Wandering the Wolverine State & MidWest Geobash

Send us a text

We explore the hidden treasures of Michigan through Craig's recent two-and-a-half-week journey across 72 of the state's 83 counties, revealing why the often-forgotten Upper Peninsula might be America's best-kept travel secret.

• Traversing Michigan's varied landscape from farmlands to freshwater beaches
• Discovering the Upper Peninsula's unique character and wilderness (30% of Michigan's land area)
• Crossing the magnificent 5-mile Mackinac Bridge that connects the two peninsulas
• Finding pristine swimming spots like Perrot Lake with crystal-clear freshwater
• Visiting quirky attractions like the 500-pound "man-killing clam" at Seashell City 
• Exploring Michigan's craft beer scene with creative flight presentations
• Experiencing authentic American moments like roadside lemonade stands
• Attending the Midwest Geobash event with its community impact on local businesses
• Using apps like I Overlander to find free overnight parking spots
• Witnessing spectacular Lake Michigan sunsets that rival ocean vistas

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app. You can also follow us on social media or reach out via email at [e-mail].

Support the show

Facebook
Instagram
X
Youtube

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm looking at it right now.
I'm looking at it.
It says it's called it's inSheboygan, michigan.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's called the man-killing clam.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, that's it.
That's it, the man-killing clam.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Do you love to travel ?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Do you love road trips?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all
over the USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's the podcast that exploresthe unique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Guided by our love for location-based games like
geocaching, join us as weventure to some of the country's
most intriguing destinations,uncovering hidden gems and local
secrets along the way.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
On today's episode.
Josh, this time it's all aboutme, me, me, me, me.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's all about you.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's all about me and my recent trips, adventures,
travels all around the greatstate of Michigan.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I am so excited to hear it.
I have not spent a whole lot oftime in Michigan myself.
I've dabbled in Detroit, I'vedabbled in Grand Rapids, but
everything in the middle.
I haven't really checked outanything in the middle.
I've been on both sides, Ihaven't checked out.
Oh, I've been.
You know, craig, I've been upto the UP too.
You did the up.

(01:15):
Oh, there you go.
Did you get up there?
Well, we'll find out?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
We'll find out.
Stay tuned, exactly out.
Stay tuned, exactly.
But, mate, it's been a minutesince you and I have had a chat.
We did miss last week's episode, but but, josh, in saying that,
we're now back on track, see,because, remember, we missed out
an episode after geo woodstockbecause we were slammed and busy
as well and therefore we wentoff weeks and now we're back on

(01:40):
the weeks again, see, so that'sthe positives.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm a positive guy well, it is a good excuse
because this is a podcast, atravel podcast, guided by our
love for location-based games.
And, let's just face it, allyour travels have been guided by
geocaching as you go to mega,to mega, to mega, and when these
big megas arrive, like geowoodstock or midwest geobash,
which you just attended, it's alittle bit tough it's a little

(02:04):
bit tough.
It's a little bit tough to likefocus on the content of the
podcast.
You gotta live in the moment,craig, you gotta be present for
the moment, and so you were, youwere focused on, I was I was
your bash and you know whatwe're going to talk a little bit
about that too.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So there's going to be some high level geocaching
content in this episode andwe'll put that at the very end
so we can get through it, andthen if, and then, if you're not
a non-geocaching oh I hategeocaching and they can turn it
off at the end.
So that's what they can do.
But, mate, what have you beenup to in the meantime?
I will say now your beard islooking absolutely fantastic

(02:40):
right now.
It is grown, it's got depth,it's got body, it's got balance,
it's got bounce, you know?
And and that's the hair on yourface I'm talking about, not the
hair on your head, josh, pleasetell me you don't.
The hair on my head has bounceexactly you don't blow dry your
beard as well every morning, doyou?

Speaker 1 (02:57):
no, I haven't.
Let's see if the listeners canhear it ready.
Here we go.
I'm gonna rub it against themicrophone.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's it.
That's not my chin, that's hair.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
That's hair.
And then this is mine, ready.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Ooh, yours is a little scruffly.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, because mine's actually smaller at the moment.
Mine's shorter than yours, josh, because I've just trimmed up.
I know I've just trimmed up,but anyway, josh, quick question
for you are you going to keepit?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
am I going what?
Going to keep it the bead?
Are you going to keep the?
Oh?
Am I going to keep it?
Yeah, oh, I don't know.
We'll see.
You know I've gotten somepositive responses about it, but
you know how it goes.
Most people, polite people, arenot that don't like it, are not
, just not going to say anything, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
So it's hard to know, you know, if people really do
like it or as we said so manypeople that don't say anything
as I said last episode, josh,when we spoke about this, when
you just started growing it aswell, it doesn't matter what
anyone thinks.
Apart from you, sir, you andyou alone.
No one else should influenceyour decisions and the way you
want to look, the way you wantto dress, the way you want to

(04:10):
act.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I know this.
I know this.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
You of all people, I can't decide.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I can't decide if I like it or not.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Fair enough.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's not gone yet.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
No, it's not gone yet , and before you do, Josh, I'm
going to say this as well Iwould love it for you to put it
out there on Instagram on astory yes, no, keep go.
That's it, and that will maybemake your decision a little bit
easier if you're still on thefence when you're thinking about
actually taking it off or not.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Maybe I should let the patrons decide.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes, the patrons first.
So much power, I know right,power of the patrons.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Again, they're going to be polite.
I think they're going to bepolite and I think I think
people also will like it,because it's novel Like Ooh,
it's different, I like it, it'sdifferent.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
But, josh, I'm proud to say become a man like.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
If you look manly like you look like you're all
grown up now you're not like alittle boy anymore.
You look like you look like afather of three adults.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
That's what you look like I don't need a beard to
tell me that I'm a man.
I'm saying you look like afather of three adults is more
like it you know I don't.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
You can't see a lot of gray in my hair because I'm
pretty blonde still, but withthe beard you can see see the
great clear, yeah you can seethat I am actually, yeah, the
age I am and that's what I likethat, but also the the laughter
lines.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Give it away as well.
Josh, you have a look at back,at your back in your videos.
You know 10, 12 years ago youryoutube videos, you didn't have
the laughter lines like you donow, so it is what it is it's.
But either way, it's what'sinside that counts.
It doesn't matter how you look,it's how you feel that matters
you are preaching to the choir.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
You are you of all people I know, I know I'm
actually doing your job back atyou.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
That's what I'm doing there, you go.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
it's always good to have reminders, so, but we got
to go to our upgrades and delays.
We literally have not reallytalked to each other since the
last time we recorded thepodcast, which was like three
weeks ago, right Two or threeweeks ago.
Two weeks ago, two and a bitweeks ago, Because people that
don't know this, like we everyonce in a while.
Well, you know, we'll do alittle FaceTime and stuff and
just check in, but we reallyit's been so, so busy.

(06:22):
So, here's my delay.
I'll tell you my delay first.
Guess what I'm in the middle ofright now.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Middle of right now Work.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yes, but I am on call for jury duty.
Oh no, I know.
It's like the busiest time ofyear too.
It's like the worst possibletime to be called in for jury
duty.
So I got called in the firstday of jury duty and guess what?
I got picked for a jury.
Dun, dun, dun.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Horrible.
No, it's because of the beard.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I trust that guy.
I trust that guy.
He looks like a father of three.
Yeah, well, I know.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, I got well, Well, hold on.
I got picked for the jury andthen they're like okay, the
trial's going to start afterlunch.
So I went to lunch, I came backand the judge comes in and goes
we're not having a trial todaybecause one of the witnesses
didn't show up, so I got out ofit.
No more jury duty.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
So it's all done.
That was it One day, that wasit Done.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
How much did you get paid for that?
Did you get paid?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
20 bucks, 20 bucks a day, really, wow, that's bad.
Wow, wow, 20 bucks is 20 bucks.
Some people say Anyway, I willnever, ever, ever in my life get
selected for jury duty, josh.
Why One?
Because I'm an ex-cop.
So we are out of jury dutybecause we are way too biased in

(07:43):
regards to the life of a policeofficer.
So, yeah, I'll never getselected for jury duty in any
way, shape or form.
So do you have an upgrade?
If that's the case, then, josh,or do you want me to go through
mine?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
You go to your delay first.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, my delay, I'm going to say my delay, josh, is
the fact that we haven'tactually recorded.
That's my delay, josh is beingis the fact that we haven't
actually recorded.
That's my delay.
I haven't had time to recordthis episode.
Uh, to chat to you, um, to getthings started and get things
out underway.
I mean, you and I, uponrecording this, you know,
tonight, right now, I come upwith a show notes, this today,
like so it was that last minute.

(08:19):
You know what I mean.
So, um, yeah, so my delay is is, yeah, the, the lack of time
I've managed to get to actuallyrecord Very different.
You know, I do the Munzeepodcast every single week,
that's every single Wednesday.
Rob and I get tied down forthat.
The GCPC, I get tied down withthat.
However, last week not thisweek, just gone, but the week
before I wasn't even on GCPC.

(08:41):
I was that busy, yeah, busy,yeah.
That is the thing you, I wasn'teven on GCPC.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
I was that busy, yeah , busy, yeah.
That is the thing.
You have appointment recordingfor those other podcasts.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Maybe we should learn from those other podcasts and
we should have a day set.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
I can't get you tied down to a date and time, and
that's the other thing, josh.
That's another reason why welike this to be recorded, rather
than a live podcast too, so wedon't have to settle on dates.
We can record at midnight if wewant.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
So that's my delay your upgrade, josh?
What's your upgrade?
Oh my gosh, I was sitting atwork one day I don't think I
shared this at the previouspodcast, I don't think so and
all of a sudden one of mycoworkers says hey, does anybody
want to go to the Yacht ClubMusic Festival?
Now, let.
Does anybody want to go to theYacht Club Music Festival?
Now, let me tell you what theYacht Club Music Festival is.
It's a three-day music festivalin the Twin Cities.
We're talking Green Day, we'retalking Weezer, we're talking

(09:31):
Sublime, we're talking 311.
We're talking Hozier, we'retalking Sheryl Crow All these
big stars.
Green Day is my favorite band,and she goes.
Does anybody want to go?
Wow, and green day is myfavorite band, and she goes does
anybody want to go?
I got a.
I got two three-day wristbandsfor this festival.
This was two weekends ago.
Yeah, I said yes, please, I'lltake them.

(09:53):
I was pretty free that weekend,and so I get there the first
day to get my wristbands andthey are vip wristbands what?
They're worth a thousanddollars a piece.
And you got two of them.
I got two of them, wow.
And so what the vip did?
It got you into the specialsection where I had my own like
own bathroom area and they hadtheir own drink area.

(10:16):
But the best thing, correct,the best thing is that I got to
go almost right up to the frontof the stage for everything.
I had access to almost thefront and I got to see some of
my favorite bands, includingGreen Day.
I never thought I'd get to seeGreen Day that close.
It was so, so cool.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
You're living your best life, Josh.
Last episode, your upgrade wasthe fact that you saw the Back
to the Future guy as well.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, Marvin Barry.
Marvin Barry, he's my friendnow.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, exactly, You're living your best life, Josh.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
I tell you this summer I haven't done a lot of
geocaching travel, but it isinteresting.
Good things have been happeningto me, Strange good things
fortune.
So somebody's looking out forme out there, Yep Change good
things fortune.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
So somebody's looking out for me out there.
Yep, exactly right, that's fairenough, fair enough.
And as we record this now,you're holding Goliath, good old
little Goliath, and we'll sayit's true what they say about
dogs and their owners.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Now, with you having that beard, Anyway, it's a
haircut so bad you can't evensee Poor guy.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
You need to shave, you can't see where your beard
ends.
And his first start my upgrade,josh, would be.
The fact is that, yes, I've hadan absolute blast of a time at
Midwest Geobash over the lastweekend.
It's like four days three daysof leap events and then the big

(11:36):
day itself as well.
I'd never been to MidwestGeobash.
I was there with friends and wehad a fantastic time, josh, it
was a really good time, you know.
Yeah, it's a party, it's so funand we'll talk about more of
that, because there's differentways.
You can play Midwest Geobash,but at the same time yeah, but
at the same time, while I wasthere, they had two big munzee

(11:59):
events on as well, you see.
So you know, there was lots andlots of cards and, uh, if
you're a munzee player, lots ofpoints to be had and a lot of
blasting to be done, etc.
And so that was really reallycool too.
So that's, that'd be my upgrade, josh, is the fact that I've
been, I've been playing all ofour games like, yes, even me
from home.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
I got almost 200 000 cap on points from midwest
geobash.
So thank you so much.
You're welcome leading the waybecause there it went mega,
there was over 50 people.
Yes, that's pretty big.
Um, that's huge.
That has not happened.
I don't know.
I can't remember that happenedat geo woodstock.
That was the last timeoWoodstock.
That was the last time ithappened, right.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, that was the last time it happened.
And then it happens sometimesat the big planned ones.
You know, minnesota is comingup in September, for instance,
where there's a big planned one.
There's already like 45 willattend for that.
So those sort of those areplanned ones.
It always happens, but itwasn't planned to be mega.
So that was good to see, thatwas good to see.
All right, josh, let's move onnow into the episode itself,

(13:01):
into Michigan, josh.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Michigan, which is the?
I don't know.
I know they're the Wolverines,the Michigan Wolverines.
Is it the Wolverine State?
People are going to have tomessage us.
They're probably shouting attheir radios.
Is it the Wolverine State?

Speaker 2 (13:17):
No, a lot of tag plates.
Is it the Wolverine State?
No, a lot of tag plates I'veseen talks about water.
A lot of it talks about thewater state, something about the
water.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I mean Minnesota's, the land of 10,000 lakes.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, not lakes, but this is about water, I think to
some degree, so we'll find out.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Why don't you Google it then?
While I'm actually talkingabout it, I'm going to there you
go exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, just a quick rundown, josh, where I've been.
So it took me about two and ahalf weeks now in total and I
looped up.
I looped up from the southwestcorner, so in other words near
Chicago.
I come up around from Chicago,up around that corner.
There I then did the coastlinealong Lake Michigan itself.
I then went up to the upperpeninsula, the UP as they call
it, and I did an anti-clockwisecircle around the UP and then

(14:01):
back down the east coast areaand I'm back down there now as
we speak for another block party, a geocaching block party
called MIGO M-I-G-O.
So that's how I went, that'sthe direction I did so far, josh
, because I've been doingcounties.
So here we go.
Here's a little geocachingthing for you counties.

(14:21):
Counties are a little, you know, council areas, if you want to
be one of a better word, um instates, and so there's a total
of 83 counties in the state ofmichigan yeah I've found a cache
at least one cache in 72 of the83 counties so far in the last
two and a half weeks.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
That is really good.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
There's 83 counties in Minnesota too, and it took me
years, and I live in this statealthough I wasn't trying very
hard.
But yes, 72 counties in twoweeks that is was that your?
Was that your focus, was it?
You're like this is how I'mgoing to explore the state.
I want to just get counties.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
After I ducked into Michigan I looked and went I've
got two weeks leading up toMidwest Geobash.
What am I going to do?
I looked and thought to myselfhang on.
Remember Mag Planner?
Remember the guy we had on?
I think it was going back toready for this Josh, season 2,
episode 14, which is July 8th of2024.
Oh, look at that, mag planner.

(15:22):
Great memory, great memory.
Um, if you haven't listened tothat and you don't know what
that's about, mag planner is aguy who literally did every
single county in the contiguousUnited States in one year, in
one year.
Here I am patting myself on theback doing 72 counties in two
weeks or whatever, and he didthe entire united states, uh, in
one year.
So, yeah, big shout out to magplanner for for doing that.

(15:42):
Now I know how it feels it's.
It's rough, josh, it's roughI'm telling you about it.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I mean, I'm sure you're seeing a lot of little
small towns, right?
I assume it's a lot of smalltowns a lot of small towns
what's michigan like?
Is michigan like a lot is a lotof trees is?
Is it a tree place?

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (15:58):
farm country.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
It depends on yeah, a bit of everything which area
you're in in Michigan, so it'snot as farmy as what a lot of
other states are, for instanceOhio, very farmy up in the upper
area of Ohio.
It gets a little bit farmy inthe lower part of Michigan, but
then it's just very green, josh.
It gets a little bit farmy inthe lower part of Michigan, but
then it's just very green, josh.
Lots of trees, lots of bushland, lots of wooded areas.
And then you go up in the UP,the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,

(16:24):
and, josh, I'll say this, theUpper Peninsula of Michigan,
it's a bit of one of thosesecret hidden gems we like to
talk about.
Oh, I agree, because when youthink of Michigan, I don't even
think of the Upper Peninsula, tobe honest with you, because
when you think of Michigan, Idon't even think of the Upper
Peninsula, to be honest with you.
Right, you know, and I alwaysthought about the mitt.
You know the hand mitt thatMichigan's supposed to be, but
that hand mitt doesn't includethe Upper Peninsula.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
No, no, it doesn't Easily forgotten.
It's almost like its own stateKind of yes.
Yeah, there's kind of adifferent vibe up there.
It is very much, so Very.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Northwood vibe.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, very muchlike the what do you call it?
The Bigfoots, you know, and allthat sort of thing.
There's a lot of chat up thereabout the different things that
may or may not occur withwitchcraft and Bigfoots and
other phenomenons that happen upin the Upper Peninsula and
other phenomenons that happen upin the Upper Peninsula, and

(17:24):
also it's only connectedliterally to the main part of
Michigan by the Mackinac.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Bridge or Mackinac Bridge.
Yeah, so that's the only part Idid communicate.
I said you're in Michigan.
I said, remember, I was likehow close are you to Mackinac
Island?
Remember, we talked about it.
We talked about it with DaveBarsky and it's been on movies
and there's no cars there.
It's a really cool place.
I am curious if you actuallywent there.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
I did not go to Mackinac Island.
What?
There's a reason.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
There is a reason you didn't want to leave your van
behind.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
First and foremost, we're talking about the episode
with Dave Barsky Dirty Jobs,Season 2, episode 8, April 15th.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Wow, good memory.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Good memory.
Dave did a great job on thatepisode.
But no, the reason why I didn't, Josh, is because I was by
myself and I thought to myselfno, I'm going to come back up
here anyway, because I'm goingto do the rest of the counties
later on, go straight up themiddle, basically, and do the
rest of the counties.
So I'll come back up here withsome friends or whatever, and go
from there and I'll do MackinacIsland.

(18:24):
I'll also do Power Island aswell.
For geocaching terms, PowerIsland is extremely old geocache
and one very sought after forthe grids that we fill when it
comes to our geocachingstatistics.
So I didn't even do PowerIsland either.
So I'll do Power Island andMackinac Island next time when I
come back up.
So yeah, that's one that'ssmart.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
You can share it with someone you love, like me.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
I wouldn't go that far.
Only if you keep the beard.
Only if you keep the beard, ohokay.
Okay, I'll keep the beard.
Only if you keep the beard, ohokay.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Okay, I'll keep the beard.
We'll go to Power Island andMackinac Island together.
We'll do some Mackinac Islandcosplay We'll wear old-timey
outfits with no cars and ride inhorse-drawn carriages.
That's what I imagine it's likeup there.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
You know, just like horse-drawn carriages, because
they can't have any motorvehicles.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
No cars, no motor vehicles at all.
No cars, no motorcycles.
It's just yeah, it's justhorse-drawn, that's all it is.
I did see there's two ferriesthat go across, one from the
south and one from the north,the Upper Peninsula as well.
So they're the ferries that goacross every single day.
As I said, I looked at it, butI didn't actually do it.
Now you're talking about thedifference, josh, in the Upper
Peninsula.

(19:39):
The Upper Peninsula is actuallyconnected to the United States,
but it's connected to Wisconsinall the way over the other side
of Lake Michigan.
So again, I didn't even knowthat because when you look at
the United States, you justthink that's part of Wisconsin.
You don't realize.
Hang on, no, that's actuallyMichiganigan, you see.
So yeah, I've learned a lot,josh, in this travel I know

(20:01):
you're becoming a real, uhamerican traveler.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
I wasn't gonna call.
I wasn't gonna call you anamerican no, no, I'll never be
that.
Yeah, there's anything wrongwith that just saying no, um,
that's how I visited the upper p.
I did it through wisconsin,that's how I got there, yes, up
there.
And then, when I was up there,I I visited a?
Um, an old mine, going likethese mine cart like this is

(20:27):
iron ore country.
It's like, yeah, yeah, and itis beautiful like lake, uh,
superior is up there and alsolake michigan is right next to
lake Michigan as well.
But, yeah, but beautiful.
You were sending me somepictures of some Michigan
sunsets facing the west, lookingacross Lake Michigan.

(20:47):
Tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, I will say and I did bring it up in our last
episode, josh, when I there waspart of my upgrade in the last
episode was about a Michigansunset.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
We talked about a Michigan sunset.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
We talked about that Michigan sunset, but I had to go
back, josh.
I had to go back again forseconds and this time when I
went back I didn't go to thesame location.
I went to a beach location andthere was people that came down
onto the beach and people wereswimming and I was like this
looks really strange to actuallyhave a beach but then have
fresh water in the beach.
Like it's weird, it's strangeto me.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
It's weird to you to me.
To me it's weird and strangesomeone that lives has grown up
near the ocean.
We, yeah, our ocean is lakemichigan, that's right like
superior because you can't seeacross it you know, it kind of
feels like, kind of feels likean ocean, because you can't see
across.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
There's no big there's no waves or anything
like that.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
It's very odd.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's very odd.
So the second sunset I did see.
I saw that sunset over theactual water itself.
As it went down, there was abig ship in the foreground as
well, which is really nice tosee.
It had nice little tricklingwaves, but not that big, but it
had people playing on the beachas well A little trickling waves
, but not that big, but it hadpeople playing on the beach as

(22:01):
well.
There's one photo I took.
There's a lovely couple walkingliterally along the water's
edge, josh, and just as they got, I even looked at them.
They're going to do it.
They're going to do it.
They walked across in between,directly in line of sight from
me, to the sunset itself and sothe sun, and so they were
silhouetted by the sun.
Did you get a picture?
Yeah, of course I got a picture.
It's on my social media.
Check out, it's on my personalsocial media.

(22:24):
Oh, okay, it's a personal one,that one.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Do you want to share that on here?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Absolutely absolutely yeah, no, no, no, it's Craig.
Michelle Photography.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
So C-R-A-I-G-M photography, all one word check
it out people, yeah, yeah, I didsee that picture that was.
It was beautiful.
Now, craig you, you've been to72 of the 83 counties tell me,
was there?
Is there any location, any citythat like stuck out to you?
You got there and you're like,oh my gosh, this is so cool,
this is so unique.
Was there any?
Or were you just like you know?
Next, next click, check, check,check I was.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
I was doing a lot of the check, check, check ones, um
, and I was doing a lot of thethe amount of dollar generals
that I've visited.
Oh, I bet, because, uh, whenyou okay, if people don't
understand when you'regeocaching, like I've been doing
, and doing one cache per county, that's it, you want the
quickest, easiest, park-and-grabLPC, that's light post cache

(23:25):
you can actually find.
And I'm just lucky enough thatin Michigan there's an actual
series of Dollar Generals andthey're all kind of the same and
they're all LPCs and they'reall at the back of the Dollar
General, the last light pole, soyou're not, you're not muggled
out or anything.
That's what's up too.
So, yeah, they're the easiestones to find, quick grab and go.

(23:46):
I the car still, I keep the vanstill running, so I don't even
turn the van off to grab them.
So that's what I've been doing,mostly for the smaller counties
and the the other ones so yeah,that's a really good tip for
people that just want to get.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
County after county, just search for the Dollar
General in that county.
Almost every little small townhas one.
My grandma lives in a town ofless than 5,000 people and she's
got one.
She was really excited about it, because those towns don't have
much other than that.
You know they call them fooddeserts, craig yes, places where
you can't necessarily get freshfood.
You can just get, like the TVdinner at the Dollar General.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
That's right and any international viewers or
listeners out there.
Dollar General very much.
In Australia we have like the$2 store, it's called like a.
They even have a dollar storehere as well.
It's very similar to the DollarGeneral, basically a store
where they sell all knickknacksand other food items and in
different sizes.
I do believe the dollar generalsells things cheaper but it's

(24:45):
actually smaller in size, theactual products.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
So there you go yeah, that's the strategy, the
business strategy.
Yeah, they're not dollar storesand also they like they have
like almost like one ofeverything yes, yeah but just
like one it's one and you're theone to take it.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yep, and you're the one, one, one one shoe, one pan,
one earbud.
Um yeah, no, that's so, that'swhat I've been doing, that's how
I've been collecting those.
But, josh, to go back to yourpoint, and that is it wasn't
actually a um, there's a reallybeautiful little town up the
north, uh, northwest peninsula,right up top.

(25:23):
Okay, beautiful little town.
The problem with that I hadzero cell service.
I'm with at&t and uh and I hadzero cell service at all.
A lot in most, a lot of theupper peninsula had very poor
cell service, I'll be honest,I'm sure, um, and for obvious
reasons too.
But as you, before you go intothe town, you're going through
this wooded area and there'sthis pull off and as you pull

(25:45):
off the roadway itself, there isthis look like a big
thermometer, a big plaque, goingall the way up the top.
It's a big billboard sort ofstyle, but the billboard is is
vertical billboard, nothorizontal, and on the billboard
it's actually got the snowlevel because the upper
peninsula has the lake effect,snow like degrees of lake effect
, and I'm talking, josh, I'mtalking.

(26:06):
There's signs up there for 20,30, 40 foot of snow.
Oh, wow, you know that's insanebecause of the lake effect, of
the snow.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, they get buried up there, for sure.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, absolutely, that's rough this time of year,
absolutely beautiful and green,like everything's come back too.
But I went up and around therehad a look.
It was beautiful but, as I said, no cell service.
So I came back down and around.
I've been using an app and theapp's called I overlander.
I overlander is a acommunity-based app whereby
anyone can put in a locationthat they've stayed at overnight

(26:40):
, normally for free.
So, in other words, you know,like my crack apparels, like
rest stops, like some walmart's,that sort of thing too.
It is a community-based app.
So there are some times whereyou can get there and go.
I'm not happy with staying hereand you move on.
But there was one spot thereand the spot itself I'm gonna
have to scroll down, I can'tthink I forgot exactly where it

(27:00):
was um, the spot, spot it was.
It's called, uh, parallel lakeparallel lake, I think it was
and I went in and there was alittle bit of, um, dirt road.
I'm like, okay, just trust thisand get to the area, come
across this beautiful, pristine,clean and glass lake.
Josh and I get there early inthe afternoon, so I had plenty

(27:22):
of time in the afternoon.
I went for a swim in this lake.
It was fresh water, it was.
It tasted fantastic, I'll behonest with you.
So, um, yeah, absolutely fun.
I loved it and literally putthe van on it on when I put the
van on the side, I mean, I putthe van so when the sliding door
opens up to the lake and to thesunset.
So here I was, cooking mydinner with my, my back to the

(27:44):
beautiful, another beautifulsunset over a lake, at this time
instead of the uh, a big lake,sorry, small lake instead of a
big lake this time.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
So so yeah, that's.
Uh, that was the that was inthe northwest corner of the up
area.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yes, yep, that was northwest corner of the up per
per per perrot lake I I'm gonnaspell a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yes, p-e-r-r-a-u-l-t.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Perrot perrot, perrot perrot a-u-l-t like vault,
vault, yes, perrot, like that'sit perrot, but no vault, we'll
move on.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Uh, they're interested.
Uh, that's really cool.
Yeah, I love you know, I lovethat's the best thing I feel
like I'm.
You know, I'm assuming becauseI don't do this, but this
surprises, especially when youget into these remote areas,
this surprising things that youencounter that you're not
necessarily planning for becauseI assume, craig they're.

(28:43):
Probably there were areas thatprobably were not very many
cracker barrels.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
No, there was none in the upper areas.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
I know, we know, you've done your harvest, host,
I don't know how many?
Of those you encountered, Werethere less of those too, in
these remote areas.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, in the Upper Peninsula area there's very
little area which you can stay.
There's a couple of rest stops,but even then it doesn't look
like they're van life friendlyup there because the rest stops
have these big gates that closeovernight and they say and a big
sign says no overnight parking.
So when there's ever signs Isee no overnight parking, I
don't even risk it, I don't stopthere.

(29:16):
I don't want to be knocked onthe door by a police officer at
2 am.
No, thank you.
So yeah, so I'll just move onand keep going and find other
spots that are around.
But to talk about I did someresearch, josh the Upper
Peninsula.
It spans approximately 36,000square miles with 29% of
Michigan's land area is in theUpper Peninsula.

(29:37):
So about 30% of the actualMichigan is in the Upper
Peninsula.
It's big, it's big and, like Isaid, you don't really know too
much about it.
So hidden, forgotten part ofMichigan.
I do believe I'm looking at theshow notes as well.
When I said about the wintersand the snow, yeah, they receive
.
Some of the regions receiveover 200 inches of snow annually

(29:57):
.
200 inches of snow.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
You can't complain when you're in minneapolis now
buried you're buried yeah here'sthe interesting thing, craig I
know people all over the country, right, I know people from
every state.
I don't think I could say Iknow anybody that lives in the
up I don't know one person notin the up, no, not in the up.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
We know people in michigan.
Good old daryl Darryl W4.
Yeah, yeah, he lives inMichigan.
And Merlin 1492, I think, yeah,that sounds about right, that
number sounds about right.
He's here in Grand Rapids aswell.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
So, yeah, we know people in Michigan, but not the
Upper Peninsula area.
You'll probably meet somepeople this weekend at the
Michigan Camp Out, mega, hasthat happened this weekend?

Speaker 2 (30:44):
the Michigan, campout Mega.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Has that happened this weekend?

Speaker 2 (30:46):
It is, it is.
I've already been to a coupleof pre-events before today.
Oh wow, I went to one againthis evening before we actually
recorded.
And then another coupletomorrow, and then the big ones
on Saturday, and then, obviously, you know, ceto cleanup on
Sunday, et cetera, et cetera.
They're all kind of similar.
I will say I haven't said thisat all to anyone yet, josh,

(31:08):
anyone, I feel like I'm maybegetting a little event burnout.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Tell me more.
I go to these events now.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
It's just a lot of the same Kind of a lot of the
same.
Yeah, a lot of the same, yousee a lot of the same people to
some people, yeah and so, andyou always have the same joke,
you know a long time.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
No see, um, yeah, it's the same, it's no different
.
So, yeah, I get out, I park up,get out of the van, you know,
and you're going and you'rehaving the same sort of
conversations with you knowother people as well, but you
don't get that.
Um, that excitement isn't there, like we had in, uh, you know,
in geo woodstock, for instance.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
You know, when you're like looking forward to seeing
people that you haven't seen fora long time yeah, exactly,
exactly that's.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I think that's what it is too and, as I said, yeah,
a little little event sometimes,these pre-events.
Now I'll I'll go to thesepre-events, I'll say hello or
whatever, sign the logbook andyou know, I'll look around for
five or ten minutes if I'm notreally talking to anyone and
then I'll just go Check.
Been there, done that.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, and it's not a good feeling, to be honest with
you, so that's a little bit ofan insight for other people.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
This is a year.
Next year might be a little bitdifferent.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
And we know you're heavily connected to Munzee, so
that's kind of a different.
It's a lot months we talkedabout before months.
A little different because atthose events you play, you play
the game you play the game.
They're not just social, sothere's even more motivation to
play the game um at those events.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
But yeah, that's really it's really interesting.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
I I don't.
I don't have that feelingbecause I have not been to very
many megas this year.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, I've been to Geo Woodstock and that's it.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Wow, this is going to slow your head.
Wow, that's it.
Wow, I may, I may.
I'm a knock on wood.
I might see you in a coupleweeks at West Bend Cash Bash
West Bend, west Bend.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Cash Bash.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yes, that's a fun one , craig.
It's geocaching Like the event.
Part of it is like two hours,yeah, but like the Friday and
Saturday, they put 60 new caches, 66 new caches and they've got
great hiders and they're allgood and they're all like
pristine and fresh.
So, it's really fun to just ifyou like geocaching, you're

(33:22):
going to like the Midwest or theWest Bend.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
West Bend.
The only negative to that isbecause you're gonna like the
midwest or the only west bend.
West bend, uh.
The only negative to that isbecause you're at a mega event
or a block party, whatever, withlots of people around.
I'm not a fan of waiting inline to sign a logbook.
You know what I mean.
It's not too bad, craig.
It honestly is not too bad.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, it's, they're and here's another thing you'll
you'll see they're really spreadout, so they're like way
different parts of the county,so it it really that in itself
really spreads people outthere's a little bit, but it's
more.
It's more like, hey, you'rewalking with somebody and you
find a cash with them.
Yeah, you go to the next oneand you maybe see somebody
different you know it's not, butit's not lines.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, it's not like yeah, um, because you're
woodstock or anything.
So that's all right.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
That's all right um, so I yeah, I think you're gonna
enjoy it.
We're, oh, we're digressing.
Well, we gotta get back tomichigan.
Um, tell it.
Tell me a little bit aboutseashell city so, before I go to
seashell, seashell, seashell Ican't even say it properly.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Um, uh, I had to come back to it.
So from the, the area itself,cc um seashell city, I have all
people should I have.
All people shouldn't have anissue with that.
Um, it's a tongue twister.
It's located just as you comeback across the mackinac bridge.
So as you come back across themackinac bridge, that's where it

(34:41):
is.
It's probably about a 10-minutedrive south along the highway.
You see the big sign sayingSeashell City.
Now I've been to a couple ofsmall events here on the way
around Michigan as well.
Some people, josh they hostevents almost daily up here oh,
really, one or two people goingfor a bite to eat or a beer, or

(35:03):
even in a park, for instance, abite to eat or a bee, or even in
a park, for instance.
And I got an FTF, josh, beforethis one event I didn't realize,
oh wow, I didn't realizeEveryone was saving the FTF for
a joint FTF.
I went, oops, oopsie, it was areverse.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
You didn't know.
No, I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
You're not local, I'm not local and the funny thing
is, everyone's like you know.
Oh, where are you from?
What are you doing and what areyou doing?
Australian, and I have no ideaabout podcasts or videos or any
of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Really.
Is that funny?
That was funny.
There's people that don't watchanything, anything at all.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Nope, nope, they don't literally, they just go
geocaching sort of thing.
So but yeah, so I have met acouple of people doing that and
doing those sort of events.
But coming back over theMackinac Bridge itself, it's a
beautiful bridge, josh, theMackinac Bridge.
Oh, I'm sure it is.
It's a gorgeous bridge.
There's an area where you canactually stop and see the full
bridge on the north side as well, on the peninsula side, and

(36:02):
what it is.
It's like a you would love it.
You, of all people, would loveit.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
It is souvenir heaven .
So it's a seashell city.
No, no, no, this is oh this is.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, that's touristy , but I'm going to get to that
in a minute because I want totalk about.
I want to talk about thismackinac bridge souvenir shop on
the upper peninsula.
So you go in josh and it issouvenirs galore, absolutely
galore.
It's very much an Americansouvenir shop.
Why I say it's American?
Because under the counters, onglass counters, they've got
these small guns.

(36:33):
They look like small guns.
Of course they do.
If you rack the gun like itlooks like and it racks the gun
like you rack the top of the gunand as you rack the top of the
gun the knife blade flies out.
So it's actually a knife.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
I think you sent me a picture of that.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
We're like yeah, only in America.
Knife guns.
I did, I did, but you have towalk through the shop to go to
the viewing area, the viewingplatform for the actual Mackinac
Bridge, now the viewingplatform.
Though you go up these stairsand you go where am I going?
Then you've got more stairs.
The stairs are on the roof ofthe actual souvenir shop.
So you go up and you stand onthe roof of the souvenir shop to

(37:12):
see the McAdoo Bridge.
So it was fun.
It's all closed in, like it issafe.
You know what I mean.
So they do have barricades upin that too.
So actually have people up ontop of the roof of the building
in order to see the full bridge.
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Do you know what that place was called?
It was just a Mackinac Island,right outside of Mackinac Island
by the bridge souvenir shop.
Did it have a name?

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Mackinac Bridge Souvenir Shop.
That's what it is, mackinac.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Bridge Souvenir Shop.
It's exactly what it is.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Exactly what it is.
So mackinac bridge it's exactlywhat it is.
Exactly what it is.
Uh, so, as you, as you travelnorth over mackinac bridge, it's
on the left hand side, so, um,you go around that side, you
don't go to the mackinac islandside.
Mackinac island's on the right,this is on the left, uh, as you
go across the bridge, so,that's where it is, I'm guessing
.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
I'm imagining like the souvenirs over at on actual
mackinac island are likeclassier, like that's what.
What I'm imagining LikeMackinac Island's like a classy
place.
That's what I always as far asthe pictures I've seen in the
movies that it's been in.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like asouvenir shop type of place, but
maybe there's different kindsof souvenirs, I know, I know.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
A quick rundown about Mackinac Bridge before we get
onto the seashell city, and thatis five miles in length.
Joshosh, it is a long bridge.
Um, it was opened on november1st 1957, from construction of
may 1954, so it's completed in48 months.
That's it for the whole entirebridge, and the tower height is
552 foot above the water and thefoundations of it itself reach

(38:43):
210 foot below to the rockground underneath the water.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
So yeah, Whenever you see epic bridges like this, do
you sometimes think to yourselfhow in the heck did they make
that?
I don't know Back in the day?
How did they build it into the?

Speaker 2 (38:58):
sea.
I know, especially back in 1957, where they didn't have the
electronics and everything elseas well.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
I mean, think about it, about it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
210 feet below, that's so deep, yeah, wow yeah,
I just I can't figure it out Iknow, I I did the same when it
comes to australia and the, thesydney harbour bridge, and, uh,
I went on a harbour bridge tour.
You do a bridge walk and theygive you the full tour of the
harbour bridge itself and theygo through the whole history of
the bridge.
And how josh it's the same hereas well.

(39:29):
These people, they didn't haveharnesses, they didn't.
They were literally sitting onbeams and one person was heating
up the hot rivets.
And then they go hot rivet, hotrivet, and they chucked a hot
rivet to the person who wouldgrab it with the, the tongs, put
it in the hole and slam theother side together and as it
cools, it shrinks down.
You see that the hot rivetcools, shrinks down and holds

(39:51):
the two pieces of steel together.
The amount of rivets that areon the bottom of that ocean,
under the harbor bridge, isinsane.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Oh, I'm sure you know what it takes real men to build
those bridges, and they don'teven probably need beards, no,
or maybe they do.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
They did.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yeah, look at all the photos.
All the men had beards.
They all had beards.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, they all had beards.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
That's right, but anyway, I had to do the callback
.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
We're digressing.
We're digressing.
The Mackinac Bridge.
One more thing there's fourmillion vehicles cross every
single year.
It's about uh five dollars forthe for the toll in both
directions each way, um, whichisn't too bad for that sort of
bridge.
It's a beautiful bridge, butthey do close it down once a
year.
For the mackinac bridge walk.

(40:34):
It's every labor day and theyhave between 40 to 65 000
walkers walk across the bridge.
All traffic is stopped.
Uh, for the event.
This year, josh, there's anactual geocaching event an hour
before the bridge walk, like atthe base of the bridge.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
So you can get on the geocaching event.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Well, no, no, it's only a 30-minute event and it's
for the purpose of, you know,meeting other geocachers and
then, if you want to go and dothe walk, you can.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
So it's on the cache page that you can do the walk.
You're not supposed to stackevents.
Just don't tell the reviewer.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
That's not stacked.
That's not stacked Because theevent itself is a city event.
It's not a geocaching event,it's just a city event.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
The walk no, I'm saying that you can't stack
events on other major events.
So, like for, I tried to do anevent during the Minneapolis
Marathon Nope can't.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Well, this is before the event starts.
The actual walking event starts.
You see, they do mention in theevent page about how you can do
the walk after this event'sfinished If you wish to.
You don't have to blah, blah,blah.
So yeah, it's about half anhour difference between it ends
and then this one starts, sothat's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
It sounds like a bucket list item.
That's a bucket list item.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
Getting back to Seashell City,seashell City, by the seashore,
as you're traveling south alongthe main highway, coming all the
way south itself, you'll seethe Seashell City.
It's got big, huge signsSeashell City, shell city.
It's got big, huge signs,seashell city.
And a week before that I was atone of these local events and I
got told that you know, oh,your name's see my shell, oh,

(42:11):
you need to do this.
This, uh, virtual cache.
And he told me, the virtualcache, some clam or something.
I went oh yeah, no worries,I'll look into it.
Never, never, never, blinked aneyelid.
I saw this seashell city.
I thought I've got to stopthere.
And I stopped there.
I had a look.
It was the virtual that he wastalking about, about the giant
clam.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
There's a giant clam in the building.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Inside the building there is a giant clam.
Is it real?
It's real giant clam.
Wow, cool, yeah, 4,000 tons orsomething, no, not tons,
something else 4,000 pounds forthis giant clam, like it is huge
, and so that's the virtual.
You've got to go in there, takea photo and get some
information and go from there.
But, yeah, it's a really coollocation and it is full, josh,

(42:56):
absolutely full to the brim withseashells, like the entire
store or warehouse.
Oh, it's big fillers.
Oh, wow, the warehouse, thewarehouse, is filled with
seashells and you buy that, youcan buy any seashell you want.
Pretty much in there.
It's lots of souvenir stuff.
There's shirts and, you know,signs and stickers actually, no,
there's no stickers.
Uh, everything else butstickers.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Um, yeah, I bought some shells.
Okay, I'm looking at it.
I'm looking at it right now I'mlooking.
It says it's called it's insheboygan, michigan.
Yeah, it's called the mankilling clam.
Yeah, that's called it's in.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Sheboygan, michigan.
Yeah, it's called theman-killing clam.
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
That's it the man-killing clam, because, yeah,
it says this small nauticalgift shop is the home of the 500
pound behemoth man-killing clamyeah, yeah, oh, that's my type
of thing yeah, and it's right incenter front and center of the
actual inside the shop as well.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
So if you have a look at the cash page, josh, you
might even see my ugly mug inthere too.
So next to the clam, so you'llsee just how big it is, because
the size of my head is big headanyway.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well, it says here the clam is considered
man-killing because of itsability to trap divers by the
feet.
Yes, however, these clams arenot carnivores.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well, that's good.
I told you, yeah, yeah Again,it's a place where you know
again, you wouldn't probably,you probably would go there
because it looks so good, butyou may not go there if it
wasn't for geocaching and extra.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Get the extra smiley too.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
You get to visit the man-killing clam.
That's.
I love a virtual, josh.
I love a virtual.
There's more coming too.
Virtual is 5.0 correct, correct.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
They're all happening .
Do you think you're gonna?

Speaker 1 (44:33):
you're gonna be available for 5.0 no, because I
got one at 4.0.
I think the people that gotones at 2.0, 3.0 will have a
better chance that means I'vegot a better chance.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I got one at 2.0, I got the first.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
I think you might have a good chance I don't know
if they're going to consideryour home area, australia, or if
your home.
Have you changed your home areaon geocachingcom?

Speaker 2 (44:57):
my home area is still good old us of a.
Okay, so that's what theybasically, because they yeah,
they try to even them out.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Yes, you should go you should make your home area
somewhere really remote.
You'll get one for sure.
You'll get one for sure just inthe middle of Montana.
I live in Montana.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
I live in Montana.
That's actually a good idea.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Your home address is actually Florida.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Technically.
Technically, my home address isFlorida, exactly.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Exactly, did you drink any beer, craig, on this
Michigan adventure?

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Did I drink beer?
You and I both know, especiallylistening to our good friend,
minnesota Boy, minnesota Boy,minnesota Boy and his partner in
crime, courtney as well, on theBrewery Adventures podcast,
mm-hmm, and I've been utilizingthe app Untapped a lot and I'll
have a look and see the Untappedand it comes up with different
maps and I'll then look at thebreweries and all their rankings

(45:50):
in the area and then I'll goand partake.
Josh, I love a flight, I love ataster, oh yeah, a taster of
the whole, especially if it's amicrobrewery or something like
that too.
I'll have a full taster too.
And and they've been very uphere I'm telling you they're
very IPA pushing forward, whichis good, because that's my type
of business.
Ew Gross, they're not lightbeer forward, josh, because you

(46:11):
know they're real men up here.
They all have beards, so it isIPA forward.
Yeah, yeah, I think, a real mandrinks Miller High.
Life.
No, as you know, because I'vebeen sending you some photos as
well the actual flightsthemselves have been pretty cool
to see.
There's been one flight that Isaw was made out of actual steel

(46:34):
rod and welded together, likethis thing was heavy without the
beer in it.
You know that sort of thing.
And then the one I had eventoday, for instance, was an iron
rock or iron iron bark orsomething like that, but it was
an actual like a thor sword,like an actual full-on viking
sword, and the holes were in theviking sword where the bees sat

(46:55):
.
So that's really cool, that'scool, that's really cool, so
yeah, I love when they embracetheir theme with the flights you
know, because there's like uphere there's a flight that's a
ski like a ski.
They put them in the ski stufflike that.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
I love that kind of stuff that's really cool yeah
yep, it makes for a good photo.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Photo op yeah, oh, I love a good photo op.
And I was talking to the, theone of the brewers there today.
He was behind and, um, you know, we're talking about my travels
and what I do, etc.
We talked about the appuntapped.
They are a premium Untappdmember.
He's very much forward inregards to keeping the
membership and I did say to himI go, well, I found you on

(47:32):
Untappd map and that's thereason why I'm here today.
He said that's exactly thereason why, at minimum, they
need to keep their subscriptionswith Untappd.
He said because, for thatreason, I then took a nice photo
of the, the flight and I waspraising the flight.
You know the whole lot uh, didit on my social media, on my, uh
, tuesday's the vans socialmedia page and tagged untapped

(47:55):
because I'm getting a new badgeas well.
Oh, oh, who shared it?
Untapped shared this okay thatwas so excited.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
We talk about untapped, so much on this
podcast.
We need to get them on here Ithink I don't think it's going
to be that hard.
No, because this is a podcast.
Look, guided by location-basedgames.
You can argue untapped is alocation-based game.
Yeah, checking in, you'regetting badges.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
It's a location yeah, and it's gamified.
You're drinking.
We need to get.
We need to stop talking aboutit.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
We need to get them, we do, we need to get them on
the show.
That would be reallyinteresting.
And then Minnesota Boy,Minnesota Boy, Minnesota Boy
would be oh so jealous.
He would be because he has abrewery podcast.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Well, it's a travel podcast.
There you go, Josh.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
That is your task for the next week for the next
episode.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
That's your mission, okay to get uh to get, to get a.
Uh, a representative ofuntapped on.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
You know I, you know how I get people's attention I
just leverage, leverage tiktok,because I know you they see all
those followers and they're likethis guy.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I'll talk to you a little bit.
You know, yeah, little little.
Yeah, we'll see.
Yeah, yeah, that TikTok isunpredictable with views.
I know that's another story.
Wow, anything else?
Craig, anything else?

Speaker 1 (49:13):
about Michigan that you know.
It seems like you kind of youwent through it quickly.
And it sounds to me that yougot to go back.
You're in.
Are you in Grand Rapids rightnow?
Is that where you are?

Speaker 2 (49:22):
No, no, so I, is that where you are?
No, oh, where are you?
I'm halfway between a placecalled Jackson and Ann Arbor,
and that's where they've got theMyGo events this weekend.
You see is in like a campgroundarea in between those Jackson
and Ann Arbor, which is on thesoutheastern sort of side of

(49:42):
Michigan.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
So it's only about an hour and a half north of
Midwest midwest geobash.
So oh, wow, that's close.
I'm not surprised they.
I'm surprised they allow thatthat's really close for two
megas to be especially, yeah,like a week apart.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
So okay, cool, yeah but do we, do you want to go on
the midwest geobash josh?

Speaker 1 (50:06):
oh yeah, we got to talk about speaking of midwest
geobash speaking of this wasyour first time.
This was your first time there.
I've I've been there once too.
It was many, many years, but Icraig I only went one day.
And as soon as I went that oneday I realized okay, this is not
an event that you just go forone day, this is an experience
where you, where you're there atleast three days.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, is that correct ?
So this is absolutely correctand this is the closest I've
felt to being at home as a megaevent at home in Australia.
The mega events in Australiaare all like this.
They're all like the MidwestGeobash and that is, they are a
camping, on-site event where youcamp with all your friends and
all your geocaching buddies.

(50:48):
Um, you go out geocaching duringthe day and then you come back
in the evening and then there'sthe events in the evening and
there's parties and drinking andall that sort of stuff too.
So, um, or you don't have to,so you know, you don't have to
partake in the alcohol.
Um, yeah, just hang out and anduh, but this one, he was so
well done, josh.
We had, uh, um, all the, allthe sub events and of course,

(51:09):
there was between uh, what doyou call it?
Normal events and the, thecommunity celebration events as
well, which is different, iconagain.
Then they had a poker run aswell.
The poker one was really welldone and I'll say this as well,
he is a nice heartfelt story.
If you listen to this, thispodcast, right now, and you've
got a small business and you'rearound a a possible mega event

(51:32):
of some sort of geocaching andthey come to you and say will
you help us out with a poker run?
Say yes, say sponsor, sponsorthem.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
You've got to sponsor Because they go.
You go into the stores and youget cards.
Right, you get envelopes withcards in them.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, Well, they did it better.
They did it one better.
You don't get cards because allyou do is you go into the store
and they've got sheets ofbarcodes and you peel off one
barcode and put that barcode onyour sticker sheet and that
barcode, when scanned, tells youwhat card you've got.
So you don't know what cardyou've got, so you don't know
what cards you've got.
You see, until later on.
That's how it works.

(52:06):
So lots of fun.
They had it for children aswell, but it wasn't barcode, it
wasn't a poker run, becausethey're not allowed to, it's
illegal but they had like adinosaur run.
So they had dinosaur stickersfor each one, because that was
the theme.
Right, dinosaurs was the themedinosaurs the theme, but here's
the heartfelt story.
J Josh Ready for this.
Okay, yep, there is acommunity-based orchard nearby

(52:30):
and they saw.
The organizers of Midwest acouple months beforehand saw
that this community-basedorchard was actually going
downhill quite fast when itcomes to their produce being
sold and customers and whateverelse as well.
So they got them on board forthe poker run and the amount of
customers they had through thedoor they ran out of every

(52:52):
single item of food.
They had all their peaches, alltheir beeswax thing that they
had, their honey, their maplesyrup, star sugar, burst things
and stickers.
They ran out of everything.
Now, in the three weeks leadingup to the event they had 13
customers.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
In three weeks they had over 1,000 customers on one
day, oh my gosh, and peoplebought stuff too.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Oh, we bought stuff.
Yeah, I bought a whole thing ofpeaches and they were good,
josh, the peaches were so, sofresh.
Like buying them from thesevendors and stores, oh, it's
fantastic.
So, yes, and that's what theyhad and that's part of the poker
run.
So if you are a small, smallstore, et cetera, and you hear
that there's something going on,even if it's vendors, markets

(53:41):
or whatever else, well, mysuggestion is put your hand up
for it.
You know, no matter what, itdoesn't have to be geocaching,
it'll be anything, becausepeople are very receptive of it
and very, very thankful forbeing part of it.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
You know that sort of thing too that's why I love
mega events in like the smalltowns, because it makes a big
dent.
Like you, you know, you have a.
Have a mega in a big city.
It's like what's the what'sinto?
Like you're not even blip, youknow but if it's a smaller town
people know you're there and youmake a huge impact.
So you know, sometimes there'smore attendees at the event than

(54:11):
the live in the town.
So that can like turn a city'seconomy around in one day and
like you did with this business.
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
That's really cool.
And one more thing as well.
That's really cool.
And one more thing as well,before we start to wrap it up,
and that is I did something,josh, for the first time ever
and no Australians do, becausewe don't do this, and I see it
on the movies all the time.
I was driving through thefarmlands of Ohio, beautiful
farmlands, cornfields on oneside, soybean field on the other

(54:42):
side, beautiful white houseshere and there and positioned,
and I went past and I looked onmy right hand side, there were
two young boys selling lemonadeat the front of their house.
I I had to screech on thebrakes as best I could spin back
around and and buy myself somelemonade.
It wasn't very good lemonade,it was.
It was warm, it was these poorboys.

(55:06):
They were sweating, they werehot nobody was stopping.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
No, no, no, I hope.
I hope you were like keep thechange too.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely, but I will say for
for a cup of lemonade.
I saw some ten dollar notessitting in there in their little
drawer.
So some people being the onlyperson that- felt sorry for them
no, no, not at all.
Maybe they spritz themselvesand people come past so they can
look like yeah, exactly, oh,it's so hot out here.

(55:34):
But, josh, I'll be honest withyou, it was the only time I've
ever actually felt like I waspart of a movie like a
traditional american movie thefarmland, the green, you know
the cornfields like oh it's,that's beautiful, it is
absolutely.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
You know.
That reminds me of craig.
When we were traveling togetherthrough ohio, when we were
doing the pizza tour and we wereon the, we were even on the
porch in cleveland, remember,and you were like, oh my gosh,
what's that?
I was like, oh, I was likecraig, those are fireflies.
Yeah, I've never seen fireflies.
Yeah, yeah, and then we wentout the country and they were
everywhere.
You're like, oh my gosh, I youonly see these in movies and

(56:11):
then you scared me, josh,because you were driving.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
You turn the headlights off in the back
country of nowhere ohio, you canreally black and I could really
see him, but you were stilldriving.
He didn't actually stop.
But it's past more than sixmonths, so the statute of
limitations is gone, yeah, butthen you look like you're going
you know, when you turn thelights off and do that, you look
like you're going through warpdrive like on star trek or

(56:33):
something yes, especially whenthey try and get out of the way.
But you know, I have seen a fewmore of those over the last few
months as well, up here in thenorth to the fireflies or
they're kind of a dying breed.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
I heard that they are , they're.
They're not, they're notsurviving, they're more and more
rare, which is sad.
I don't know what's happeningyeah, that is sad.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
That is very, very sad.
Uh, but, josh, getting back,one more thing before we ended
up, and that is the uh, themidwest geobash.
It had a brand new adventurelab art.
Now, this adventure lab art themidwest geobash has always had
a flamingo theme.
They've got a flamingo as theirlogo, that's, their mascot is
the flamingo.
This Adventure Lab art is inthe shape of a flamingo.
Once you click into the artitself and you have a look at

(57:16):
all the pins, all the pins spellout MWGB25.
So it's a double art.
So that was really cool.
Pasha88, a big shout out to her.
She's the one that organizedthat artwork too for the
Adventure Lab.
Now we, you and I we didMidwest Geobash, no, sorry, we
did Geowoodstock.

(57:37):
I'm getting confused.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
And we did Texas Challenge yes.
Oh, I have been to two megas.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
There you go, texas Challengeas challenge as well,
but at at geo woodstock, josh,you and I, we were on stage and
we, we, we gave a poll toeveryone.
We said anyone put up a hand ifyou've got adventure labs as
your main find type.
And and a few people put uptheir hands.
Guess what, josh, I'm now oneof those people oh really I have

(58:05):
more adventure labs.
My adventure, I find, is over 7000 finds for more than your
traditionals, more thantraditionals at 6 800 6 800
traditionals, over 7 000adventure labs yeah, that is not
me quite yet.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
I think I raised my hand, but that's not true.
I still have more traditionals.
But yeah, you get you to go tothese mega events.
It is a bonus.
And if people don't know whatwe're talking about, you're
getting 700 fines for answeringtypically trivia questions
inside of a parking lot yeah,how big was this?
One craig was it?
Was it the biggest ever?
Some people.
I listened to the geocachingpodcast.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
You said there was 700.
Burke said there was more,there was 750 and they're
claiming Pasha claims to be thebiggest in North America Not the
world, but North America.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
I thought I didn't.
I'm going to have to go back,but I thought Texas Challenge
had over 800.
I know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
If they don't, then they will now, because the Texas
Challenge one they just add on,they just add on more, just add
on more bigger.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
because everything's bigger in texas exactly.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
They want to be the number one, so they'll just add
more.
That's all they'll do.
But uh, but yeah, no uh, thecell service oh josh yeah the
cell.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
I'm sure it was rough because you got everybody on
their phones.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
I remember that too, when I was there and I'm with
at&t now, so at&T is reallysuper rough in terms of zero
cell service.
So I put the van, I went and Idrove, got the van there itself
and it was.
You know, the weather was okay.
If you don't know, if youhaven't been to Midwest Geobash,
prepare for rain.
Apparently it rains everysingle year and it rained pretty

(59:42):
hard.
A few people went home beforePeople got washed out Josh in
their tents.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Oh I, and chucked their tents away.
That event's been floodedbefore I know that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
I brought the van up in the field area where you can
park up and get all of them allat once.
I took the van up there, I putmy Starlink up.
You see, oh smart, put theStarlink up.
I had drinks, I had snacks andwe sat in the van for two and a
half hours clicking away for theadventure labs, for the
adventure labs, yeah, for theadventure how was munzee, though

(01:00:13):
?

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
was munzee rough for people, were they?

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
struggling.
Yeah, everyone was struggling,except some people, and I didn't
know this existed.
Here's a tip for travelers.
This is a good, this is a goodtravel tip.
Josh, You're ready for this?
Good friends of yours and mine,Frankie's name is Munzee.
Prof is his Munzee name.
Geo Prof is his geocaching name.
He's got a phone On his phone.
He's got AT&T, but he's gotVerizon as an added bonus for

(01:00:41):
cell service.
So he pays I think it's like$30 a month extra, and he has
Verizon on top of the AT&T.
So he's actually got two bars atthe top of his phone and you
can see the AT&T, how strongthat is, and then how strong the
Verizon signal is, and it'll gooff the strongest signal, which
everyone's the strongest signal.
That's what it goes offFascinating.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
That's a good tip for travelers out there, yeah, yeah
, it is Not a bad idea.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Not a bad idea, but the Munzee was a bit rough for
that.
But I'll say this Josh, theMunzee itself, thousands upon
thousands, upon thousands ofcars, oh there were so many.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
I saw the map.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
There was a ton.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Not only was the fairgrounds filled, but the
whole town was filled.
That was so smart, becausethere was an event in the
fairgrounds and then there wasan event in the town.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
So here's a tip for you.
Here's a tip for you.
Some people were watching mevery intently because the Sunday
before the Midwest Geobash sothe Sunday before it happened I
started placing all those cardsbetween.
I had a lot of cards ready togo and I placed them all between
the two events and I did downeach road, down the side road
and down the road.
I then got three differentmessages from three different

(01:01:50):
people who were on another team,basically, and they all said
we're watching you, craig, we'reseeing what you're doing.
And next minute I looked up andthere was like all the cards
were all following all my route.
That I did because I knew thearea.
I know what Munzee players arelike.
They're also geocachers, sothey're out during the day, so
they're always going to capcards.
But, josh, you blast thesecards and these Munzees

(01:02:14):
everywhere.
They kept coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
People kept on placing them every single day.
That was me Sunday morning.
Sunday morning I was on mycouch watching them expire and I
was dropping them.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
I dropping the the crimson chalice right right on
top of the event as the onesexpired that was me, I'm sure I
still didn't do you any wellbecause you still got third
place, but anyway that's another, that's a, that's a.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
That's one for the munzee podcast but it still has
the best logo yeah, that's,that's fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
That's fair enough.
But josh, going back quicklybefore we finish it up, and that
that is these two boysthemselves, you know, yeah, yeah
, the lemonade dudes, thelemonade boys, how proud, would
they be?

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Oh man, I'd say they're really proud of their
town.
If they're going to do alemonade stand, they want to
represent Wauseon and Ohio andthey're like you know what these
geocachers need?
They need lemonade.
And I'm so proud of their town.
They're gonna love this townbecause I'm proud of this town.
And then they will be proud andthey will come back to midwest
geocache because they'reprobably there's a damn rare

(01:03:14):
thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
There you go, jeez, I'm your quarterback.
Thank you, jeez.
You're welcome.
I just didn't want to editlater on, that's all it was.
So anyway, josh, you're sayingat the start you're saying at
the start, though, in regards to, you're going to ask the
patrons first about your beard,should I?
I'm going to go to the page.
I think you should.
I think you should now, ifyou're listening to this episode
right now, this is a bonus.

(01:03:36):
If you're listening to thisepisode right now and you want
to become, uh, you know, one ofthe, the few that have the, the
voice for josh's bead.
How do they get on, patreonjosh?

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
oh, you go to patreoncom backslash treasures
of our town.
You are supporting us.
You are giving me advice aboutmy facial hair there are
important things.
These are important things inthe world and only you get to
have the say.
And maybe, maybe, if, maybe, ifthey're like I hate it, what,

(01:04:06):
what you know?
People might be like 51%, shaveit.
I might just listen, I mightnot, but I might, I don't know
51% may say keep it, and youmight listen.
This is true.
And then I'll become, you know,like ZZ Top, who knows?

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Anyway.
Otherwise, josh, how can peoplecontact us if they want to
contact us in any way, shape orform?

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yes, feel free to reach out to us at
TreasuresOfOurTownPodcast atgmailcom, or you can follow us
on Facebook, instagram, x,youtube, or just go to our
Buzzsprout website, just search.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
TreasuresOfOurTown on Google and you can message us
there Exactly.
So that's it for the show today.
Please subscribe, rate andreview on your favorite
podcasting app and as always,Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
May your travels always lead you to the most
unexpected and amazing hiddengems, like the man-eating clam.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
See you next time.
Everybody Man-eating clam, bye,bye-bye, bye-bye.