Texas Challenge in Floresville, TX!

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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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We created a killer I'm going to say a killer video.
We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about that a littlebit later.
But Do you love to travel?

Speaker 4 (00:18):
Do you love road trips?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all
over the USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's the podcast that exploresunique and charming towns all
over the USA.
Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's the podcast that exploresunique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hided by our love for location-based games like
geocaching.
Join us as we venture into someof the country's most
intriguing destinations,uncovering hidden gems and local
secrets along the way.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
On today's episode.
It's all about Floresville.
Floresville is in Texas.
Josh, you and I, we gottogether for the first time in
how many months?
How many months has it?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
been.
It's been too too long.
And, as the intro just stated,floresville, texas, is a unique
and charming town.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Very charming it really is, with like 8,000
people, so it really is one ofthe smaller towns in the good
old US of A.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, and we were there because it was the home of
the 23rd annual GeocachingTexas Challenge.
That's what brought us there.
So today we're going to talkall about Floresville, all about
some of the surrounding areasthat we visited.
In Floresville we talked to themayor.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
I know how cool is that.
The mayor.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
The mayor, the mayor.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
And, of course, we're going to talk about Texas
Challenge, as we were the gueststhere and we created a killer
I'm going to say a killer video.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
It was really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
We'll talk about that a little bit later, but first,
Craig, we need to talk about ourupgrade and delays.
Oh yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
What would you want to start?
Or would you like me to startthis?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
time.
Okay, I'll do my upgrade.
Okay.
So this time of year inMinnesota, you know we don't
talk about the weather here.
No, I'll do my upgrade, Okay.
So this time of year inMinnesota, you know we don't
talk about the weather here.
No, I know, but I usually justtalk about it in my upgraded
delay.
Correct, and it's a little bitbipolar the weather here in
Minnesota.
We had a 70 degree day already,but it is officially spring as

(02:21):
we are recording this.
So we have an honored traditionhere in the geocaching
community in in minneapolis areaand that is we celebrated
yesterday snowman burning day.
What snowman.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
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 (02:42):
well, in honor, to celebrate the end of winter and
to move on, geocachers, wecreate these little paper,
cardboard snowmen and then wehave a fire and we just burn
them.
And so our friend, minnesotaboy, minnesota boy, minnesota
boy, brother, tom, and Mecca MNour friend courtney um had a

(03:07):
geocaching event that wassnowman burning day.
It was whimsical, it was fun,it was so very minnesota it's.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
It's a minnesota version of burning man.
Yeah, I guess, just without themusic.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yes, so I'm guessing minnesota boy will have a
full-size youtube video about itand I made a quick little uh,
tiktok and instagram reel.
You can kind of see what it'slike.
It's.
It's really fun.
So that was my upgrade.
That was a ton of fun.
My delay is that the cold isstill hanging on.
We're in the high 30s today andit's windy.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, a perfect, perfect day for podcasting so
that's good to hang out with youtoday, so that's, it's my delay
yes, yes, yes, and and I willsay as well uh, you're lucky,
josh.
You personally are very luckythat we are only an audio
podcast, because, looking at youthis morning, your hair is not
where it normally is, you hadglasses on before and, uh, you

(04:03):
kind of all but mohawkish at themoment as well.
So not many people see thisside of you, josh.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah.
I know, you know I let down.
I let down for the podcast,Doesn't?

Speaker 4 (04:14):
matter.
How do you look?
Very true.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, it's, yeah, it's a casual day.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
So exactly Exactly.
Well, my upgrades my upgradehappened 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 inOklahoma, at the moment, and the
reason for that is MOGA.
The MOGA event is coming up ina week Next.

(04:38):
As this goes live, it's nextweekend, anyway.
So I'm heading up directlynorth.
Well, you know how we playmunzee, joshua, and I'm munzee
everywhere I go, and you knowhow you can sort of stalk munzee
players by them capping yourlittle munzees in your area.
So I'm all the way coming upthrough.
Uh, have you heard of norman inin oklahoma?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
yeah, sure have.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
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, forTuesday, and she reached out to
me.
She said, oh, if you're inNorman any particular length of
time, then let me know andshe'll meet up, et cetera.
And I said, absolutely, yeah, Iam so because I stopped and did

(05:21):
some work.
I did a workout as well, Joshhad a nice shower, and where we
stopped, we stopped at an icecreamery.
But it's called an ice creamerybecause it's all decked out in
Halloween.
All inside was magnificent andI'll do a TikTok and short on it
, as well as a video.
But the reason why we're thereapart from the delicious ice

(05:42):
cream and also the deliciousmilkshakes as well but there was
a five-stage adventure labinside the ice creamery and each
of those stages was a gadgetcache as well.
So there was five differenttypes of gadget caches.
You had to open each one up inorder to get the code word for
each of those particular finds.
So a big shout-out to Martezfor thanking me and inviting me

(06:06):
over.
I had a great time with her aswell Fantastic time and, as I
said before Martez, it's Spanishfor Tuesday.
She saw the van.
She saw the van Tuesday.
She's like you're named, yourvan's named after me.
She was so excited, so excitedtoo, so that was really was so

(06:28):
excited, so excited too.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
So that was really really cool.
That is so very cool.
Um so you're in kansas and I'mgonna tell you this now not yet,
not yet, not in kansas I'mgonna think we're not kansas,
but you're heading that way.
Yes, yes, and I'm gonna tellyou this right now I'm debating
craig, I'm debating meeting youdown there.

Speaker 6 (06:43):
Oh, what I'm debating renting a car going to the
Wizard of Oz place and spendingthe weekend.
I've looked at prices.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
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 (07:02):
We'll find out.
We'll talk a little bit aboutit later, so we'll see.
I love that event I love mochawe haven't had the reasons I was
gonna say.
I love sometimes we, uh, wetalk about our, uh, our future,
what's coming up betweenourselves whilst we're live on
the podcast, but anyway, yeah,this is our, our every bi-weekly
meeting meeting exactly ourcatch-up but, josh, you know,

(07:24):
you already know, you know mydelay.
My delay happened with you inthe van, so if people didn't
know, then you know.
While we're there for the TexasChallenge event itself,
saturday morning the big eventwas happening.
We had to be up nice and early6 am woke up, got in the van and
Josh, you were with me as wellstarted Tuesday early 6 am.

(07:46):
Woke up, got in the van andjosh, you were with me as well,
started tuesday up and then sheshook.
She shook and she's shaken, andshe's shaken and the engine's
shaking.
I'm like this is not normal.
We drove off and then atcertain revs she'd actually
shake even more and I was like,oh no, not now, not now, not now
.
So my delay is that tuesday didlast for the next two days
before.
I had her in the mechanic andshe got all new injectors,

(08:08):
because there was one injectorthat was actually wasn't working
at all, so that was the shaking.
This was from the one injector.
So she got all new injectorsthrough.
She's got a full generaltune-up now as well.
She's got brand new headlightsin 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'sone of those things.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's not good.
However, you're right, she didget us through Texas Challenge.
We were worried that, you know,the very day that we needed to
have that car working, that vanworking, that most that started
acting up and it became a tad ofa distraction, but we were able
to still succeed and getthrough it.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
A tad of a stress factor for me too.
You saw my stress factor go upagain.
It's very rare, as I'mAustralian, it's very rare that
I get stressed out too much, butI felt it go up and I couldn't
push it back down.
I just couldn't hold it backdown.
It is one of those things.
But meanwhile, josh, anotherbig upgrade and this is a
general upgrade for you andmyself and the Treasures of Our

(09:12):
Town podcast.
You know, josh, this is our50th episode, 50 years, I was
going to say 50 years, 50 years,50th episode.
So congratulations for 50episodes mate well done.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yes, congratulations to you.
Who knew um that we would getthis far, considering that I was
scammed into starting thispodcast in a hot tub, as you
just sent me a microphone andsaid we're doing this?

Speaker 4 (09:39):
with some miller highlifes as well.
That was happening and and Iwill say josh as well, a big
shout out to all our patrons aswell for thanking them for all
their support, and we'll thankthemes as well.
That was happening and I willsay, Josh as well, a big shout
out to all our patrons as wellfor thanking them for all their
support, and we'll thank themlater as well.
But also there's quite a fewpeople, Josh, who have listened
to every single episode, and weagain thank them for every
single episode, every single onethey listen to or they give
feedback to, and stuff like thattoo.

(10:00):
So thank you to all thelisteners.
If it wasn't for them, wewouldn't even be doing this.
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
No, that's true, and I looked at the spreadsheet, the
financial spreadsheet, and, asI looked at it, at the expenses
and all that, we need them.
We literally cannot afford todo this podcast without them.
They really do keep it going.
So thank you so much, patrons,for not only listening but also

(10:26):
for your support.
We need to do one more updatebefore we get into the main
topic, and that is our previousepisode, the most popular
episode we do every single year.
I don't know if it's going tobe the most popular for this
year, but last episode we didRoadside Attraction, march
Madness, and it's so funny,craig, we got some feedback from
people in Patreon.
There are people that you knowthought it would.

(10:49):
They certain attractions gotripped off.
They were.
It was very clear that you werevery much pandering to the
patrons and I became the enemyof the patrons.
But I was just calling it andyou know know what Courtney was
calling it, how she saw it too.
But yeah, our friend Minnesotaboy, he thought the gum wall was
robbed.

(11:10):
some people had my back andthought that the presidential
heads was robbed, as you talkedabout that it's a very
subjective thing, but we didhave 8 patrons who did decide to
fill out a bracket of our MarchMadness, and I want to give a
big congratulations to SharonBabineau, who got not only 29

(11:34):
points, which was the highestamount of points, but she picked
the Field of Dreams as the 2025best roadside attraction.
She picked the winner.
She was the only one thatpicked the winner, so
congratulations, and she will begetting a purple Geo Challenge
of the Month rare GeoCoin sentto her for winning that

(11:57):
competition.
So congratulations, sharon, anddo you have any thoughts?
Post thoughts on the roadsideattraction March Madness, greg.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
All I'll say is that I wasn't just for the patrons,
josh.
I wasn't pandering to thepatrons, I was sticking up for
them.
There's a very big differencebecause they didn't have a voice
.
You see, and I personallythought that a few of their
selections were highly valuableand highly rated and, you know,
like the World Geek Park, forinstance, even Eartha as well, I
rated those above my own.

(12:26):
I'll be honest with you.
I rated them as a roadsideattraction above most of my own
as well.
So I wasn't pandering.
I'm more sticking up for thepatrons more so than pandering.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
Yes, pandering sounds like I'm talking down but it's
not.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's definitely not the case oh yeah not the case
but I will say that didn't meanpandering like talking down to
them I meant pandering, like youwere getting, trying to get
them on your side oh no, I don'tneed to do that either.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
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 heardme when I was talking and she
said craig, I do never want toget on the bad side of you,
because the way I way I wordthings around and sort of twist
and turn things around, she'slike you can really mix your
words, craig.
I'm like well, it's theAustralian in me, so you know,

(13:09):
we try and make everyone like us.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Are there a lot of lawyers in Australia?

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well, there's the same amount of lawyers Actually
no, probably less per capita inAustralia than what there is in
the US, because the US, you sueeveryone.
But there's a different story.
That's for another topic.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Oh, maybe Australians don't need lawyers because
they're really good at talkingthemselves out of things.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Correct On their own.
Exactly, and we don't call themlawyers.
In Australia they're calledsolicitors.
But anyway, that's anotherstory, josh.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
We're squirreling, there's people that don't like
us to squirrel, so let's getinto the topic of our charming
little town of Floresville,texas.
But we're not only going totalk about Floresville, texas,
we're going to talk about thewhole trip.
When I mean the whole trip iswhen I showed up, because you
are currently still on a trip.
The trip for you never, everends.

(14:03):
It is an infinity trip.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
It will.
It will end at one point intime it will.
I'm never going to be on theroad permanently.
There will be an end at somepoint.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yes.
So the first thing we're goingto say is that it is the Texas
Challenge that brought us toFloresville, texas, and if you
don't know what the TexasChallenge is, it is a long, long
running geocaching mega event.
And if you don't know what amega event is, it's any
geocaching event that is 500attendees or more, and this was

(14:34):
a very special one because itwas a block party event this
year because of the celebrationof geocaching being 25 years old
.
Mega events have theopportunity to apply to be a
block party event to celebratethe birthday of geocaching, so
the theme of this one wasbasically birthday, and the
Texas Challenge it is acompetition.

(14:54):
That's what makes it unique.
There's a team competition andan individual competition.
It involves finding lots ofcatches, it involves solving
puzzles, it involves whimsicalchallenges and each area of the
state of Texas has essentiallytheir own team and they work all
together to compete and it'sjust a lot of fun and that's why

(15:17):
we're there.
I had never been to the TexasChallenge before, craig.
I don't believe you had beeneither.
No, never, never been there.
So high level, high level.
What were your thoughts?
High level of the TexasChallenge event.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
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 stateof Texas.
So you've got, you know, northTexas versus.
You know, southeast versus Eastversus 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 versusthe rest of the world basically

(15:52):
.
So you had all different uhavenues, so it is more texas
based.
So I was surprised at actuallyhow many texans are geocaches as
well and how many players theydo have, and they all turn up
from their states in.
They're proud to turn up too.
So, um, yeah, so I enjoyed thataspect of it.
I also enjoyed how quickeverything was happening as well

(16:14):
.
Like I, I enjoyed it from theoutside.
Didn't enjoy it much from acamera guy's point of view
because it really rushed me perse, but um, but I enjoy watching
it the whole time as well, andso as, as you saw in the video
as well, if you haven't watchedthe video, go and watch Josh's
video Um, but, as they, theystart by opening up their boxes
to get the thumb drives out foreach of their teams.

(16:35):
Once that happens, next minute,everyone just literally rushes
everywhere.
So you've got people going outthe front door.
You've got all the teams startsplitting up because you've got
the puzzle solvers that sitinside on their computers
solving the puzzles.
You got the team members outthere rushing out there waiting
for the to get the call aboutwhere they're going.
Um, meanwhile they can go anddo other challenges at the same

(16:55):
time as well, or grab othercaches.
So it was a big thing and andI'll shout out to the
organization team because theydid a fantastic job to get
everyone on board, uh, to getthe 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 wasanyone pulled over for traffic

(17:17):
violations.
There may or may not have beenbut we didn't hear about it.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
We saw a couple.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
We don't know if there were geocachers no, no, we
can't assume these things, butyou know, maybe punching a stop
sign or exceeding the speedlimit, that sort of thing too.
But no, a lot of fun, Josh, andit was a lot of excitement and
it was a lot.
A lot happened all in a shortspace of time.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yes, I agree, very well planned out.
No-transcript they're just asyou'll hear, we have an

(18:15):
interview with the mayor comingup.
They're just so appreciativethat we choose to descend upon
their little town.
It way different if we, forexample just you know descended
on a big metropolitan area wherethey it's just not felt, and so
that's one of the things Ireally love about it, and it's
really the spirit of thispodcast is is talking about some

(18:37):
of these charming towns thatmaybe not a lot of people have
heard about exactly, exactly.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
All right.
So before we got there, josh,what happened before we got
there, nice?

Speaker 1 (18:47):
segue.
Nice segue, craig.
So the event was they had, likeany mega event, they had some
events leading up to it.
So I decided Wednesday eveningto fly into Houston.
Now we should say whereFloresville is.
Floresville is just about halfhour outside of San Antonio,

(19:07):
south of San Antonio, yeah,South, yeah, kind of Southeast,
I think, a little bit of SanAntonio.
But I decided to fly intoHouston mainly because the
flights were a bit cheaper, andyou were, you were actually in
that area.
So you were my, my ride, whichwas perfect.
And I'm just going to say thistravel.
Here's a travel tip.
Most flights are very earlymorning, but I chose to do an

(19:32):
evening flight and, craig, itwas so much better.
The late afternoon lines forTSA 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 betterexperience flying in the evening
than it was in the hustle andbustle of the early morning.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
So I'm gonna have it so you could have your bloody
mary at the airport withoutfeeling bad as well, because
it's actually in the evening.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
So I never feel bad about having a bloody mary
actually um and bloody marys areusually drink in the morning,
but as you know, I'll drink themat any time of the day.
It's my favorite alcoholicdrink.
So flew into Houston Wednesdaynight, stayed over at the La
Quinta in.
Did not much to say there otherthan they're great.

(20:20):
Woke up and I get going toparking lot and who is there?
but my best friend and big toesee my friend Greg Aussie
geocaster showing up in hisawesome van Big van Tuesday, the
big girl, yep, yep, yep, she'sready to pick you up.

(20:40):
I look at you, craig, and I saywhere are we going first?
And you took turn to me and yousaid Beer can house, beer can
house, beer can house.
That was it.
What a callback, what acallback to the last episode,
exactly as the beer can housewas a part of Roadside
Attraction March Madness, and Ican't remember.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
I think Eartha beat beer yeah, eartha, eartha beat
beer can house.
She did, she did that was a wow.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
That's a tough match-up because now that I have
been to the beer can house I'mlike oh, this is just fantastic.
Now I don't think we need to gointo big detail about the beer
can house, because we did talkabout it we did several times
already in this podcast.
But craig, high level.
If people haven't heard thatepisode, tell them what the beer
can house basically is.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
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 hisentire property, whether it be
on the fences, whether it be onthe house itself.
He then strung the tops andbottoms like big wind chimes all
around the awnings of the house.

(21:48):
He did the backyard area aswell, and now it is a full-on
museum where you can walk insideduring 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 tothem, we went and had uh lunch

(22:08):
after you visited the beer canhouse.
But, josh, you did a video aswell 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 (22:18):
I sort of did a video , but it was my video featuring
see my shell, the aussiegeocacher, because I was shocked
on how much knowledge you hadof the beer can house because
you had been there a weekearlier and you could work there
.
Craig, you knew you were anexcellent tour guide.
Thank you so much about it.

(22:39):
And at one point the video islike uh, craig, turn the camera
on me now and tell me somethingthat I can say, because you had
so much information.
I was like this is my video.
I have to have my face on thisa little bit, so that was cool.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
It's one of those things, Josh and this can be
throughout the entire world anddifferent subjects as well If
you're interested in something,then you're going to retain that
information, and so, for me, Iwas extremely.
As soon as I drove up the firsttime to the beer can house, I
was interested, I was keen, Iwas like how did this happen?
Why did it happen?
Who did this?
So I had all those questionsalready rolling around in my

(23:14):
head.
So as soon as the curator wasthere and she took us through
and she told us every littlebits and pieces, it, literally
it sunk in because I wasinterested and I was keen in it.
You know, it wasn't like youknow, one plus one equals two,
and this is a math equation forpi.
That would have gone over myhead, but I was interested in
this because I was really keento know all about it.
So yeah, like anything in life,Josh, if you're interested in

(23:36):
something, you can learn aboutit.
So that's what happened with me, mate.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
That's what happened with me so if you're interested
in seeing see my shell as a tourguide of the beer can house
when this uh episode posts, myvideo will have been posted the
day before, so it's perfect,perfect timing.
Yes, we did decide, because thebeer can house is sponsored by
saint arnold brewing company,which means you used to have to

(24:00):
pay to take the tour inside ofthe beer can house, but thanks
to saint arnold's, you don'thave to.
So beer townhouse, but thanksto saint arnold's, you don't
have to.
So we decided we have tosupport saint arnold's.
Of course that's.
You know it's.
It's a toil to really have tosupport a brewery, but we had to
so you drove me there and whenI arrived there I was so, so
impressed.
It was sort of in an industrialarea where a lot of these

(24:22):
breweries are created and it hadthe hugest, most beautiful
covered patio with like big TVsand there were beautiful
fountains and it was reallyreally impressive.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Had the big fans as well for the Texas heat.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
So yeah, cause it wasn't getting a little bit warm
?
It wasn't.
We'll talk a little bit moreabout the heat a little later
For you.
Oh well, come on that Fridaywe'll.
We'll get there that Fridaycoming up.
It was pretty hot but anywayhad a flight, we both had
flights and I had the mostdelicious smash burger.
Oh yeah, you did that I've had.

(25:02):
I really, craig.
I loved everything about thisplace.
I'm so glad you brought methere and you had been there
again the week before you'rejust repeating everything.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Yeah, um so so I loved it one of the best things
about that as well is that, asyou walk out and around, it also
sponsors the cars.
What was those cars Like?
Art cars, art, yes, the artcars, and it sponsors the art
cars, and so they had several ofthe art cars undercover for you
to view as well.
Now, when we start talking artcars, josh, try and explain to

(25:32):
people what one of them was like.
Just one of the art cars.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
They were like all themed.
There was one that was likechristmas themed and basically
it's like glue.
They must have glued like a tonof just random things upon,
yeah, the car.
There was one, I believe, thatwas like were there like
mermaids on it or something?

Speaker 4 (25:53):
yes, yeah, like like jewels and mermaids and stuff as
well.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
It's really hard to describe.
I you know.
I have some video of it on myphone.
I'm gonna have to make a tiktokof that you will you will you
will show what it's like.
It's very hard to describe, butjust 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 actualbeetles too george paul, ringo,
like the whole lot.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
So, yeah, they were there too, which is really
really cool.
So, yeah, so definitely worth avisit the beer can house,
followed by the St Arnold'sBrewing Company to say thank you
for the beer can house.
And then, josh, you saw thatthere was something else in town
.
I had seen it a week prior.
I was thinking about it, but weran out of time.

(26:37):
You have spoken about thisbefore, because I've never been
to one, but you have been to oneand it's called Meow Wolf.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Meow Wolf yes.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Meow.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Wolf.
Their advertising is working so, so well, because the minute I
landed in Houston, my phone knewI was in Houston and I was
scrolling Instagram and I waslike, oh my gosh, they have a
Meow Wolf in Houston and you'regoing to have to go to a
previous episode.
Meow Wolf is basically thiscurated bizarre art sort of

(27:07):
thing.
It's so hard, it's surreal.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
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 youwalk around and you, yeah, you
don't know what's up down leftor right at some point in time,
Very, very cool indeed, Verycool indeed.
So we didn't go there becausewe didn't have enough time.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
No, we had to get to Floresville, because Floresville
was three and a half hours awayfrom Houston.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, but Josh, you got to and but but, josh, you
gotta, you gotta stop at thebuckies along the way as well.
You can't?
Oh, of course stop at buckies.
Um people again.
If you don't not from texas oraround the southern states, you
don't know what buckies is.
Buckies is a huge and I'mtalking a huge gas station
location.
Uh, I'm talking over a hundredgas pumps at all these buckies
stops as well.
It is uh fantastic in regardsto anything to do with, like you

(27:57):
, you know, merchandise.
Bucky's merchandise is huge,but they are well known and
perfectly known for theirbathrooms.
They have world famous bathroom.
They call them, I think, worldfamous or world's cleanest
bathrooms, or gas stationbathrooms.
They are known for theirbathroom locations.
They've even got people sittingin their bathrooms like
cleaning it as you walk in andout of the actual bathrooms

(28:17):
themselves.
So that is really, really cool.
So we had to stop at a Bucky'sJosh as well.
So you stopped and you had some.
Did you have a?
You had some brisket.
I'm sure you had some brisketdidn't you?

Speaker 1 (28:26):
No, I wasn't that hungry Cause we just had the
smash burger.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Oh, that's right, we did too.
We did too.
Yeah, the number one rule ofBucky's is when you see buckies,
you stop at buckies stop youcan't but I had buckies.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
I had to get some beaver nuggets.
Oh, I love those.
Those things are like those.
Things are like crack man, Ilove that.
We call that.
It's like basically partcaramel puff corn.
I call it christmas cocainebecause it's the only time.
It's the only time it's reallymade up here north is at at the
holidays and we call itchristmas cocaine.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
it is so delicious I like it.
But anyway, afterets, josh, wefinally got to Floresville and
again we stayed at a La QuintaHotel in Floresville.
Now, I was surprised about howmany hotels there were actually
in Floresville.
And, josh, did you want toactually throw to the mayor now,
because we asked her thatquestion?

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Well, let's do it in the order that we met her.
You want order.
You want order.
You want order.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Okay, we'll have order because we didn't talk to
her until the Friday.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, let's do it in the order that we did it.
But, yes, that is true, we'lltalk a little bit about that in
the interview.
But basically a lot of hotelsfor this size of town and it's
mainly because there's just abeautiful convention center that
they built and that's where thetexas challenge was actually
located.
So after that we went, checkedin the hotel, we went to the
first geocaching welcome event,which was also at a restaurant,

(29:45):
um, made an appearance, saidhello to several of our friends
and then we went downtownbecause we wanted some.
We wanted some authenticmexican food.
If we're down in the sanantonio area, the mexican food
is at next level, at leastcompared to how it is up here in
the north.
Yes, and we went to get this.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna pronounceit, I think.

(30:05):
Okay, correctly, yeah, jaliscotaquera jalisco taquera did chat
.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Gbt, tell you how to pronounce that I did look it up
on Google.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Oh, you did that's good research right there,
because I could have struggled.
But yeah, jalisco Takiera, agreat family-owned authentic
Mexican restaurant right in theheart of downtown Floresville.
I had two blended margaritasNot one, but two.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
You had two.
I only had the one because Iwas driving.
I was very responsible.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, it was great.
Um, yeah, it was great.
I love these small town.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Uh, mexican restaurants it was.
I love it too.
As you said, it was in thedowntown area and in the
downtown region as well.
It's like it surrounds likethis square and in the side of
the square it had like the um,like a nice little park sort of
area where you could walkthrough.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
It had a good adventure labs in there as well,
and then it had a virtualgeocache, 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 peanutright in the middle which is
just a perfect, perfect virtualgeocache.

(31:19):
Um, and, yeah, you're right,that town square was amazing
there, the courthouse is rightthere, but then they also had
the old jail that was there.
Everything was really very niceand like not run down at all.
It was just a beautifulmayberry, mayberry ish.
Um, do you know what?
I don't know if you know what Imean when I say mayberry-ish,
but it's just a very sweetlittle downtown area and we did

(31:40):
the Giant Peanut virtual andthen we called it a night.
We did some Adventure Labs too,down there we did.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
We did Adventure Labs there as well, and then we had
to call it a night because wehad to be up quite early to get
a start on Friday as well.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah, we did yeah.
So Friday was the day beforethe actual block party, mega,
and this day, march 14th, march14th, so 3-1-4.
Pie day.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
It was pie day.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
And I'm really regretting that.
We didn't have any pie.
We didn't have any actual sweetpie, nor did we have even a
pizza.
We should have got pizza thatnight.
What were we thinking?

Speaker 4 (32:19):
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 (32:28):
that day it was almost 100 degrees on march 14th
and the texans were saying wewere apologizing.
They were like this is even hotfor us for this time of year
and it's kind of crazy.
I've been trying to escape allthe weather in Minnesota.
Guess how it was 70 degrees inMinnesota that day, so no wonder

(32:48):
it was 100 degrees down there.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
And just for anyone listening outside, the good old
US of A 100 degrees is aroundthe 37 to 38 Celsius mark For
the rest of the world yikes.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
So then we got into tuesday, your van and we drove
to another smallish town calledjordanton and we went to the
sunshine coffee house becausethere was a very special Pi Day
event, geocaching event hostedby none other than get this.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Captain Math, yeah, who is an old math teacher, an
ex-math teacher as well.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
It just tracks.
And let me just say, CaptainMath, he's what a guy.
I hope you're listening,Captain Math, because this guy,
I love this guy because he'sjust so passionate about
everything.
He does Everything.
He's passionate aboutgeocaching, he's passionate
about math.
His catchphrase is you do mathevery day.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
And that is kind of true.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Math is every day, it's important and how
appropriate to have Captain Mathhost 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 ageocaching event, do something,
do something, do something, dosomething.
Because there's so manygeocaching events, I go to where
people are just standing around.
Now, I'm fine.
I'm fine with socialization.

(34:07):
Socialization will alwayshappen no matter what.
But Captain Math decided toplay like this little game.
Yes, and it was like a MarchMadness bracket sort of thing.
It was really cool.
Can you describe it a littlebit, craig?

Speaker 4 (34:20):
So he started this game in Bama Rama.
So he did like a goodbye eventin Bama Rama the day after the
mega event in Bama Rama and hecreated this little game whereby
it's basically it's a bunch ofsticks on a pad and you've got
these woven like what do youcall it when you hacky sacks,
like woven hacky sacks filledfull of rice, and you've got two

(34:42):
different colors, two differentpeople 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 youropponent's one, then you get a
point.
But then get, uh, one on top ofthe your, your opponent's one,
then you get a point, but thenyou take their point as well.
So the idea is to try and getas many as you can on the board,

(35:05):
but then also stack them on top.
So that's where the math comesin as well.
So, yeah, that's how he heworked it out and it's a great.
It's a great event, a greatgame that he's worked out, and
now he's taking it on the roadwith him and we played it.
Uh, you played, you, you had ago too, josh.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
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 dosomething, yeah, do something at
your event, other than juststand around, exactly um because
it just makes everything somuch more interesting.
It gets it gets a little mundanewhen every geocache just feels
the same.
So that was great, it didn'tfeel the same.
I was so glad we drove all theway out there to experience it.

(35:42):
But then we got to get back toFloresville because there's
another event.
It's a meet and greet event andI think even the I think the
cash page was like come and meetthe geocaching vlogger, I think
, so I needed to get there.
Imagine if I didn't show up tothat one.
That would have been bad form.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
But in saying that it was at a place called Finders
Keepers, which is an antiqueshop or very similar to if
you're watching American Pickers, the TV show American Pickers
it was like two ladies' versionof the American Pickers in my
mind.
Tv show american pickers it waslike two ladies version of the
american pickers in my mind.
They had a really well set outstore filled to the brim full of
antique stuff, to the pointwhere, josh, I lost you quite a

(36:24):
few times because you went inand you didn't come out.
You the only time you come outis when you had bags full of
things.
So what did you actuallypurchase inside the finders
keepers?

Speaker 1 (36:35):
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 backto 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 avery special sticker on it that

(36:56):
said that it was sold atMcDonald's.
So there was still.
The part of the wrapping wasstill on it.
So I was like, oh my gosh, I'venever seen one of these
videocassettes sold byMcDonald's.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
And people are going to say Josh, why buy a
videocassette when you can watchit digitally, and it looks much
better in a digital format.
You're not going to watch thesevideos, are you, josh?
You'll be.
Basically, you're putting themon your shelf in your little man
cave in your office.
Uh, for show purposes only.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So yes, that's what they are yeah, yes so, yeah, and
I bought something else laterfor my brother that I saw and
it's actually in your van rightnow because it was too big for
me to put on a plane.
So thank you for that.
But the cool thing is at thisevent it's at the florisville
mural, and the mural isbeautiful.
If you see some of the pictures, it's like that old, those old

(37:45):
postcards, those that you know,that that kind of design, and it
had all the stuff offlorisville in it and we're
standing there in front of itand the, the organizer of the
texas challenge, is there, andthen all of a sudden walks up
the mayor, the mayor.
The mayor her name was gloria,and gloria was just lovely, uh,

(38:08):
and along with um, along with, Ibelieve, the city, not the city
, maybe the city planner, butshe also worked for the city as
well, and we had a littleconversation with them.
We did, we did, and I think weshould play it now.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
We can throw to it now.
So here's the mayor speakingwith Josh and I outside of
Finders Keepers in Floresville.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
All right, we are here, craig.
Yes, I know we're in.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
Floresville, texas.
Mate, what about thetemperature right now?
I know we don't talk about theweather normally, but the
temperature is absolutelyfantastic.
You're in short sleeves.
I mean you do have your longpants on still, but I've got
shorts on as well, but moreimportantly, who else have we
got with us right now?

Speaker 1 (38:46):
We have the mayor of Floresville here with us.
Hello, what is your name?

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Hello, my name is Gloria Morales-Cantu.
I am the mayor of Floresvilleand I welcome you on behalf of
the city.
I want to welcome you and I'mexcited.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I am very excited.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
I am so glad that you chose Floresville to be part of
your event.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Wonderful.
What is the thing for you, Ifyou had to sum it up?
What makes this community sospecial?

Speaker 2 (39:17):
So special is that our community is so united.
You know we have a lot of we'reunited, we're united the
majority of our people areunited, and we're we always.
Uh, when people come in, wetreat them with respect and, uh,
we love to have people come toforest hill and visit, visit us.
So, you know, spend their moneyhere.

(39:37):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
Well, we did see as well, just quickly, and that is
there's only like 7,000 actualresidents here in Floresville,
so predominantly it is actuallyquite a small town but there is
a number of places where you canvisit here, so there's lots of
hotels, so tourism quite bighere in Floresville as well.
Yeah, we have a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
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 manyhotels.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yes, do you have lots of conventions.
People that visit use thatevent center.
What is that event centermostly used for?

Speaker 2 (40:05):
usually, Our event center is used for weddings, for
dances, for extravaganzas andthe Fourth of July.
Oh, yes, we do a lot ofactivities there.
We just when the rodeo passesthrough here we have a great
time.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Texas rodeo.
I love a good rodeo, I know, Iknow I love a good Texas rodeo.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
And one thing and I dare say the poor mayor doesn't
even know this, but thegeocachers out there know this
and that is do you realize thatthere's a world record?
At the moment is in Floresville, for the biggest Adventure Lab
art in the world is actuallyhere in Floresville.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
She doesn't even know what Adventure Lab is.

Speaker 5 (40:42):
I don't know but there is a world record here.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
There is a world record here right now.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Those geocachers out there listening right now,
they're like what?
They're zooming in right now toFloresville.
They're looking at theAdventure Lab app and they're
like what is this Adventure Lab?
How many points are there?
But yeah, so geocachesthemselves.
Bring yourself to Floresvillein Texas.
It is a beautiful place to beand, as I said, the world record
for Adventure Labs, josh, likehundreds.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
And especially the second weekend in October when
we have our PETA Festival.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
Oh, the PETA Festival .
Oh, the PETA Festival.
We didn't even touch on that.
We'll have to touch on thatwith just the two of us.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Well, I got a good picture with the peanut downtown
.

Speaker 5 (41:16):
That was an essential .

Speaker 1 (41:17):
That was like one of the first things I did.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
And it was an actual peanut as well, like a mural,
not myself.
It was actually an actualsculpture, not me Speaking of
murals.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
I've been to a lot of smaller communities that have
murals.
It is beautiful.
Could you tell us a little bitabout this mural First?

Speaker 5 (41:37):
of all hello.
Who are you my?

Speaker 6 (41:39):
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 atFinders Keepers kind of reflects
our town and our community.
The center of it is thecourthouse that has been we are
the county seat of Wilson County.
That is our courthouse.
That has been we are the countyseat of Wilson County.
That is our courthouse.

(42:00):
Up on the top side of it you seethe original water tower that
was brought into the city ofFlorizel to provide
infrastructure to the city.
At the bottom you see some typeof farming.
Florizel and Wilson County isbig for its farming community.
On the other side you see atrain depot building.
The train from many years agodid pass through our town and it

(42:21):
is a historical marker now inthat 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 lawnas well.
So it kind of just gives you anidea of everything that takes
place in Floresville and whatwe're all about.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
It is a beautiful, beautiful mural and, yeah, it
totally captures everything thatwe've seen so far and I just
want to thank both of you forjust being such a friendly
community and friendly togeocachers.
Sometimes, when we go tocommunities, people are like
what the heck are you doing?
What are you looking at?
And it's so nice to have somany friendly faces that know
what we're doing, why we're hereand just have welcomed us so

(43:03):
kindly.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
So thank you so much.
As the mayor mentioned, we'reglad to have you all.
We're really glad you choseFloresville and we welcome you
and we hope that you have a goodtime Thank you One more
question.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Food recommendations One more question Food
recommendations.
I know maybe the mayor can't bebiased, but where should we eat
here in Floresville?

Speaker 6 (43:22):
I know some of you have visited Scooters Eats up on
181 North.
They're great for theirbarbecue and sandwiches and
their hamburgers.
You have some restaurants herein the downtown area that have
some great Mexican food.
Everything around here is great, though.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
You won't be upset anywhere.
You eat Awesome.
Thank you so much for talkingto us.

Speaker 6 (43:43):
Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
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 thisfinders keepers now, if you go
to floresville, do not miss thisstore.
It is a treasure trove andthere are two ladies that own it

(44:04):
.
We got to talk to them as well.
Craig, can we listen to them?
I?

Speaker 4 (44:08):
I want to relive that moment go straight to there as
well.
Absolutely, he's the.
The owners are now of um offinders Keepers in Floresville,
craig.

Speaker 5 (44:16):
I know right, we are here at Finders Keepers.
Yes, I can't think of a bettername of a store for geocachers
and a better name for a storefor our podcast, the Treasures
of Our Town, because the amountof treasures they have in
Finders Keepers is insane.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
And I've already found some treasures in there
already.
I could spend all day in there.
We have, I believe, the ownerscorrect, the owners of Finders
Keepers.
What is your name?
My name's Rebecca, hi, rebecca,and Denise.
And Denise, and you are theowners of Finders Keepers.
And let me just say, how didyou get what I'm looking at
right now?
Craig is the most beautifulmural.

(44:52):
It is gorgeous.
How did you get chosen to havethe most beautiful the icon?
This is iconic.
Yes, I know.
How did that?
How'd that come about?

Speaker 7 (45:00):
well, you know it was , it was an idea we had.
I have a bit of a artisticbackground and you see the
difference in, uh, in brick andnow, and so we always wanted
something here.
Yes, uh, and I had thought ofold signs and stuff, and then
one day I said it's got to be amural.
Yes, so this mural is based onthe postcards from the 50s that

(45:28):
had, you know, the city name,and so we wanted to make some
sort of an homage to the townthat has kept us open for 13
years now.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Tell us a little bit about what got you into the
antiquing business.
Have you both all beeninterested in antiquing and that
type of thing over the years?

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Yeah, I always have.
Yeah, I grew up repairingfurniture and buying and selling
and stuff like that.
So yeah, nice, it's a nicehobby.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
and stuff like that.
So yeah, nice, it's a nicehobby.
Yeah, for sure, a lot of work.

Speaker 7 (46:00):
Yeah, for sure, how about you?
I got it from my mom.
She always would buy antiquesand I mean she got me into this.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (46:09):
And I dropped my teaching career.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
Okay, wow.

Speaker 7 (46:15):
Yeah, that was pretty risky.
This used to be the grocerystore.
The grocery store for the town.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Before ATB, the big commercial grocery store came
and put everybody out ofbusiness.
So this was a grocery storefrom the old days.

Speaker 7 (46:32):
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 isquite.
You know, it's a lot of work.

Speaker 5 (46:45):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (46:45):
We said, let's just do it.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
And you did it.
Yes, it's beautiful.

Speaker 7 (46:52):
We got in debt and did it Awesome.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
So, Josh, you said before that you found some
hidden treasures in here.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Oh, already, already, Already.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
Do you want to explain firstly just quickly
what those treasures?

Speaker 1 (47:02):
were.
Well, let me just say thisfirst of all I just respect the
antiquing business In a worldwhere you can find anything on
eBay there's something reallyspecial about going into a store
and finding a treasure fromyour past or something nostalgic
from your past in the wild.
Yeah, it's.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
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 (47:26):
everyone's waiting for, everybody knows yes,
everybody knows I'm a big backto the future fan, so I found
some back to the future vhscassettes and they were.
They were very special ones.
They were McDonald's exclusivesfrom the 1990s.
They sold Back to the Futurethe VHS in McDonald's in 1994
and I'm a collector of Back tothe Future and I could buy them

(47:48):
on eBay.
But it's so much moresatisfying.

Speaker 7 (47:51):
To find them.
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
So the spirit of geocachers we're all about
finding things, finding, yes.
So when they said, hey, we wantto have a geocaching event in
your parking lot, what was yourreaction?
Did you know what geocachingwas?
We did not.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Okay, we had to look it up.
We know what scavenger hunt?
Is but we had never heard theterm geocaching.

Speaker 7 (48:12):
Yes, but actually too , yes, but we're so happy and so
honored that we you know thatyou guys chose us.
Uh, I have never seen so manyhappy people.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
We're friendly, happy people.

Speaker 7 (48:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's amazing.
That's awesome, it's somethingwe need right now.

Speaker 5 (48:28):
Happy people exactly one question I do have as well
is where do you get your stockfrom?
Because you've got such aeclectic sort of group of items
in there, from anything from, asyou said, the old VHS to I can
see right now just wrought ironstands out the front and chairs
and wheels, even wagon wheels,josh.
So where do you guys actuallyget your stuff from?

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Everywhere but a catalogue.
So, flea markets, garage sales,estate sales, auctions.
Hoarding Hoarding Hoards, youname.
Garage sales, estate sales,auction.
Hoarding holes, you name it.
Barns, barns, wherever we cango and dig we find it, it's like
American Pickers.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I was going to say that's kind of fun.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
This is the Texan version of American Pickers.
Yes, the real American Pickers,the Texas Pickers.

Speaker 7 (49:08):
And literally you never know what you're going to
buy.
Like sometimes we buy a pieceof furniture, we dig it out of a
garage and we bring it here andwe open the drawer and there's
a little dead rat inside Ratsand lizards and spiders and
everything.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Guys, you have to revive it all.

Speaker 7 (49:25):
You cannot imagine what we found, I'm sure,
absolutely Well.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Thank you again for hosting us.
What a fun location for ageocaching event I could spend
all day.

Speaker 5 (49:36):
we're gonna go back in now, josh.
We're gonna end this little, uhlittle chat now.
We're gonna go back in becauseI haven't been inside yet find
more treasures.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
We will, we will thank you, thank you guys I
loved that they were actuallydrawn into the mural I know they
were on the wall.
It was like a little where'swaldo thing.
They were just lovely, lovelypeople.
And again, don't miss Finders,keepers.
That was a real treasure ofthis town for sure, it really

(50:03):
was, it really was.
And it's filled with treasuresas well.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
Exactly, and by the sounds of it too, josh, I think
you I'm not sure if you, I can'trecall if you actually said it
or not, but anyway, we'll soonsee when, uh, when this, when
this podcast goes out, when I,when I do the edit.

(50:27):
So we'll see if you said yourcatchphrase or not?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
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 inthis episode, but yeah, I love
that, I love that.
So I bought a hundred dollarsworth of stuff at the store
because it was so, it was sogreat.
Yeah, um then, then it was sohot it was so hot.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Great.
We like the air conditioning.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
The air conditioning was good yeah, so we what we did
, something we went to the theparking lot of of the convention
center and we I did somethingI'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 (51:02):
Not this many, but I've gotten over 400 before.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Okay, well, I haven't , yeah, I've never have, so you
have.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
What we're talking about is Adventure Labs and,
specifically, adventure Lab artas well.
So there's like geo art in theshape of different things, and
they're all done with adventurelabs, and so what they do is is
you can all basically they'reall multiple choice sort of
questions and answers and so youcan literally sit there and
just click your phone, tap, tap,tap, tap, tap your phone and
you get the finds for it.

(51:30):
This one, I do believe, uh, ifnot the world's biggest, it is
definitely the biggest in theUSA, which is the most adventure
labs you can get while sittingin one place.
Josh, we got over 600 adventurelabs sitting there and it took
us two hours, but we're in theair conditioning comfort of the
van, so that was a good part.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
I have mixed feelings about it because I hit my I hit
my 9 000th milestone justsitting in a car in the air
conditioning.
Not really geocaching, becauseI, my belief is that this is not
really geocaching.
However, did that stop me fromdoing it?

Speaker 4 (52:08):
no, so you can say I'm a hypocrite.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Here's my belief on this.
This is not the spirit ofgeocaching.
Adventure Labs, I believe, arewhen you go to the location and
you get information from thatlocation to put into the app.
That, in my view, that isgeocaching.
This is something different,however.
It is a bonus.
If you spend money, get a planeticket to go to one of these
events and they have these there.

(52:33):
It is sort of like a bonus.
I think it's a bonus forshowing up and for being there.
You have to actually still bethere, yes, so in that sense
it's location-based, but again,it doesn't feel like geocaching.
I'm really curious about thefuture of this.
Is geocaching hq going to letthis continue to go on?

Speaker 4 (52:52):
well, they know they try.
They tried a few years back now.
They tried to actually stop ita little bit from happening by
putting in a smaller radius ofgeofences, um, and then that
stopped again.
So no, they haven't gone backto that again.
So, but yeah, they tried toshorten the amount of geofencing
that was allowed.
See, people were doing up toone mile geofencing, whereas

(53:13):
they try to shorten it down.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
So you know how they could fix it a little bit is
that they don't allow multiplechoice any longer.
That could be.
It would slow people down.
It would slow people down where, where, what?
What took us two hours wouldhave taken us probably several
days exactly, exactly becauseyou'd have to read everything.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
This way we didn't read anything.
Or they can leave the multiplechoice in and I've said this on
a different geocaching podcastbefore.
They can leave the multiplechoice in, but if you get it
wrong the first time, it locksyour phone for two minutes.
Get it wrong the second time,it goes to five minutes, get it
wrong the third time out of amultiple choice and locks your
phone for 10 minutes.
That would make people actuallyread the description and try

(54:03):
and get the correct answerrather than just just guess each
time.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
So that's my my thoughts anyway.
Yeah, I my opinion is hq's gotto do something about this I
think it's I and I know theargument 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, itcheapens it.
It cheapens the whole app itdoes, if you're because there
are some people.
There are some people at texaschallenge apparently that

(54:26):
weren't even geocachers, theywere just adventure lab people.
Yeah, which is reallyfascinating 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 my10,000th find.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
That's cool.
What do you got?
Do you got anything in mind foryour 10K?

Speaker 1 (54:46):
If I choose to do the Adventure Lab art in West
Virginia, I'm going to get veryclose to 10,000 during Woodstock
.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
So Woodstock would be your 10K then.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yeah, I don't know, but I don't know how many.
How many finds that is?
If it's only like 400, or doyou know how many finds it is,
we'll have to, we'll have tolook after the show josh, let's
continue on, let's continue on.
Yeah, okay we'll continue on,but again, even if there are 400
, that's not going to get me to10 000, because I'm at like 9
200 anyway, yeah, nerdville,that was nerdville.

(55:15):
So then we went to anotherevent and this was like, I guess
maybe the official welcomeevent of Texas.
Challenge it was called Signalto the Rescue, yep, and Signal
showed up in a fire truck.
He did he did.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
That was really cool.
Yeah, he showed up in a firetruck.
We're outside where the eventlocation was the next day.
We're outside there in the heat, so it didn't last too long.
People sort of were getting areally little bit too much in
the heat and, you know, a bitbothered by it, and so people
were sort of leaving and we didas well.
We left soon after.
We said hello to everyone, ofcourse, you know, did photos

(55:57):
with signal and whatnot, andthen we left because we heard
this place and we'd heard itdirectly and you heard it
already as well on this podcastfrom the mayor herself.
She said you need the mayor, weneeded to go and dine at
scooters eats 181, scooters eats181, which is down the road,
and, josh, they did not, not atall.
If you're anywhere near theFlorida, you have to try

(56:18):
Scooters Eats 181.
It used to be a trailer or atruck Food truck, food truck,
food truck business, yeah, foodtruck business, and it used to
be a husband and wife team withtheir boys, their kids, and now
they've actually gone intoSticks and Bricks location as
well.
It is in a bit of a strip mallso you can't really tell it's a

(56:38):
good restaurant from theoutskirts but from the inside.
Oh man, and that food delicious.
We had these macaroni andcheese dishes.
Josh, I think you had chickenon yours and I had pulled
brisket on mine too.
Oh man, it was brisket on macand cheese.
Oh, wow, wow.

Speaker 7 (56:58):
People are brisket on mac and cheese.

Speaker 4 (56:59):
Oh wow, wow people are salivating just thinking
about that.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Now, I'm just telling you right now yeah, so you know
, when you travel, when youtravel, 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 burgersand this place did have burgers
, I'm sure they were very goodof course when we saw the menu
we were like, oh, let's trythese macaroni and cheese dishes
.
And I always you know I was.
When I go to a new place, Ialways look at the people that
work there.
It's like what do people gethere?

Speaker 4 (57:21):
That's what I would say.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Exactly Unique.
So it was very good.
We talked to the owner.
They were just lovely, lovelypeople.
Yeah, and it was so great andwe actually asked them get a
drink and they suggested anotherlittle town in the area called
lavernia, texas, and we went tothis place called the den.

Speaker 4 (57:42):
The den was much, much, much bigger than what uh
scooters was like.
It was, yes a huge outdoorsection.
There was kids running aroundin their own little kid play
park as well.
Can you imagine growing up joshas a as as a kid, and your
parents taking to that locationlocation every Friday and
Saturday night?
You'd be loving it, absolutelyloving it.
There'd be no such thing asthis little dingy bar where you

(58:04):
just jump from seat to seat andplay your own pinball games.
But yeah, that's all it wasRight.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, yes, this place was so kid-friendly.
The patio was enormous, therewas a band playing old country
music, there was a dance floor.
Um, I had a couple bloody marysyeah, we had, we had beer, it
was.
It was a just a wonderfulsurprise and a very.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
It was a classy place too, and you're right, this
kids area was basically like apark inside of the, of the patio
and when I say patio it wasjust enormous and it was all
closed in, fenced in as well, sothe kids couldn't go anywhere
at all, like out towards aparking lot or any of that sort
of stuff too.
So it was very, uh, safe forthem as well, for the kids.
But, josh, your bloody mary, ithad.

(58:50):
It had a, a what do you call?
A full stick of bacon in it inyour bloody mary?
I hadn't seen that before Ihave.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
I think about bloody berries is like if the bloody
mares can be a meal at the atthe twins game here.
You know you went to the twinshere and yeah with me.
They have a bloody mary wherethey have a burger inside of the
bloody mary a burger so Iwasn'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 (59:21):
Got to go to bed.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
We did.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
We went straight to bed, not now, but Straight to
sleep.
Straight to sleep because wehad a very, very early start.
The doors opened at 7 am, 7 amNow.
We got there at like half pastsix and there was already lines
galore already.
What did you think about that?

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Josh, it was just very evident how hardcore people
are.
They had to get there earlybecause they had to strategize
as a whole team and we decidedwe were going to do something
special with the video.
We were going to make asurvivor-style edited video.
Both Craig and I, we were bothfans of survivor, so we thought,

(01:00:00):
oh, this is really cool to like, highlight the texas challenge,
this competition, in a survivorstyle.
And it worked really well,because in survivor there's
challenges, in survivor there'scompetition.
Now there was no voting peopleout or anything like that, um,
obviously, but um, this was thevision of it and, craig, I'm
just gonna say that much creditto you.
Um, you, you pulled it off.

(01:00:20):
It's a 20 minute video, so it'salmost like a half episode of
survivor.
Please, please, if you haven'tseen that video, give it a watch
.
It's, it'll be on my youtubechannel.
But we get there, craig, and andyes, we go in there and there's
different groups at differenttables and they're all
strategizing, they're all tryingto figure out what to do, and
then you, like you said, thecaptains are on the stage, and

(01:00:42):
then they opened presents,because it was birthday thing.
They opened presents with like,like oven mitts on, which made
it very challenging, and insidethe, the presents were the thumb
drives to all the locations ofall the geocaches, and then, as
you said before, they open it upand they run out the puzzle.
People stay back and they'resolving the puzzles.
And then there's also likecommunications, people that

(01:01:05):
communicate to the people out inthe field.
This is it's like and it's likemission control there.
Yes, it was really cool andthere were silly challenges.
One of the silly challengeslike they had to carry a
inflatable cow over their headwhile holding a potato between

(01:01:26):
their legs, and it was there waslike 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 withpeople afterwards, a la survivor
style, wove them in with lotsof the b-roll.
Yeah, it was.
It was fantastic.
It was really cool to watch itbecause a lot of people were
asking me josh, are you going tocompete?

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
and I was like, no, I I think it would be much more
fun, yeah, to observe it and bekind of like the jeff probst of
the event and and you reallyfeel, if you, if you watch the
video, you'll see as well, joshdoes take on that Jeff sort of
role very, very well, runningaround with them, egging them on
and then in some cases, even,you know, dissing them to other

(01:02:02):
teams, saying you know, eastregion did better than this.
Come on, you can move faster.
You know things like that.
So, josh, you really hit theenergy up there and I do believe
I will say that a few of theteam people and uh felt that
energy and went with it as well,so they wouldn't have gone
through the, the, the challengesas quick compared to when you

(01:02:23):
were there egging them on.
So, yeah, so a big, big, uh,big shout out to you, mate, for
egging everyone on, like, likewe did too.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
so it was really, really cool yeah, I might have
been a distraction too, but whoknows?

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
no, not, not to everyone all right, so the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
So that was the team competition.
After that they did the, the,essentially the individual
competition, which we didn't getto see a lot of because we
stayed back and we weresocializing at the, at the place
and talking to people and thenI ran, we ran into an old friend
and patron of, not only notonly a patron of the geocaching
vlogger, but the patron of thispodcast as well, and taeus and

(01:03:01):
he comes up to me.
He is from um, the san antonioarea.
He walks up to him.
I didn't even recognize him.
He had he had like the metaglasses on.
Oh yeah, yeah, it was cool andI was like, hey, let's get a
drink or let's have you hadlunch.
So he takes us to this place.
It's apparently it's a chain inthe south, so every anybody
who's listening that's fromtexas.
You probably know about thisplace, but we had yet to have

(01:03:23):
barbecue.
Well, I guess you had a littlebit of barbecue inside your,
your mac and cheese I did, I didbut we went to a place called
bill millers which was a a chain.
It was a barbecue chain, yeah,and it was great it was.
It was the prices were right.
It was not the best barbecueI've ever had in my life, but it
certainly was not the worst.
It's a chain, it's a chain, itwas.

(01:03:45):
It hit the spot for lunch Ienjoyed it, definitely,
definitely, um.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
And, as as always as well, that chain didn't actually
have any alcoholic beveragesand we needed at least one b uh
with enteus as well.
So you found a little dive barjosh in the middle of town, like
actually inside the middle oftown itself called big dan's
place yes, and this is how Ifind dive bar as I go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Hey, siri, find me the closest dive bar in town.
And then it gives me theanswers.
Look, it just gave me theanswers where I am, where I am
right now.
And so we go to this place bigdance, which was right next to
the mexican place that we talkedabout earlier and as we walk up
, it's not open.
But guess who walked up?
Right as we walked up big bigdan himself was.

Speaker 4 (01:04:31):
He wasn't that big.
I thought it might have beenbigger.
His hat, his wide brim texashat, was the big part about Big
Dan.
That's what I'll say.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Yes, but he was just like.
Oh my gosh, these are the typeof personalities Like this guy
was a character.
Yeah, basic dive bar beer.
I mean, you walk into that bar.
It was like stepping back intime, oh yeah, cash only as well
.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
no cash, only bottled b only.
No, no, b pulls a bottle b, thestock standard stuff, just
bottles of b.
Um, there was even like anegyptian thing as you went to
the bathroom or something.
What was that?
A mummy or an egyptian thinggoing 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, thetexas challenge itself and, uh,

(01:05:21):
when we saw all the, the solo,the individual players and
finishes came into place as well.

Speaker 6 (01:05:27):
So, yeah, that was.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
That was really cool, so we saw them.
Um then we had to have a littlebreak, josh, before the next
event that was happening yes, wehad a little break.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
We took a nap.
We can you believe it?

Speaker 4 (01:05:39):
we took a nap you did , I didn't, you did.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
I was downloading footage onto my computer, so I'd
make sure I actually didn't, Iactually didn't take a nap, I
just kind of laid down.

Speaker 4 (01:05:49):
But then we had another, another party, another
event yeah, another event.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
It was a texas challenger finishers party,
basically.
So if you don't know, thethere's a big challenge here in
texas to find a geocache inevery single county in texas and
there's like what?

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
257 counties or something crazy.
Seven counties, yeah yep andcrazy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
and this is where the people that have completed it
for that year get to be a partof it and get to put their name
on the ammo can or whatever theyget their t-shirt that says
what number they completed it.
Yep.
And it was fun.
I mean, that is an amazingchallenge, it's something that
you should be proud of, and Ithink it's really cool that the

(01:06:34):
Texasxas geocaching associationhas 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, butthere's no events that celebrate
it every single year, becausethis is just so big and epic and
, yeah, you can tell there was alot of pride in that room as

(01:06:54):
people had just completed.
And then then the formerfinishers they were all wearing
their T-shirts, like I was the10th person, I was the 20th
person to finish it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:02):
I was the 250th person to finish it.
There's numbers up there, andwhat I love as well is people
like our good friend, captainMath, who we spoke about earlier
as well.
He was out and about.
He wasn't there for the actualTexas challenge to challenge
himself in terms of the event.
He was there because he wantedto actually do the finishers
party eventually.
So he was out and about withhis wife as well, doing more and

(01:07:26):
more and more counties, and Ido believe, having looked at his
social media, he's now finishedthe entire lower half of Texas
counties, which is really coolto see.
So congratulations.
Well done to Captain Math Froman out-of-towner point of view,
because he's up on the eastcoast of the good old US.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Do you have aspirations to complete that
challenge yourself One day?
I will One day.
Yeah, you certainly have moredone than I do.
I don't know, I don't know, Idon't know if I want to.
I love Texas, but I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:07:55):
I don't know if I want to, I love.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Texas, but I don't know if I want to spend that
much time in.

Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Texas.
If you look at my map, josh,you can tell the directions in
which I've traveled, becausethere's straight lines, because
I haven't missed one.
I've made sure that I've gotone as I go across, whether I go
from east to west, north tosouth or east to west up north,
for instance, as well.
So there's different lines thatI've actually completed the
challenge in, but I haven'tactually done the entire lot.

(01:08:19):
But no, I will do it at onepoint in time, absolutely so.
But we were really really tiredthat night, josh, and we end up
calling it a night and we'redone, because you had to be up
early and I had to drive you toSan Antonio for your flight.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Yeah, I had to be.
When did I have to be at?
I'd be at the airport at like 530 5, 30 am, so that means we
had to leave at 4, 45 4 45, justin case.

Speaker 4 (01:08:42):
Tuesday had any issues, which you know, I, I, I
worked her out well and Istarted to drive her in manual
mode so I could actually keepthe revs high.
So it didn't actually struggle.
So I did that and then I gother fixed on the Monday
following that.
So I stayed right near theairport all day.
Sunday I had a nap and starteddoing the edits and that too.

(01:09:03):
So that's all I did.
So, josh, that ends theFloresville event.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
What's crazy is that Sunday morning I was back in my
living room at 9.30 am in.

Speaker 5 (01:09:14):
Minnesota.
Oh wow, in the morning Isn'tthat wild.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
That is cool.
That is cool.
Wake up, wake up in texas.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
And yeah, this is the , the miracle of flight, I tell
you I know, I know now, josh, wedid mention at the start of
this, this is our 50th episodeand we do have our patrons to
thank as well for for their helpand support for this.
But before before we do, we'vegot a brand new, another brand
new patron as well, melanie, asin M-E-L-O-N.

(01:09:41):
Melanie and then knee, but hername is actually Melanie as well
.
She is a geocacher and a Munzeeplayer as well, so she coexists
.
And, josh, she's part of theBamarama crew as well, so she's
in the committee for Bamaramawhich, as you know, or should
know, if you've listened to thepodcast before I am now proudly
a committee member for 2026.
And so I'll be living thingsout here and there on all

(01:10:03):
different social medias overthis 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 comenext year now because I'm part
of the crew.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
So that would be really cool.
It's a party.
It's more than one party, it'sseveral parties.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
It's several parties and they lead all into one.
If if you don't know what a asnowbird is, you know with their
old, older, older retiredpeople who literally come down
South for the winter.
That's it it called snowbirdsin In Australia.
They go north for the winterbecause that's where it's warmer
.
And that's what it is.
It's a party and it's like an11-day party, lead-up event

(01:10:40):
party to the BamaRama eventitself.
So a big shout-out and thankyou, melanie.
But Josh, if other people wantto join the patron, how do they
do that?

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we really
appreciate your support.
As I said before, we need fundsto keep this running.
There are costs associated withrunning a podcast and we will
keep it going as long as we havethe support to do it, and we
have never well, I should neversay never had a commercial.
We promote things.
It's not really commercials.

(01:11:09):
That's not commercial.
This is supported by patrons.
So if you're interested insupporting us at Patreon, just
go to patreoncom backslashtreasures of our town.
There are golden nuggets there.
You know what, Craig?
Yeah, the patrons got to seethe Floresville Texas Challenge
video before anyone else.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
They did, they did, and thank you, josh, for that as
well, because I know you sharethat with your patrons as well,
but thank you for sharing itwith the treasures of our town
patrons also.
But also, josh, how can peoplefind us if they want to contact
us for any means?

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Yes, feel free to reach out to us at
treasuresofourtownpodcast atgmailcom, or you can follow us
on Facebook, instagram, x andYouTube.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
And that's it for our show today.
Please subscribe, rate andreview on your favorite podcast
app and, as always, Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
The air travels always lead you to the most
unexpected and amazing charminglittle towns like Floresville,
and we'll see you next time.
And a special thank you to themayor of Floresville, all the
people, the committee at theTexas Challenge, Thanks for
being a great host.
Thanks for listening everybody.
We'll see you on the nextepisode.
Bye.