Bizarre, Quirky and Totally Fun Adventures in the Midwest! w/Jack Norton

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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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know what, Jack?
I think that's the first timethat this podcast is going to
now have an explicit rating.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, no, I said Shih Tzu.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
It's the first.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Shih Tzu's a dog.
Oh yeah, I guess.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I guess it's a Twitter joke.
It's totally G-rated.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
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 hiddentreasures in towns all over the
USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm Craig.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to Treasures of Our Town.
It's the podcast that exploresthe unique and charming towns
scattered all throughout theUnited States.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Join us as we venture into some of the country's most
intriguing destinationsuncovering hidden gems and local
secrets along the way.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
On today's episode wow, josh, you got this guy here
for us.
Apparently, he knows theMidwest, the entire Midwest,
inside and out.
He's brought the t-shirt.
He's written a book he'sseveral books about it as well.
We're going to talk to JackNorton from Jack and Kitty team.
Also the Midwest Travel Podcastas well.
They do a daily podcast, josh.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
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, likeroadside attractions and he's
written a book.
He's written a book and we'llget to that All about the things
we love Exactly All the littletreasures and all the little
towns.
He knows the midwest.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, we're excited to talk to him, but craig how
have you been doing well, a fewpeople out there already know
this.
We're going to talk about ourdelays and upgrades, are we?

Speaker 1 (01:37):
we're gonna get straight into that.
Let's get straight into theupgrades.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
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 isI've actually built out more of
my camper van, my SUV, oh great.
Yeah, I've put solar on the roof.
There's actually big solarpanels now on the roof, and the
wires go through the car itselfinto this big extra battery

(02:02):
compartment.
Now, the reason why I did allthat 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 akitchen out the back now as well
, fridge out the side.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
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, notsponsored.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
But if you're listening, mate, yeah, so that's
been my upgrade, but ready forthe delay.
The delay is this I had a tripplanned all around again,
another nice big circle trip upto Ohio and to the Midwest
Geobash up there as well, inWaseon, I think it's called
Waseon.
Yeah, I had that trip allplanned out on my road trippers

(02:44):
app.
I've had it ready to go andthen my car decides to go.
I took it to the mechanic.
It's an engine issue, majorengine issue.
So now I have to wait four toten weeks for an engine to be
rebuilt, like an engine actuallybe made and built for me, and
then he's going to put it in,and at a cost of seven and a

(03:05):
half k.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
so there you go yikes , yeah, yeah, that's a rough one
, that's a rough delay I know, Iknow I haven't started a
gofundme page.
I'm not going to do it I knowyou were so excited about going
to midwest geobash because younever had gone before no, and
I've got my car camper alreadytoo, because it's a camping
event.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
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 vloggerarea 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 togo as well.
So they're also going, but uh,just not me.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
That's also anyway, I'm sad for you, but now I don't
have as much phobo because Icouldn't make it.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
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 andupgrades?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
well, I didn't think about this in advance.
But the sun is shining, the airis dry, we've got a beautiful
day, a beautiful weekend inminnesota and you know, this
podcast is all about the places,the things that geolocation
games take us and I'm just kindof excited because let's talk
about munzee.
Oh yes, munzee, munzee thisweekend.

(04:25):
If you have some special stuff,yeah, we won't get into that.
It's not double points, no, buttriple triple.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
That's huge, absolutely huge.
Exactly.
Did you listen to today'spodcast, the munzee podcast that
I host with rob?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I haven't got there yet because I also have the day
off today, so I didn't do mycommute, but I will.
I will listen my triple pointsa day.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
I don't can't remember ever munzee giving
triple points no, this is thefirst of triple points per se,
but uh, I saw as well on onsocial media.
Next month, josh, if you don'tplay 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 notspecific items, but everything

(05:12):
you get triple points on ifyou're a premium member for next
, next month.
So, yeah, this is huge so muchinflation?
I know, I know.
So do you have events thisweekend in in minnesota mate?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
yeah, so that's part of my upgrade too.
We have two events tomorrowwhich I'm excited about.
We haven't had an event in likea month, so I'm excited to get
outside tomorrow with my littleboy, goliath, and we will
adventure into the Munzee events.
Munzee is celebrating its 13thbirthday Exactly.

(05:43):
Again, if you don't know whatwe're talking about, about if
you're here for the travel andyou're like what the heck are
these guys talking about weirdwords munzee, what, triple, what
?
Um?
Munzee is a location-based game.
It's like if geocaching, ifpoke 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 (06:02):
it's a good time it is, and it's very it's very um
communal as well, because we weplay 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 moreinformation as well, josh, I
have it in the show notes for mytutorials on youtube.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
So there you go I don't have a delay, I'm going to
give you another upgrade.
Okay, several podcasts ago, Itold 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 beengoing to the chiropractor for

(06:40):
over two months.
Well, I have been officiallydischarged and I am healed.
No more pain due to the sackraces.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
So I'm healed.
Well done.
Well, here you go Talking ofchiropractors.
I never believed inchiropractors at all, josh, but
then I went to one, and now Istand corrected.
There you go.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Dad joke yeah, dad jokes.
Speaking of dad jokes, weshould 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 toour show.
Thanks so much for talking tous today.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Hey, thank you so much for having me, Joshua and
Craig.
I appreciate you guys.
Mate, thank you so much forhaving me, Joshua and Craig.
I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Mate, we'll get straight into it.
Firstly, tell us a little bitabout yourself, Like where can
people listen to you?
I saw you've got a daily, adaily podcast, mate.
What's going on?

Speaker 2 (07:37):
there.
Wow Well, I had a lobotomy afew years ago.
The result of that was a dailypot.
No Well, I mean we started, mywife Kitty and I.
We were musicians for oh gosh,25 years.
We still are, but that took usall around the world and we've
always loved, grew up inMinneapolis both of us and met

(07:58):
in high school and we primarilytoured the Midwest.
But I mean we ended up travelingthe whole world but really do
love the Midwest the best andbasically kind of when the
pandemic really hit, we lostabout oh gosh, several hundred
shows in the course of like livegigs.
I mean we were just livegigging musicians and like

(08:19):
within the course of a few weeks, everything was cut and we kind
of just had to pivot and sortof think like, hey, what could
we do?
And we've always wanted to havea blog and we've kind of off
and on been bloggers and neverreally took it seriously.
And we just decided to sit downand, you know, take it
seriously and and so we kind ofcreated this travel with Jack

(08:40):
and Kitty thing and have pivotedinto that and it's basically
consumed our whole life.
We're not really doing gigsanymore, even though the world's
opened back up.
We're mainly just doing travel,blogging and then book
publishing and we're tryingreally hard to build podcasting
and YouTubing.
So I guess it was in Septemberof last year that we started a

(09:01):
weekly podcast.
September of last year that westarted a weekly podcast, fell
in love with it.
I ended up interviewing as aguest Gary Arndt from Everything
, everywhere, daily, and hetalked about how important it
was to go daily and howbasically you just you'll build
an audience quicker and you'llget better at it, and it's just.

(09:22):
You know there's more, I don'tknow.
So we've been playing with thetool.
Honestly, I don't feel likewe're quite as pulled together
as you guys are, because we'vekind of been messing with
formats for about nine monthsnow, 10 months, trying to figure
out what it is we do, and sowe're basically relaunching on
July 23rd.
So in a few days we've beendaily for about six months, but

(09:43):
in a couple of days we're goingto go daily video and it's a
totally new format where it'salmost like making a mini movie
episode.
They're gonna be about five, 10minutes and like really
supported by a lot of B-rollstuff we shot, you know, on
location, and then also just funlike visuals to kind of
accompany the story and so, yeah, that's that's going to be our

(10:05):
latest thing.
But I mean, as far as wherepeople can find us, it's
jackandkitty is everywhere.
I mean jackandkittycom is ourwebsite and that's kind of our
whole world and we're.
Yeah, I don't know, I don'tknow if we'll certainly, we'll
certainly have all.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
We'll have all the links in the show notes.
You're going to be able to findthe blog.
You're going to find the books.
You're going to find thepodcast.
That is going to be is everyday, which is actually very
impressive.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yes, youtube, I think I discovered you, jack, on Tik
TOK.
I think that's where I foundyou and I was like, oh, a guy
with a sweet Minnesota accent.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I wonder where he's from.
You know you betcha?
Oh, geez, yeah, yeah, no, Imean, I know I should take
tiktok seriously, but I it's sohard 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 marksagainst me.
No, I should take it seriously,but I mean, I don't do as much
as I should.
There's only so many hours andwe've been so busy building the
blog and we really feel calledto do like I don't know blogging

(11:07):
and book publishing and by theend of the day, it's like what
do you put on TikTok orInstagram that does anything,
you know?

Speaker 3 (11:13):
what I mean.
Well, well, jack, I've alreadyyou've already been outed by
Josh as well, because I haven'tseen you on TikTok.
I'll say that now.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
And you said before.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
No one has.
I've heard some dad jokes onthere.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
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 forthis.
What's your best dad joke thatyou say on TikTok as you go, go
now.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Well, this isn't really a dad joke.
This is actually a true story.
A man, my neighbor, you're fromAustralia, yeah yeah.
Hey, burt, you're fromAustralia, yeah yeah.
So you don't know about Oli andLena, right, you don't know who
they are.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
No, okay, they're famous Minnesotans.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
They actually live here in Winona, minnesota.
They live just down the roadfrom here.
And so, oli, he took his wifeLena to the zoo, right New zoo,
and he was really disappointedbecause it only had one animal.
And we were really disappointedbecause 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 (12:12):
That's the one I do love.
My dad jokes as well, jack.
So yeah, it's very, very rare.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I was like, oh gosh, I pulled it up really quick.
It's very rare.
What do you call a sleepingdinosaur?
Dino snore?

Speaker 1 (12:31):
oh yes, I see, see, there you go.
You know what jack?
I think that's the first timethat this podcast is going to
now have an explicit rating.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
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 (12:49):
Fantastic, yes all right good so, speaking of books
, you've written several andwe're going to get to them, but
the one of the reasons I wantedto talk to you is I think your
most recent book that I saw wasget this guys, this is what it's
called.
Y'all are gonna love this,especially our fans that listen
to this podcast, because I thinkthey like it at least we like

(13:10):
it 101 bizarre, quirky andtotally fun adventures.
Get this in the midwest, so allin the midwest.
So we're going to talk about Ithink, jack, you considered the
Midwest being was it 12, 12states, is it 12?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, you know, I mean it is technically.
We are go, we're very officialhere at Jack and Kitty World
Headquarters and we're going bythe actual census, like US
government has issued a.
This is the Midwest and there's12 states.
And so I know if you talk to alot of folks in Minnesota or
Iowa, they get really upset withOhio being included in this

(13:53):
because it's like that's EastCoast.
I mean you're like you knowpeople in North Dakota, but yeah
, there's 12 states and sothat's kind of we.
You know, when we first startedblogging actually stemmed from
when we first started bloggingwe were just kind of all over
the map, because we had been allover the map but our passion
was really the Midwest and wewere like we can't do a blog

(14:15):
just about the Midwest and wecan't write books just about the
Midwest.
And it turns out, the more wedo that, the better it is.
And the more fun we have, and Ithink it's just because we have
fun with it that the audiencehas fun with it.
So, um, yeah, so we'reconfining our, our adventures to
these 12 states here in theheartland.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Wow, Wow, Uh.
How many books before we moveon as well.
How many books do you guysactually have at the moment?

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Um well, we've got a guide to Iowa, guide to
Minnesota, guide to Wisconsin.
Um then, we're going to beputting out an Ohio one next
month, and even though they'renot.
And then we've got the new one,101, which covers all 12.
And then my wife and I.
She has been a writer for offand on for 20 years and so she

(15:03):
created a series called FeelGood Stories and a lot of it are
like real stories and then somethat are, like you know,
creative fiction, but most ofthem are based in reality.
I mean they're true stories ofit's kind of like chicken soup
for the soul, but based in theMidwest, I mean it's all
Heartland kind of stories.
So she's got like five or sixof those, I guess, and I

(15:26):
sometimes write when she needsthe bad dad jokes or I'll drop
in there, but that's kind of her.
But I mean we have our ownpublishing company and so I
guess about a dozen now.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
So about six travel and six fiction I was scrolling
through your website uh in inyou know readiness actually for
this episode and I saw one ofyour books you had out there as
well and this really intriguedme and it was the Camping
Journal, an RV travel logbook.
Oh yeah, because I'm a bigtraveler at heart, especially RV
camper that sort of style.

(15:55):
So, yeah, what's that about,mate?
What can people expect out ofthat?

Speaker 2 (15:59):
one.
I mean it's really basic.
I guess I didn't even thinkabout it.
I mean it's a very like it'svery basic, it's really.
It's a.
I should have mentioned itbecause it's a good seller, but
it's just a camping journal.
I mean you have, like yourcampground details.
You know where you stayed, andit's really helpful because I
mean there's little check markswhere you know is it pet

(16:20):
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 journaldiary mixed with just a kind of
a helpful if I want to return.
You know this is the lot numberI stayed at, or this was the
wi-fi password or just whatever.
So we designed that and that'sanother thing.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
I guess nice, nice, yeah, no one actually does all
the work.
We do like checking off thoseboxes, Josh, don't we?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yes, we do so in this latest book 101 Bizarre, quirky
and Totally Fun Adventures inthe Midwest.
You mentioned 12 differentMidwest states.
Can you just name the 12 statesoff the top of your?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
head.
Oh my God, I'm putting you onthe spot.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
This is.
This is what we're talkingabout, so.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
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, northDakota, south Dakota, I'm going
to, ah, missouri.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
I was going out of order Ohio and Wisconsin.
Oh there you go.
Those are 12.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
I think you got them.
Yeah, I think you got them allhe did.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
I've got the notes here.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
We're used in this.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
All 10 fingers and two toes.
Sorry, I had's foot up as well,so that's all good.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
So, as the expert of the bizarre, quirky and totally
fun adventures, what we're goingto do, this is exciting, this
is fun.
We're going to go through eachstate.
Yeah, jack's going to tell us alittle bit about the bizarre,
quirky and totally fun thingthere.
And I'm sure the book has manymore other things.
But and I'm sure the book hasmany more other things, but
we're just going to give you ataste of it, it has 101.
101, yes, and we're going totalk about 12.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
12, one in each set.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
So we're giving them a little taste, jack, and then
everybody's going to go andthey're going to go to Amazon or
to your website and they'regoing 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 (18:25):
I've been there.
I never have to go there again.
Checklist you know, on my to-dolist every morning I'll write
stuff I've already done, just soI can check it off.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
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 shownotes as well some of these
places.
We've already had other peopleon mentioning it, like Olio as
well.
Olio in Iowa, for instance.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh, yeah, yes.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah yeah, we've had her on the show.
Oh, is she?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
on the show.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, yes, and Valerie, from Silly America as
well, has talked about a coupleof these things, so we're going
to have a couple of repeats, butnot everybody listens to every
show, and not only that, josh.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
I love the different aspects that different people
have you see, so people can gosee one thing, but have
different experiences at it too,and that's what we're after too
.
So, all right, jack you readyfor this, mate?
I'm gonna start you off.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
We're gonna go illinois oh, are we going
alphabetical?
Are we going where I guessillinois is alphabetical?
we can do it fast the town ofcasey.
Oh there it is Bunch of stuff.
I mean you go to Casey.
You could just stay in Caseyand get 101 things no, maybe not

(19:32):
quite 101.
But the whole town of Casey.
I mean you should.
Actually it's worth Googlingand looking up Casey, Illinois,
Because there's like I mean wewrite about the world's largest
mailbox because it's the world'slargest mailbox, but I mean
there's the world's largestmailbox because it's the world's
largest mailbox, but I meanthere's the world's largest
wooden shoes.
There's the world's largest.
I think they have a.
I want to say there was theworld's largest grocery cart too
, I think.

(19:52):
But like we focused on themailbox, on this one, and you
can send a letter from themailbox and it's, you know, it's
the.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
I mean it's an active mailbox isn't it yeah, and when
you, when you put the letter inthe actual, the red flag pops
up, just to let you know, aseveryone knows, I'm Australian.
We don't have that in Australia.
For us to post mail inAustralia, we have to go to a
dedicated post box, which isnormally one or two in every
suburb in Australia and they'reon a corner of a street.

(20:20):
We just chuck them all in theone post box.
We didn't have this, this armthing coming up the side of your
letter.
Well, there you go?

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I've been there and I've I've mailed a letter out of
that mailbox, which Jack is, isI my favorite part of the town.
But if you know, go on a nonwindy day, because they don't
have the flag activated If it'stoo windy, they're afraid of
that thing blowing off.
No, you gotta, that's a, that'syour tip of the day.
Go on a non-windy day, yeahyou're right, kasey's amazing.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Yeah, no, no but apart from the mailbox jack,
what's your personal favoritethere in casey, what do you
think?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean, I really did get amped about the mailbox.
Yeah well, it's interactingwith simple pleasures you are
myelostral.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
That's our answer is, in a way, like the myelobox.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
It's funny that you're australian and you're
male because or mailbox becausewe had a.
My wife and I, before all this,we had a show on pbs kids and
it was like a little preschoolshow and it was kind of like uh,
one one reviewer called usbarney meets the black eyed peas
because it was like hip hop forpreschoolers.
Cool, like one of our twobreakaway characters was a

(21:29):
kangaroo who was from Australiaand he delivered the mail.
Well, it was a sheet.
We found this out after thefact, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
In her pouch.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
That's how I always thought it worked in Australia.
I'm glad to finally talk to areal Australian.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
A real fair income australia might.
So there you go, and I justwant to make sure so we don't
get hate mail before we move onfrom from illinois it is, they
do pronounce it, they're kzillinois, just so you know.
Really don't make.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
don't make that mistake.
It's well they're gonna theaudio book that's coming out,
uh-oh, really, kasey, I've neverheard of him Kasey, that's how
they pronounce it.
If you go there, well, I mean Ican blame most things on my
Minnesota accent.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Like I do with my Australian too.
Mate, I do exactly the samething, exactly.
All right, we're going to moveon to the next one, and now in
Indiana.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Indiana.
Okay, all right.
Well, I took I mean I let's, Ithe world's largest I'm doing a
lot of world's largest, butworld's largest egg, which is
just a 3,000 pound.
Is it a real egg?
I mean no.
I mean, yes, it was deliveredby this huge bird and they're

(22:43):
still waiting for it to actuallycrack and they're going to make
exciting.
It's a world exclusive.
Just on your guys' podcast Iactually just heard this they
are going to make the world'slargest omelet as soon as that
baby cracks.
There, you go.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
I think it might have been made by that bird that you
can't hear it go to thebathroom, 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 notgood.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
There's just too much .
It's too much.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
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 eggwould be like big side egg, big
side down.
No, they have it.
A little stand it's, and thelittle and the small side it's

(23:40):
upside down, let's it's upsidedown it's up.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
It's not the way your eye wants it to be oh really,
so it's.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
It's it's facing, so it's the point, it's on its
point.
Basically, is that the waysitting on its point on a, on a
stand, and is it the world'slargest in terms of size or
weight?
Josh, do you know that?

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I'd have to look that up.
It's 3,000 pounds.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
It's 3,000.
Yeah, I mean, I think they'regoing off of probably the amount
of weight.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
See some of these things that these places build,
et cetera, as well.
They're only the world'slargest, until someone builds it
bigger.
Let's be honest, Right?
You know what?

Speaker 2 (24:14):
I mean, but the ball of twine.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
There's a whole controversy about that you know
that right oh yeah, oh yes,we've talked about that, I bet.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Julio talked about that, didn't you?
Yes?

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, we did yeah, this was built in 1946, 10 feet
high.
It is inscribed with the eggbasket of the Midwest.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yes, and it's a symbol of the town's thriving
egg industry.
Good for them.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
There you go, there you go.
Could be anything else?
Exactly, exactly, josh, you'reup.
Where are we going to go next?

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Okay, we're going to the state of my birth, that is,
the Hawkeye State of Iowa, homeof Oleo in Iowa.
Let's just say I want to say weknow If you've ever talked to
Megan, we talked to Megan fortwo 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 (25:08):
Jack, what's your bizarre, quirky and totally fun
thing?
I was going to talk about thegnome in Ames, but I'm assuming
she already talked about theworld's largest gnome right, yes
so.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
I'm going to say the hobo museum.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Have you guys been to the hobo?
museum no no iowa, okay, hobomuseum, brit iowa, brit is this
little town and every year theyhave the hobo convention and
hobos from all over all overamerica, or hobo aficionados or
or just weirdos all the time andit's like a three-day

(25:43):
hootenanny and party.
But there's a, I think, thetheater I want to remember, if I
, I mean I probably wrote aboutit 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 theyturned 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 thelike, graphics and some of the
like.
I mean, it's just a history ofhobos, but it's like hobo,

(26:06):
capital of america, brit, iowaand uh huh back way back in the
day, like I don't know, when Iwas in my early 20s.
So you know, two or three yearsago I uh, I did snicker, I did
snicker.
I hopped a few trains so I meanit's close to my heart and I
love.
I mean I used to, you know,back in the day, I really you

(26:29):
know, I feel like when you'reinto trains you're either two
years old or you're 90.
And for some reason I was 25.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
I was really so the hobo museum is really cool, so
so jack, what's the definitionof a hobo?
Is it somebody that jumpstrains?
Is that the?
Is that the?
I mean?
They're very.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
They're very particular about what the
definition is and like trampswere one thing.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
I don't know if we actually included that, to be
honest with you, because wewrote this a while ago, but I
mean those were people that werelike 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 exactlyfor you, josh.
It is a homeless person, atramp or a vagrant but there's,
there's different.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
No, they get really particular because there's like
different categories and I thinkthe hobo is like a skilled
worker who's willing to workthey're not like they're
actively searching out work.
I want to say that's thedefinition, whereas a tramp is
just kind of like oh and aroundand like it's all like lingo
from like the 30s, like they'rein the great depression, where

(27:33):
like there were differentcategories of people and I'm
almost positive that hobos werelike folks that were actively
looking for work or would do youknow, day laboring jobs and
kind of I, uh, I didn't read allthe way down, jack, I apologize
.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
So that was the north american version.
The north, apparently the northamerican version is different
to the us version.
The us definition of hobo is amigrant worker.
There you go yeah there you gobrit iowa.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
If you're following along, it's uh, it's north
central iowa, so it doesn't looktoo far from the minnesota
border I have never heard yeah,I never heard of the hobo museum
.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's fantastic no, you should know.
I mean, it's like right off of35.
You know, best thing to comeout of iowa is 35.
I'm just kidding.
No, but the and joshua johnsonand and oleo but you know no,
but it's like, I mean it's.
I think I want to say, if Iremember, you take the exit for

(28:31):
buddy holly and then you go.
Yes I'm almost positive you hitbuddy and then you hit the
hobos it's about 20 minutes, 20Clear Lake, iowa.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
So yes, that's very close.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, there you go.
I actually we used to stay at ahotel in Clear Lake, if I
remember right, to go to themuseum, but yeah, Very good I
don't think there is a hotel inBrit Iowa.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
There you go.
Hobo Museum in Brit Iowa Getthere there you go.
Hobo museum in brit iowa getthere there you go, get there.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
uh, next one we're gonna have jack for you is
kansas kansas yes, kansas topeakkansas evil kenevil baby yeah,
really, do you know eva evilkenevil?
Yes, I am aware of evil.
What?

Speaker 3 (29:15):
happens in america happens throughout Evel.
What happens in America happensthroughout the rest of the
world, but what happens aroundthe rest of the world doesn't
necessarily come to America.
So I know American songs andpop culture and all this stuff,
but you don't know Australianpop culture and stuff either,
sue, no.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
I mean I love the Wiggles, Come on.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
I love Men at Work.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
There you go.
They come from the land downunder.
This is true.
I hear that song.
Here you go, Jack.
We're veering off now.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
This is what happens.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
I hear that song Men at Work, land Down Under.
I hear that here in thesupermarkets more in the last
two years than I've heard it myentire life, 40 years in
Australia.
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
So, Jack, we're traveling.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
They did the timey kangaroo.
Yeah, the wobble board.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Timey kangaroo.
What's?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
his name, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
You can't like him now because there's been issues
with him like major issues withhim.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
So, yeah, no one likes him.
Now.
I like the disco guy.
He's silly dancing.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Oh yes, yeah, there you go, I'm not dying.
There you go.
Anyway, we're not aboutAustralia, we're talking about
Evil Knievel Museum in Topeka.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's really cool.
I mean it's Topeka, kansas, andit's the Evil Knievel Museum
and there's a lot of artifactsand it's kind of interactive and
there's video elements and abig gift store that you could
spend way too much money in.
I love that era of Americanweirdness and he embodies so
much of this strange showmanship.

(30:48):
It was just such a great era.
I don't think somebody likeKnievel could exist today.
I think they probably shut himdown I mean maybe he could, but
he'd probably be like a renegadeyoutube star, tiktok star or
something.
But I you know it's a very.
It's really fascinating.
There's a lot of personaleffects.
It's worth going to do theyhave?

Speaker 1 (31:11):
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 wheelssideways yeah like they go up a

(31:35):
ramp and yeah, and he.
He was probably on so manydifferent movies doing that, but
that was his signature move hewas very skilled in saying
everything else as well.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
He was extremely skilled and obviously brave with
the stuff that he didn't crazyinto 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 oranything that you can ride a
motorbike up and over the top ofthe?
Up the top of the museum?

Speaker 2 (31:59):
yeah, it's fully interactive.
They make you sign a waiver,but exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
All right, josh, you know move on to the next one
mate all right, this one.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I think it's going to be really bizarre.
Oh, we're going to Michigan,what's in?

Speaker 2 (32:18):
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 (32:32):
N-U-N, n-u-n, n-u-n, n-u-n, n-u-n.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
N-U-N N museum like the religious people the no, no
nuns allowed museum like allright hundred dolls dressed like
wow, wow so we're talking aboutthe religious sort of nun that
you have in a church, and that'sall that's bizarre we are, yes,
that's what we're talking aboutwow, that's so.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
How many dolls are in this?

Speaker 2 (32:55):
museum what?
There's 500, yeah, 500.
Yeah, there's 500.
It's actually crazy because wejust wrote, I mean, since this
book we're going to like, that'sthe other thing with this.
Like these travel books is likebasically every single year
we're finding out.
I actually like was watching athing with Rick Steves on how he
does travel books and it's likeevery year he has to put out a

(33:16):
new edition because thingschange and he discovers new
stuff, and we're already insecond edition for the Wisconsin
book and the Iowa book and it'slike this we're going to like
we discovered there's actually alittle old lady here in
Minnesota and southern Minnesotawho created a cow museum and
this reminds me similar to that.
This, the nun doll museum, is alittle creepier, but the cow

(33:38):
museum yes, there you go, thecow museum is just.
It's literally like if you wantto visit the cow museum in
minnesota, you have to call herand schedule a time and it's her
house and you just go and visitthe cow museum and it's not as
creepy, but there's.
We're starting to discoversince writing this, there's like

(33:59):
there's the world's largestnutcracker collection is in
laverne, minnesota, and that'slike that is the same thing
where one lady obsessed overnutcrackers and donated it to
the town and now there's morenutcrackers in laverne,
minnesota, than there are people, our people, at this museum.
We also found the sock uh, thesock monkey museum, which I want

(34:22):
to say is in ohio I'm prettysure it's either indiana or how
we wrote about it and it's likethe same thing where these
people get these collections andturn 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 (34:40):
filmification that could make, josh.
That could make a great YouTubeclip, like the horror music
there behind it.
You know we did that one in thelibrary, josh, with the webcams
.
You know we could do somethingsimilar to that.
It would even be better, Ithink, because you know these
nuns, I reckon would walk bythemselves some of them just to

(35:02):
be be honest, like if you're notlooking, just saying so wow,
yeah, there's dioramas of nunsat work.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, you can make your own nun.
You're like they have littlenun making doll classes, that
you mean it's not.
The monkey museum has the samething though where you can go in
and learn how to make a sockmonkey wow, wow that cra.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
That kind of reminds me of our Georgia episode where
Katie told us about where theCabbage Patch.
Dolls were born.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yes, have you heard about that one, Jack?

Speaker 2 (35:26):
No, because that's not that's outside the Midwest.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
No, we watched it.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
I will leave the Midwest occasionally.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, those Cabbage Patch Dolls at the actual place
and they give live births tocabbage patch dolls every day.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, every day from the actual patch.
Don't they feel like they comeout of the ground?

Speaker 1 (35:46):
by the other ground out of the ground.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Well, it's a shady ground.
There's like a tree overthere'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 newcabbage there's a weird hospital
involved, yeah nurse, nursesdressed up as nurses as well,
like yeah yeah, welcome toamerica.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
They said you can bring them, your broken dolls,
to that hospital.
I want to say, can you?

Speaker 3 (36:07):
yeah, yeah, you can.
Yeah, it's actually a hospital,you can, they can repair that's
.
Uh, you know, broken cabbagepatch dolls too.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
So there you go I want to also mention with the
nunah museum.
There is also there a 52 feettall crucifix.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Wow, that's a big crucifix wow, see, this even
gets better.
So in indian river in inmichigan, we're talking about
indian river, michigan.
If you don't know what, wantmore 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 toon the list Wolf, yeah,

(36:45):
minnesota, minnesota.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Tell us about Minnesota, here we go, okay,
well, minnesota, I mean I'mgoing with the ball of twine.
I know that Orio talked aboutit.
She can think the ball of twine.
I know that Olio talked aboutit.
She can think the ball of twineis somewhere else.
That's fine.
But what people don't realizeis this is there's two important
reasons why you got to go tothe Minnesota ball of twine.

(37:09):
It's in Darwin, minnesota.
That's not one of the reasons.
Reason number one biggest ballof twine built by one man.
There's a distinction.
See, yes, minnesotans, we cando it ourselves like nobody's
business.
And we did exactly so.
Good old francis johnson, 29years, made the old ball of

(37:29):
twine.
So that's number one.
Number two weird al wrote asong about it yeah no, yeah, he
did too.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
There you go jack, there you go.
So in march we had a roadsideattraction march madness, yes,
where we put roadside attractionagainst roadside attraction.
Yes, and I was.
I was so hurt, jack, that thatthe ball of minnesota's ball of
twine, I I all the aspectscreated by one man, uh, the song

(37:58):
the guy like died of, likeinhaling twine dust, I mean the
thing killed him I mean hisballs the thing he created
killed him.
It's, it's, it's up there, it'sone of the top roadside
attractions, everything around.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
There is like, like the cafe is the ball of twine,
the hotel is the Ball of TwineMotel.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yes, They've taken advantage.
What were you saying, though,joshua?

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well, no, I'm just saying it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
They rolled it into town.
He built it on his farm and thetown rolled it to downtown.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
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 theworld's largest ball of twine.
Yeah, see, we had to cut a lotof stuff because we would write,
like we did a lot of blogarticles where we would write
like a long blog article andthen to fit them into a book.

(39:01):
We kind of condensed it down tomake it more digestible because
, like you don't need to knowevery 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, butI wrote a book about this
dixieland band once and the bookwas 900 pages and it's like you
can't even hold it really so Ialways have to edit stuff, but I

(39:22):
want to say the ball of twinewas sent.
I think Johnny Carson, I thinkthey had the guy on the tonight
show and they flew the ball oftwine on a plane.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
What I'm pretty sure it's amazing before they moved
it to its new location.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I'm pretty sure they did that that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Would have needed one of those army planes.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think it was.
I think it was like a cargoplane or something.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, there's also a museum there, and every time
I've been there the museumhasn't been open.
There's a sign on the door.
It's like if you want themuseum open, go over and talk to
Susie at the restaurant.
She'll open it up for you.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, I've had these next time experience and it's
like I want to buy stuff fromthem too, cause if you go on my
website there's like ball oftwine.
You know swag and I want to getit, but it's like I don't want
to bother her at the restaurant.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Busy at the restaurant.
Do they sell strands of twine?

Speaker 2 (40:16):
No, I think they said .
I mean, the last time I checkedit was like like it was, I
don't remember.
I remember there was somethingreally 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 (40:34):
I want a statue.
I want a little little bittypewter statue of the ball, a
ball of twine.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
That's what I want.
I feel like it was a twine ballmaking kit.
Start your own ball.
No, I think it was.
I want to say hold on, I'mtrying to get there or we're
going to their store.
Yes, I was right.
I, my memory is not okay, we'regoing to their store.
Yes, I was right, my memory isnot okay Twine ball starter kit

(41:03):
$25.
So you too can start your ownball.
They have, like shot glasses,twine ball you know, Frisbee.
I mean it's great.
So that's my pick for Minnesota.
I'd also shout out I woulddefinitely, in addition to that,
if you're in the Twin Citiesand you're looking for something
fun to do, the Pavik Museum ofBroadcasting is in St Louis Park

(41:27):
and it's one of it's myfavorite museum in the Twin
Cities.
It's super cool.
Not a lot of people know aboutit and it's basically history of
radio and early television.
Know about it and it'sbasically history of radio and
early television and so theyhave like and it talked.
I mean it's.
It's really cool because youcan see the direct link from
like early early radio and earlytv all the way to like youtube

(41:48):
and spotify and it's it'susually empty.
There's no one there.
It should be no.
I mean they do a lot of schoolgroups, but every time I go it's
like, why isn't this like apacked museum and the displays
are awesome and like you spendhours there.
Just it's self-guided.
It's really cool, it's cheap togo and um free parking.

(42:09):
It's great.
Pavik museum, that's cool.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
So these ones.
I've heard of it, but I'venever gone in because I didn't
think it was anything no, it'sworth going in.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
It's super cool, like just if you're like kind of a
history nerd or if you're justand they have a lot of cool
stuff about like early.
They have the minnesota hall ofradio 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, regionalchildren's musicians who would

(42:37):
be like the one cowboy who, likewas broadcasting every day of
the week in Milwaukee or likeyou know, there was like one guy
who did like and it was alllive.
So a lot of it has disappeared.
And, um, there was a guy, uhKlyland card, who was like uh,
um, he was a swedish comediancharacter and he did a thing in

(42:59):
early, early days of uh tv inthe twin cities and so they have
stuff on him and it's it's justreally cool.
It's like.
You know that I don't know ifyou guys know roger miller, the
country singer, but he's got asong called kansas city star and
it's all about like he's thestar of kansas city because he
dresses up like a cowboy andplays for the kids every 11,
every morning.

(43:19):
It's just such a cool thing.
So there's a lot of like thatera early TV, which was such a
great.
I mean you can see thefoundation of so much Like.
You can see the early like youknow the early kind of like
ideas of like how did Saturn andit live come to be?
It was these early live wackybroadcasts where they were just

(43:40):
like throwing anything to thewall and see what would stick,
and they kind of have a lot ofthat document there.
So it's really it's cool.
Plus there's a theremin you canplay too, like they just have a
theremin where it's one of theoriginal theremins.
Do you guys know what atheremin is?
You know I'm talking about Idon't.
What is it?
Theremin is like it's the onlymusical instrument in the world
where you don't touch it inorder to produce sound.
It's an electrical instrumentand it's totally sound waves and

(44:03):
it works off of your bodiesyour bodies.
I'm not a scientist and I'm notsmart, but it's like your
body's energy.
So like you go like this and itchanges pitch.
You go up and down and itchanges pitch up and down with
your hand and then you go sideto side with your other hand and
that changes volume and you canbasically control and make

(44:24):
really like a lot of the earlysci-fi horror movies you hear,
where it's like yeah, that'swhat that is and so okay.
But there was like classicalmusicians in the 30s and 40s
that were like doing you knowmozart on the theremin, but it
was just, it's just two metalrods that stick out of a box

(44:47):
that plugs in the wall and youcan play it without ever
touching and they have one ofthose that's super cool to see.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
So you know it would be cool, josh, as well, because
we're talking about this beingtreasures of our town and
geocaching and location-basedgames.
If you've got, you haven't beenthere, josh, but if you've got
an Adventure Lab credit, youcould push people to places like
the Pavek Museum in St Louis,for instance, as well to show
them these hidden gems that wewere talking about before too.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's cool and with Adventure Labs you can do
indoors.
Yes, you can.
So you could like do somethinginside of it.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Exactly and if it's a costume.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Jack Adventure Labs are kind of like geocaching, but
it's more like virtualgeocaching, where you go to the
location and it takes you to aspot, you learn about it and you
have to answer a question.
Oh cool, and if you get like afind, for your find count.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
So it's kind of a different type.
Yeah, they're different typeand they're the ones that more
take you to a location that'sworth going to, you know, rather
than just, you know, finding ahidden container underneath a
tree, for instance, that sort ofthing.
So, yeah, there you go.
There you go.
All right, mate, we're going tomove on now to Missouri.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
I mean it's very, very close to the Cabbage Patch
doll.
In the same spirit, but I'mgoing to go for the Precious
Moments Chapel in Carthage,missouri, do you know?
I mean, did they have PreciousMoments in Australia?

Speaker 3 (46:10):
No, what's Precious Moments.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
Well, I know America, anybody that has a grandma
knows yeah these little likefigurine, 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 verykids.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
It's like a kind of bible belt thing.
It's like, yeah, and you, you,kids.
It's like a kind of a biblebelt thing.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
It's like yeah, and you, you know it's something you
give your kid when they getbaptized as a little memento how
big are they?

Speaker 2 (46:43):
they're about?

Speaker 3 (46:44):
yeah, they're just little reaches and they're kind
of chubby kind of angeliclooking children okay, yeah, no,
we didn't have those inaustralia, so yeah, no, no
nothing.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah, there's a museum and the guy that created
it yeah, those are them.
The guy that created it, he, herepainted the sistine chapel on
the top of the of the chapel inmissouri but all of the
characters have been replacedwith by precious moments
characters and these like chubbylittle figurines and I mean

(47:15):
it's great people watching,cause you're in Missouri and
there are people going toprecious moments chapel and I
love that and it's fun.
And the guy that did it has acrazy backstory.
I mean he kind of like I like Ikind of became obsessed with
him for a little bit, like thecreator of precious moments and
he has like this kind of tragiclike went off.

(47:37):
I want to say I mean it's beenyears since I remember reading
this, but like he kind of sortof went off the deep end and
moved to asia, I think, orsomething like that.
Like he didn't like but he madeboatloads of money off of.
You know, everyone in america,you know if you were a kid in
the 80s, 70s, 80s, you likethat's like joshua said.

(47:59):
I mean every grandma in americahas a precious moments like.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Yeah, no no, thank goodness, actually they didn't
come to australia, I'll behonest.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
But after seeing a few researching, a few other
photos of those things yet, butno, thank you so speaking of
precious moments, there's a ladyon tiktok that takes the
precious moments dolls and sherepaints them to be something
else and it's usually somethingtotally not precious moment,
like like.
Precious moments are very likereligious, angelic little

(48:26):
children.
Like basically turning it intoalice cooper I saw her do one.
I just saw her do one where sheturned one of the precious
moments into taylor swift likewow pop culture, like, like
marty from back in the future.
Like it's fascinating.
I'll have to find it put in theshow notes, but yeah, it's
precious moments, moments theyall look alike too.
They look so similar, yeah, soit's fascinating that this woman

(48:49):
like changes them and makesthem look, you know, cool yeah
no, that's we actually justwrote about.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Like two days ago we wrote about there's a little
town in um, canada, and the thewhole town has been like
terrorized because people'sgarden gnomes are going missing
and for a while their gardengnomes were like disappearing
and then now it just like thenews just broke but basically
somebody is driving around andthey'll knock on your door, on
their, on your door of theperson that's like gnomes went

(49:15):
missing, and they'll knock onyour door, on their, on your
door of the person that's likegnomes went missing.
And they'll hand you a card andit says the gnome restoration
society and they and it justsays follow me to my van and you
go to the van and there's thislady.
This lady hands you a card andyou go to her van and in the
back of the van she is the onewho stole or she's with the

(49:35):
society that stole your gnomesand then they totally clean them
, repaint them, get them likeclean, brand new and then give
you back these, brand yourgnomes back, and it's like this
random act of kindness thing.
That's like it's so incrediblyminnesotan that it should be
minnesotan, but it's like I meanit's canada and as soon as I

(49:58):
cross.
Like I mean, you know it'sfunny.
I don't know if this happens toyou, jess, but like, as soon as
I go anywhere like south of theiowa border, every person in
america has always asked me whatpart of canada I'm from from
the exit.
So, um, I love that story, sothat's kind of reminds me of
your tiktok lady, because it'slike yeah, that's totally cool

Speaker 1 (50:20):
yeah, it's great, I love that.
All right, we're heading tonebraska carhenge.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
What you guys?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
oh yes, carhenge I've never been, but I've heard of
it.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
I have it's you have yeah, I have yeah there you go.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
So what did you think of Carhenge?
Did you like?

Speaker 3 (50:37):
it, I loved it, I loved it, and it's the same, as
there's a couple out there aswell.
I think one's in Texas andthere's one somewhere around
another state too where the carsthemselves not half dug in, but
there's some dug into the dirtand they're all the way along.
So, yeah, the car hinge thoughitself.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it.
I love that sort of stuff,though, too.
I love it Quirky, weird, youknow big things, even roadside

(51:00):
attractions, that sort of stuff.
Yeah, I really enjoy it, but no, yeah, so tell us more about
what's in your book, though inregards to cars.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
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 hugefans of I don't know if you
guys know that band Ylvis.
Have you heard of them?
They're like they had that hitsong like 10 years ago.

(51:28):
What Would the Fox Say?

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Oh, yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
But that wasn't funny or good.
I mean it was good, but likethey are like comedians and they
kind of they're like likeNorwegian.
They're two Norwegian brothersand they have this song called
what's the Meaning of Stonehengeand you guys have got to like
watch the music video to this.
It's on YouTube, just look upYlvis Y-L-V-I-S, and it's like

(51:53):
this like they do like parody,it's like parody music, like
skits and like they'll parodylike acapella bands and they'll
parody like and this is kind oftheir like Celine Dion power
ballad about Stonehenge and howhe's like his whole life he's
going mad because he doesn'tknow the meaning of Stonehenge
and so, like when we went toCarhenge, we like just blasted

(52:17):
you know this power ballad songand like I have these great
memories of us just being likewhat's the meaning of Carhenge?
Those were total nerds, butlike, uh, that's yeah so.
I would highly recommend.
It's great, great for selfies.
Yeah, it's, you know it's.

(52:38):
I mean, it's a bunch of cars soit's an alliance nebraska which
is towards the west side.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
This is this is why I haven't been there, because I
haven't done much travel inwestern nebraska it's pretty.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
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'restarting to like the more.
The more we do travel, bloggingand stuff, the more we realize
like every time we write about aweird, like monster, beast,
like something, get like we'llget like people that comment
actively and like people innebraska, more than any other

(53:17):
state in the midwest, love theirmonsters and they're like
beasts and they're like weirdstuff.
Like I feel like nebraska hasthis totally weird, like it's
funny because like uh, we wrotethis article about this school
teacher who went completelycrazy.
Have you heard about this?
That like it's in the 1800s andlike it was in nebraska,

(53:38):
outside of omaha, and she wentmad.
I can tell you like I can lookit up if you want me to tell you
.
But like she went totally crazybut it's a ghost story.
So like did it actually happen?
I don't know, but like thestory is she basically calling?
it's not for students throughtheir hearts in the river and

(53:59):
like, you can still you canvisit the schoolhouse where this
happened and it's like.
It's like we got so many peoplethat 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 innebraska, love that stuff.
So I feel like there's thiswhole like I don't know.

(54:20):
I feel like you could.
The next like guidebook we'regonna write after ohio is gonna
be nebraska.
It's either nebraska ormissouri.
But we're really like planningnebraska because there's just so
much weird, cool, just stuff innebraska.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
I've noticed that as well.
Going across the US, thedifferent towns.
You see, you almost got thatfeeling as soon as you hit to a
small town of some sort and youcan feel, you actually feel the
weirdness, the strangeness, thesomething's not right here, for
instance, or something's justdifferent.
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 justdifferent, and I like that.
I really do like that too.
So, yeah, I've experienced afew of those in North and South

(54:57):
Dakota.
I can't tell the story on thisshow in regards to one that I
found in South Dakota, butanyway, that's for another
episode.
All right, we're going to moveon now to North Dakota, north
Dakota.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Lawrence Welk Homestead.
You have no idea who LawrenceWelk is.
No.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
I know.
I know who Lawrence Welk is.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
This is another very Midwestern thing, but he was
huge.
I mean he's probably still inparts of the Midwest like played
on PBS on Saturday nightsrealistically.
If you're ever stuck in a hotelroom in like Nebraska and the
only thing you can tune in andyou have cable motel room and
you get pbs, lawrence welk isstill probably playing he did.

(55:39):
He called his music champagnemusic and it was very like he's
like how would you describe?
Maybe like north dakota barachi?

Speaker 1 (55:47):
yeah, it's like, it's like cheesy, it's like leisure
suits, they're like lines ofwomen and in pastel colored
dresses, singing songs.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Yeah it's really.
They would do like lightversions of like uh, music by
the carpenters or something likeexactly.
You know what I mean and I lovelawrence welt.

(56:21):
He had like a long-standingrecord deal with readers digest
where they would put out theselike.
You can find them at anygoodwill in america.
These like thick like.
I just bought one for 50 centsat our goodwill here in winona
and it's like 18 vinyl recordsboxed together.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
And it's like Lawrence Welk's play.
Lawrence Welk Orchestra playsthe classics and it's like his
like light, like it's kind oflike Midwestern elevator music
doing the most popular, likeclassic music, classical music
of all time, and like, but itwas like 50 cents 's, like 18
records and like I love that andso this is his homestead.

(57:01):
I mean it's, it's just like.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
I mean it's not a, it's not a hugely popular
tourist destination yeah, andmost of the people like you have
to be, most of the people thatgo yeah, most of the people that
would enjoy it are probablydead or nearly dead.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Yes, I think so, but I feel like maybe I'm on a
mission to like keep all thisstuff alive, keep it alive, keep
it alive.
If you're like a hipster in thecottage core, go listen to
Lawrence Welk and you'll be thecoolest kid on the block there
you go and rip lawrence walk.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
From may 17th 1992.
He left our, uh, our belovedworld as such per se, and he
apparently had, uh, his englishum speaking, but had a very
marked german accent.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
So, yes, yeah, I mean , I feel like in the midwest,
like the north.
We lived, lived in North Dakotafor a while.
We still have a house up thereand like it's, there's a, it's a
very thick, like we wereoutside of Grand Forks for a
while.
And it's very like that accentvery, very thick.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Well, here's a little bit of a little bit of trivia
for you too.
He didn't actually learn tospeak English until he was 21.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
So there you go, wow that's why the accent's so thick
exactly exactly there you go,lawrence.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Welcome, love him.
You should listen to it.
Stream them on spotify whenwe're done, craig, you're gonna
oh 100 will not be doing thatanyway.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Uh, next up.
Next up, we have ohio jack,ohio, what's?

Speaker 2 (58:25):
it we had to include in the book.
I have this is one I have notyet been to, but I love it and I
love the idea of it.
Kitty's been there.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
She loved it cornhenge which is another henge
another henge.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
It really doesn't look anything like stonehenge or
carhenge.
It's cornhenge and it basicallyis dublin, ohio, which is like
a columburb, and they basicallywanted us my take on it At least
Kitty's been there so she couldspeak better on it but my take

(59:01):
is they basically wantedsomething to have a selfie
somewhere in this sub suburbansprawl and they made these like
they.
It's their corn, but they don'tlook like corn really.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
And it's like are you looking at white?
I'm looking at the picturesright now it's very about eight
feet tall.
They're eight feet tall.
They're white ears of cornsticking out of the ground in
rows.
It almost looks like they'relike gravestones that are corn
oh yeah tall.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
They're 1500 pounds and they're not in a head,
they're not in this, it's notlike 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 (59:51):
Yeah, in straight lines, yeah, wow wow, it's very
odd.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
It feels very I mean, we actually played a couple of
shows in Dublin before and likeit's very suburban, it's just
like kind of like.
Like it's very, it's kind of anice, just like average suburb.
But it's like so weird thatthey made this and I think the
arts council funded it and theygot, yeah, yeah, dublin art

(01:00:17):
council funded it and it's likethey got an artist to do it and
it's like weird.
It just feels it's like one ofthose things where like it's
it's new, it's pretty new.
I feel like it's like withinthe last I don't know 20 years
or something 1994 so likelooking at this as well.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
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 wouldseriously feel this was a
graveyard, with the ghostsrising up from the graves.
That's what it looks like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Wow.
Yeah, it's really weird.
Kitty liked going and shewanted to put it in the book,
but I think it's.
I mean we're going to all go atsome point obviously.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Well, it's all about the weird things as well.
Bizarre, quirky and totally fun.
Which is that ticks all thoseboxes jack so just, we really
tried hard all right, we'regonna move on now to south
dakota.
What's?

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
in south dakota.
I mean I gotta go for the walldrug, you gotta have you dubbed
wall drug no, I haven't been towall drug you've never been to
wall drug.
No, no, no, oh my gosh, haveyou been to?
Uh, have you been to treasurecity here in minnesota?

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
oh yeah, I have a josh I have a tiktok video of
treasure city that issemi-successful.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Yes, love treasure city it's like treasure city on
steroids, steroids like it'slike the biggest tourist trap.
It's so overrated it's so Iwant to say it started because
they were offering free ice totourists.
I feel like that was the startof it and it was like it's so
massive and it's just like stuffyour kids would whine and want

(01:01:48):
to buy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
I don't have kids, yeah, just cheesy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Stuff that kids would just whine until they got their
way.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
So, for everyone out there, what we're talking about
is actually a big store, like abig warehouse store type style.
We're not talking aboutsomething big like a corn or
anything.
It's a big store, a wall drugstore and, yes, it's got a few
things in front of it, likethere's a hare and a rabbit and
a dinosaur, there's a fewdifferent things in front of it,

(01:02:15):
and a rabbit and a dinosaur.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
there's a few different things in in front of
it, um, but yeah, it is just ahuge basically like a huge um
visitor center sort of storewith a lot of tourists, sell
five cent cups of coffee and thecoffee is like I mean, I'm not
a snob when it comes to coffeeand I'll bring just about
anything, but like it's like,like revolting.
But it's five tenths and you'reat wall drugs, so like you have

(01:02:42):
to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
You have to get exactly these things.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
You have to get out of the ego so wall drug is on
i-90, which goes, you know, allthe way across.
So whatever, interstate i-90and the.
The big joke with wall drug isall around the country.
It's a you know there's signsthat say wall drug, a thousand
miles, wall drug, you know 2000miles.
And in the movie space balls, Ibelieve, the ship is flying by

(01:03:07):
something and there's a walldrug that says 2 billion miles
or something.
Yeah, so there's a pop culturereference to wall drug yeah,
there you go, there you go walldrug.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Have to do it, love it yep, you've got it again
you've got to go there just toget a five cent coffee, if
anything else, so which?
Is extremely real out in theparking lot, exactly just to say
you got it just to say you gotit, mate.
We're going to move on to thelast one.
This is the 12th one inWisconsin.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Wisconsin.
I got to hit too.
Because it's important, I'mshouting out Joshua's childhood
here, world's largest six-pack,la Crosse, wisconsin.
I'm assuming you've been manytimes.
Oh yeah, I've been many times.
Okay, good oh yeah, I've beenmany times.

(01:03:59):
Okay, good, it's um, it's uh.
People think it's like I meanit's the world's largest
six-pack.
It's uh, it's the local brewery.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
They have like six things but like great storage
yeah, it's like yeah and what'sgreat is that there were kids.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
The greatest story when we were researching it is
that a bunch of drunk collegekids they weren't drunk at the
time, hopefully, but they cameparty kid from madison
university madison drove tolacrosse because they heard the
world's largest keg was there.
To tap the keg they got an axeand smashed the bottom of the

(01:04:33):
storage and, like beer, floodedeverywhere and that's one of my
favorite stories about it.
And um great selfie.
They just repainted it andrefurbished it and looks all
jazzy and it's fun.
I mean you just take, there'snothing.
You just go and take a pictureand say you are at the world's
largest six-pack.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
So it's, it's worth going when I saw this I was
gonna say, josh, when I saw thismate, I didn't actually think
of beer, to be honest with you,I actually thought of my stomach
.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
But anyway, but no, oh yeah, oh god the world's
largest and six pack are kind ofan oxymoron, like, usually it's
a one yeah, usually it's a onepack on the stomach.
I remember this as a child, um,back in the 80s.
It was when they, I believewhen they, created it.

(01:05:15):
I don't know when they created,but I remember it in the 80s
and it was.
It was uh, old style, old stylebeer was the original beer.
Now old style, I think has goneout 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 childdriving by that factory and it's
, it's stinky.
You beer making, big beermaking business.

(01:05:37):
It's a stinky business as thosegrains or whatever the
fermentation processes, it's astinky place.
Yeah, hops, yes, that's right,hops.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Wow, we did it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
I love well we did it , but I got one more.
He's got a bonus Bonus inWisconsin.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Hodag, gotta go Hodag .

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Rhinelander.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Wisconsin.
Greatest named beast of all ofMidwest, love the Hodag.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Have you been to the?

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Hodag tour Head of a frog, face of an elephant, back
of a dinosaur.
Hodag, rhinelander, wisconsin.
You'll find them all over theplace, thanks, to an elephant.
There's a big Hodag you can gotake a picture with.
You'll find them all over theplace.
There's a big, you know, Hodegyou can go take a picture with.
But you, I mean, you'll findHodeg beer, You'll find Hodeg
everything in Wisconsin.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
I believe we have a listener of the show from
Wisconsin.
That is his geocaching name,jack.
All geocachers have likegeocaching handles.
Yeah, I saw that, and and hisname is he's from Wisconsin.
He is the Happy Hodag, that'sright, he is too.
There you go I never knew whata Hodag was.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
It's basically a mythical beast, that it's pretty
much proven that this con manjust created this wacky thing to
mess with the town and it'slike he did a hoedag hunt and he
took pictures with a hoedag andit looks so fake and horrible
and like the town has embracedit.
But there actually are someindigenous like stories that go

(01:07:09):
way, way back to like a beastfrom indiana and there could be
some truth.
But it's so ridiculous.
Looking like this thing is justlike it's it's.
It's like they decided we needa beast.
Like let's throw every possiblething.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Like oh, frogs elephants, dinosaurs.
Spiky thing it's like spikyheads spikes out your, your
teeth.
You know at each side the ofthe incisors and yeah whatnot
too.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
So yeah, you can get your picture with a hoedag.
You can go hoedag and you cango hoedagging.
There's a hoedag music festival.
It's one of the country musicbiggest.
I think it was for a whileMaybe still is like one of the
bigger country music festivalsin Wisconsin.
It's the Hoedag Music Festival.
It's the hoedown in Hoedag,that's what it is.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Well, jack, mate, we're running out of time, but
will you stay around after thisshow itself, and we're going to
record a little extra just forour patrons itself.
We've got a couple of two morequestions for you, mate, a
couple of bonus questions.
What do you think, josh, that'sa good idea you had.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
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 thingsto check off your travel
checklist Fantastic.
Thank you so much, jack, forsharing some of your wacky, wild

(01:08:32):
, 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 beforeat your website, jackandkittycom
.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Is that right?
Jack and Kitty like a cat.
K-i-t-t-y.
Jackandkittycom is our websiteand we have links out.
We're not huge on social, we'remainly just really focused on
our blog.
And youtube is, if you searchjack and kitty or midwest travel
podcast, you'll find ouryoutube channel and starting
july 23rd that'll be dailyvideos on the youtube channel.

(01:09:07):
And uh, yeah, if you go toamazon and just type in jack and
kitty or jack, our last name isnorton, so if you want to type
in jack or kitty, norton, you'llfind us, but jack and Kitty
will get you anywhere.
And yeah, really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Or if you're lazy and don't want to type anything
else at all, there's the link inthe show notes as well as
always, josh, I didn't want tohave to do all that.
That's all right, man, I'll doit all for you.
It's all good.
That's what I'm here for.
Meanwhile, josh, we spokebefore about, we're going to
have Jack answer a couple morequestions for our patrons.
How can people want to listento that?
How can they become patrons?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Yes, If you want some golden nuggets, if you want to
search for that treasure andopen up the treasure box and see
some golden nuggets, you got tocome 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 ourfavorite, like cheap beer, Jack.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
So consider, one of you was wearing a Miller High
Life, weren't you?

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Like a t-shirt or a hat.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
That was what.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
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 thepaywall, patreoncom backslash
treasures of our town andremember there's fan mail over
on our buzzsprout site as well,but otherwise how else can
people contact us, josh?

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at
gmailcom, or you can follow uson facebook, instagram, twitter
and youtube and that's it forour show.
So please subscribe, rate andreview on your favorite
podcasting app and, as always,may your travels always lead you
to the most unexpected andamazing hidden gems around the
world.
See you next time.
Thanks, Jack.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
Thank you, jack, appreciate you.
Bye.