Treasures of our Town
Embark on an exhilarating voyage through the heart of America's captivating towns and cities with the enthralling travel podcast, "Treasures of our Town." Join your experienced hosts, Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger), as they unveil the hidden gems and extraordinary treasures that lie beyond the surface.
Delve into a world of cultural exploration as our hosts guide you through historical sites, natural splendours, and extraordinary local experiences. All their travels are guided by their love of outdoor games like Geocaching and Munzee. Whether you're a seasoned globetrotter or a curious beginner, our captivating city tours and off-the-beaten-path destinations will ignite your wanderlust and leave you inspired.
Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure? Tune in now and prepare to immerse yourself in the allure of "Treasures of our Town." Let us ignite your curiosity, fuel your desire for exploration, and set your spirit free as we unravel the secrets that make each town a true treasure trove.
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Website - www.treasuresofourtown.buzzsprout.com
Email - treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com
Treasures of our Town
Meet Craig in St Louis!
St. Louis deserves far more than just a glance at the Gateway Arch as you drive through. This overlooked Midwestern gem offers some of the most unique attractions in America, as Craig discovered while celebrating his 50th birthday with an adventure-packed itinerary crafted by AI.
The Gateway Arch impresses not just with its towering presence but with fascinating engineering details. Did you know it forms a perfect half-circle, with its 630-foot height matching its width exactly? Or that its innovative elevator system combines traditional lift technology with Ferris wheel mechanics to keep passengers level while ascending the curve? These architectural marvels make what could be a quick photo stop into a truly immersive experience.
But nothing compares to the jaw-dropping surprise of the City Museum. Forget everything you know about museums - this 10-story former shoe factory has been transformed into an artistic playground where adults and children alike crawl through cave systems, slide down massive spiral slides, and explore repurposed industrial artifacts including suspended airplanes and school buses. The intentional lack of directional signage creates a space of genuine discovery and childlike wonder that had Craig thinking, "Josh would be in absolute heaven right here."
From floating down the Mississippi on a historic paddle wheel dinner cruise to experiencing the thrill of skydiving in the very city where the first parachute jump took place in 1912, St. Louis offers experiences that connect visitors to both history and adventure. Even the culinary scene impressed, culminating in an eight-course chef's grand tasting menu at The Crossing that celebrated local, seasonal ingredients with sophisticated flavor combinations.
The next time you're planning a weekend getaway, consider St. Louis - a city that rewards those who take the time to stop and explore. As Craig and Josh both agree: slow down, experience these overlooked cities, and you might just find yourself proud of a town that isn't even yours.
Were you just typing then? While I was talking, I think you were typing. Did you type something?
Speaker 2:into the chat with T.
Speaker 1:What was it about? Did you do the?
Speaker 2:time capsule. I was asking yeah, I was asking when the time capsule was going to be opened. When is it All it said? Was it said Do you love to travel?
Speaker 1:Do you love road trips?
Speaker 2:Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 1:And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's the podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 2:Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching, join us as we venture to some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way. On today's episode, josh, you can. You can meet me in st louis. Meet me in st louis louis, make me in st louis louis. That's a song, I don't think I was singing it right.
Speaker 1:I don't think you ever sing it right, you sing it like josh so, but I knew. I knew I'd be able to entice you into a song somewhere or not, I know. Isn't it a movie as well? Meet Me in St Louis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a movie. It's a movie, it's a song, it's a city, it's everything you want it to be Exactly, and that's where we're going today.
Speaker 1:But that's exactly right. That's where we're going today, because I've spent the last four or five days in. Is it St Louis or St Louis? It's St Louis, it is.
Speaker 2:St Louis, but they say St Louis. It's St Louis, but people can call it St Louis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think the locals call it St Louis as well, but that's where we're going today.
Speaker 1:That's the proper name Exactly, and that's where we're going today because, as I said, I spent the last four or five days there and I'm I'm proud to say, josh, that I I took your advice, I took your tips from previous episodes and I'll let you know very, very soon of how I enacted those tips from previous episodes and really made my uh, my trip to st louis um extremely exciting, fun, filled and filled full of uh, fun and adventure. So very, very cool. But, mate, before we go, before we start, as, what have you been up to buddy? What have you been up to?
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, I've been just chilling up. Here in the Northland we have bipolar weather but we don't talk about the weather on this podcast. But it is a factor and, yeah, it is time for our upgrades and delays. If you've just tuned in to us for the first time, craig and I always talk about our upgrades and our delays. My upgrade was get this, craig. Last weekend I was invited to a brewery by our friend Mecca, mn Courtney and Minnesota boy, minnesota boy, Minnesota boy, tim Larson. It was a brewery called Heavy Rotation and it was themed. Get this themed record like record you know, themed like music record theme.
Speaker 1:Yes, Pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Anyway, we were there and they were doing a fundraiser for, like, the fire department, and I walk in and they give you a raffle ticket because there was a cover charge, and guess what? Oh, we were having an old-fashioned meat raffle. Do you know what a?
Speaker 1:meat raffle is. Josh, you don't understand. We invented, australian invented the meat raffle and our meat raffle is a lot better than your meat raffle. I'll give you that top tip right there, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Our meat raffles. They're not old-fashioned. We have them weekly, normally in our clubs and pubs in Australia, and they're always sponsored by the local butcher. And so the butcher will bring trays and trays of different slices and cuts of meat and steaks and sausages and all sorts and risoles and raffle them off from there. So tell me what was the sort of meat raffle like where you were?
Speaker 2:That's the same thing.
Speaker 1:The same thing.
Speaker 2:The butcher donated all this meat to the fire department to raffle off yeah and you know you get a raffle ticket. You pay five bucks and you're in the raffle and they had steaks and they had pork chops, but I opted for the, the handmade beef sticks.
Speaker 2:oh fantastic, because you know, you know I love putting uh, beef sticks in my bloody mary's, so that one. That's what enticed me. So you know, it's the simple things. That was my upgrade and so get this. So I won the meat raffle and then the lady came around. She's like, oh, you want to donate? You know, you want to enter the raffle a little bit more. I was like sure, sure, so I gave her another five bucks.
Speaker 1:And I want a camping chair. So I was just a big winner last weekend. Josh, if everyone knows you or sees you around, if you're ever at a geocaching event and there's a raffle or there's a competition or there's always something, josh, you always come back with a prize of some sort, always, always, have you noticed?
Speaker 2:that I'm a winner.
Speaker 1:I'm a winner, you are, you're an absolute winner. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I just think. I don't think that's true. I just think people notice because they know me right. No, just, oh, the geocaching vlogger he won again because, they just, they're like oh he's here, yeah, no, I just think this because they know me. This is not because I actually win all the time.
Speaker 1:No, I'm there with minnesota boy myself and you and, uh, you always come back with a prize, whereas minnesota boy myself never do so it's always you.
Speaker 1:So it's not just because who you are and you're well known, it's more the fact that is that you always win everything. So, uh, but well done to you, mate. So well done, well done. Uh, make my delays themselves. My ankle is still on the mend, but it's still not right. I've still got it strapped up as we speak and it's coming up to coming up to two weeks, two weeks now since it actually happened. So it's still. It's still painful, it still throbs a little bit, it's going down to the heel a little bit now, the bruising still there. It's still swollen a little bit here and there too, I've got to be careful. Um, I don't drive. Obviously, it's my left foot, so it's not my driving foot, thank goodness.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1:But whenever I stop now as well I'll make sure I jump in my passenger seat, because it's a swivel seat. I swivel the passenger seat around and then put my foot up on the driver's seat to keep it elevated. I've got a nice ice pack as well. Sometimes, when it gets too throbby, I'll put an ice pack on it too. So that's my, that's my delays, Josh. There's still, uh, still on the men, still on the men. But yeah, my upgrade outweighs my delays.
Speaker 2:Is it getting better? Yes, it is. Is it getting better?
Speaker 1:It is. It is getting better. It is slowly getting better. I'm not limping as much, yeah. Apart from that, it is getting better. But my upgrade, josh, my upgrade is guess what my upgrade is going to be? This entire episode is going to be my upgrade, so I can't talk about my upgrade, because I'm going to spend the next, you know, 40 minutes talking about my upgrade.
Speaker 2:Perfect, that's exciting and I'll just say my delay is that I was not with you in St Louis to experience all this cool stuff. I haven't spent significant time in St Louis. I checked In 11 years, greg. It's been a long time, because the last time I was there was in 2014. I was there for Geo Woodstock when it was there and I experienced a few of the things that you experienced not all the things and I experienced a couple of things that you don't have listed here, so we will talk about it. I have experience of St Louis, but you have it fresh in your mind as you just experienced it this weekend. And, yeah, that's my delay. It's like a lot of times, most of the times on this podcast, we have both experienced wherever we're going together. Today, I get to be the interviewer. Yes, you do.
Speaker 1:Yes, you do, yes, you do. You get to pick my brain and just be gentle with it because it's very, very small, but anyway, that rolls in. That rolls in, josh, to our St Louis. That's what we're talking about today, all about St Louis in Missouri itself, and we'll go from there.
Speaker 1:Now, before we start, though, josh, as I said before, I was guided by you only a few episodes ago, and remember you said when you did your trip up north with Reese, your daughter, and you said you use ChatGPT to utilize its knowledge, its wealth of knowledge, in regards to the best place to eat, the best place to sleep, the best place for this, the best place for that. That's what I did, josh. I enacted chat GPT and I put in the exact prompts. I said I want to be in St Louis from this date to this date. I like to geocache, so give me high favorite geocache locations. Adventure labs are included as well. I want to do a tourist sort of style. I want to have some nice meals as well, so I put nice meals there too, and I wanted to have one high-end meal, just a high-end one, nice um because, nice, because it was my birthday.
Speaker 1:Josh, that's what I was actually there for happy birthday.
Speaker 2:Thank you, good sir, thank you are you going to tell the people which one it was?
Speaker 1:50, 50, that's a big one. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, that should be celebrated.
Speaker 2:That's nothing to be. That's nothing. Yeah, yeah, that should be celebrated. That's nothing to be. That's nothing to be embarrassed about. You should be proud. You should be proud of your birthday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, that's a rare thing this year that's a rare thing for me because I've never celebrated a birthday uh, ever before my son birthday, ever before. So it's very rare for me. But I know I didn't chat gpt josh, so what do you think it out with?
Speaker 2:I bet it did a very good job of giving you a great itinerary it did. And let's just say chat GPT. Oh my God, AI Craig, it is getting so good. As of recent, there's been some upgrades to chat GPT. I have now the paid version. I've been having a lot of fun. I've been sending youT.
Speaker 1:I have now the paid version.
Speaker 2:I've been having a lot of fun. I've been sending you photos and I was like make me a cartoon, make Craig a cartoon, put me on, put me on a Pokemon card, like I just been having so much fun with it and and it's no surprise it probably it's just getting better and better. It's getting smarter and smarter and I bet it did a fantastic job guiding you around St Louis.
Speaker 1:It did, and I also put in as well, and the more information you put into this thing you can understand, the better it's going to job it's going to do. So I gave it the dates that I was going to be there. I gave it roughly what I wanted to do, as I said geocaching, adventure, labs, that sort of thing and dinner, and I even said it's going to be through some of the things that actually put in my itinerary. But because I said it's my 50th as well, it gave me age-related things to do, so it didn't give me all the. But I also put in the fact that I wanted to do other things as well, like skydive. You know stuff like that too, so that's really cool.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we'll get into it from there. But the first thing we did, josh, is that I wanted to do something a little bit different, a little bit, you know, something you wouldn't ordinarily do, because I got in there on a Saturday and, you know, checked into the hotel by the way, hotel, beautiful, the Wildwood Hotel it's called, and big, beautiful, you know me. My bath, josh, everyone knows Nice bath Was it a bath or a hot tub?
Speaker 2:Bath or hot tub, it was a spa an actual spa, big spa. I was like oh, yeah, you got to love that Right in the room, right in the room right next to the bed.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. You go from the bed and soaking in a nice hot bath in the spa itself and then jump straight into bed. It was so nice. So, yeah, stayed there for the few nights as well, but we drove down to the Mississippi River, and along the Mississippi River is the Skyline Dinner Cruise have you seen those at all, Josh?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been on some of those Mississippi paddle boats.
Speaker 1:They're awesome.
Speaker 2:They're really cool. Some of them just have tours, others, you know, they have pizza night. Others have really nice dinners, yeah. I have done those before. Up in La Crosse, wisconsin, they have the La Crosse Queen. So a lot of these cities along the Mississippi, yeah, they have these really cool paddle boats. They look right out of a Mark Twain book.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's why I wanted to do it as well. I mean, unfortunately for me, on the Saturday or friday, saturday, was big thunderstorms and a lot of rain as well, and that we they had had a lot, a lot of rain, to the point where there was a lot of, um, a lot of flooding along the mississippi over the last few days, um, and there's a lot of uh debris coming down and around. I thought to myself I even messaged him saying, is it still going to be on? Because I didn't know whether the debris is going to stop the paddle boats or not. But nope, it doesn't stop the paddle boats. They just, they just chunk through the whole big logs that are floating down the river.
Speaker 1:So, skyline and dinner cruise along the mississippi river paddle wheel throwback vibes as a replica for the paddle wheels as well, um, like 1800s steamboat sort of feel, as you said, mark twain, you know um, yeah, but it still had some nice modern cocktails and nice air conditioning. Uh, we jumped on, uh, jumped on, started having dinner and a beautiful dinner as well, quite a nice dinner, which you select beforehand as well. So you pre-select your meals and, um, it goes off the edge and straight away, as we go past, we go past the big arch, the uh, the gateway arches and that's what st louis is known for is the Gateway Arch. It was all lit up overnight, the Gateway Arch.
Speaker 2:It's the gateway to the West.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:St Louis is kind of known to like this is where the West begins. Oh yeah, that's what it represents. St Louis is the Gateway Arch. It's like okay, now the West begins.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, live entertainment on board. They had a full dj with some great tunes as well, and I will say, josh, you know, I was turning 50, so I'm of that age whereby I don't listen to like all the new, new, new stuff. So it was a throwback. There was, there was some jackson five josh, there was some old school michael jackson, jackson there's all those sort of feels as well. And then every now and then he comes in like you know who let the dogs out, who, who, who, who, and people were singing along. You know, some people even got up and danced. So it was lots of fun, lots of fun on board with that. As I said before, the food was delicious. There was either seafood, chicken, steak, all different types of food as well, um, and it basically it's just a. For me, josh, it's like it's you're floating on history, if that makes sense, right, you know um that old sort of style like it's.
Speaker 1:It's so, it's so unique, and I've seen it in so many movies, even coming from Australia. So to actually be able to, to get on that uh, steamboat sort of style and paddle wheel and go up the Mississippi river and then back down again and then back up again, cause that's where you go, you go back up against the current, you float down with the current and you go past where you the dock and then you turn around and come back up the current again. So so that's how it works.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. Yeah, Really cool. How much did it cost Craig? How much was it for the dinner and the cruise?
Speaker 1:The whole. So it's all inclusive and it's $65 for dinner and cruise.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, yeah, $65. That's a really good deal, that's it.
Speaker 1:Great deal. That's solid. Obviously, the drinks are separate as well, so you pay for the drinks as you drink them as well. I had to get Josh, I had to get the Riverboat Iced Tea. You know spiked iced tea. It was absolutely delicious, Really good. It had some nice rum in it too, so that was delicious because you get to keep the glass. You actually keep the glass, so it's a souvenir, so you know. So, yes, that was really nice.
Speaker 2:But $65 deal. It was a deal, that's a really good deal. Was it a couple hours, three hours, how long was it?
Speaker 1:Yep two and a half hours in total, two and a half hours in total. Yep, yep, yep, and it was three course meal, so you had your salad to begin with, you had your main course and then a delicious dessert of cheesecake at the end as well, so with a raspberry jus, so, but we'll get to more important food later on. I'll tell you that because this, this place I went to for the high-end food, josh, it was high-end food, so I can't wait.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to hear that. You know you were mentioning craig about history. One of the things the big part of american history in st louis is um. It is the gateway to the west and just, I believe, just north of there.
Speaker 2:It, this area, is where the missouri river and the mississippi kind of meet oh and so where this is where the missouri river started and this is where lewis and clark, in st charles, just just just north, I believe, of st louis, lewis and clark started their journey, exploring the west and they went right up the mississippi river to the west. So this is a this is there's significant history here and there's a like a big statue of lewis and clark as they're setting out on their on their journey. If you know any history about lewis and clark, so it's appropriate that you started with a paddle wheel and history vibes and who let the dogs out.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. It was great, it was fantastic. But luckily for us as well, it's still cloudy the next day. So the next day was I was supposed to do the skydiving the next day, but they called and they said no, it's too cloudy. Whatever, it was often on rain, we don't want you hanging around here on the off chance. And then we say no, we can't fly, we can't skydive today. So they rebooked me for the Monday and all I did was I swapped my days around on the itinerary for ChachiBT. So instead of what I was doing on Monday, I then did on Sunday. Sunday, I did the Monday, easy.
Speaker 1:Sunday I did the Monday Easy see Easy.
Speaker 2:It wasn't hard at all. It just tells you what to do.
Speaker 1:You don't need a brain, no no, it just tells you what to do. So it was perfect. So the next day we actually did the Gateway Arch itself.
Speaker 2:It's a must-do.
Speaker 1:It's a must-do you gotta. Recently it's changed to a national park and it is currently now the USA's smallest national park, and it is currently now the usa's smallest national park by a miles and miles and miles, so it is actually the smallest national park in the us. So it's very, very cool. Yes, the tallest, the tallest monument josh in the us. So that's really cool, the tallest monument, the us yeah, 630 feet tall.
Speaker 1:But but one of the best things about this, and that is, you look at it and you've seen photos, everyone's seen photos of this thing. Right, it is huge, it's ginormous and you think you know, oh, it is a full arch, but it's an optical illusion. It's 630 feet in height. It's 630 feet in width. Josh, it's not an arch, it's actually actually a circle. It's actually a circle. Yes, yes, and that that really did surprise me when learning that too. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait it's wait from.
Speaker 2:So, from each end of the arch, from end to end, if you lay it on the ground, if you measure. From end to end.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, from the ground. So it's, it's, it's the same height from the ground. So the diameter, the diameter of the height so sorry, it is still an arch the diameter of the height is the same as the width of it around, like from the side, if that makes sense. That's what I think yeah, that's what I said, that's what I meant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the I think yeah, that's what I said, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The width is the same as the height.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly that tells you how huge that's huge it is. I get what you're saying so it's like, it's a true, like almost half circle.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly exactly, but yeah, it makes full sense.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know you, it's like getting into a. I don't know if it's changed, but it's like getting into a washing machine. Oh, it is still the same. Or?
Speaker 1:a dryer, it's still the same. You get into the dryer, yeah, exactly, it's still the same, no different. And what I liked about it as well is you're sitting there waiting to go into these lifts or these elevator and it shows you how they created the elevator system as you're waiting for the elevator itself, which is really, really significant, because at the time back in because we're talking was it 1947 when the original design curse came out in 1947? We're talking back then they were looking about just like an elevator style and they looked like a Ferris wheel style, and then they ended up coming up with both elevator and Ferris wheel combined so you could actually stay balanced, stay upright, so you're not on an angle, but still go around the semicircle sort of area, so you can still go on an angle. So it was very interesting, very much like a washing machine. It's really fascinating.
Speaker 2:It's not like a true elevator, because it's going up kind kind of a. It's going up kind of I don't how do you say it like diagonally kind of yeah but it rolls up.
Speaker 2:It basically rolls up because you're not even going straight, diagonally you go, you go, you go straight up slightly and then bends. Yeah, exactly yeah, it's fascinating, I figured it out and I remember when you get up there, there's not a lot of room up there for a lot of people. It's a small area to walk around up there and small, small windows to look out. But you went up there. What time were you up there? Was it a pretty time?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, 1030 in the morning and by that time, as we got up to the top as well, the clouds had all lifted and gone. It was a blue sky, the sun was shining. I actually put a good, nice photo on my Instagram personal Instagram account today as we speak. So when I was down at the bottom, I looked up as I was walking around. I looked up and I went oh wow, I just saw the lines. I saw the sun poking through. I'm like yep, yep, yep, so snapped a quick photo as well from there. When you're up the top as well, there is a virtual cache, but you don't need to go up the top for the virtual cache.
Speaker 1:You can stay there because it does cost money to go up. But if you're there, pay the money You've got to go up. You've got to go up, you've got to do these things.
Speaker 2:You know it's yeah it's a very old virtual. Yes, highly favorited I remember when I did it, you had to answer several questions around the arch. Is that still?
Speaker 1:It's only two or three questions now on the plaque in front of it. There's a plaque in front of it. You have to answer. That's all it is. It's pretty simple to do. As I said, you don't need to go up, but if you're there, you've got to do it. Josh, you have to go up, you have to go up. It was really cool.
Speaker 2:You said it was a national park. I remember going underneath it.
Speaker 1:Yes, when you're going underneath.
Speaker 2:There's a really cool museum down there with a film and a bunch of like. You can't miss the museum. I believe it's all free too, because it's not free.
Speaker 1:The museum's not free yeah.
Speaker 2:All the museum downstairs is all free. So as soon as you you can go in, you can go in for free. But you can't go up in the elevators unless you pay the ten dollars, fifty or whatever. It is so right. So, but you have to go down, yes, you have to go down into their, into the museum, to get into the correct thing, to go up the arch, correct that? Yeah, but the museum is cool. There's like a film. It tells you all about the arch and like I think it probably tells history and lewis and clark.
Speaker 2:There's yeah, it's really cool down there. It's worth checking out the museum too, if you have time.
Speaker 1:Exactly and make sure you spend some time down there. You can either do it like because you've got to book your time frames to go up the arch because, as you can understand, they can only have a certain amount of people up there at a certain time and you are timed when you're up there as well, so you've got to go up and then you spend as much as time as it takes for the elevators to go back down. I think it's it's like a, I think it's a 12 minute window in total, so the elevators go back down, pick up the next bunch and as they bring them up, then you, as they come out, you go back in and you go down. So that's the way it works. But these little windows up the top, uh, that you look out of, you bend over and look out of, and the windows josh, the windows are angled down so you can literally, if you bend down properly and look out over the windows, you're looking directly down at the ground, like you could actually fall out of the window.
Speaker 2:So I know if you're afraid of heights, this would get your heart going.
Speaker 1:It would, it, would that, but they are small windows. You're not walking on glass like you have in other places, you know, I mean like in chicago and stuff as well, where you can walk on the glass. You know, like you're walking over people and stuff too, but no, none of that. Um, it is quite small up there. But, as I said, it's a must do, josh. So it's absolutely a must, sure, must do. Can't miss that. As I said, it was designed by euro siren, I think it's called. I butchered his name, but 1947, he designed it himself. There was 172 entries for the design and he ended up winning itself. It then took two and a half years to build, from 1963 to 1965. But one thing I like, josh, as well it's built to withstand earthquakes and wind, and so it actually sways up to 18 inches in high wind and can handle an eight magnitude earthquake.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow I don't think st louis gets very many earthquakes either, but you know, good idea, just in case it gets wind. I'm sure, oh, it gets wind it gets the wind.
Speaker 1:it's way up there. Yes, exactly Made of stainless steel and concrete. As I said, it's the world's tallest, and it's the world's tallest stainless steel structure as well, so that's pretty cool as well. That's cool. As I said, you can ride to the top and it's't part of the national park system, but now it is part of the national parks and, josh, as people as we, like geocachers alike, I've got a national park pass passport. You know and you have. When you go to national parks, you can stamp your passport to say that you were there at a certain date.
Speaker 2:I love that it's got the stamp.
Speaker 1:It's got the stamp downstairs in the museum where you can stamp your passport. Have you been stamping?
Speaker 2:those have you. Do you have that, have you been stamping those national parks yourself.
Speaker 1:I did, I started, I started. I started. I should have started three and a half years ago, when I started actually doing my travels, but I didn't actually do it oh yeah, that's one of those things.
Speaker 2:Because you're like you go there right and you're like, oh, that's so cool, there's a stamp. You're like, oh man, I've already been to five, I'm already behind, so I'm not going to do it, but you got to start, you got to start somewhere.
Speaker 1:You got to start somewhere. But what I like as well is that you can actually get the other passport, and there's another passport you get where you don't use the stamps and you the stickers in the sticker book, you see. So if you've been to five or six before, you can then buy the stickers online, you know, through Amazon or whatever, and update your book to say what you've been to and which ones you've done. So it's pretty cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:One more thing about this, josh. That's a good tip, that's cool. It's on your honor, right? You're not competing against anybody.
Speaker 1:You're really not. You're not going to get. If you, if you get all the stamps, if you get all the stickers in your book, who's who's going to care, apart from yourself? To be honest, like nobody so good for you.
Speaker 2:It's not like geocaching. No, it's not like geocaching.
Speaker 1:People are going to look at your stats.
Speaker 2:You didn't go to you, didn't go to that park you didn't sign that log.
Speaker 1:Look where's the date on that log book, you know no, no signature.
Speaker 2:You weren't there exactly.
Speaker 1:No, you can't. Just you, you had no pen. There's no excuse, especially for you. But uh, one more thing. One more thing, josh, and that is there's a buried capsule, time capsule, below the base itself. It was sealed in 1965, but this is my favorite. The actual time capsule contains signatures from over 750,000 schoolchildren. Yeah, so three quarters of a million schoolchildren signed this time capsule that's been buried under there in 1965. Don't ask me when it's going to be open, but yeah, that's where it is.
Speaker 2:You should ask ChatGPT.
Speaker 1:I should have asked ChatGPT. I didn't even think about it. Yeah, that's where it is. You should ask ChatGPT. I should have asked ChatGPT. I didn't think about it. So that was the arch Josh as well. So, as you said before, you've been there.
Speaker 2:I must visit.
Speaker 1:You've been there.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've been there. Yep, I was there 11 years ago. Did you do the cache?
Speaker 1:while you were there. It's cool.
Speaker 2:Did you do the virtual?
Speaker 1:Yes, we did the virtual. Well, there's plenty of Adventure Labs around the area now as well. So there's yes, yes, yes, because it's a major city, so you're not going to find that many actual containers like actual physical caches themselves, so this one here has a lot of Adventure Labs instead. So that's really really cool. Were you just typing then while I was talking? I think you were typing. Did you type something?
Speaker 2:in the chat. Yeah, I was asking when the time capsule was going to be opened. When is it? All it said? Was it said, not the foreseeable future? It didn't know. It either didn't know or they don't have a date for it. They don't have an end date for it.
Speaker 1:They mustn't have an end date, exactly, exactly no end date for it. So that's pretty cool. All right moving on yes.
Speaker 2:This next thing, this next thing, oh, this next thing. Craig, yes, this is one of my regrets. I really wouldn't. Um, I wish I would have spent time to visit here, because I have heard this is one of the best. This is one of the best places to visit in st louis, and you know how I love a good museum and this one's a very unique super fun museum.
Speaker 1:I heard this playground this art playground.
Speaker 2:Tell them about it, tell us all about the city museum.
Speaker 1:City museum. So when I looked into Chachapitin, I gave it all my information and all the way through it told me to visit the city museum. And I was thinking to myself, you know, ah, it's just a city museum. You know, these things must have some artwork there. It's got some monument details there. It might have some there. It's got some monument details there. It might have some history stuff there as well, but no, alas, definitely not. It doesn't have any of that.
Speaker 1:Itself the City Museum it's done by Bob Cassily, his name is, and a team. They transformed a former shoe factory and I'm talking, like you know, 10-story high shoe factory. They transformed it into one of the most unique museums in the entire world. The art and the philosophy is that the art, um, uh, meets the playground. And we went there and I'm like, hang on a second, what's going on here? I drove in and looked at the parking lot and there's kids walking over the top of my head six stories in the air via this, these circular cylindrical, you know uh gates and and meshes and you know metal containers and they're going from.
Speaker 1:there's even a plane stuck in the middle of the air in between and these kids are climbing through this this plane and then back out from the, the tail end of the plane and then and then down itself and through literally a little train system and whatnot. Helicopters are up there as well. There's a school bus hanging halfway off the roof. Josh and I just looked at this place and went Josh, I'll be honest with you, I'm going to be 100% honest with you. I looked and I looked up and I saw it all happening and I went. Josh would love this. Josh would be in absolute heaven, right here already.
Speaker 2:It's so playful. It looks like something that Pee Wee's Playhouse or something and all this stuff. It's like this play area. It's outside and it goes from inside the building to outside the building. Yeah, you're right, a plane sticking and there's a bus. It's just so stinking cool.
Speaker 1:And I see a ferris wheel, wow yeah, absolutely incredible that's really cool but the best thing is is when you go in and you buy your tickets and you go through the kids galore I'm talking everywhere there was families everywhere. This here is a family heaven. So if you're there with younger kids anywhere I'm going to say younger kids anywhere from five up, Josh, and even to the teenagers. Teenagers were there too, and teenagers were giggling like they were five again. That's how good it was. That's how really good it was.
Speaker 1:There's one area where there's all man-made caves, tunnels. Kids and their fathers were playing in the tunnels, and this one. All of a sudden, Josh, I'm walking along and I heard this noise directly above my right-hand side of my head because I'm just ducking under something, and it's this random father who's on his stomach climbing through a makeshift cave and there's a hole in the cave and he's looked at me and we made eye contact, within three inches of each other, Josh. We made eye contact and I went oh good day, mate. And he's like hi, Like it's incredible. But you go down to this network of caves. There is no way signs, there's no arrows around, no exit signs. Once you go in, it's hard to get back out. Warning, warning. It is hard to get back. You don't know where you're going, you don't know what you're doing. You can slowly climb.
Speaker 2:Are you crawling around on your hands and knees, or is it bigger?
Speaker 1:It's both. It's both, so there's a bigger component. So I never went into the smaller areas, because you can look, I look in a small crack, for instance. There's, there's random cracks in the wall. It looks like. It looks actually looks real like a real cave. It is cold to touch, it looks like real stone and there's like a small crack in the wall and I'll look in it next. As I look in it, I see a body go past. You know, I mean as crawling past, like in this crack. I'm like someone was in there, some kids in there, crawling past. It's an actual cave, you know, um, so there is there.
Speaker 1:You can crawl around in those small sections. Uh, people sometimes get stuck so they have to back back out. You uh become very friendly with people around you, so to speak, as well, because, I'm sure, because some people are coming down other than going up at the same time. There's no, as there's no arrows around. You just walk wherever you want to walk. But once you get to the top of this cave system, it's six stories high.
Speaker 1:There is now, after that, you know, those circle slides, the ones that go around and they come down at the same time. There's one of those all the way down the middle, josh, and so you can get onto this circle slide. There's no, there's no attendance there, there's no people, there's no staff. You just play as you wish, to play like, like a normal free play, like a normal kid in a schoolyard. And next minute you're here and you, as you're walking around, and you hear like the father go, oh yeah, like screaming as he, as he, as he's coming down the slide. And then you hear like a father go, oh yeah, like screaming as he's coming down the slide. And then you hear this little squeaky, squeaky sound and it's a kid running after him, sort of thing too. So it's a six story cylindrical slide all the way down to the bottom. So yeah, that's the best way to do it, but absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:So it's considered really like a children's museum. But let's be honest, it sounds like it's for the young at heart as well, like it's very adult friendly. I mean, you went there without kids, you had a good time.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I had a blast man. I had an absolute blast Because I mean, that was just the first part that I went into was the caving section. That's just one component. After that you've got four separate floors of different locations and actual real museum things as well. So it's not just all play.
Speaker 1:Uh, when I say actual real museum things we're talking about, I can't even think of the name, josh. But you know, when it comes to all the insects and the bugs and the, you know, and they're all on pins, on pin boards, and they're all under glass, you know, and you, you can go and look around. Yes, all different, all the different bees and the different flies and all that, it's all that as well. So that's in one area, in one room, so you can go around and have a look at that. So there's real museum stuff there too. Even architectural museum places as well, which is really cool. Things that have been built 200 years ago and they've got them hanging on the walls as architectural masterpieces from old buildings. That was, uh, that was deconstructed you know years ago.
Speaker 2:So all that is that is that one of the themes of the of the museum is architecture, like is that is that part of the theme of the? Okay?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah. They've got all different themes. Itself in different rooms is different themes, uh, different levels of different themes as well. So they've even got one for like a, a water theme, a nautical theme, whereby, josh, you wash your hands first and then you, you go around this little water tank area with all these little fish and you put your hand in the water tank and all the fish come up and and they suck, no, they suckle onto you, they bite, they bite and suck onto your fingers and they get all the little bits of bits of skin and stuff off your fingers and little particles off your fingers.
Speaker 2:I've done that. I've done a foot spa like that in Germany.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:Where they eat all the calluses off your feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, this was just for the hands. It was just for the hands for this one, so that was really cool. But I do think the exhibits change. These types of exhibits, like the room exhibits, change quite often as well, and it's different in every location. But, josh, I really, really enjoyed it. There's obviously a cafe there as well, so you can grab something to eat, grab something to drink. But the amount of times I heard parents just saying to their kids hey, josh.
Speaker 1:Josh just yelling for their kids and then you hear the kid go I'm over here. It's very much a place where you would lose your kids quite easily.
Speaker 2:But that's okay. It's okay that you lose them, because then it's fun, it's fun.
Speaker 1:It's more fun, the kids are having more fun and, as I said before, there were teenagers in there as well and the teenagers were giggling as well doing it, and the teenagers and the young kids alike, they were getting along. You know what I mean. They weren't too cool for school. You know that sort of stuff as well, so that's really cool. But what I the outside area is that they're repurposing all the industrial art. So we're talking, as I said before, school buses and planes and helicopters, all these different repurposed things that would normally just go to a scrapyard. They've got and now they're part of the industrial art out the front, around, up the top, in and out of the actual building itself as well. So that's really cool too.
Speaker 1:So, um, they do have a museum after dark where it's, where this here is not for families. It's 21 and over uh, because there's alcohol involved, involved as well. Um, didn't go to that one. Uh, it was starting to rain and stuff as well, so we finished up there. So that was really cool, really really cool. And it says is it kid heaven or an adult wonderland? You have to find out for yourself. But, yeah, you haven't been to this one, josh, you haven't been there.
Speaker 2:I haven't been to this one. I regret it. So this is for our geocaching listeners. Geocoinfest was in St Louis at the City Museum. The Coinfest was at that museum in 2016. What an awesome, awesome location for a geocaching event.
Speaker 1:Don't you think it is absolutely brilliant location. They did have a big area room for private function, so they must have been that private function room, I think. So that's pretty cool. I really like that idea.
Speaker 2:Were there dinosaur bones there? No, not when I think so that's pretty cool I really like that idea. That's really cool. Were there dinosaur bones there.
Speaker 1:No, not when I was there, not when I was there. There's no dinosaur bones, there's fake ones. So there's fake dinosaur bones and there's fake things that they've made and like you slide down, they made slides out of them and there's like dinosaur bones in the caves, but they're all fake, they're not real. Yeah, they're all fake, they're not real. Yeah, okay the reason.
Speaker 2:The reason I asked that is because somebody gifted me a uh geocoin from that geocoin fest and it was a. It was like a dinosaur head yes, yeah, yeah, to signify that it was at that museum. So that's why I was wondering that's cool there.
Speaker 1:So there must be, it must be yeah, part of the, it's part of the ones in the cave yeah, all the fake ones, because you can slide like through the, the triceratops's mouth or whatever it's called like as you come down torianosaurus rex's mouth, you slide through it.
Speaker 1:You know that sort of stuff, so that's really cool it's really cool yeah, yeah and um, I will say it's very dark in there and dingy too, so photographs aren't that that good, which is good, because obviously a lot of kids around too. So I didn't, I never had my phone out at all, I didn't do any of that. And again I thought of you thinking to myself how would Josh document this? You know you would. You'd want to make a TikTok out of it, a hundred percent at least minimum.
Speaker 2:You'd want a TikTok out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah and uh and I thought to myself well, there'd be different parts where you could say you know, do different videos in different it to me. I thought to myself oh, this is just a number, you know a basic museum. How wrong was I, how wrong was I? Chatgbt for the win on that one.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure, for sure. Yeah, I really want to visit this place and, yeah, this is certainly, I would say, my number one destination. After you've done the arch you got to do. Yes, this is like the next thing, exactly. Uh, based on what I've heard, what other people have said about exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:So that was on the sunday. On the monday rolled around, josh. The monday was my actual birthday my actual 50th birthday was on the monday. Um, so I I've so years and years and years ago. Um, I always wanted to go.
Speaker 1:I've been skydiving, before you know, twice before oh, you have yeah yeah, I've been skydiving twice before, but I was talking to my kids, uh, you know, back when I first started geocaching and you know, and I was going through some problems and stuff as well with my my ex-wife at the time and and all that sort of things. Anyway, I said to my kids 2025 is a big, big year, because in Australia, 18 and you can start drinking at 18, you become an adult at 18. So 2025, I turn 50, my son turns 18 and my daughter turns 21 all in this year, 2025. Oh, wow. And so I made a pact with my kids at that point in time to say them in 2025, we're going to go skydiving, you see together, okay, and in 2025, we're going to go skydiving, you see together.
Speaker 1:Now unfortunate circumstances have arisen whereby I'm no longer in contact with them as such for the time being, but I thought to myself oh, that's not going to stop me. Promises made, promises kept, and so that's the reason why I wanted to go skydiving for my 50th birthday is because I made that promise to them back years and years ago. And that's what I did, Josh. I found Skydive St Louis. Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I love that. So is there something special about Skydive St Louis?
Speaker 1:It really is, because you've done it before.
Speaker 2:Tell me what's special about it?
Speaker 1:The difference is Skydive. It was very unique in terms of it's a smaller sort of company, so it was only like myself and another person in the plane, with our two instructors and then the pilot. I was sitting directly next to the pilot the whole time with my legs like over the engine bay the whole time. It's a really small Cessna plane with no seats in it, so you're sitting on the ground the whole time, the ground, the whole time. Um, and then, as always, you know, my, my instructor, sort of you know sits up behind me, you know, and and clips in and it does all these checks and triple checks and double checks and all that sort of stuff as well.
Speaker 1:Um, gives it, gives me the whole rundown, the spiel, what I need to do, which I knew. I knew what to do from the first few times. And then, um, yeah, they open up the door. You, you put your feet out the door and there's the winds blowing all around and you're like here we go, here we go. And he just literally just like jump out so you fall. You don't jump, you fall, so you fall out. You do. Have you skydived before, josh? At all, have you?
Speaker 2:I have not. I've never done that before. Oh, josh, would you skydive Reese has? Would you skydive reese has done it would you?
Speaker 1:he's done it. Would you skydive?
Speaker 2:josh. Uh, yeah, I you know, I would try anything once you know, I have a tattoo that says just try it. That's what I thought anybody. If anybody says um josh come on you should skydive, I'd say I'll try it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll try it. I'll do at least one, just try. Yeah, I would try it sometime.
Speaker 2:You know, reese did it and uh, for her 18th birthday, oh. And her feedback was it didn't and I don't know, I haven't done it before, you have done it now a couple times. She said it didn't feel real, no, like it didn't feel like no, it doesn't feel like you're falling, it just kind of feels like you're Flying Suspended in air.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're suspended, yes, yes. And the reason for it? Because I've done skydiving a few times. I've done bungee jumping as well. Bungee jumping is a lot scarier because you have reference points of your fall, so you can actually see the rocks going past your head and stuff like that too.
Speaker 2:So you've got that fall and you see the ground coming right towards you, right?
Speaker 1:towards you. But when you're so many thousands of feet up in the air, you don't see the ground coming towards you. But when you're so many thousands of feet up in the air, you don't see the ground coming towards you. So you don't have that fall feeling. You do initially. For the first split second as you roll out of the plane, you have that like whoa, that whoa let go moment where you're not touching anything. And then, once you arch your back itself and you're in the free fall component, it's just like your wind is blowing your face and you're suspended in mid mid air. It feels like it doesn't feel like falling at all. You can look around, you see the views. They're gorgeous. You still got that feeling. And then when the ripcord is pulled, you know, and you get that that big rush straight back up. Um, I was really excited because my instructor was really really cool and he said to me do you want to fly some of this? I'm like absolutely so. He gave me the handles a few times there and he's telling me what to do.
Speaker 1:You put one handle down really, really tight and you do like a full spiral circle and then you literally pull that one like let that one go real quick and then pull the other one down and you spiral the other way and then you you pull them both down at the same time and it sort of pulls you up and then, if you let them go quick, you get like a zero g feeling, so like that, that floating feeling where you have zero g. So it's almost like you're in for that split second, you're in outer space feeling. So that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, reese did say the when the shoot came out. That was actually more fun than that for her.
Speaker 1:Yes, than the free fall. Yeah, and exactly right, because you got three component or four components. You got the initial fall, you got the free fall, you've got the parachute component and then you got the landing part as well. So there's those four components. Are what sort of um? You know what signifies the the actual feeling of it too. It's josh. I'm telling you that my last one, before this one, was over 25 years ago, was the last time I did it. Oh, wow, wow. It feels exactly the same. There's no difference. All the feelings came back, everything came back.
Speaker 2:Is there an anxiety in the free fall until that shoot opens up? Just a slight anxiety? No, Is the back of your mind like what if the shoot doesn't open?
Speaker 1:No, because you're too busy. You're not even thinking about the chute. You're there just experiencing the moment, right there, and in those seconds, that's all you're experiencing. Josh, you fall at 150 miles per hour.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:So you're traveling at 150 miles per hour with nothing, no motor, no engine, no car, nothing at all. And that's what your speed you're traveling at, but you don't know that you're traveling at that speed. You can't feel it. You know what I mean. There's no reference point.
Speaker 2:So how long are you free? How long are you free falling?
Speaker 1:So you free fall for about 30 seconds, 30, 40 seconds which is still a long 30 seconds. It's still a long time, but it's such a wonderful feeling. It's just the weightlessness. You know what I mean. That sort of thing too, all right, but what I loved as well, and I didn't know this until I went there.
Speaker 2:and that is Josh. Did you know the very first parachute jump in history took place in St Louis. Wow, yes, ever in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in 1912, the first ever parachute jump from an airplane occurred at Jefferson Barracks in St Louis during a World Fair event. This historic leap marked the beginning of modern skydiving.
Speaker 2:Well, there's your fun fact for the day.
Speaker 1:You learned something. People Exactly.
Speaker 2:On the Toot podcast.
Speaker 1:The treasures of our town, slash cities exactly. Um, I will say, josh, if ever you're in in any area, whatever it might be, if you are thinking about skydiving, just do it. You know, like your, like your tattoo says josh, just just get, get, get to it, just do it and don't. Don't live life with.
Speaker 2:How do you choose a skydiving company? How do you know that they've got all their stuff together to make sure it's safe? Do you look at the Google reviews? How do you?
Speaker 1:So it's not really about safety, because they're all stringent control by regulations, government regulations. So it's not necessarily about safety, but it is about customer experience. So what I would do, if you're in your area and you've got two or three skydive locations, have a look at their Google reviews. Just go through. You know which one's got the highest Google reviews, which one's got the lowest, which one you know, and what the reviewer people tell you about. Some people will say you know, you know, oh, I love skydive, this. The skydive felt fantastic, but the instructor wasn't forthcoming with information or wasn't friendly. You know that sort of thing. So, um, the skydive itself is always going to be the same feeling. That's not going to change. What's going to change for you is your experience with the actual company. So how you feel, how they make you feel, if you're excited, if you're nervous, you know they might help you with the excitement. They might ease your nerves slightly beforehand. You know things like that too.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah. How much does it cost nowadays to per person, to skydive?
Speaker 1:so you're looking, you're looking at around the 350 mark to skydive, but that's just yeah, that's more than I thought oh yeah, yeah, it's still pricey, especially because for this one there was only two of us in the airplane.
Speaker 1:So they do a full airplane ascent and descent, you know, and you're paying for the obviously tandem instructors as well, you're paying for the insurance and that sort of stuff as well. But what I would say, and that is get the full package. When I say full package, I'm talking about the media package. So the instructors have all got, uh, little gopros on their wrists and stuff as well. Um, you can go for the smaller package, which just comes with photos. That's boring. You've got to get the main package, because they do full interviews with you as well beforehand, uh, during um, they do it to music for you. It's all cut, ready to go and edited, so you don't have to do any edits, you know and just chuck it on social media.
Speaker 1:Um, and and for me, though, josh, what it does when you get the media package, it it lets you watch it, and each time you watch it you get that same feeling, you get that same tingles, you get those same goosebumps, and then depends on what song they put with it. So you know, you know the, the verve, bittersweet symphony, years and years. Yeah, that was the first of a song was on my first video of my first skydive. I watched it that many times, josh, that today, even today, if I hear that song on the radio, I get that feeling of skydiving, I get that.
Speaker 1:My mind goes back. It's like the Pavlov's dog, you know. My mind goes back to the time when I just felt so free, so weightless, so you know nothing else mattered apart from me just falling out of the sky. So, but yeah, I say, get the main package as well. So that main package pumps it up a little bit. In total it was around the $475 mark including the full package. So, yeah, so it is a bit pricey, but you know, well worth it, well worth it.
Speaker 2:It's often like a once in a lifetime or, in your case, a twice in a lifetime experience.
Speaker 1:Third time. Third time, lucky for me.
Speaker 2:The next one, the next one you're doing, you're doing when you're 75, that's the next one you got to do 25, 50, 75, 100.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, I will say. I will say this is not family friendly. But my grandmother, before she passed away god rest her soul she went skydiving. We took her skydiving for her 70th birthday. So her 70th birthday she went skydiving. She was with an instructor and we had a video with a person with her as well. She landed, the video guy come up to her and asked us you know how was she, how it was, how the whole skydive was? She looked directly into the camera and she said I've never had six orgasms in one jump in all my life. That's from my 70 year old grandmother. I did warn you it wasn't family friendly, but but that's the way she was. And, josh, I told that story at her funeral as well when I did the eulogy.
Speaker 2:And I bet you got a big laugh.
Speaker 1:Big laugh, a big laugh. She's an incredible woman. She was an incredible woman and, yeah, my heart goes out to her. But yeah, so that's what it does, though, josh. It brings out the best in everyone. As I said, just do it Just once in your life, just do it.
Speaker 1:Just do it. Even if you do it and it scares the hell out of you, you're like I'm never doing that again. That was so terrible, I'm terrifying, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. At least you've done it, you see, you've done it, you see. So that's my saying, that's my saying. So there we go, moving on Josh.
Speaker 1:After that, of course, after that, of course, I'm going to be quick with this one to a certain degree, but I asked ChatGPT and I told this as well to the restaurant. I asked ChatGPT. I said I want a fancy dinner, a real nice fancy dinner For my 50th birthday birthday. I want a fancy meal at a location in st louis. Give me the best one you have.
Speaker 1:If people don't know what chat gb does, it goes through the google reviews. It goes through the, the yelp reviews. It goes through all the different review apps that are available and the restaurant review apps and all of them itself. It collates it all together. It goes through the michelin stars. It gave me the crossing in st louis. It's called the crossing. Uh, we went there and uh, you know. I said, you know my name, booked it, booked the table, said my name, and they're like yep, come through, josh. They had a birthday card on the table for me because it was my 50th, so they already had a birthday card on the table. Candles, were there? Delicious meals? They? He came out, the waiter was a brilliant waiter as well got my bottle of wine, um and and when he did the whole, I'm not sure have you done many fancy meals, josh? Where the way to?
Speaker 2:serve you. I've done my fair fair share you do the whole. You know when? Multi-course? Yeah, yes, the multi-course stuff.
Speaker 1:You do the whole, like you know that he pours a little bit of you for you first and you do the whole, you know when. Multi-course yeah, yes, the multi-course stuff. You do the whole, like you know that he pours a little bit of you for you first and you do the whole smell and the sip and you're yes thank you taste it, do the whole the fancy stuff, yep did all that yes, absolutely delicious.
Speaker 1:But I've never seen this before, josh. What he did was he he got the cork out and he put the cork and squeezed the cork into the actual lid of the bottle and then placed it right at the base of the bottle on the table, so with the the label side up, so that you can see exactly the brand label of the cork and then, obviously, you can smell the cork. You can see that whatever you want to. So I'm like it's just the little things like that that make it actually quite fancy. So this one here. There's's two different tasting menus. They have they have a premium tasting menu, which was $75 a person, and that was three courses, sorry, four courses in total with different options. Josh, I wanted fancier, I wanted more than that. It's your birthday.
Speaker 2:It's my birthday. You only turned 51. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Because what they had? They had the chef's grand tasting menu.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, tell me about it.
Speaker 1:You do not Sounds delicious, you do not pick anything. The chef has done it all for you. Oh, they bring you the best of the best. They bring you the best of the best of what they found at local produce markets during that day. You see, so it comes out. It at local produce markets during that day. You see, so it comes out. It's an eighth course, an eighth course seasonal menu handcrafted by the chefs. These chefs are Jim and Chu Rain. Their names are Fresh, local ingredients. You can get with wine pairings as well.
Speaker 1:I didn't, because I already had the bottle of wine, but when they came out these meals, they come out with smaller portions, which is really nice and really handy, starting off with a different type.
Speaker 1:So you got some, uh, seafood involved, you had some pasta dishes, you had a meat dish, you had some lamb dishes as well, like it was, and then it came out with a dessert at the end and, oh, it's like a sorbet with a raspberry jus on top, like, oh, josh, I'm talking the flavors that they combined, that when you ate the individual pieces, for instance, you know the lamb, you ate the lamb by yourself and you went oh, that's pretty good, but if you combine every flavor that's on that lamb plate at the time it it? It really accentuates the flavor of the lamb and then the all the other flavors come involved and you can see how the flavor profile that they make on the plate. It literally hugs each other in your mouth and you go this, this is what I needed. So, yeah, the chef's grand tasting menu. A bit more pricey $150 per person. So it's a little bit more pricey, but it's your birthday.
Speaker 2:It's not bad. It's not bad.
Speaker 1:It isn't bad. So you can get away if you, if you're a table for two, for instance, with a nice bottle of wine and the tip included as well, it's about 500 bucks for the night. So yeah, you know a bit pricey, but as I said it's, it's worth it's not every day. No, definitely not every day, definitely definitely not every day, but but a hundred percent worth the crossing in st louis it's called so and as I, said, it was the little things, my birthday cards. I took my birthday card, I took it.
Speaker 2:I like that. So you told them it was your birthday. Well, when did they ask you? Is it like a special occasion?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in their website, when you actually book your table and stuff as well, you've actually got these places where you filled out different things. So you fill out, like your age, you know what are you celebrating all that sort of stuff too. So I filled all that in prior to and went from there. So that's really cool. So that was my St Louis trip, josh, so very cool indeed.
Speaker 2:You missed one thing. Oh, I did. What did I miss? You missed something. I mean all the chat. Gpt did you. Well, it sounds great yeah, yeah. But one of the things that I had a lot of fun doing with Tammy when I went and a couple other friends, it was the St Louis official Budweiser tool. So this is a big location where it is a huge know. You talk about the you know little craft breweries. This is not craft brewery, this is the factory.
Speaker 2:This is willie wonka's beer factory basically and uh, they have the budweiser tour in st louis. They have several different tours. They have the fresh day fresh tour, which is 75 minutes and it's kind of like. That's kind of like the regular overview one. There's a beer master tour and it's 150 minutes. It has behind the scenes access to to some of their area, like if you're like a beer nerd, you do the beer master yeah, or or yeah, there is a Clydesdale VIP experience. You know what the Clydesdales are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the horse. They have the Clydesdale horses on site at this brewery. You can see the Clydesdales, I think, in all of them, but this one's just special. If you're like a horse nerd, slash beer nerd, that's the one for you.
Speaker 2:There's a beer school. I mean, this is kind of like a mecca for if you, if you really want to get an amazing brewery tour, it's really really interesting and of course, there's a huge beer garden at the end with unlimited tastings. But that that is in St Louis, which is one of the other things that you want to hit. If you're a 21 and over, you can't you can't you can't even visit if you're not 21 over yeah or over, and also st louis is also known for barbecue, so there's many many good barbecue places in the st louis area.
Speaker 2:So that would be another one of my recommendations if you're in st louis, to make sure you find maybe a barbecue place I did have did have a barbecue for one of the lunches.
Speaker 1:I found a little barbecue spot that wasn't ChatGPT related. They didn't give me the barbecue place. I did it myself as well, so that was really cool. And one other place as well for breakfast or brunch is the biscuit joint. It's called, and so it's like an upper-end waffle house because they're cooking everything in front of you and you sit around the bar area, but most of it is all on biscuits and you have different types of gravies. You've got five or six different types of gravies you can have. You can have different types of eggs on top as well, so you can have like the runny yolk eggs. So you can. You crack the runny oaks amongst, mix that with the runny oak with the gravy into the biscuits, oh yeah. With the runny yolk with the gravy into the biscuits, oh yeah. And they do tater tots, uh, and the tater tots are all loaded with different types of gravies and stuff as well, and cheeses and whatnot too. So wow, yeah, yeah, the biscuit joint. It's cool too.
Speaker 1:So if this podcast hasn't made you hungry, I don't know when you're listening to it, but if you're on your way to work now, you're probably already eating your lunch in your car.
Speaker 2:Probably, probably. No, I'm just going to say this as we sort of wrap up with St Louis St Louis is one of those towns that people don't think about. Oh, I'm going to take a trip there or I'm going to take a long weekend.
Speaker 2:It's very similar to like some of those maybe underrated cities like Cleveland that we visited orinnati, I would say st louis is maybe one of those, and you know st louis is one of those. This is my experience. It's kind of like one of those drive drive-through cities. This is like, oh, I gotta get through st louis because you're always kind of go through it on the way to somewhere. And I hope this podcast maybe give gave you some inspiration to maybe spend at least one night there, visit the city museum, do the do the arch budweiser tour.
Speaker 2:Get some barbecue. Slow down people, yes, slow down, yes, you know, and explore a city that might be a bit surprising to you, and I think st louis is one of those ones absolutely that could be surprising absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And because, yeah, you think about it, you drive through and you look and go oh, look at that arch, yeah, okay, I've seen now and keep driving, stop yeah yeah, it's not, it's not the same.
Speaker 1:It's not the same when you're actually inside going up this masterful, absolutely masterful elevators that they've created, uh, slash washing machines, slash dryers, and it's an experience of itself. It is that's an experience in itself as well, just literally getting into something that that was created by uh, you know, an architect with a masterpiece, you know, in order for it to work properly like it does.
Speaker 2:So that's really cool really, it's kind of like a modern, a modern wonder of the world I think, I don't know if it's actually on that list, but it is. It's a really amazing monument and I think we forgot to say this. It's right on the river, oh so once you're up there, the views are that you get the view on the mississippi river. It's like it's right there. So even even when you're out there, I believe like the paddle boat area and stuff is pretty close close to that.
Speaker 2:It's all in that same area. It's just a neat place to explore, exactly even if you're not going up there, which you you should.
Speaker 1:And I will say a big tip as well, and this is if you want to find parking, easy parking you go park near the paddle boat areas During the day. It is $10, but it's $10 for the entire day. You drive down and around, you park on the Mississippi River itself. There's plenty of parking down there, near there, and you literally walk up the hill. It's a couple of steps to walk up the hill and straight away you're under the arch. You're under the arch itself. You can spend the whole day wandering around that city from that location and then walk back to your car for 10 bucks. It's a beautiful place to sort of park your car and, uh, and and I even got a photo from the top of tuesday my van she was parked down the bottom as well and I had a nice little close-up. You can see her little, her, uh, her solar panels on a roof, you know, and so I waved to her. I waved to her from the top.
Speaker 2:It's really cool. I remember, I remember that. I remember. For some reason I remember parking too, because I remember where I parked. It was like right next to the river, like there was water, like almost yeah, there's. It's not like a drop-off, it's like a slow easement of like concrete that leads up so you can park literally the rivers right there.
Speaker 1:It's not like a drop off into the river. Exactly, exactly. You got to be careful. You can't, if it's low tide or whatever, the river does rise, the river does rise. So you got to be careful. Goodbye Tuesday. Hello Wednesday, that's right, but so you've got to be careful. Goodbye Tuesday. Hello Wednesday, that's right, but anyway, very cool. So, yeah, no, definitely, stop people and experience these towns, slash cities that you probably wouldn't stop at. So exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, if I lived there, craig, I would be proud of my town, and that's a damn rare thing these days, right, right, right right. You'd be proud of my town, and that's a damn rare thing these days, right, right right, right.
Speaker 1:You'd be proud of the museum.
Speaker 2:That's what you'd be proud of Speaking of that. Yeah, I know that museum is awesome. Speaking of being proud of your town, a little bit of an update, I think. Two episodes, three episodes ago, I was like we're putting together some Treasures of Our Town merch, Some toot, some toot merch. If you don't get that, that's our acronym Toot T-O-O-T, Toot toot.
Speaker 1:Treasures of downtown.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, exactly. And so, craig, I have the. It's a really cool logo. I've shared it with you. The people have not seen it. It's really cool. I'm very proud of this logo and those. It's kind of like a how do I say it? It's a little bit of an easter egg logo. Yes, kind of yes. Anyway, well, I submitted to my t-shirt people, my t-shirt company, which is actually teespring, yep, and it was back. I did it back in february, craig, and there it gotten stuck. It's like stuck in production. I keep checking on it. I'm like I ordered this thing. I wanted to order samples before I would put it out there for the public because I want to do a quality check right and it's stuck.
Speaker 2:I messaged them several times and I literally threatened them. I said if I don't get these shirts, I'm going to move on to another. Let's be honest, there's lots of shirt companies, yeah. So people be patient, it's going to be there. My hope, correct? Yes, my hope is that it will be um, ready to go, ready to purchase um several couple weeks before geo woodstock, because I would love, love, love for people to buy those shirts and wear them.
Speaker 2:Yes on the day of Geo Woodstock, and if you do, we're going to figure out something we're going to give you a good prize.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it is, but it's going to be a good prize if you buy the Treasures of Our Town shirt and wear it during the Saturday Giga event. We'll be wearing them as well, so be patient, folks. They're coming. Patrons will be the first to know when they're ready to go. I will post it on our Patreon.
Speaker 1:And I will say this as well I got this from the good old GCPC, and that is all. Patrons Josh as well will have a discount code issued to them whereby they get it at cost price as well. So patrons will get the merchandise at cost price. I don't think we've even discussed that yet, josh, I'm just landing it on you now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a way. There's a way for people to get it at cost. I've done it with my patrons as well. So there'll be a code for that Yep exactly, and also speaking of Geo Woodstock. It is coming up. It is it is like six weeks away. Yes, yes, less than six 50 days. We're 50 days. Yes, I want to remind everybody that we will be on stage recording a live podcast of Treasures of Our Town, I believe at noon. Is it noon or 12.15?
Speaker 1:I can't remember. Sit down, grab your lunch, grab your lunch, come, sit down, watch itself and listen, uh, and make sure you open up your phone, uh, adventure lab app, because we'll have a very special adventure lab just for those live listeners. And then, after that happens, uh it will, we switch it off. After we, after we end our podcast, we switch off the adventure lab. So if you want a nice little five-stage adventure lab while sitting and listening to us, make sure you you join us, josh, on the main stage from around noon or midday, as we say as well. I say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you want to get there early because I don't know what the seating's going to be like. But get there early and I just I look at the schedule. I'm really proud of our podcast, craig, because we get 45 minutes. A lot of the speakers only get 15 minutes exactly so thank you.
Speaker 2:Geo woodstock. We will be as entertaining as you know what um and and here's another new announcement you ready for this? You ready for this? If you're attending geo woodstock, make sure you go to midnight madness, which is the event after. Yes, because craig and I will be competing in lackeys versus influencers, fam, geocaching, family feud. Yes, you will get to watch us take down the, the people that work at geocachingcom. I have a hunch that we might know. We know a lot, we know, we do, we do and you've got to remember, josh, I used to host.
Speaker 1:I used to host, um, you know, the, the, the quizzes, trivia, trivia, the gf's and trivia, you know so I've got, I've got. I'm gonna brush up that I'm gonna brush up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, you know they're gonna put some ringers in. Oh yeah, like the ringers are gonna be like annie loves. You know annie loves gonna be in there. She's worked there for like 20 years. You know brian roth is gonna be there, the president. But how awesome, yeah, how awesome, craig, if we take them down?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, I would be. That would be the highlight of my geocaching career so far. I'll be honest with you yeah, so we're talking smack right now.
Speaker 2:Geocaching there is an official geocaching podcast, an HUQ podcast. So, yeah, I wonder if Rock Chalk might be on it too, Maybe, maybe he's the host of that podcast as well. So anyway, come to that, that'll be very entertaining. Midnight Madness is kind of a coin path tag trading event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:After the big mega and there'll be a lot of path tag trading. Speaking of path tags, holy cow, I don't want to get too much in the weeds, but have you even seen the scare we have with the tariffs and stuff like that that path tags are?
Speaker 1:oh yes, I know really expensive.
Speaker 2:I'm happy it's going to be tough for people to produce.
Speaker 1:I'm happy, though, josh. I got my new path tags, which you gave to me as well, because I'm delivered to you, so thank you for that. Um, it's in my new ambassador, because I'm a proud ambassador of g woodstock, so I got, uh ambassador tags made up. That's cool. They're very. They were still very expensive back in then as well, and yeah but, now, I know, I know.
Speaker 2:Depending what happens.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Who knows? But still still it'll be fun.
Speaker 1:It will be. It will be.
Speaker 2:And even if you don't have path tags, come and watch us take down the legs.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. But speaking of the merch, Josh as well, and just saying before about patrons, can get a discount for our merch coming up. If you want to become a patron before that happens, then how do they do that, Josh?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can support us at patreoncom treasures of our town. I'm sorry I'll say it again patreoncom backslash treasures of our town. It is there that we have all our golden nuggets. We have behind the scenes stuff we have. We're going to have discounts on our shirts merch. You're going to get news before anybody else and you can feel good in your heart for supporting a podcast that actually we need you, yeah, we do.
Speaker 1:This is not a.
Speaker 2:This is not a pro, this is not a for profit venture. This is this is a service to the world, the geocaching community and beyond, exactly To help people explore different places that maybe they haven't visited before. Exactly or other travel-related items Exactly. So consider joining us on Patreon. We really appreciate the support.
Speaker 1:We absolutely do, absolutely do, but otherwise, josh, how can other people contact us if they wish to contact us with ideas?
Speaker 2:Yes, feel free to reach out to us at Treasures of Our Town podcast at gmailcom, or you can follow us on Facebook, instagram, twitter and YouTube. Or if you search Treasures of Our Town in Google, it'll go to our Buzzsprout site and then right there you can put a message in. Right there We'll get the message. Just make sure you tell us who you are, yeah because it doesn't come up as to who you are.
Speaker 1:It's just a random message from an unknown person. So that's really cool. So, Josh, that's it for our show today. Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcasting app.
Speaker 2:And, as always, your travels always lead you to the most unexpected, amazing hidden gems, like St Louis, and we'll see you next time when we meet you in St.
Speaker 1:Louis, st Louis.
Speaker 2:Louis, meet you in St.
Speaker 1:Louis, louis, meet you in.
Speaker 2:St.
Speaker 1:Louis, bye, bye.
