. It's like a kind of a bible belt thing.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah, and you, you know it's something you give your kid when they get baptized as a little memento how big are they?
Speaker 2:they're about?
Speaker 3:yeah, they're just little reaches and they're kind of chubby kind of angelic looking children okay, yeah, no, we didn't have those in australia, so yeah, no, no nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a museum and the guy that created it yeah, those are them.
Speaker 2:The guy that created it, he, he repainted the sistine chapel on the top of the of the chapel in missouri but all of the characters have been replaced with by precious moments characters and these like chubby little figurines and I mean it's great people watching, cause you're in Missouri and there are people going to precious moments chapel and I love that and it's fun. And the guy that did it has a crazy backstory. I mean he kind of like I like I kind of became obsessed with him for a little bit, like the creator of precious moments and he has like this kind of tragic like went off. I want to say I mean it's been years since I remember reading this, but like he kind of sort of went off the deep end and moved to asia, I think, or something like that. Like he didn't like but he made boatloads of money off of. You know, everyone in america, you know if you were a kid in the 80s, 70s, 80s, you like that's like joshua said. I mean every grandma in america has a precious moments like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no no, thank goodness, actually they didn't come to australia, I'll be honest.
Speaker 1:But after seeing a few researching, a few other photos of those things yet, but no, thank you so speaking of precious moments, there's a lady on tiktok that takes the precious moments dolls and she repaints them to be something else and it's usually something totally not precious moment, like like. Precious moments are very like religious, angelic little children. Like basically turning it into alice cooper I saw her do one. I just saw her do one where she turned one of the precious moments into taylor swift like wow pop culture, like, like marty from back in the future.
Speaker 1:Like it's fascinating. I'll have to find it put in the show notes, but yeah, it's precious moments, moments they all look alike too. They look so similar, yeah, so it's fascinating that this woman like changes them and makes them look, you know, cool yeah no, that's we actually just wrote about.
Speaker 2:Like two days ago we wrote about there's a little town in um, canada, and the the whole town has been like terrorized because people's garden gnomes are going missing and for a while their garden gnomes were like disappearing and then now it just like the news just broke but basically somebody is driving around and they'll knock on your door, on their, on your door of the person that's like gnomes went missing, and they'll knock on your door, on their, on your door of the person that's like gnomes went missing.
Speaker 2:And they'll hand you a card and it says the gnome restoration society and they and it just says follow me to my van and you go to the van and there's this lady. This lady hands you a card and you go to her van and in the back of the van she is the one who stole or she's with the society that stole your gnomes and then they totally clean them, repaint them, get them like clean, brand new and then give you back these, brand your gnomes back, and it's like this random act of kindness thing. That's like it's so incredibly minnesotan that it should be minnesotan, but it's like I mean it's canada and as soon as I cross. Like I mean, you know it's funny. I don't know if this happens to you, jess, but like, as soon as I go anywhere like south of the iowa border, every person in america has always asked me what part of canada I'm from from the exit. So, um, I love that story, so that's kind of reminds me of your tiktok lady, because it's like yeah, that's totally cool
Speaker 1:yeah, it's great, I love that. All right, we're heading to nebraska carhenge.
Speaker 2:What you guys?
Speaker 1:oh yes, carhenge I've never been, but I've heard of it.
Speaker 3:I have it's you have yeah, I have yeah there you go.
Speaker 2:So what did you think of Carhenge? Did you like?
Speaker 3:it, I loved it, I loved it, and it's the same, as there's a couple out there as well. I think one's in Texas and there's one somewhere around another state too where the cars themselves not half dug in, but there's some dug into the dirt and they're all the way along. So, yeah, the car hinge though itself. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. I love that sort of stuff, though, too. I love it Quirky, weird, you know big things, even roadside attractions, that sort of stuff. Yeah, I really enjoy it, but no, yeah, so tell us more about what's in your book, though in regards to cars.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's 39 vintage cars. They tried to recreate, recreate Stonehenge with cars. It's totally bizarre and wild. I'm like my wife and I are huge fans of I don't know if you guys know that band Ylvis. Have you heard of them? They're like they had that hit song like 10 years ago. What Would the Fox Say?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:But that wasn't funny or good. I mean it was good, but like they are like comedians and they kind of they're like like Norwegian. They're two Norwegian brothers and they have this song called what's the Meaning of Stonehenge and you guys have got to like watch the music video to this. It's on YouTube, just look up Ylvis Y-L-V-I-S, and it's like this like they do like parody, it's like parody music, like skits and like they'll parody like acapella bands and they'll parody like and this is kind of their like Celine Dion power ballad about Stonehenge and how he's like his whole life he's going mad because he doesn't know the meaning of Stonehenge and so, like when we went to Carhenge, we like just blasted you know this power ballad song and like I have these great memories of us just being like what's the meaning of Carhenge? Those were total nerds, but like, uh, that's yeah so.
Speaker 2:I would highly recommend. It's great, great for selfies. Yeah, it's, you know it's. I mean, it's a bunch of cars so it's an alliance nebraska which is towards the west side.
Speaker 1:This is this is why I haven't been there, because I haven't done much travel in western nebraska it's pretty.
Speaker 2:I like I really I really like Nebraska a lot. I think it's like, yeah, there's so much cool, weird, like it's weird, cause we're starting to like the more. The more we do travel, blogging and stuff, the more we realize like every time we write about a weird, like monster, beast, like something, get like we'll get like people that comment actively and like people in nebraska, more than any other state in the midwest, love their monsters and they're like beasts and they're like weird stuff. Like I feel like nebraska has this totally weird, like it's funny because like uh, we wrote this article about this school teacher who went completely crazy. Have you heard about this? That like it's in the 1800s and like it was in nebraska, outside of omaha, and she went mad. I can tell you like I can look it up if you want me to tell you. But like she went totally crazy but it's a ghost story. So like did it actually happen? I don't know, but like the story is she basically calling?
Speaker 2:it's not for students through their hearts in the river and like, you can still you can visit the schoolhouse where this happened and it's like. It's like we got so many people that emailed us personal experiences about like, oh, I've, I've heard the kids screaming, I've walked across the bridge. Oh my god the people in nebraska, love that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I feel like there's this whole like I don't know. I feel like you could. The next like guidebook we're gonna write after ohio is gonna be nebraska. It's either nebraska or missouri. But we're really like planning nebraska because there's just so much weird, cool, just stuff in nebraska.
Speaker 3:I've noticed that as well. Going across the US, the different towns. You see, you almost got that feeling as soon as you hit to a small town of some sort and you can feel, you actually feel the weirdness, the strangeness, the something's not right here, for instance, or something's just different. You know what I mean. It's not necessarily not right, but just different, and I like that. I really do like that too. So Not right, but just different, and I like that. I really do like that too. So, yeah, I've experienced a few of those in North and South Dakota. I can't tell the story on this show in regards to one that I found in South Dakota, but anyway, that's for another episode. All right, we're going to move on now to North Dakota, north Dakota.
Speaker 2:Lawrence Welk Homestead. You have no idea who Lawrence Welk is. No.
Speaker 1:I know. I know who Lawrence Welk is.
Speaker 2:This is another very Midwestern thing, but he was huge. I mean he's probably still in parts of the Midwest like played on PBS on Saturday nights realistically. If you're ever stuck in a hotel room in like Nebraska and the only thing you can tune in and you have cable motel room and you get pbs, lawrence welk is still probably playing he did. He called his music champagne music and it was very like he's like how would you describe? Maybe like north dakota barachi?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like, it's like cheesy, it's like leisure suits, they're like lines of women and in pastel colored dresses, singing songs.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's really. They would do like light versions of like uh, music by the carpenters or something like exactly. You know what I mean and I love lawrence welt. He had like a long-standing record deal with readers digest where they would put out these like. You can find them at any goodwill in america. These like thick like. I just bought one for 50 cents at our goodwill here in winona and it's like 18 vinyl records boxed together.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like Lawrence Welk's play. Lawrence Welk Orchestra plays the classics and it's like his like light, like it's kind of like Midwestern elevator music doing the most popular, like classic music, classical music of all time, and like, but it was like 50 cents 's, like 18 records and like I love that and so this is his homestead. I mean it's, it's just like.
Speaker 1:I mean it's not a, it's not a hugely popular tourist destination yeah, and most of the people like you have to be, most of the people that go yeah, most of the people that would enjoy it are probably dead or nearly dead.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think so, but I feel like maybe I'm on a mission to like keep all this stuff alive, keep it alive, keep it alive. If you're like a hipster in the cottage core, go listen to Lawrence Welk and you'll be the coolest kid on the block there you go and rip lawrence walk.
Speaker 3:From may 17th 1992. He left our, uh, our beloved world as such per se, and he apparently had, uh, his english um speaking, but had a very marked german accent.
Speaker 2:So, yes, yeah, I mean, I feel like in the midwest, like the north. We lived, lived in North Dakota for a while. We still have a house up there and like it's, there's a, it's a very thick, like we were outside of Grand Forks for a while. And it's very like that accent very, very thick.
Speaker 3:Well, here's a little bit of a little bit of trivia for you too. He didn't actually learn to speak English until he was 21.
Speaker 1:So there you go, wow that's why the accent's so thick exactly exactly there you go, lawrence.
Speaker 2:Welcome, love him. You should listen to it. Stream them on spotify when we're done, craig, you're gonna oh 100 will not be doing that anyway.
Speaker 3:Uh, next up. Next up, we have ohio jack, ohio, what's?
Speaker 2:it we had to include in the book. I have this is one I have not yet been to, but I love it and I love the idea of it. Kitty's been there.
Speaker 1:She loved it cornhenge which is another henge another henge.
Speaker 2:It really doesn't look anything like stonehenge or carhenge. It's cornhenge and it basically is dublin, ohio, which is like a columburb, and they basically wanted us my take on it At least Kitty's been there so she could speak better on it but my take is they basically wanted something to have a selfie somewhere in this sub suburban sprawl and they made these like they. It's their corn, but they don't look like corn really.
Speaker 1:And it's like are you looking at white? I'm looking at the pictures right now it's very about eight feet tall. They're eight feet tall. They're white ears of corn sticking out of the ground in rows. It almost looks like they're like gravestones that are corn oh yeah tall.
Speaker 2:They're 1500 pounds and they're not in a head, they're not in this, it's not like stonehead no, like they're actually in a square it's lines, it's, it's, and, and they're probably about 12 foot apart, 12, 15 foot apart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in straight lines, yeah, wow wow, it's very odd.
Speaker 2:It feels very I mean, we actually played a couple of shows in Dublin before and like it's very suburban, it's just like kind of like. Like it's very, it's kind of a nice, just like average suburb. But it's like so weird that they made this and I think the arts council funded it and they got, yeah, yeah, dublin art council funded it and it's like they got an artist to do it and it's like weird. It just feels it's like one of those things where like it's it's new, it's pretty new. I feel like it's like within the last I don't know 20 years or something 1994 so like looking at this as well.
Speaker 3:If you went there at like dusk for instance as well, just as the sun was going down, you would seriously feel because the color and shape, you would seriously feel this was a graveyard, with the ghosts rising up from the graves. That's what it looks like.
Speaker 2:Wow. Yeah, it's really weird. Kitty liked going and she wanted to put it in the book, but I think it's. I mean we're going to all go at some point obviously.
Speaker 3:Well, it's all about the weird things as well. Bizarre, quirky and totally fun. Which is that ticks all those boxes jack so just, we really tried hard all right, we're gonna move on now to south dakota. What's?
Speaker 2:in south dakota. I mean I gotta go for the wall drug, you gotta have you dubbed wall drug no, I haven't been to wall drug you've never been to wall drug. No, no, no, oh my gosh, have you been to? Uh, have you been to treasure city here in minnesota?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, I have a josh I have a tiktok video of treasure city that is semi-successful.
Speaker 2:Yes, love treasure city it's like treasure city on steroids, steroids like it's like the biggest tourist trap. It's so overrated it's so I want to say it started because they were offering free ice to tourists. I feel like that was the start of it and it was like it's so massive and it's just like stuff your kids would whine and want to buy.
Speaker 1:I don't have kids, yeah, just cheesy.
Speaker 2:Stuff that kids would just whine until they got their way.
Speaker 3:So, for everyone out there, what we're talking about is actually a big store, like a big warehouse store type style. We're not talking about something big like a corn or anything. It's a big store, a wall drug store and, yes, it's got a few things in front of it, like there's a hare and a rabbit and a dinosaur, there's a few different things in front of it, and a rabbit and a dinosaur.
Speaker 2:there's a few different things in in front of it, um, but yeah, it is just a huge basically like a huge um visitor center sort of store with a lot of tourists, sell five cent cups of coffee and the coffee is like I mean, I'm not a snob when it comes to coffee and I'll bring just about anything, but like it's like, like revolting. But it's five tenths and you're at wall drugs, so like you have to do it.
Speaker 3:You have to get exactly these things.
Speaker 1:You have to get out of the ego so wall drug is on i-90, which goes, you know, all the way across. So whatever, interstate i-90 and the. The big joke with wall drug is all around the country. It's a you know there's signs that say wall drug, a thousand miles, wall drug, you know 2000 miles. And in the movie space balls, I believe, the ship is flying by something and there's a wall drug that says 2 billion miles or something. Yeah, so there's a pop culture reference to wall drug yeah, there you go, there you go wall drug.
Speaker 3:Have to do it, love it yep, you've got it again you've got to go there just to get a five cent coffee, if anything else, so which? Is extremely real out in the parking lot, exactly just to say you got it just to say you got it, mate. We're going to move on to the last one. This is the 12th one in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:Wisconsin. I got to hit too. Because it's important, I'm shouting out Joshua's childhood here, world's largest six-pack, la Crosse, wisconsin. I'm assuming you've been many times. Oh yeah, I've been many times. Okay, good oh yeah, I've been many times. Okay, good, it's um, it's uh. People think it's like I mean it's the world's largest six-pack. It's uh, it's the local brewery.
Speaker 3:They have like six things but like great storage yeah, it's like yeah and what's great is that there were kids.
Speaker 2:The greatest story when we were researching it is that a bunch of drunk college kids they weren't drunk at the time, hopefully, but they came party kid from madison university madison drove to lacrosse because they heard the world's largest keg was there. To tap the keg they got an axe and smashed the bottom of the storage and, like beer, flooded everywhere and that's one of my favorite stories about it. And um great selfie. They just repainted it and refurbished it and looks all jazzy and it's fun. I mean you just take, there's nothing. You just go and take a picture and say you are at the world's largest six-pack.
Speaker 3:So it's, it's worth going when I saw this I was gonna say, josh, when I saw this mate, I didn't actually think of beer, to be honest with you, I actually thought of my stomach.
Speaker 1:But anyway, but no, oh yeah, oh god the world's largest and six pack are kind of an oxymoron, like, usually it's a one yeah, usually it's a one pack on the stomach. I remember this as a child, um, back in the 80s. It was when they, I believe when they, created it. I don't know when they created, but I remember it in the 80s and it was. It was uh, old style, old style beer was the original beer. Now old style, I think has gone out of business or they don't brew old style there anymore, and so now it's like a lacrosse, some sort of lacrosse brew. And I just remember as a child driving by that factory and it's, it's stinky. You beer making, big beer making business. It's a stinky business as those grains or whatever the fermentation processes, it's a stinky place. Yeah, hops, yes, that's right, hops.
Speaker 2:Wow, we did it.
Speaker 3:I love well we did it, but I got one more. He's got a bonus Bonus in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:Hodag, gotta go Hodag.
Speaker 3:Rhinelander.
Speaker 2:Wisconsin. Greatest named beast of all of Midwest, love the Hodag.
Speaker 3:Have you been to the?
Speaker 2:Hodag tour Head of a frog, face of an elephant, back of a dinosaur. Hodag, rhinelander, wisconsin. You'll find them all over the place, thanks, to an elephant. There's a big Hodag you can go take a picture with. You'll find them all over the place. There's a big, you know, Hodeg you can go take a picture with. But you, I mean, you'll find Hodeg beer, You'll find Hodeg everything in Wisconsin.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go.
Speaker 1:I believe we have a listener of the show from Wisconsin. That is his geocaching name, jack. All geocachers have like geocaching handles. Yeah, I saw that, and and his name is he's from Wisconsin. He is the Happy Hodag, that's right, he is too. There you go I never knew what a Hodag was.
Speaker 2:It's basically a mythical beast, that it's pretty much proven that this con man just created this wacky thing to mess with the town and it's like he did a hoedag hunt and he took pictures with a hoedag and it looks so fake and horrible and like the town has embraced it. But there actually are some indigenous like stories that go way, way back to like a beast from indiana and there could be some truth. But it's so ridiculous. Looking like this thing is just like it's it's. It's like they decided we need a beast. Like let's throw every possible thing.
Speaker 3:Like oh, frogs elephants, dinosaurs. Spiky thing it's like spiky heads spikes out your, your teeth. You know at each side the of the incisors and yeah whatnot too.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you can get your picture with a hoedag. You can go hoedag and you can go hoedagging. There's a hoedag music festival. It's one of the country music biggest. I think it was for a while Maybe still is like one of the bigger country music festivals in Wisconsin. It's the Hoedag Music Festival. It's the hoedown in Hoedag, that's what it is. There you go.
Speaker 3:Well, jack, mate, we're running out of time, but will you stay around after this show itself, and we're going to record a little extra just for our patrons itself. We've got a couple of two more questions for you, mate, a couple of bonus questions. What do you think, josh, that's a good idea you had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, I have some other questions. So there you go, people. We've just given you more value, 12 more spots to visit. Yeah, can't miss 12 more things to check off your travel checklist Fantastic. Thank you so much, jack, for sharing some of your wacky, wild, quirky, bizarre, um and fun. Forget fun um adventures. Um, bizarre and fun. Don't forget fun Adventures, jack. Where can people find you? I know you mentioned it before at your website, jackandkittycom.
Speaker 2:Is that right? Jack and Kitty like a cat. K-i-t-t-y. Jackandkittycom is our website and we have links out. We're not huge on social, we're mainly just really focused on our blog. And youtube is, if you search jack and kitty or midwest travel podcast, you'll find our youtube channel and starting july 23rd that'll be daily videos on the youtube channel. And uh, yeah, if you go to amazon and just type in jack and kitty or jack, our last name is norton, so if you want to type in jack or kitty, norton, you'll find us, but jack and Kitty will get you anywhere. And yeah, really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Or if you're lazy and don't want to type anything else at all, there's the link in the show notes as well as always, josh, I didn't want to have to do all that. That's all right, man, I'll do it all for you. It's all good. That's what I'm here for. Meanwhile, josh, we spoke before about, we're going to have Jack answer a couple more questions for our patrons. How can people want to listen to that? How can they become patrons?
Speaker 1:Yes, If you want some golden nuggets, if you want to search for that treasure and open up the treasure box and see some golden nuggets, you got to come over to Patreon. And if you support us there, you help us to keep this going. Create better content. No annoying commercials, Although, Miller High Life, if you're listening, that's our favorite, like cheap beer, Jack.
Speaker 2:So consider, one of you was wearing a Miller High Life, weren't you?
Speaker 1:Like a t-shirt or a hat.
Speaker 2:That was what.
Speaker 3:I was going to say to you yeah, yeah, yeah, I was at one time yes, so come over there. On the other side of the paywall, patreoncom backslash treasures of our town and remember there's fan mail over on our buzzsprout site as well, but otherwise how else can people contact us, josh?
Speaker 1:reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmailcom, or you can follow us on facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube and that's it for our show. So please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app and, as always, may your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing hidden gems around the world. See you next time. Thanks, Jack.
Speaker 3:Thank you, jack, appreciate you. Bye.
