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.
Follow us on all social media sites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube.
Website - www.treasuresofourtown.buzzsprout.com
Email - treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com
Treasures of our Town
Texas Challenge in Floresville, TX!
We explore the charming town of Floresville, Texas, as we attend the 23rd annual Geocaching Texas Challenge and discover what makes small-town America so special through conversations with locals and participation in this unique competitive event.
• Host to the Texas Challenge geocaching mega-event with teams competing for regional pride
• Meeting Mayor Gloria Morales-Cantu who welcomed geocachers to her community of 8,000 residents
• Exploring the stunning town mural depicting local landmarks including the courthouse and famous peanut statue
• Visiting Finders Keepers, a treasure-filled antique store owned by former teachers who transformed the old town grocery
• Experiencing local cuisine at Scooters Eats 181 where we enjoyed incredible brisket mac and cheese
• Discovering the world-record Adventure Lab art installation with over 600 possible finds
• Participating in the Texas County Challenge celebration honoring geocachers who found caches in all 254 Texas counties
• Enjoying southern hospitality at The Den in LaVernia with its expansive outdoor seating, live music, and family-friendly atmosphere
We created a killer I'm going to say a killer video. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But Do you love to travel?
Speaker 4:Do you love road trips?
Speaker 1:Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 4:And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's the podcast that explores unique and charming towns all over the USA. Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's the podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Hided by our love for location-based games like geocaching. Join us as we venture into some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.
Speaker 4:On today's episode. It's all about Floresville. Floresville is in Texas. Josh, you and I, we got together for the first time in how many months? How many months has it?
Speaker 1:been. It's been too too long. And, as the intro just stated, floresville, texas, is a unique and charming town.
Speaker 4:Very charming it really is, with like 8,000 people, so it really is one of the smaller towns in the good old US of A.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we were there because it was the home of the 23rd annual Geocaching Texas Challenge. That's what brought us there. So today we're going to talk all about Floresville, all about some of the surrounding areas that we visited. In Floresville we talked to the mayor.
Speaker 5:I know how cool is that. The mayor.
Speaker 4:The mayor, the mayor.
Speaker 1:And, of course, we're going to talk about Texas Challenge, as we were the guests there and we created a killer I'm going to say a killer video.
Speaker 2:It was really cool.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that a little bit later, but first, Craig, we need to talk about our upgrade and delays. Oh yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 4:What would you want to start? Or would you like me to start this?
Speaker 1:time. Okay, I'll do my upgrade. Okay. So this time of year in Minnesota, you know we don't talk about the weather here. No, I'll do my upgrade, Okay. So this time of year in Minnesota, you know we don't talk about the weather here. No, I know, but I usually just talk about it in my upgraded delay. Correct, and it's a little bit bipolar the weather here in Minnesota. We had a 70 degree day already, but it is officially spring as we are recording this. So we have an honored tradition here in the geocaching community in in minneapolis area and that is we celebrated yesterday snowman burning day. What snowman.
Speaker 4:How do you burn a snowman? You don't burn a snowman. Oh so what's it about? What's, what do you do?
Speaker 1:well, in honor, to celebrate the end of winter and to move on, geocachers, we create these little paper, cardboard snowmen and then we have a fire and we just burn them. And so our friend, minnesota boy, minnesota boy, minnesota boy, brother, tom, and Mecca MN our friend courtney um had a geocaching event that was snowman burning day. It was whimsical, it was fun, it was so very minnesota it's.
Speaker 4:It's a minnesota version of burning man. Yeah, I guess, just without the music.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I'm guessing minnesota boy will have a full-size youtube video about it and I made a quick little uh, tiktok and instagram reel. You can kind of see what it's like. It's. It's really fun. So that was my upgrade. That was a ton of fun. My delay is that the cold is still hanging on. We're in the high 30s today and it's windy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a perfect, perfect day for podcasting so that's good to hang out with you today, so that's, it's my delay yes, yes, yes, and and I will say as well uh, you're lucky, josh. You personally are very lucky that we are only an audio podcast, because, looking at you this morning, your hair is not where it normally is, you had glasses on before and, uh, you kind of all but mohawkish at the moment as well. So not many people see this side of you, josh.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I know, you know I let down. I let down for the podcast, Doesn't?
Speaker 4:matter. How do you look? Very true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, yeah, it's a casual day.
Speaker 4:So exactly Exactly. Well, my upgrades my upgrade happened actually during this week as well. I'm traveling north. So obviously, from Floresville, texas, I'm heading directly north into Kansas. So I go through Oklahoma in Oklahoma, at the moment, and the reason for that is MOGA. The MOGA event is coming up in a week Next. As this goes live, it's next weekend, anyway. So I'm heading up directly north. Well, you know how we play munzee, joshua, and I'm munzee everywhere I go, and you know how you can sort of stalk munzee players by them capping your little munzees in your area. So I'm all the way coming up through. Uh, have you heard of norman in in oklahoma?
Speaker 1:yeah, sure have.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've heard of norman cash fest was there apparently a couple of years ago. Well, yep, so. So there was a player in Norman, Oklahoma and her name is Martez, which is Spanish, for Tuesday, and she reached out to me. She said, oh, if you're in Norman any particular length of time, then let me know and she'll meet up, et cetera. And I said, absolutely, yeah, I am so because I stopped and did some work.
Speaker 4:I did a workout as well, Josh had a nice shower, and where we stopped, we stopped at an ice creamery. But it's called an ice creamery because it's all decked out in Halloween. All inside was magnificent and I'll do a TikTok and short on it, as well as a video. But the reason why we're there apart from the delicious ice cream and also the delicious milkshakes as well but there was a five-stage adventure lab inside the ice creamery and each of those stages was a gadget cache as well. So there was five different types of gadget caches. You had to open each one up in order to get the code word for each of those particular finds. So a big shout-out to Martez for thanking me and inviting me over. I had a great time with her as well Fantastic time and, as I said before Martez, it's Spanish for Tuesday. She saw the van. She saw the van Tuesday. She's like you're named, your van's named after me. She was so excited, so excited too, so that was really was so excited, so excited too.
Speaker 1:So that was really really cool. That is so very cool. Um so you're in kansas and I'm gonna tell you this now not yet, not yet, not in kansas I'm gonna think we're not kansas, but you're heading that way. Yes, yes, and I'm gonna tell you this right now I'm debating craig, I'm debating meeting you down there.
Speaker 6:Oh, what I'm debating renting a car going to the Wizard of Oz place and spending the weekend. I've looked at prices.
Speaker 1:The flight prices are a little expensive, but it's pretty reasonable to rent a car. I might, I might go down there. I might meet you this weekend, who knows? Wow, we'll find out.
Speaker 4:We'll find out. We'll talk a little bit about it later, so we'll see. I love that event I love mocha we haven't had the reasons I was gonna say. I love sometimes we, uh, we talk about our, uh, our future, what's coming up between ourselves whilst we're live on the podcast, but anyway, yeah, this is our, our every bi-weekly meeting meeting exactly our catch-up but, josh, you know, you already know, you know my delay.
Speaker 4:My delay happened with you in the van, so if people didn't know, then you know. While we're there for the Texas Challenge event itself, saturday morning the big event was happening. We had to be up nice and early 6 am woke up, got in the van and Josh, you were with me as well started Tuesday early 6 am. Woke up, got in the van and josh, you were with me as well, started tuesday up and then she shook. She shook and she's shaken, and she's shaken and the engine's shaking. I'm like this is not normal. We drove off and then at certain revs she'd actually shake even more and I was like, oh no, not now, not now, not now.
Speaker 4:So my delay is that tuesday did last for the next two days before. I had her in the mechanic and she got all new injectors, because there was one injector that was actually wasn't working at all, so that was the shaking. This was from the one injector. So she got all new injectors through. She's got a full general tune-up now as well. She's got brand new headlights in her, so she's got all full of brake fluid. So she's a very happy girl now. So so that was my delay, though, which you know $1,200, josh, $1,200 worth of delay, so it's one of those things.
Speaker 1:That's not good. However, you're right, she did get us through Texas Challenge. We were worried that, you know, the very day that we needed to have that car working, that van working, that most that started acting up and it became a tad of a distraction, but we were able to still succeed and get through it.
Speaker 4:A tad of a stress factor for me too. You saw my stress factor go up again. It's very rare, as I'm Australian, it's very rare that I get stressed out too much, but I felt it go up and I couldn't push it back down. I just couldn't hold it back down. It is one of those things. But meanwhile, josh, another big upgrade and this is a general upgrade for you and myself and the Treasures of Our Town podcast. You know, josh, this is our 50th episode, 50 years, I was going to say 50 years, 50 years, 50th episode.
Speaker 4:So congratulations for 50 episodes mate well done.
Speaker 1:Yes, congratulations to you. Who knew um that we would get this far, considering that I was scammed into starting this podcast in a hot tub, as you just sent me a microphone and said we're doing this?
Speaker 4:with some miller highlifes as well. That was happening and and I will say josh as well, a big shout out to all our patrons as well for thanking them for all their support, and we'll thank themes as well. That was happening and I will say, Josh as well, a big shout out to all our patrons as well for thanking them for all their support, and we'll thank them later as well. But also there's quite a few people, Josh, who have listened to every single episode, and we again thank them for every single episode, every single one they listen to or they give feedback to, and stuff like that too. So thank you to all the listeners. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't even be doing this. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:No, that's true, and I looked at the spreadsheet, the financial spreadsheet, and, as I looked at it, at the expenses and all that, we need them. We literally cannot afford to do this podcast without them. They really do keep it going. So thank you so much, patrons, for not only listening but also for your support. We need to do one more update before we get into the main topic, and that is our previous episode, the most popular episode we do every single year. I don't know if it's going to be the most popular for this year, but last episode we did Roadside Attraction, march Madness, and it's so funny, craig, we got some feedback from people in Patreon. There are people that you know thought it would. They certain attractions got ripped off. They were. It was very clear that you were very much pandering to the patrons and I became the enemy of the patrons. But I was just calling it and you know know what Courtney was calling it, how she saw it too. But yeah, our friend Minnesota boy, he thought the gum wall was robbed.
Speaker 1:some people had my back and thought that the presidential heads was robbed, as you talked about that it's a very subjective thing, but we did have 8 patrons who did decide to fill out a bracket of our March Madness, and I want to give a big congratulations to Sharon Babineau, who got not only 29 points, which was the highest amount of points, but she picked the Field of Dreams as the 2025 best roadside attraction. She picked the winner. She was the only one that picked the winner, so congratulations, and she will be getting a purple Geo Challenge of the Month rare GeoCoin sent to her for winning that competition. So congratulations, sharon, and do you have any thoughts? Post thoughts on the roadside attraction March Madness, greg.
Speaker 4:All I'll say is that I wasn't just for the patrons, josh. I wasn't pandering to the patrons, I was sticking up for them. There's a very big difference because they didn't have a voice.
Speaker 4:You see, and I personally thought that a few of their selections were highly valuable and highly rated and, you know, like the World Geek Park, for instance, even Eartha as well, I rated those above my own. I'll be honest with you. I rated them as a roadside attraction above most of my own as well. So I wasn't pandering. I'm more sticking up for the patrons more so than pandering.
Speaker 6:Yes, pandering sounds like I'm talking down but it's not.
Speaker 1:That's definitely not the case oh yeah not the case but I will say that didn't mean pandering like talking down to them I meant pandering, like you were getting, trying to get them on your side oh no, I don't need to do that either.
Speaker 4:I've got an accent for that, so that's easy. But I did like it as well, courtney. At one point in time she heard me when I was talking and she said craig, I do never want to get on the bad side of you, because the way I way I word things around and sort of twist and turn things around, she's like you can really mix your words, craig. I'm like well, it's the Australian in me, so you know, we try and make everyone like us.
Speaker 1:Are there a lot of lawyers in Australia?
Speaker 4:Well, there's the same amount of lawyers Actually no, probably less per capita in Australia than what there is in the US, because the US, you sue everyone. But there's a different story. That's for another topic.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe Australians don't need lawyers because they're really good at talking themselves out of things.
Speaker 4:Correct On their own. Exactly, and we don't call them lawyers. In Australia they're called solicitors. But anyway, that's another story, josh.
Speaker 1:We're squirreling, there's people that don't like us to squirrel, so let's get into the topic of our charming little town of Floresville, texas. But we're not only going to talk about Floresville, texas, we're going to talk about the whole trip. When I mean the whole trip is when I showed up, because you are currently still on a trip. The trip for you never, ever ends. It is an infinity trip.
Speaker 4:It will. It will end at one point in time it will. I'm never going to be on the road permanently. There will be an end at some point.
Speaker 1:Yes. So the first thing we're going to say is that it is the Texas Challenge that brought us to Floresville, texas, and if you don't know what the Texas Challenge is, it is a long, long running geocaching mega event. And if you don't know what a mega event is, it's any geocaching event that is 500 attendees or more, and this was a very special one because it was a block party event this year because of the celebration of geocaching being 25 years old. Mega events have the opportunity to apply to be a block party event to celebrate the birthday of geocaching, so the theme of this one was basically birthday, and the Texas Challenge it is a competition. That's what makes it unique. There's a team competition and an individual competition. It involves finding lots of catches, it involves solving puzzles, it involves whimsical challenges and each area of the state of Texas has essentially their own team and they work all together to compete and it's just a lot of fun and that's why we're there. I had never been to the Texas Challenge before, craig. I don't believe you had been either.
Speaker 1:No, never, never been there. So high level, high level. What were your thoughts? High level of the Texas Challenge event.
Speaker 4:Well, at first I did think it was very similar to the MOGA event, whereby, you know, everyone competes, but it's more about literally just the state of Texas. So you've got, you know, north Texas versus. You know, southeast versus East versus you, southeast versus east versus you know uh, west, you know, and then you've got out of status as a general group. So literally it is texas versus the rest of the world basically. So you had all different uh avenues, so it is more texas based. So I was surprised at actually how many texans are geocaches as well and how many players they do have, and they all turn up from their states in. They're proud to turn up too. So, um, yeah, so I enjoyed that aspect of it. I also enjoyed how quick everything was happening as well. Like I, I enjoyed it from the outside. Didn't enjoy it much from a camera guy's point of view because it really rushed me per se, but um, but I enjoy watching it the whole time as well, and so as, as you saw in the video as well, if you haven't watched the video, go and watch Josh's video Um, but, as they, they start by opening up their boxes to get the thumb drives out for each of their teams.
Speaker 4:Once that happens, next minute, everyone just literally rushes everywhere. So you've got people going out the front door. You've got all the teams start splitting up because you've got the puzzle solvers that sit inside on their computers solving the puzzles. You got the team members out there rushing out there waiting for the to get the call about where they're going. Um, meanwhile they can go and do other challenges at the same time as well, or grab other caches. So it was a big thing and and I'll shout out to the organization team because they did a fantastic job to get everyone on board, uh, to get the whole, the whole, uh, what do you call it? Community on board as well, because even the police knew about what was happening as well. So I'm not sure if there was anyone pulled over for traffic violations. There may or may not have been but we didn't hear about it.
Speaker 1:We saw a couple.
Speaker 4:We don't know if there were geocachers no, no, we can't assume these things, but you know, maybe punching a stop sign or exceeding the speed limit, that sort of thing too. But no, a lot of fun, Josh, and it was a lot of excitement and it was a lot. A lot happened all in a short space of time.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, very well planned out. No-transcript they're just as you'll hear, we have an interview with the mayor coming up. They're just so appreciative that we choose to descend upon their little town. It way different if we, for example just you know descended on a big metropolitan area where they it's just not felt, and so that's one of the things I really love about it, and it's really the spirit of this podcast is is talking about some of these charming towns that maybe not a lot of people have heard about exactly, exactly.
Speaker 4:All right. So before we got there, josh, what happened before we got there, nice?
Speaker 1:segue. Nice segue, craig. So the event was they had, like any mega event, they had some events leading up to it. So I decided Wednesday evening to fly into Houston. Now we should say where Floresville is. Floresville is just about half hour outside of San Antonio, south of San Antonio, yeah, South, yeah, kind of Southeast, I think, a little bit of San Antonio. But I decided to fly into Houston mainly because the flights were a bit cheaper, and you were, you were actually in that area. So you were my, my ride, which was perfect. And I'm just going to say this travel. Here's a travel tip. Most flights are very early morning, but I chose to do an evening flight and, craig, it was so much better. The late afternoon lines for TSA way shorter and got on the plane like 7 o'clock. I was down there by 1130. I was much more alert. It was just a way better experience flying in the evening than it was in the hustle and bustle of the early morning.
Speaker 4:So I'm gonna have it so you could have your bloody mary at the airport without feeling bad as well, because it's actually in the evening.
Speaker 1:So I never feel bad about having a bloody mary actually um and bloody marys are usually drink in the morning, but as you know, I'll drink them at any time of the day. It's my favorite alcoholic drink. So flew into Houston Wednesday night, stayed over at the La Quinta in. Did not much to say there other than they're great. Woke up and I get going to parking lot and who is there?
Speaker 1:but my best friend and big toe see my friend Greg Aussie geocaster showing up in his awesome van Big van Tuesday, the big girl, yep, yep, yep, she's ready to pick you up. I look at you, craig, and I say where are we going first? And you took turn to me and you said Beer can house, beer can house, beer can house. That was it. What a callback, what a callback to the last episode, exactly as the beer can house was a part of Roadside Attraction March Madness, and I can't remember.
Speaker 4:I think Eartha beat beer yeah, eartha, eartha beat beer can house. She did, she did that was a wow.
Speaker 1:That's a tough match-up because now that I have been to the beer can house I'm like oh, this is just fantastic. Now I don't think we need to go into big detail about the beer can house, because we did talk about it we did several times already in this podcast. But craig, high level. If people haven't heard that episode, tell them what the beer can house basically is.
Speaker 4:So the beer can house is actually a real house, built by a husband and wife team, mostly by the husband, and he did. He put beer cans around his entire property, whether it be on the fences, whether it be on the house itself. He then strung the tops and bottoms like big wind chimes all around the awnings of the house. He did the backyard area as well, and now it is a full-on museum where you can walk inside during certain times. There's a curator there as well, and it is all sponsored because it's all free. It's all sponsored, thankfully, by St Arnold's Brewing Company in Houston as well. So, um, and and and thanks to them, we went and had uh lunch after you visited the beer can house. But, josh, you did a video as well on the beer can house. So you did do, you had to you, you couldn't well, I sort of did a video.
Speaker 1:I sort of did a video, but it was my video featuring see my shell, the aussie geocacher, because I was shocked on how much knowledge you had of the beer can house because you had been there a week earlier and you could work there. Craig, you knew you were an excellent tour guide. Thank you so much about it. And at one point the video is like uh, craig, turn the camera on me now and tell me something that I can say, because you had so much information.
Speaker 1:I was like this is my video. I have to have my face on this a little bit, so that was cool.
Speaker 4:It's one of those things, Josh and this can be throughout the entire world and different subjects as well If you're interested in something, then you're going to retain that information, and so, for me, I was extremely. As soon as I drove up the first time to the beer can house, I was interested, I was keen, I was like how did this happen? Why did it happen? Who did this? So I had all those questions already rolling around in my head. So as soon as the curator was there and she took us through and she told us every little bits and pieces, it, literally it sunk in because I was interested and I was keen in it. You know, it wasn't like you know, one plus one equals two, and this is a math equation for pi. That would have gone over my head, but I was interested in this because I was really keen to know all about it. So yeah, like anything in life, Josh, if you're interested in something, you can learn about it. So that's what happened with me, mate.
Speaker 1:That's what happened with me so if you're interested in seeing see my shell as a tour guide of the beer can house when this uh episode posts, my video will have been posted the day before, so it's perfect, perfect timing. Yes, we did decide, because the beer can house is sponsored by saint arnold brewing company, which means you used to have to pay to take the tour inside of the beer can house, but thanks to saint arnold's, you don't have to. So beer townhouse, but thanks to saint arnold's, you don't have to. So we decided we have to support saint arnold's. Of course that's. You know it's.
Speaker 1:It's a toil to really have to support a brewery, but we had to so you drove me there and when I arrived there I was so, so impressed. It was sort of in an industrial area where a lot of these breweries are created and it had the hugest, most beautiful covered patio with like big TVs and there were beautiful fountains and it was really really impressive.
Speaker 4:Had the big fans as well for the Texas heat.
Speaker 1:So yeah, cause it wasn't getting a little bit warm? It wasn't. We'll talk a little bit more about the heat a little later For you. Oh well, come on that Friday we'll. We'll get there that Friday coming up. It was pretty hot but anyway had a flight, we both had flights and I had the most delicious smash burger. Oh yeah, you did that I've had. I really, craig. I loved everything about this place. I'm so glad you brought me there and you had been there again the week before you're just repeating everything.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um so so I loved it one of the best things about that as well is that, as you walk out and around, it also sponsors the cars. What was those cars Like? Art cars, art, yes, the art cars, and it sponsors the art cars, and so they had several of the art cars undercover for you to view as well. Now, when we start talking art cars, josh, try and explain to people what one of them was like. Just one of the art cars.
Speaker 1:They were like all themed. There was one that was like christmas themed and basically it's like glue. They must have glued like a ton of just random things upon, yeah, the car. There was one, I believe, that was like were there like mermaids on it or something?
Speaker 4:yes, yeah, like like jewels and mermaids and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:It's really hard to describe. I you know. I have some video of it on my phone. I'm gonna have to make a tiktok of that you will you will you will show what it's like. It's very hard to describe, but just these fantastic, amazing cars that are themed there. Oh, there was a beetle themed, I was gonna say this beetle with this theme with the actual beetles too george paul, ringo, like the whole lot.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, they were there too, which is really really cool. So, yeah, so definitely worth a visit the beer can house, followed by the St Arnold's Brewing Company to say thank you for the beer can house. And then, josh, you saw that there was something else in town. I had seen it a week prior. I was thinking about it, but we ran out of time. You have spoken about this before, because I've never been to one, but you have been to one and it's called Meow Wolf.
Speaker 1:Meow Wolf yes.
Speaker 4:Meow.
Speaker 1:Wolf. Their advertising is working so, so well, because the minute I landed in Houston, my phone knew I was in Houston and I was scrolling Instagram and I was like, oh my gosh, they have a Meow Wolf in Houston and you're going to have to go to a previous episode. Meow Wolf is basically this curated bizarre art sort of thing. It's so hard, it's surreal.
Speaker 4:But it integrates you as well. It integrates you. The art integrates you as well, so you become part of the artwork. Yeah it's very cool and you walk around and you, yeah, you don't know what's up down left or right at some point in time, Very, very cool indeed, Very cool indeed. So we didn't go there because we didn't have enough time.
Speaker 1:No, we had to get to Floresville, because Floresville was three and a half hours away from Houston.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but Josh, you got to and but but, josh, you gotta, you gotta stop at the buckies along the way as well. You can't? Oh, of course stop at buckies.
Speaker 4:Um people again. If you don't not from texas or around the southern states, you don't know what buckies is. Buckies is a huge and I'm talking a huge gas station location. Uh, I'm talking over a hundred gas pumps at all these buckies stops as well. It is uh fantastic in regards to anything to do with, like you, you know, merchandise. Bucky's merchandise is huge, but they are well known and perfectly known for their bathrooms. They have world famous bathroom. They call them, I think, world famous or world's cleanest bathrooms, or gas station bathrooms. They are known for their bathroom locations. They've even got people sitting in their bathrooms like cleaning it as you walk in and out of the actual bathrooms themselves. So that is really, really cool. So we had to stop at a Bucky's Josh as well. So you stopped and you had some. Did you have a? You had some brisket. I'm sure you had some brisket didn't you?
Speaker 1:No, I wasn't that hungry Cause we just had the smash burger.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's right, we did too. We did too. Yeah, the number one rule of Bucky's is when you see buckies, you stop at buckies stop you can't but I had buckies.
Speaker 1:I had to get some beaver nuggets. Oh, I love those. Those things are like those. Things are like crack man, I love that. We call that. It's like basically part caramel puff corn. I call it christmas cocaine because it's the only time. It's the only time it's really made up here north is at at the holidays and we call it christmas cocaine.
Speaker 4:it is so delicious I like it. But anyway, afterets, josh, we finally got to Floresville and again we stayed at a La Quinta Hotel in Floresville. Now, I was surprised about how many hotels there were actually in Floresville. And, josh, did you want to actually throw to the mayor now, because we asked her that question?
Speaker 1:Well, let's do it in the order that we met her. You want order. You want order. You want order.
Speaker 4:Okay, we'll have order because we didn't talk to her until the Friday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it in the order that we did it. But, yes, that is true, we'll talk a little bit about that in the interview. But basically a lot of hotels for this size of town and it's mainly because there's just a beautiful convention center that they built and that's where the texas challenge was actually located. So after that we went, checked in the hotel, we went to the first geocaching welcome event, which was also at a restaurant, um, made an appearance, said hello to several of our friends and then we went downtown because we wanted some. We wanted some authentic mexican food. If we're down in the san antonio area, the mexican food is at next level, at least compared to how it is up here in the north. Yes, and we went to get this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pronounce it, I think. Okay, correctly, yeah, jalisco taquera jalisco taquera did chat.
Speaker 4:Gbt, tell you how to pronounce that I did look it up on Google.
Speaker 1:Oh, you did that's good research right there, because I could have struggled. But yeah, jalisco Takiera, a great family-owned authentic Mexican restaurant right in the heart of downtown Floresville. I had two blended margaritas Not one, but two.
Speaker 4:You had two. I only had the one because I was driving. I was very responsible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was great. Um, yeah, it was great. I love these small town.
Speaker 4:Uh, mexican restaurants it was. I love it too. As you said, it was in the downtown area and in the downtown region as well. It's like it surrounds like this square and in the side of the square it had like the um, like a nice little park sort of area where you could walk through.
Speaker 1:It had a good adventure labs in there as well, and then it had a virtual geocache, because, josh, this town, it's known for peanuts, it's known for peanuts yeah, they grow peanuts in this area, peanut farming, and so, yeah, the town has a giant peanut right in the middle which is just a perfect, perfect virtual geocache. Um, and, yeah, you're right, that town square was amazing there, the courthouse is right there, but then they also had the old jail that was there. Everything was really very nice and like not run down at all. It was just a beautiful mayberry, mayberry ish. Um, do you know what? I don't know if you know what I mean when I say mayberry-ish, but it's just a very sweet little downtown area and we did the Giant Peanut virtual and then we called it a night. We did some Adventure Labs too, down there we did.
Speaker 4:We did Adventure Labs there as well, and then we had to call it a night because we had to be up quite early to get a start on Friday as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did yeah. So Friday was the day before the actual block party, mega, and this day, march 14th, march 14th, so 3-1-4. Pie day.
Speaker 4:It was pie day.
Speaker 1:And I'm really regretting that. We didn't have any pie. We didn't have any actual sweet pie, nor did we have even a pizza. We should have got pizza that night. What were we thinking?
Speaker 4:it's pie day. We botched there yes and no, because I was happy with that dinner. We got that night, but anyway, that's true. We'll get to that in a second, but here's the deal.
Speaker 1:that day it was almost 100 degrees on march 14th and the texans were saying we were apologizing. They were like this is even hot for us for this time of year and it's kind of crazy. I've been trying to escape all the weather in Minnesota. Guess how it was 70 degrees in Minnesota that day, so no wonder it was 100 degrees down there.
Speaker 4:And just for anyone listening outside, the good old US of A 100 degrees is around the 37 to 38 Celsius mark For the rest of the world yikes.
Speaker 1:So then we got into tuesday, your van and we drove to another smallish town called jordanton and we went to the sunshine coffee house because there was a very special Pi Day event, geocaching event hosted by none other than get this.
Speaker 4:Captain Math, yeah, who is an old math teacher, an ex-math teacher as well.
Speaker 1:It just tracks. And let me just say, Captain Math, he's what a guy. I hope you're listening, Captain Math, because this guy, I love this guy because he's just so passionate about everything. He does Everything. He's passionate about geocaching, he's passionate about math. His catchphrase is you do math every day.
Speaker 4:And that is kind of true.
Speaker 1:Math is every day, it's important and how appropriate to have Captain Math host the Pi Day event at this lovely little coffee house. And here's what I love. We talked about this. Craig, if you're doing a geocaching event, do something, do something, do something, do something. Because there's so many geocaching events, I go to where people are just standing around. Now, I'm fine. I'm fine with socialization. Socialization will always happen no matter what. But Captain Math decided to play like this little game. Yes, and it was like a March Madness bracket sort of thing. It was really cool. Can you describe it a little bit, craig?
Speaker 4:So he started this game in Bama Rama.
Speaker 4:So he did like a goodbye event in Bama Rama the day after the mega event in Bama Rama and he created this little game whereby it's basically it's a bunch of sticks on a pad and you've got these woven like what do you call it when you hacky sacks, like woven hacky sacks filled full of rice, and you've got two different colors, two different people playing and you literally just throw it. It's a little bit like bocce, but what happens is if you get your hacky sack inside the pile, then you get a point, but if you get one on top of your opponent's one, then you get a point. But then get, uh, one on top of the your, your opponent's one, then you get a point, but then you take their point as well. So the idea is to try and get as many as you can on the board, but then also stack them on top. So that's where the math comes in as well.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, that's how he he worked it out and it's a great. It's a great event, a great game that he's worked out, and now he's taking it on the road with him and we played it. Uh, you played, you, you had a go too, josh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I won my first round, but then I lost the second round. Yeah, um, but yeah, this is my. Here's the tip. Geocachers, hear me do something, yeah, do something at your event, other than just stand around, exactly um because it just makes everything so much more interesting.
Speaker 1:It gets it gets a little mundane when every geocache just feels the same. So that was great, it didn't feel the same. I was so glad we drove all the way out there to experience it. But then we got to get back to Floresville because there's another event. It's a meet and greet event and I think even the I think the cash page was like come and meet the geocaching vlogger, I think, so I needed to get there. Imagine if I didn't show up to that one. That would have been bad form.
Speaker 4:But in saying that it was at a place called Finders Keepers, which is an antique shop or very similar to if you're watching American Pickers, the TV show American Pickers it was like two ladies' version of the American Pickers in my mind. Tv show american pickers it was like two ladies version of the american pickers in my mind. They had a really well set out store filled to the brim full of antique stuff, to the point where, josh, I lost you quite a few times because you went in and you didn't come out. You the only time you come out is when you had bags full of things. So what did you actually purchase inside the finders keepers?
Speaker 1:yes, I did go shopping, and you're right, they had so many like retro, nostalgic things. So, yeah, I did find not one, not two, but three vhs cassette tapes of my favorite movie back to the future. You might be thinking, josh, you probably have that already, and you're right, I do. But the one that I found had a very special sticker on it that said that it was sold at McDonald's. So there was still. The part of the wrapping was still on it. So I was like, oh my gosh, I've never seen one of these videocassettes sold by McDonald's.
Speaker 4:And people are going to say Josh, why buy a videocassette when you can watch it digitally, and it looks much better in a digital format. You're not going to watch these videos, are you, josh? You'll be. Basically, you're putting them on your shelf in your little man cave in your office. Uh, for show purposes only.
Speaker 1:So yes, that's what they are yeah, yes so, yeah, and I bought something else later for my brother that I saw and it's actually in your van right now because it was too big for me to put on a plane. So thank you for that. But the cool thing is at this event it's at the florisville mural, and the mural is beautiful. If you see some of the pictures, it's like that old, those old postcards, those that you know, that that kind of design, and it had all the stuff of florisville in it and we're standing there in front of it and the, the organizer of the texas challenge, is there, and then all of a sudden walks up the mayor, the mayor. The mayor her name was gloria, and gloria was just lovely, uh, and along with um, along with, I believe, the city, not the city, maybe the city planner, but she also worked for the city as well, and we had a little conversation with them. We did, we did, and I think we should play it now.
Speaker 4:We can throw to it now. So here's the mayor speaking with Josh and I outside of Finders Keepers in Floresville.
Speaker 1:All right, we are here, craig. Yes, I know we're in.
Speaker 5:Floresville, texas. Mate, what about the temperature right now? I know we don't talk about the weather normally, but the temperature is absolutely fantastic. You're in short sleeves. I mean you do have your long pants on still, but I've got shorts on as well, but more importantly, who else have we got with us right now?
Speaker 1:We have the mayor of Floresville here with us. Hello, what is your name?
Speaker 2:Hello, my name is Gloria Morales-Cantu. I am the mayor of Floresville and I welcome you on behalf of the city. I want to welcome you and I'm excited.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:I am very excited.
Speaker 5:Thank you.
Speaker 2:I am so glad that you chose Floresville to be part of your event.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. What is the thing for you, If you had to sum it up? What makes this community so special?
Speaker 2:So special is that our community is so united. You know we have a lot of we're united, we're united the majority of our people are united, and we're we always. Uh, when people come in, we treat them with respect and, uh, we love to have people come to forest hill and visit, visit us. So, you know, spend their money here. Yes, of course.
Speaker 5:Well, we did see as well, just quickly, and that is there's only like 7,000 actual residents here in Floresville, so predominantly it is actually quite a small town but there is a number of places where you can visit here, so there's lots of hotels, so tourism quite big here in Floresville as well. Yeah, we have a lot of people.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of people, especially when we have an event at the event center. We have a lot of it. That's why we have so many hotels.
Speaker 1:Yes, do you have lots of conventions. People that visit use that event center. What is that event center mostly used for?
Speaker 2:usually, Our event center is used for weddings, for dances, for extravaganzas and the Fourth of July. Oh, yes, we do a lot of activities there. We just when the rodeo passes through here we have a great time.
Speaker 3:Texas rodeo. I love a good rodeo, I know, I know I love a good Texas rodeo.
Speaker 5:And one thing and I dare say the poor mayor doesn't even know this, but the geocachers out there know this and that is do you realize that there's a world record? At the moment is in Floresville, for the biggest Adventure Lab art in the world is actually here in Floresville.
Speaker 4:She doesn't even know what Adventure Lab is.
Speaker 5:I don't know but there is a world record here.
Speaker 4:There is a world record here right now.
Speaker 5:Those geocachers out there listening right now, they're like what? They're zooming in right now to Floresville. They're looking at the Adventure Lab app and they're like what is this Adventure Lab? How many points are there? But yeah, so geocaches themselves. Bring yourself to Floresville in Texas. It is a beautiful place to be and, as I said, the world record for Adventure Labs, josh, like hundreds.
Speaker 2:And especially the second weekend in October when we have our PETA Festival.
Speaker 5:Oh, the PETA Festival. Oh, the PETA Festival. We didn't even touch on that. We'll have to touch on that with just the two of us.
Speaker 1:Well, I got a good picture with the peanut downtown.
Speaker 5:That was an essential.
Speaker 1:That was like one of the first things I did.
Speaker 5:And it was an actual peanut as well, like a mural, not myself. It was actually an actual sculpture, not me Speaking of murals.
Speaker 1:I've been to a lot of smaller communities that have murals. It is beautiful. Could you tell us a little bit about this mural First?
Speaker 5:of all hello. Who are you my?
Speaker 6:name is Monica. I am the interim city manager, also the assistant city manager for the city of Floresville. So the mural you see here at Finders Keepers kind of reflects our town and our community. The center of it is the courthouse that has been we are the county seat of Wilson County. That is our courthouse. That has been we are the county seat of Wilson County. That is our courthouse.
Speaker 6:Up on the top side of it you see the original water tower that was brought into the city of Florizel to provide infrastructure to the city. At the bottom you see some type of farming. Florizel and Wilson County is big for its farming community. On the other side you see a train depot building. The train from many years ago did pass through our town and it is a historical marker now in that area because the train, the railroad system, ran through it. And then, as you all mentioned, you see the peanut statue that you see on the courthouse lawn as well. So it kind of just gives you an idea of everything that takes place in Floresville and what we're all about.
Speaker 1:It is a beautiful, beautiful mural and, yeah, it totally captures everything that we've seen so far and I just want to thank both of you for just being such a friendly community and friendly to geocachers. Sometimes, when we go to communities, people are like what the heck are you doing? What are you looking at? And it's so nice to have so many friendly faces that know what we're doing, why we're here and just have welcomed us so kindly.
Speaker 6:So thank you so much. As the mayor mentioned, we're glad to have you all. We're really glad you chose Floresville and we welcome you and we hope that you have a good time Thank you One more question.
Speaker 1:Food recommendations One more question Food recommendations. I know maybe the mayor can't be biased, but where should we eat here in Floresville?
Speaker 6:I know some of you have visited Scooters Eats up on 181 North. They're great for their barbecue and sandwiches and their hamburgers. You have some restaurants here in the downtown area that have some great Mexican food. Everything around here is great, though.
Speaker 1:You won't be upset anywhere. You eat Awesome. Thank you so much for talking to us.
Speaker 6:Thank you guys.
Speaker 1:Definitely the mayor was just. Both of them were just charming, charming people and really enjoyed talking to them. And then I was so taken by this finders keepers now, if you go to floresville, do not miss this store. It is a treasure trove and there are two ladies that own it. We got to talk to them as well. Craig, can we listen to them? I?
Speaker 4:I want to relive that moment go straight to there as well. Absolutely, he's the. The owners are now of um of finders Keepers in Floresville, craig.
Speaker 5:I know right, we are here at Finders Keepers. Yes, I can't think of a better name of a store for geocachers and a better name for a store for our podcast, the Treasures of Our Town, because the amount of treasures they have in Finders Keepers is insane.
Speaker 1:And I've already found some treasures in there already. I could spend all day in there. We have, I believe, the owners correct, the owners of Finders Keepers. What is your name? My name's Rebecca, hi, rebecca, and Denise. And Denise, and you are the owners of Finders Keepers. And let me just say, how did you get what I'm looking at right now? Craig is the most beautiful mural. It is gorgeous. How did you get chosen to have the most beautiful the icon? This is iconic. Yes, I know. How did that? How'd that come about?
Speaker 7:well, you know it was, it was an idea we had. I have a bit of a artistic background and you see the difference in, uh, in brick and now, and so we always wanted something here. Yes, uh, and I had thought of old signs and stuff, and then one day I said it's got to be a mural. Yes, so this mural is based on the postcards from the 50s that had, you know, the city name, and so we wanted to make some sort of an homage to the town that has kept us open for 13 years now.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about what got you into the antiquing business. Have you both all been interested in antiquing and that type of thing over the years?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always have. Yeah, I grew up repairing furniture and buying and selling and stuff like that. So yeah, nice, it's a nice hobby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:and stuff like that. So yeah, nice, it's a nice hobby. Yeah, for sure, a lot of work.
Speaker 7:Yeah, for sure, how about you? I got it from my mom. She always would buy antiques and I mean she got me into this.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 7:And I dropped my teaching career.
Speaker 5:Okay, wow.
Speaker 7:Yeah, that was pretty risky. This used to be the grocery store. The grocery store for the town.
Speaker 3:Before ATB, the big commercial grocery store came and put everybody out of business. So this was a grocery store from the old days.
Speaker 7:It was empty for, I think, seven years. Seven years, yeah. And then, you know, one day, when I was overloaded with teaching assignments, it is quite. You know, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 7:We said, let's just do it.
Speaker 1:And you did it. Yes, it's beautiful.
Speaker 7:We got in debt and did it Awesome.
Speaker 5:So, Josh, you said before that you found some hidden treasures in here.
Speaker 1:Oh, already, already, Already.
Speaker 5:Do you want to explain firstly just quickly what those treasures?
Speaker 1:were. Well, let me just say this first of all I just respect the antiquing business In a world where you can find anything on eBay there's something really special about going into a store and finding a treasure from your past or something nostalgic from your past in the wild. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 5:It's just different than fine, you know, just searching for something on ebay, josh, everyone's hanging on. What did you actually find?
Speaker 1:everyone's waiting for, everybody knows yes, everybody knows I'm a big back to the future fan, so I found some back to the future vhs cassettes and they were. They were very special ones. They were McDonald's exclusives from the 1990s. They sold Back to the Future the VHS in McDonald's in 1994 and I'm a collector of Back to the Future and I could buy them on eBay. But it's so much more satisfying.
Speaker 7:To find them. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:So the spirit of geocachers we're all about finding things, finding, yes. So when they said, hey, we want to have a geocaching event in your parking lot, what was your reaction? Did you know what geocaching was? We did not.
Speaker 3:Okay, we had to look it up. We know what scavenger hunt? Is but we had never heard the term geocaching.
Speaker 7:Yes, but actually too, yes, but we're so happy and so honored that we you know that you guys chose us. Uh, I have never seen so many happy people.
Speaker 1:We're friendly, happy people.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. That's awesome, it's something we need right now.
Speaker 5:Happy people exactly one question I do have as well is where do you get your stock from? Because you've got such a eclectic sort of group of items in there, from anything from, as you said, the old VHS to I can see right now just wrought iron stands out the front and chairs and wheels, even wagon wheels, josh. So where do you guys actually get your stuff from?
Speaker 3:Everywhere but a catalogue. So, flea markets, garage sales, estate sales, auctions. Hoarding Hoarding Hoards, you name. Garage sales, estate sales, auction. Hoarding holes, you name it. Barns, barns, wherever we can go and dig we find it, it's like American Pickers.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that's kind of fun.
Speaker 5:This is the Texan version of American Pickers. Yes, the real American Pickers, the Texas Pickers.
Speaker 7:And literally you never know what you're going to buy. Like sometimes we buy a piece of furniture, we dig it out of a garage and we bring it here and we open the drawer and there's a little dead rat inside Rats and lizards and spiders and everything.
Speaker 3:Guys, you have to revive it all.
Speaker 7:You cannot imagine what we found, I'm sure, absolutely Well.
Speaker 1:Thank you again for hosting us. What a fun location for a geocaching event I could spend all day.
Speaker 5:we're gonna go back in now, josh. We're gonna end this little, uh little chat now. We're gonna go back in because I haven't been inside yet find more treasures.
Speaker 1:We will, we will thank you, thank you guys I loved that they were actually drawn into the mural I know they were on the wall. It was like a little where's waldo thing. They were just lovely, lovely people. And again, don't miss Finders, keepers. That was a real treasure of this town for sure, it really was, it really was. And it's filled with treasures as well.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and by the sounds of it too, josh, I think you I'm not sure if you, I can't recall if you actually said it or not, but anyway, we'll soon see when, uh, when this, when this podcast goes out, when I, when I do the edit. So we'll see if you said your catchphrase or not?
Speaker 1:oh, you forgot about that. So is it. So is it in this? It's already in this episode. I think it may already be in this episode, but yeah, I love that, I love that. So I bought a hundred dollars worth of stuff at the store because it was so, it was so great. Yeah, um then, then it was so hot it was so hot.
Speaker 4:Great. We like the air conditioning.
Speaker 1:The air conditioning was good yeah, so we what we did, something we went to the the parking lot of of the convention center and we I did something I've never done before at this level. Oh, you haven't. You haven't done that before, not at this level. Have you ever gotten this many?
Speaker 4:Not this many, but I've gotten over 400 before.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I haven't, yeah, I've never have, so you have.
Speaker 4:What we're talking about is Adventure Labs and, specifically, adventure Lab art as well. So there's like geo art in the shape of different things, and they're all done with adventure labs, and so what they do is is you can all basically they're all multiple choice sort of questions and answers and so you can literally sit there and just click your phone, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap your phone and you get the finds for it. This one, I do believe, uh, if not the world's biggest, it is definitely the biggest in the USA, which is the most adventure labs you can get while sitting in one place. Josh, we got over 600 adventure labs sitting there and it took us two hours, but we're in the air conditioning comfort of the van, so that was a good part.
Speaker 1:I have mixed feelings about it because I hit my I hit my 9 000th milestone just sitting in a car in the air conditioning. Not really geocaching, because I, my belief is that this is not really geocaching. However, did that stop me from doing it?
Speaker 4:no, so you can say I'm a hypocrite.
Speaker 1:Here's my belief on this. This is not the spirit of geocaching. Adventure Labs, I believe, are when you go to the location and you get information from that location to put into the app. That, in my view, that is geocaching. This is something different, however. It is a bonus. If you spend money, get a plane ticket to go to one of these events and they have these there. It is sort of like a bonus. I think it's a bonus for showing up and for being there. You have to actually still be there, yes, so in that sense it's location-based, but again, it doesn't feel like geocaching. I'm really curious about the future of this. Is geocaching hq going to let this continue to go on?
Speaker 4:well, they know they try. They tried a few years back now. They tried to actually stop it a little bit from happening by putting in a smaller radius of geofences, um, and then that stopped again. So no, they haven't gone back to that again. So, but yeah, they tried to shorten the amount of geofencing that was allowed. See, people were doing up to one mile geofencing, whereas they try to shorten it down.
Speaker 1:So you know how they could fix it a little bit is that they don't allow multiple choice any longer. That could be. It would slow people down. It would slow people down where, where, what? What took us two hours would have taken us probably several days exactly, exactly because you'd have to read everything.
Speaker 4:This way we didn't read anything. Or they can leave the multiple choice in and I've said this on a different geocaching podcast before. They can leave the multiple choice in, but if you get it wrong the first time, it locks your phone for two minutes. Get it wrong the second time, it goes to five minutes, get it wrong the third time out of a multiple choice and locks your phone for 10 minutes. That would make people actually read the description and try and get the correct answer rather than just just guess each time.
Speaker 1:So that's my my thoughts anyway. Yeah, I my opinion is hq's got to do something about this I think it's I and I know the argument like if you don't like them, don't do that. I get that but even for the, even if you just were an adventure, labber it, it cheapens it. It cheapens the whole app it does, if you're because there are some people. There are some people at texas challenge apparently that weren't even geocachers, they were just adventure lab people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is really fascinating that that's again so anyway we can move on from that. But but I did. I got 600 plus finds. I'm now approaching close to my 10,000th find.
Speaker 4:That's cool. What do you got? Do you got anything in mind for your 10K?
Speaker 1:If I choose to do the Adventure Lab art in West Virginia, I'm going to get very close to 10,000 during Woodstock.
Speaker 4:So Woodstock would be your 10K then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, but I don't know how many. How many finds that is? If it's only like 400, or do you know how many finds it is, we'll have to, we'll have to look after the show josh, let's continue on, let's continue on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay we'll continue on, but again, even if there are 400, that's not going to get me to 10 000, because I'm at like 9 200 anyway, yeah, nerdville, that was nerdville. So then we went to another event and this was like, I guess maybe the official welcome event of Texas. Challenge it was called Signal to the Rescue, yep, and Signal showed up in a fire truck. He did he did.
Speaker 4:That was really cool. Yeah, he showed up in a fire truck. We're outside where the event location was the next day. We're outside there in the heat, so it didn't last too long. People sort of were getting a really little bit too much in the heat and, you know, a bit bothered by it, and so people were sort of leaving and we did as well. We left soon after. We said hello to everyone, of course, you know, did photos with signal and whatnot, and then we left because we heard this place and we'd heard it directly and you heard it already as well on this podcast from the mayor herself. She said you need the mayor, we needed to go and dine at scooters eats 181, scooters eats 181, which is down the road, and, josh, they did not, not at all.
Speaker 4:If you're anywhere near the Florida, you have to try Scooters Eats 181. It used to be a trailer or a truck Food truck, food truck, food truck business, yeah, food truck business, and it used to be a husband and wife team with their boys, their kids, and now they've actually gone into Sticks and Bricks location as well. It is in a bit of a strip mall so you can't really tell it's a good restaurant from the outskirts but from the inside. Oh man, and that food delicious. We had these macaroni and cheese dishes. Josh, I think you had chicken on yours and I had pulled brisket on mine too. Oh man, it was brisket on mac and cheese. Oh, wow, wow.
Speaker 7:People are brisket on mac and cheese.
Speaker 4:Oh wow, wow people are salivating just thinking about that.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm just telling you right now yeah, so you know, when you travel, when you travel, you know a lot of these places. There's just a lot of burgers, so it's a lot of burger situation. You get kind of sick of burgers and this place did have burgers, I'm sure they were very good of course when we saw the menu we were like, oh, let's try these macaroni and cheese dishes.
Speaker 1:And I always you know I was. When I go to a new place, I always look at the people that work there. It's like what do people get here?
Speaker 4:That's what I would say.
Speaker 1:Exactly Unique. So it was very good. We talked to the owner. They were just lovely, lovely people. Yeah, and it was so great and we actually asked them get a drink and they suggested another little town in the area called lavernia, texas, and we went to this place called the den.
Speaker 4:The den was much, much, much bigger than what uh scooters was like. It was, yes a huge outdoor section. There was kids running around in their own little kid play park as well. Can you imagine growing up josh as a as as a kid, and your parents taking to that location location every Friday and Saturday night? You'd be loving it, absolutely loving it. There'd be no such thing as this little dingy bar where you just jump from seat to seat and play your own pinball games. But yeah, that's all it was Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, this place was so kid-friendly. The patio was enormous, there was a band playing old country music, there was a dance floor. Um, I had a couple bloody marys yeah, we had, we had beer, it was. It was a just a wonderful surprise and a very.
Speaker 4:It was a classy place too, and you're right, this kids area was basically like a park inside of the, of the patio and when I say patio it was just enormous and it was all closed in, fenced in as well, so the kids couldn't go anywhere at all, like out towards a parking lot or any of that sort of stuff too. So it was very, uh, safe for them as well, for the kids. But, josh, your bloody mary, it had. It had a, a what do you call? A full stick of bacon in it in your bloody mary? I hadn't seen that before I have.
Speaker 1:I think about bloody berries is like if the bloody mares can be a meal at the at the twins game here. You know you went to the twins here and yeah with me. They have a bloody mary where they have a burger inside of the bloody mary a burger so I wasn't surprised that there was baked. But yeah, the bacon was great. I love them. Yeah, I love a good Bloody Mary. All right, it's late.
Speaker 4:Got to go to bed.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 4:We went straight to bed, not now, but Straight to sleep. Straight to sleep because we had a very, very early start. The doors opened at 7 am, 7 am Now. We got there at like half past six and there was already lines galore already. What did you think about that?
Speaker 1:Josh, it was just very evident how hardcore people are. They had to get there early because they had to strategize as a whole team and we decided we were going to do something special with the video. We were going to make a survivor-style edited video. Both Craig and I, we were both fans of survivor, so we thought, oh, this is really cool to like, highlight the texas challenge, this competition, in a survivor style. And it worked really well, because in survivor there's challenges, in survivor there's competition. Now there was no voting people out or anything like that, um, obviously, but um, this was the vision of it and, craig, I'm just gonna say that much credit to you. Um, you, you pulled it off. It's a 20 minute video, so it's almost like a half episode of survivor. Please, please, if you haven't seen that video, give it a watch. It's, it'll be on my youtube channel.
Speaker 1:But we get there, craig, and and yes, we go in there and there's different groups at different tables and they're all strategizing, they're all trying to figure out what to do, and then you, like you said, the captains are on the stage, and then they opened presents, because it was birthday thing. They opened presents with like, like oven mitts on, which made it very challenging, and inside the, the presents were the thumb drives to all the locations of all the geocaches, and then, as you said before, they open it up and they run out the puzzle. People stay back and they're solving the puzzles. And then there's also like communications, people that communicate to the people out in the field. This is it's like and it's like mission control there.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was really cool and there were silly challenges. One of the silly challenges like they had to carry a inflatable cow over their head while holding a potato between their legs, and it was there was like fishing for ducks in a pool. It was just, it's a ton of fun. Instead of me going on and on, you have to watch the video, and we even had interviews with people afterwards, a la survivor style, wove them in with lots of the b-roll. Yeah, it was. It was fantastic. It was really cool to watch it because a lot of people were asking me josh, are you going to compete?
Speaker 4:and I was like, no, I I think it would be much more fun, yeah, to observe it and be kind of like the jeff probst of the event and and you really feel, if you, if you watch the video, you'll see as well, josh does take on that Jeff sort of role very, very well, running around with them, egging them on and then in some cases, even, you know, dissing them to other teams, saying you know, east region did better than this. Come on, you can move faster. You know things like that. So, josh, you really hit the energy up there and I do believe I will say that a few of the team people and uh felt that energy and went with it as well, so they wouldn't have gone through the, the, the challenges as quick compared to when you were there egging them on. So, yeah, so a big, big, uh, big shout out to you, mate, for egging everyone on, like, like we did too.
Speaker 1:so it was really, really cool yeah, I might have been a distraction too, but who knows?
Speaker 4:no, not, not to everyone all right, so the.
Speaker 1:So that was the team competition. After that they did the, the, essentially the individual competition, which we didn't get to see a lot of because we stayed back and we were socializing at the, at the place and talking to people and then I ran, we ran into an old friend and patron of, not only not only a patron of the geocaching vlogger, but the patron of this podcast as well, and taeus and he comes up to me.
Speaker 1:He is from um, the san antonio area. He walks up to him. I didn't even recognize him. He had he had like the meta glasses on. Oh yeah, yeah, it was cool and I was like, hey, let's get a drink or let's have you had lunch. So he takes us to this place. It's apparently it's a chain in the south, so every anybody who's listening that's from texas. You probably know about this place, but we had yet to have barbecue. Well, I guess you had a little bit of barbecue inside your, your mac and cheese I did, I did but we went to a place called bill millers which was a a chain.
Speaker 1:It was a barbecue chain, yeah, and it was great it was. It was the prices were right. It was not the best barbecue I've ever had in my life, but it certainly was not the worst. It's a chain, it's a chain, it was. It hit the spot for lunch I enjoyed it, definitely, definitely, um.
Speaker 4:And, as as always as well, that chain didn't actually have any alcoholic beverages and we needed at least one b uh with enteus as well. So you found a little dive bar josh in the middle of town, like actually inside the middle of town itself called big dan's place yes, and this is how I find dive bar as I go.
Speaker 1:Hey, siri, find me the closest dive bar in town. And then it gives me the answers. Look, it just gave me the answers where I am, where I am right now. And so we go to this place big dance, which was right next to the mexican place that we talked about earlier and as we walk up, it's not open. But guess who walked up? Right as we walked up big big dan himself was.
Speaker 4:He wasn't that big. I thought it might have been bigger. His hat, his wide brim texas hat, was the big part about Big Dan. That's what I'll say.
Speaker 1:Yes, but he was just like. Oh my gosh, these are the type of personalities Like this guy was a character. Yeah, basic dive bar beer. I mean, you walk into that bar. It was like stepping back in time, oh yeah, cash only as well.
Speaker 4:no cash, only bottled b only. No, no, b pulls a bottle b, the stock standard stuff, just bottles of b. Um, there was even like an egyptian thing as you went to the bathroom or something. What was that? A mummy or an egyptian thing going to the bathroom that you saw and yeah, so it was. Uh, it was very interesting, but we only had the one b and then we headed back to, uh, the texas challenge itself and, uh, when we saw all the, the solo, the individual players and finishes came into place as well.
Speaker 6:So, yeah, that was.
Speaker 4:That was really cool, so we saw them. Um then we had to have a little break, josh, before the next event that was happening yes, we had a little break.
Speaker 1:We took a nap. We can you believe it?
Speaker 4:we took a nap you did, I didn't, you did.
Speaker 1:I was downloading footage onto my computer, so I'd make sure I actually didn't, I actually didn't take a nap, I just kind of laid down.
Speaker 4:But then we had another, another party, another event yeah, another event.
Speaker 1:It was a texas challenger finishers party, basically. So if you don't know, the there's a big challenge here in texas to find a geocache in every single county in texas and there's like what?
Speaker 4:257 counties or something crazy. Seven counties, yeah yep and crazy.
Speaker 1:and this is where the people that have completed it for that year get to be a part of it and get to put their name on the ammo can or whatever they get their t-shirt that says what number they completed it. Yep.
Speaker 1:And it was fun. I mean, that is an amazing challenge, it's something that you should be proud of, and I think it's really cool that the Texasxas geocaching association has this to celebrate this challenge every single year, because I don't know of any other state, but my state has a, a county challenge. It's like we have like 81, but there's no events that celebrate it every single year, because this is just so big and epic and, yeah, you can tell there was a lot of pride in that room as people had just completed. And then then the former finishers they were all wearing their T-shirts, like I was the 10th person, I was the 20th person to finish it.
Speaker 4:I was the 250th person to finish it. There's numbers up there, and what I love as well is people like our good friend, captain Math, who we spoke about earlier as well. He was out and about. He wasn't there for the actual Texas challenge to challenge himself in terms of the event. He was there because he wanted to actually do the finishers party eventually. So he was out and about with his wife as well, doing more and more and more counties, and I do believe, having looked at his social media, he's now finished the entire lower half of Texas counties, which is really cool to see.
Speaker 4:So congratulations. Well done to Captain Math From an out-of-towner point of view, because he's up on the east coast of the good old US.
Speaker 1:Do you have aspirations to complete that challenge yourself One day? I will One day. Yeah, you certainly have more done than I do. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know if I want to. I love Texas, but I don't know.
Speaker 7:I don't know if I want to, I love.
Speaker 1:Texas, but I don't know if I want to spend that much time in.
Speaker 4:Texas. If you look at my map, josh, you can tell the directions in which I've traveled, because there's straight lines, because I haven't missed one. I've made sure that I've got one as I go across, whether I go from east to west, north to south or east to west up north, for instance, as well. So there's different lines that I've actually completed the challenge in, but I haven't actually done the entire lot. But no, I will do it at one point in time, absolutely so. But we were really really tired that night, josh, and we end up calling it a night and we're done, because you had to be up early and I had to drive you to San Antonio for your flight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had to be. When did I have to be at? I'd be at the airport at like 5 30 5, 30 am, so that means we had to leave at 4, 45 4 45, just in case.
Speaker 4:Tuesday had any issues, which you know, I, I, I worked her out well and I started to drive her in manual mode so I could actually keep the revs high. So it didn't actually struggle. So I did that and then I got her fixed on the Monday following that. So I stayed right near the airport all day. Sunday I had a nap and started doing the edits and that too. So that's all I did. So, josh, that ends the Floresville event.
Speaker 1:What's crazy is that Sunday morning I was back in my living room at 9.30 am in.
Speaker 5:Minnesota. Oh wow, in the morning Isn't that wild.
Speaker 1:That is cool. That is cool. Wake up, wake up in texas.
Speaker 4:And yeah, this is the, the miracle of flight, I tell you I know, I know now, josh, we did mention at the start of this, this is our 50th episode and we do have our patrons to thank as well for for their help and support for this. But before before we do, we've got a brand new, another brand new patron as well, melanie, as in M-E-L-O-N.
Speaker 4:Melanie and then knee, but her name is actually Melanie as well. She is a geocacher and a Munzee player as well, so she coexists. And, josh, she's part of the Bamarama crew as well, so she's in the committee for Bamarama which, as you know, or should know, if you've listened to the podcast before I am now proudly a committee member for 2026. And so I'll be living things out here and there on all different social medias over this year, josh. So if you can get to Bama Rama, get there for 2026. Josh, you've been there before. I dare say you're going to come next year now because I'm part of the crew.
Speaker 1:So that would be really cool. It's a party. It's more than one party, it's several parties.
Speaker 4:It's several parties and they lead all into one. If if you don't know what a a snowbird is, you know with their old, older, older retired people who literally come down South for the winter. That's it it called snowbirds in In Australia. They go north for the winter because that's where it's warmer. And that's what it is. It's a party and it's like an 11-day party, lead-up event party to the BamaRama event itself. So a big shout-out and thank you, melanie. But Josh, if other people want to join the patron, how do they do that?
Speaker 1:Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we really appreciate your support. As I said before, we need funds to keep this running. There are costs associated with running a podcast and we will keep it going as long as we have the support to do it, and we have never well, I should never say never had a commercial. We promote things. It's not really commercials. That's not commercial. This is supported by patrons. So if you're interested in supporting us at Patreon, just go to patreoncom backslash treasures of our town. There are golden nuggets there. You know what, Craig? Yeah, the patrons got to see the Floresville Texas Challenge video before anyone else.
Speaker 4:They did, they did, and thank you, josh, for that as well, because I know you share that with your patrons as well, but thank you for sharing it with the treasures of our town patrons also. But also, josh, how can people find us if they want to contact us for any means?
Speaker 1:Yes, feel free to reach out to us at treasuresofourtownpodcast at gmailcom, or you can follow us on Facebook, instagram, x and YouTube.
Speaker 4:And that's it for our show today. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app and, as always, Josh.
Speaker 1:The air travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing charming little towns like Floresville, and we'll see you next time. And a special thank you to the mayor of Floresville, all the people, the committee at the Texas Challenge, Thanks for being a great host. Thanks for listening everybody. We'll see you on the next episode. Bye.
