Adventure Rentals Indiana

Join Polaris Adventures Content Manager Jared Christie on a visit to Adventure Rentals Indiana. It's an off-road park with trails, mud and even sand! Yes, sand in Indiana. Don't miss out on this park that hosts tens of thousands of riders each year. 

Book your next adventure @ www.adventures.polaris.com 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Players Adventures podcast. I'm your host, Jared Christie. My guest today might be the youngest general manager in the entire country, but she's no stranger to work. From sleeping overnight inside hardware stores and flipping houses with her dad to folding t-shirts inside a barn when it's 100 degrees. She's had dirt under her fingernails since she could walk. Please welcome to the show Kendall Nas, General Manager of Adventure Rentals Indiana. Kendall, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I'm doing great. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I'm doing well. Kendall, I'm gonna be up front right away and let you know I've been riding in a lot of states, but never Indiana. Don't be mad.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

That doesn't surprise me. It doesn't surprise me at all. But yes, so you wouldn't think Indiana to be a top hotspot for riding.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I know you're gonna have no problem convincing me that I need to add Indiana to my list because your place has something for everyone. Tell me about Adventure Rentals Indiana.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yes, so we are located at the trailhead of Badlands Off-Road Park. So if you haven't heard of it, it is a 1,500-acre roughly ride park. And one that you said it has some little bit of something for everybody, that is a hundred percent true. There are dirt trails, there are trees, there's rocks, there's sand, there's it's a little gem in the center of or kind of uh southwest Indiana, and it is beautiful. So, like I said, we're located on the trailhead of that ride park. So if in the middle of cornfields, we are um a good spot to stop.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Now you're in Attica, Indiana, and I was gonna ask you where Attica, Indiana is at, but maybe I should ask you where Indiana is first.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

So we're categorized as the Midwest, but you know, right between Ohio and Illinois, right above Kentucky. So we kind of fall in that little area of just being in the Midwest. We're in eastern time, so we get a lot of people from Illinois in the central versus eastern. So I guess that's the best way to describe that.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So where's Attica in relation to Indiana?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yep. So the best way I can describe it is throwing some popular cities out there that you might recognize. So Indianapolis, we're about an hour and a half west of Indianapolis, Lafayette, Indiana, uh, Purdue, if you've ever heard. We are about 30 minutes west from Lafayette. Uh that so those are about two and a half hours south of Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Now, Indiana has almost zero public riding. So I imagine Badlands Off-Road Park is pretty popular.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

We are one of the few riding areas in Indiana. We are the only ORV outfitter in Indiana. So we are it's very a great opportunity for us to be able to, you know, service those types of experiences because, like you said, there is not a lot of riding in Indiana. There's not a lot of riding in general, in that general area of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois. The for the closest riding you'll get is four hours south of us or going into Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So let's dive in and start talking about the park because if you're in the Midwest, Badlands is obviously a must. Kendall, let's hear about the park.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, so I briefly kind of touched a little bit about what we have, but what you'll see when you come in is a beautiful store entranceway. Um, so everything is located on one lane. So the lane is about a quarter mile. You'll turn in off of the road, you'll see our outfitter building right there, front and center. We have a camp. So there's a couple different companies going on off the trail, which is over 300 campsite, campground. There's over 30 vacation houses, and so there's plenty of places to stay. Now you keep going, you'll see a beautiful dealership right there on the right with Attica Motorsports, and then you get to Badlands. The property of Badlands, like I said, is unbeatable. Um you have 1,500 acres, so it's pure riding land. So a lot of people think that when you're riding, you're you know going from one trail, you're on that for two miles, and you get off. Well, our ours is like a big playground, so that's almost 1,500 acres of pure riding. You can go left, you can go right within a two-second decision-making process, you can back up, you can turn around. Um, so that's kind of and then there's also um a lot of sightseeing things. So we have one of our biggest pieces that people come to look at are the tubes, which are basically giant green bins that people can drive through on one side and then fall into a beautiful creek on the other side. Big tourist area right there.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Is the park set up for beginners all the way to advanced riders?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

So the best thing that I like to say about our park is the only way you get lost is if you stop driving. I'm pretty from I've grown up in that property my whole life. So I've gotten the opportunity to kind of see the harder areas and the easier areas. But I would to answer your question, yes, I would say it is a perfect opportunity for a beginner writer to get out there and kind of get a feel for the machine that they're driving. They don't have to do anything hard that they don't want to. Like I said earlier, they can back out of things, they can reverse. So it is, and there's plenty of wide open areas where they can just kind of, like I said, get a feel for their machine and get introduced to the world of off-roading.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Now you mentioned all sorts of stuff that I would expect an off-road park to have, except for sand. You guys have sand?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yes. So in the past, so before long, long time ago, we way bad. We uh it was used the Badlands itself used to be an old gravel quarry. So we would they they would haul out gravel, and that's kind of how we created like sand dunes. So there it kind of looks like a big bowl, and like you'll see long hills of sand. But yes, sand. We have a lot of sand. It's more of like a thicker pea gravel, so it's not like you would go step on a beach type of sand, but it yes, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Does that surprise people?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

It does surprisingly, it does, and I I know that um a lot of people don't think to find the type of sand that we have in Indiana because, like I said, we're surrounded by cornfields and soybean fields, so we're a big farming area. But yes, people come to visit the sand dunes. It's it's one of the things that I think characterizes Badlands the most.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

What is your favorite section of the park?

SPEAKER_00 7:02

One of my favorite sections is probably the rock quarry. So that is also something that really makes us special, is because not only would you not expect to find sand in Indiana, but you also wouldn't expect to find big rocks and rock crawling areas. Um, they host a ton of events down there that um basically you can, you know, go, you can watch people, you don't even have to drive on the rocks. You could go watch people do crazy obstacles, or you know, it's uh basically kind of like the same bowl type of description, um, where there's a bunch of rock walls and stuff like that that you can go and observe, or you can try out a couple rocks as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That sounds like a ton of fun. Now, are you guys open for just the summer, or are you open all year round? It is Indiana, so it does get a little cold.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yep. So we so like I said, so Badlands, we service so Adventure Rentals services Badlands. So the Badlands is the actual ride park, and then we are Adventure Rentals is the outfitter that you would go and rent vehicles at. So the Adventure Rentals is we we've played around with it, but we since I think over the past two years, we have been open all year round. So even if you wanted to bear the cold Indiana, you know, single-digit degree weather and snow, or just hey, come out, we will rent you a machine.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Kendall, am I gonna see you out there in January and February?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

You will see me out there because I well, okay, time out. I will be there.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

She's I'll work inside the building, but you won't see me out in the parking.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

You will see me inside the building. I will definitely hand you the keys, but I may not be riding with you. Oh gosh, but no, it's absolutely beautiful 365 days years around.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I'll bet it is. I'll bet it is. And I'm sure in the summertime you guys are jam-packed.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Summer times are busy times, so usually our business kind of fluctuates the same as Badlands. So when they're busy, we're busy. So we our primed areas are from July to end of like mid to end of November. So right as the weather's starting to get cold, we'll that's where we'll kind of taper off. But like I said, July to the end of November is prime time to ride.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Now, if I check out the park and I had a blast and I want to come back the next day, is there can I do that? Is there an option for that? Can I stay right there?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah, so the best part about our property is that, like I said, we're connected to a bunch of other companies. So we're kind of a uh one-stop shop, which I love to tell people because, oh, I don't know where to stay. Well, you can just stay right across the street. Or, you know, I want to look at buying a machine. Well, you can go travel a quarter mile down the road and you know, look at a new machine with a commodity sports. We are kind of, like I said, a one-stop shop. You can ride. We do our most popular riding time, like riding slots are four-hour and seven-hour rentals. Um but we also get if you want to, you know, stay in a local cabin, we also get those multi-day riders that want to make a vacation out of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Kendall, you mentioned this is something you kind of grew up with. Is this in your blood? Did you have a choice in what you were doing in life?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Well, okay. There were two separate questions there. So the one thing is, yeah, this is a hundred percent in my blood. I grew up, um, my I remember seeing pictures of my dad and my mom in like old jeeps that with me in a car seat in the back. So we've been we've been riding off-road ever since I was, you know, a newborn. And growing yeah, my dad actually s had uh off-road park before so my dad is the main owner, but he grew I grew up learning from him. So I guess so he it's funny because he likes to say, I'm not second generation, I'm 1.5 generation. Because I grew up working in the off-road industry and got to learn the tough grueling lessons that you know most some other people don't get to experience. So, yes, to answer that question, yes. The other question, do I had it did I have a choice? Yes. I did, I really do love this sport in this industry, and I really do have a passion for it. So my full choice was to come back and learn the ropes.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Now, how did how and when did you guys get hooked up with Polaris Adventures?

SPEAKER_00 11:53

So, as I mentioned, my dad was the the original, like he he's the owner and he started this um in 2017 was when he originally started rent rentals and with Polaris Adventure, we actually began renting our own machines without Polaris Adventures um for time being. And then we got um introduced to the Polaris Adventures program in that 2017-2018 era, and that's when we kind of made the transition. We did that, things just boomed. Um then we obviously 2018, 2019, 2020 was when COVID started, and that really catapulted our business from an aspect of everybody wanting to get outside, everybody wanted to go rent. So that was a changing era for our business.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

What's the partnership been like with you guys? Because you've kind of been around since the beginning of Adventures.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

So it's funny because I'll still go to these players' adventures meetings and go to the summit events that they have, and I'll see people that used to work with my parents long, long ago, and it's so awesome to see the kind of evolution of individuals and you know, uh representatives. But I would say we've always had a super tight relationship with Players Adventures, they've never done us wrong. We have as we grow, they grow too. They're constantly pushing their outfitter base, and it's it's one of the best partnerships that we've had.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Kendall, do you get a lot of I remember when you were this high?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Oh my, you have no idea. I'd probably be a millionaire if I had a nickel every time somebody said that. But no, I love it because it just shows the relationships that our whole family has created with Polaris and Polaris Adventures.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Now, you guys are originally from Pennsylvania, you've been in Indiana for a while, you've ridden obviously at Badlands hundreds and hundreds of times. Is there somewhere in the country that you haven't been to that you've always wanted to go riding?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Oh my gosh, there are so many. So our family is avid travelers, so we love traveling and going to ride different places as much as we love the Badlands and where we're at. We also love to experience other places as well. I would say our my personal on my bucket list is Moab, Utah. I have never been there, but I've heard it's absolutely beautiful and riding like no other.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

What's the place that you've been to that you love to go?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So obviously, Kentucky and Tennessee are really close to us, but so I would say Windrock is probably one of the top places that I've been that I love riding. We also go out to the King of the Hammers event every year in Johnson Valley, California. That is so fun. That riding is unbeatable.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah, King of the Hammers is burning man for the off-road. If you've never been out there and you've never had a chance, it's its own city for what, two weeks almost out there.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

I don't think you could have explained it any better. Literally, you will drive in and see the glow from the city from the mountaintops.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Very cool. Yes. Well, Kendall, it sounds like you guys have got a great setup there, and I hope to come visit you guys one day and go for a ride.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Perfect. I'll love that. I will hook you up with a vehicle and we'll get out there. I'll just be your personal tour guide.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Oh, I'll take you up on that. Well, thanks so much for being on the show. Enjoy the rest of your fall season and good luck the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Thank you, Jared.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

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