Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Jefferson Highway Show. This historic highway was formed in 1915 by the Jefferson Highway Association. It runs from Winnipeg, Canada, all the way to New Orleans, Louisiana. Let's go! Welcome, everybody. You know it is fall, y'all. We're very excited about that, and when you think about the Jefferson Highway, the historic Jefferson Highway going from Winnipeg, Canada, all the way down to New Orleans. You know that there's a lot to experience. There's farmlands, there's small towns, there's cities. But fall is a great time to travel, and I'm very excited that we've got Roger. On the show is always Roger Bell, the president of the Jefferson Highway Association, and as you know, the website for the highway is jeffersonhighway.org, and that's where you can go to become a member if you are a business or a family that wants to get the newsletter so you can stay up-to-date with what's going on. They also have a fabulous Facebook group, so join that and follow the page to keep up with what's happening. They're always posting events, so you know, as I said, fall season. You know everybody's doing things in downtowns across America, and so is the highway. So Roger, I think before we get to everybody on the show today, you want to touch on the fact that this incredible event is about to happen October 1st through 31st, which is the Military Vehicle Preservation Association is doing this historic convoy on the Jefferson Highway. We did it a podcast with them, two of the - we had Chuck and John on, and a couple months ago talking about it, but we'll put a link to that in the show notes, the episode notes. But are you excited about it? Is it getting everybody all excited about the highway? Yeah, it's really - this has been such a long-term planning this. I mean, from the first time I heard about the possibilities of this three or four years ago, all the planning that's going on, and you know, we talk - this show is a lot about fall events. This is one of our biggest fall events in the history of the Jefferson Highway, and it's a very historic tour across America. We're going to see, you know, close to 40 or around 40 historic military vehicles restored. There are all different kinds of vehicles, you know, not tanks or stuff like that, but we're talking about jeeps, ambulances, just some really cool vehicles. From people on the other side of the country, they're coming to travel down the historic Jefferson Highway. And you know, just in today as we're recording this, I've been in contact with people that are actually on their way from across the country to meet to basically the Minnesota border. Some of them are going to go into Winnipeg and start this route with really the first official activities on the highway starting on October 1st. And so many communities are getting excited about it along the route. I mean, we have a signage program, and we have a lot of orders right now that we've been shipping signs all over the Jefferson Highway route in the last few days. In anticipation of this is they want to have these signs in place when the convoy is there, and man, there's a lot of excitement up and down the route. We're having a lot of communities want them to stop their community, but we just, it's really difficult to make that happen because they're just, you know, they're in a timeline and they can only do so much in a day. But that's a good thing to have all that excitement and people wanting that. Yeah, you know, I was talking with Nicole Connell over in Nackadish, Louisiana, the oldest city and also was host to one of the conferences as well for the association. And, you know, they were talking of just recently on the podcast. We do with them about fall and fall in Nackadish goes off the hook because it's all this big lead up to when they have their Christmas lights festival. I mean, the Christmas, it starts that weekend of Thanksgiving which Nancy and I were so lucky to finally go to last year, but they're having, you know, we're talking about cars. I think the convoys going there, they're very excited about that. But they have a, they're 18th annual car shows happening in downtown Nackadish right off the Jefferson highway that's coming up October 4th through 5th. And I think that is a really cool thing to tie in with the Jefferson highways, car shows and other kinds of rallies. I know they have motorcycle events through the year as well, but you know, vehicles, you know, and I love that it's a military convoy too because historically these areas like Louisiana, I mean, they really did a lot of that, right? You know, they really-- Well, they're definitely embracing that as they're going down the route, they're seeking out veterans groups, veterans hospitals like in my hometown of Muskogee, they're going to be driving by the hospital that we have, veterans hospital, but that's-- there's several places on the route they're doing there. They aren't getting off the route and if he places because of congestion and just because they have to, because of construction, some areas, bridges, you know, they have to make sure that they can get some of these big vehicles over them. But bottom line is the spirit of the route, they're doing the whole way down and they're going to touch so many communities, small, big along the way and you know, what amazing thing it is when they're going to go to the World War I Museum in Kansas City as part of their tour and then basically at the end of the tour, October 30th, I believe they're going to be at the World War II Museum in New Orleans. So Roger, we're going to welcome our first guest on today's podcast about fall. We might as well stop, start at the very top of the Jefferson Highway and we've got Allison Zechariah joining us all the way up from Manitoba, Canada. So if we're going to start with fall, we might as well start at the top of the route, we've got Allison Zechariah joining us. She's a communication specialist with Travel Manitoba and I encourage you to go to their website travelmenotobah.com. Welcome to the show, Allison. How are you? Hi, Lisa. I'm doing well. How are you? Doing good. Excited to have you on the show and Roger Bell, the president of the Jefferson Highway Association is here and he's excited to have you on the show too. Yes, we should. Yeah. Yeah, this is cool. I think, you know, Manitoba, you guys are, you have like a big state, don't you, that you're representing? There's a lot to do. And so we've got this one portion of the Jefferson Highway. We think you should stretch it further. I'll let someone know. I'll talk to someone. Okay. Yeah, that's so cool. So Winnipeg is the, you know, this part of it too, that Winnipeg is pretty much the starting point or you could say New Orleans is, right? Either way. So this is part of it is to get people to travel the entire route through all these different states and going into Winnipeg, Manitoba makes this an international route, which I think is pretty cool, Allison, don't you, that people can drive up and see Canada and go to, go to your province. It's a province, right? Yeah. It is a province. Yeah. No, I think that's great. And you know what? Before the show, I had to look up the Jefferson Highway and once I learned all about it, I was like, oh, this is really exciting that Winnipeg is, like you said, either the starting or the end point of this route. So I think that's really great. It's exciting. It is. So, you know, Roger, is the whole city of Winnipeg part of it? Yes. It was, it really, I consider it the starting point. I mean, it's the quote, pine de palm highway. Some people obviously started it the other way around, but if you really look at it, I consider Winnipeg to be the starting point in New Orleans, or is it marker today that says end of the Jefferson Highway and in Winnipeg, right out in the median there, there is a marker that says the Jefferson Highway starting. The original starting point was in downtown near the old post office. A lot of people considered also the Fort Gary Hotel as the starting point in the late 20s, they actually expanded the Jefferson Highway out to Winnipeg Beach as a starting point. Okay. So there was expansion. So Alison, can you give us some ideas of what people can experience during the fall season in Winnipeg? I mean, when does it get cold? That's what I want to know. Well, right now, the weather, I have to say, is pretty great. We've been having a lovely fall so far, I mean, well, today is a bit overcast, but yesterday was just the most perfect fall weather. It was sunny, so it was warm, the skies were clear, everything is turning, starting to turn just like a lovely shade of yellow and orange, while still being a bit green. So now is really a good time to come visit and enjoy the fall weather. So you do get those fall colors now, do you guys celebrate with fall festivals or those kinds of events? Because it seems to me like fall always makes me feel like it's family time, you know, family fun. Oh, yeah. We have lots of family friendly activities going on this fall. So some popular ones are corn mazes. So this is a great time to come visit and see and check out a corn maze. So there's one on Highway 75 in San Adol, which is about 30 minutes south of Winnipeg. So just before you get into the city called Amazing Corn. It's a family friendly destination, it's got a petting zoo, pony rides, pumpkin patch, and for Halloween they change things up and create kind of a haunted forest. So if you're coming up on Highway 75, that's a great stop for a family friendly activity. Very cool. I love this. So that's really perfect. So Highway 75, Roger, is Jefferson Highway, right? Oh, yeah. I believe he is. I believe that he is on the Jefferson Highway. Cool. Cool. Cause we always say stay on the highway, but then you're allowed to veer off about three hours, right? We encourage detours and well, because it's about everybody knowing about the highway and all the things you can do, right? So so I love the maze. So do you have pumpkin patches and things like that too? Yeah. So that's just one of the mazes. There are plenty. So there's another one called Fear Metal Farms that also has a pumpkin patch. That one is just north of the city about like five, ten minutes, but still very close to the city. They've got petting zoos and a pumpkin patch, like I mentioned. We also have lots of outdoor activities that are really great. So there's this one place in Winnipeg called Fort White Alive. It's an urban nature oasis. It's got a forest, a walking trail, a bison enclosure. And what's really special about this place in the fall is this is where hundreds, if not thousands of Canadian geese gather as a preparing for their fall migration. So they have all sorts of events to where you can come watch the geese land on the lake there. And they've also got a really fun goose flight feast is what it's called. And it's a five course allocart menu with salads, soups, appetizers, the whole works. And so they really make an event out of this. And it's a very fun, also family friendly and just like fall, spectacular kind of event. That is awesome. You know, we should all fly behind the geese as they go down the highway, right? They're just, they're like above us, they're doing the highway. I know. And it's super cool to hear about that. Yeah. And so you've got mazes, you've got pumpkin patches, you've got yeast, we love the Canada geese. The other part is what about hiking and doing some of the outdoors with the fall weather being so nice. Yeah. Hiking is one of my favorite activities in the fall. And there are quite a few right close to the city and then some that are further out. So if you want to know my favorite, my favorite is making in Riding Mountain National Park in the fall. So that it's a bit of a detour off the Jefferson Highway, I would say about two hours west. But it's beautiful. It's right on the escarpment. So it's got valley views. And if you're coming in and fall, you're going to see just gorgeous tree canopy with greens, yellows, oranges. And there are quite a few hikes from beginner friendly to more advanced. So that's my favorite place in the fall. But if you're looking for something a little closer to the city, there are quite a few options. There's a Syneboi Park right in the city has lots of walking trails. But there's also Birds Hill Provincial Park, which is just about, depending where you're starting, about 30 minutes north of the city. And again, all sorts of trails for beginner friendly trails. There's paved trails and it's just a lovely place to see all the fall colors. Oh, this sounds beautiful. Don't you have prairies out there? Is it kind of like prairie area or no? Yeah, we have lots of prairie area, but also lots of trees and forests and valleys. So it's a really beautiful province with a variety of landscapes. Now I heard that you have good maple syrup. Is that just a myth or is it true? We do have maple syrup. Yeah. I want maple syrup. Okay. My wife is Ollie. I know, let's talk about food because we were in the meeting at Jefferson Highway Association meeting and I was working on this travel guide, a digital travel guide for the Jefferson Highway for everyone and I remember at that meeting Roger saying something like people need to know when they go to Winnipeg that they can get poutine there and then go to New Orleans and get bignets. But apparently poutine is not in Winnipeg. That's not the thing there, right? Well, if you remember, we also have our pine de palm ale or panda palm beer that is just surfaced in Winnipeg. Yep. That's right. We just had them on the show. There's meat pies and knackettish. There's good food everywhere, but what would you say for Winnipeg would be like something that people need to eat or drink? Beer is good. Beer is always good. Yeah. Beer. Yeah. We have poutine options. But for fall, one of our cherished culinary traditions is something called fall suppers. And so these are typically hosted by communities in rural areas. And what it is, it's a buffet of home cooked meals. And it's just served in the most welcoming environment. You'll get a taste of real Manitoba hospitality by going to a fall supper. It's always plenty of food. You do have to buy tickets in advance. And some suppers will offer like a half price for kids. So again, a pretty good family friendly activity. But the main star of these events are the pie tables. So lots of pies like apple, cherry, blueberry, saskatoon, saskatoon pie. That's the big draw. So those are starting now and they go until mid November. But that's like such a big draw in in fall because it's a real, get a real sense of, you know, Manitoba hospitality, some of these like smaller communities. So we have a list of these fall suppers on our website and I really encourage people to check it out. Um, Roger, we need to go to, we need to go. I want to, I want to fall supper right now and with, yeah, with the beer, I know there's some great pie places on the route, but here in all those pies, maybe you want to go up there today. What, what is the lodging like in Winnipeg? You know, when, when we look at, you know, our people doing a lot of vacation rentals, historic, you know, especially because when people travel to Jefferson Highway, when we talk about camping, because they did have tourist camps, right? And back in the day and when they were traveling, you know, they, I don't know how they did it in Louisiana, man. There's some mosquitoes out there. One of the, one of the most historic hotels on the route is the Fort Gary. I mean, it was, it was where they actually started a lot of the, the sociability runs and we have a lot of pictures of things on the Fort Gary. There are a couple of other, uh, story hotels in, in Winnipeg. I know that, uh, we're mentioned a lot in the early guides, but the Fort Gary, uh, we've had a lot of our pine de palm travelers, uh, start their trip right there overnight things. Ooh. Any other kind of, do you have like bed and breakfast that are historic? Uh, in the, in the province? Yeah, there's lots. We have, um, the Manitoba Bread and Breakfast Association has a lovely list of, of different ones on their website, um, there are all sorts, there's some that are right on the lake, some in cute small towns, but if you're looking in Winnipeg, like Fort Gary Hotel, that's a great option. They're also doing a kind of fun Halloween event this year. It's a kind of like concert featuring like classic Halloween music by a string quartet. Um, there's also in at the fork. So if you stay there, you're right at the forks, which is like a big, um, probably outdoor indoor kind of marketplace, which has, um, you know, a children's museum, it's right by the Canadian Museum, museum for human rights. So lots of really fun attractions right there. Um, there are all sorts of accommodation styles in Manitoba. Wow. Okay. Man, this sounds good. Bed and breakfast, a little bit of everything. Yeah. And glamping. Lots of glamping options if, if your listeners are into that, I don't know if you know what glamping is. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We like that. Yes. It means that you, you can have wine in your tent and, um, yeah, and it, and you know, you could even have a blender if you want a cocktail. That's what it means. We have, we have lots of these, they're, they're called geodesic domes where part of the dome is a clear plastic. So you're staying in this dome and you can see out into the forest, but you're warm and cozy. Some even come with like a little hot tub and a barbecue patio. So we have lots of those, um, some off the top of my head. There's one called moonlight canopy, wild skies, resorts, lamping instead. We have lots of different options for getting out and just finding places to watch the leaves change color. You know what? I think we should do a show on glamping the highway, the Jefferson highway because well, no, because camping, I mean, it was so, so much part of the history of this route. And then we were talking about the RVs and the trailers, the historic trailers and all of that. So I think I like the glamping option too, man. You know, as we get a little, um, elder in our life, sometimes things like glamping. That's the perfect balance. And it's great for people who've never gone camping before it to get their, what their appetite and, um, yeah, no, no, it's very cool. So everyone travel men at Toba.com is the website to go to thank you so much, Allison for joining us on the show and giving us a little insight into pie and glamping and all the good and cord mazes in Winnipeg. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Definitely check out the website. There are so many fun fall ideas there. Thank you, Allison. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Cool. So, you know, we're going to go for, we're going to go up and down the highway, Roger. Okay. Um, so we're going to go over to, we're going to McAllister, which is not far from Roger. Um, McAllister is a awesome destination that we need to all go to next year. I know it, we're talking about fall today. We've got Billy Sumner joining us again. And, um, he's going to be telling us about fall in McAllister, but, um, Roger, before he comes on, we should mention that this is where the conference is going to be next year. In 2000. Oh, yes. I'm sure Billy will mention that for you, but, uh, we're all excited about the conference, uh, that is in McAllister, Oklahoma, and I know a lot of planning is already underway for it and, uh, it's going to be a great conference, uh, in McAllister in the first, uh, weekend of June, uh, in 2025. So awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So welcome back, Billy. How are you? Hi. I am doing great. Lisa. How are you guys doing? Good. Doing good. Doing good. Roger and I are, you know, talking about pie and beer, corn mazes, um, let's just dive into food in McAllister and everyone go to travel McAllister.com, give us a taste of fall in McAllister. Oh, it is very busy. Um, I made a post the other day on our Facebook page for McAllister tourism. And I think there were 30 plus events that we had over the next few months happening just in and around the McAllister area, but, you know, we're really proud of a couple of them that's coming up here. We've got the this actually this weekend, um, September 27th and 28th, we've got Homestead rendezvous that's going to be kicking off. It's the first time we've had that event, but they're going to be helping to build a community of light minded people that's going to teach skills to others and create more self-sustaining lifestyles with speakers, workshops, vendors, demonstrations, kids activities, um, music, it's going to be a huge event there happening in McAllister. Very nice. Very nice. Definitely. And then, oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. No, I'm liking what's going on. Yeah. And then we have the return of HallowsCon, so it's a ComicCon that we have that comes to McAllister. It started last year and, of course, anybody who's familiar with that, it's full of celebrities and panels and cosplay events and we even have some wrestling that'll be going on. So it was a huge success last year and we'll be returning for a second year this year. So we're really excited about that one, but I know two events that are happening after that are kind of two historic events that we're really excited about. I'm sure you guys, I know over the podcast have touched on, but we are having the MVPA members of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association coming through McAllister on October 17th and they'll make travel along the Jefferson Highway and arrive at around 11am to do lunch with us and visit with the community until about 2pm there at our McAllister Boys and Girls Club. So the community's already really excited about that and shown some great support for them coming through. So we're really excited about the convoy and looking forward to them coming through, but just a couple days before them even, we have the Big Boy steam engine that's going to be making us stop in McAllister on October 13th. It'll be coming through around 4 o'clock that day and then staying overnight. It'll stay in Old Town, which is right in the heart of the Jefferson Highway from McAllister. And if you're not familiar with the Big Boy, it's the world's largest steam engine and it'll be coming through McAllister as part of their Heartland of America tour. And it'll stay, like I said, stay overnight and leave out the next morning at around 9am on that Monday the 14th. So definitely a sight to see. It came through a few years ago and we have thousands of people that came into McAllister just to look at the engine, stay overnight, see it leave out the next morning. So it really is a spectacle and something to experience if you've never seen it before. Wow. This is cool. Do you have pumpkin patches and things like that? And do you have Halloween? Like, oh, of course, I mean, a lot of our events, you know, we round out kind of the month of October with a lot of our traditional stuff. We actually have a McAllister 2nd annual October fest that'll be happening. So Carnival live music, beer gardens, helicopter rides, authentic German musicians and dancers, tons of stuff that'll be going on there. And that'll be happened October 26th and 27th and downtown. We have another event happening at Arvis Park that is going to be chili cookoffs and pumpkin carving scarecrow contests and that's put on by a group called Meet McAllister's events and entertainment team. They'll be doing that called there at Arvis Park in McAllister and of rumored to even have a foam party. And then our farmers markets putting on a trunk or treat event. We've got tons of other markets and holiday stuff happening and coin shows, city wide garage sales, live music, just a ribtober fest, so rib cookoffs, so lots of different things happening all around McAllister. Man, so Oklahoma is doing good. I know you're also, you know, I'm on the tourism manager for McAllister tourism, but also the vice president of the new Oklahoma chapter of the Jefferson Highway. So do you see a lot of what's happening for Oklahoma itself as a state for the Jefferson Highway, a lot of events as you guys put this new chapter together? I do. You know, we've been trying to work together with a lot of the communities to really highlight each other and bring support along the highway. You know, we now have official signage up throughout the state of Oklahoma. We've all been really excited and happy to see that go up. As you mentioned, when I was coming on, we are going to be the host in McAllister for next June for the next International Jefferson Highway Convention. So McAllister is ramping up for a lot of things happening. We're seeing the military convoy is definitely bringing a lot of Oklahoma communities together to host them as they travel through. So we're really excited about the momentum that all of these events and just the Jefferson Highway in general is starting to bring that community spirit back to a lot of our towns and a lot of cooperation and teamwork that we're seeing develop between the communities. I love that. I love that about what's happening with the highway and not only are all these stories that we keep finding out about, right? I mean, there's a lot of history on this highway that is really fascinating. But just, you know, hearing everyone getting together, I think it's, I find it super, super exciting. I know Roger, Roger, you must be tired, man. You do need pie and a beer. You do. And it's chilly in those ribs. Yeah. There's a lot of that. There's a lot of going on in the different communities right now on the highway. This convoy is, like I said earlier, we're having, we have more signage orders right now than we've ever had in the last few weeks, getting ready for convoy from all up and down the route. We're going to have our first historic sign unveiled in Minnesota during the first overnight in Think River Falls, Minnesota, which is so much is going on right now. And yeah, it is a little tiring sometimes, but you know, it's still exciting to see what's going on and works. We're happy that Billy's one of our years here, you know, yeah, yeah. And when the conference happens, we get to unveil the Jefferson Highway Travel Guide. Isn't that cool? This is going to happen, everyone, something online that you can be anywhere in the world since this isn't an international highway. I know people flock around from around the world to go and travel Route 66 and they should do the same thing for the Jefferson Highway. I mean, why not? You know, so it really helps, I think, with the signage and it's just, it's, I know it falls here. You know, it's, we get to have pumpkin spice. Hello, is it? Can we talk about pumpkin spice? Anybody? Always. Yeah. Yeah. It's got make sure you got it. Do you have good coffee places for pumpkin spice? We do. We have some really great coffee places. I mean, of course, we've got your, you know, most commonly known Starbucks is out there. There's wonderful local coffee shops in McAllister, two of them that are hugely popular, Harbor Mountain and Spaceship Earth Coffee. And both of those will treat you some really, really nice, you know, warm coffee during this kind of weather. Anything to do with this spaceship? I'm there. What about lodging? So people can know for, you know, fall, but then also looking ahead for the conference, do you have historic places that people can stay with, what's kind of the lodging profile? Well, unfortunately, we don't have a lot of historic lodging. We have had a ton of wonderful historic homes that have been devoted, you know, turned into Airbnb's. And so we do have quite a few of those that are coming around and even some that are in the works currently. And then we have probably around, I'm going to say 16 hotels that we have right now that's roughly about a thousand rooms in McAllister. So we've got pretty much any kind of hotel and accommodation that you need with a wide variety of, you know, amenities that you can look for. So and you can find them all again, as you mentioned on travel McAllister.com. You can actually search all the accommodations on there and look at what we have and even completely plan out an entire trip and add all your stops and everything that you're looking for. Yeah, I love how your website works with the trip planner. The trip planner is, yeah, that is, that's the thing, man. It really helps because you, when you're planning a trip, you know, it's like, oh, we're going to check this out. It's, it's like a wish list, you know, when you go. So I love that. So everyone travel McAllister.com, anything else that we're missing? We can't miss out anything here. Well, like we said before, you know, way too many things to name. But again, they are all listed on the travel McAllister.com. All the events are on there, all the ones I mentioned with much more information. And although the ones I wasn't able to mention, just because there's so many that we're having, you know, happen right now, but it's an exciting time. It's a big boom around McAllister. We couldn't be more proud and happy to support all of these events and of the people that are supporting our communities. So definitely come check out McAllister, travel on the highway and see what everyone at Oklahoma has to offer. Awesome. Thank you, Billy. Always fun having you on the show. It's always a pleasure. We appreciate it. Thanks, Billy. You bet. Thank you. Thanks, guys. So Roger, when we look at Muskogee where you are, right, you've got a lot of historic buildings in Muskogee. What about your food? What would you say you could like, what is a taste of Muskogee for fall? What do you want to eat? Well, barbecue is the key in our town. There is a lot of that. We're well known for that. We've had a barbecue chili festival here. It's in the spring, but it's a big thing here. And so when the convoy comes in here, they're going to get a taste of our, one of our local barbecue places, Rods, is going to serve them. And I'm sure that will be well received. There are a lot of other great places to eat. We have some great local coffee shops here too, and it's just exciting, and we do have a lot of the historic buildings that we're here in a time of Jefferson Highway are still here, including the Seabirds Hotel building, which is no longer a hotel, but it is a great place to take a look at if you're in town. We have an historic marker outside of it. Yeah, you've got signs too, and I love that park that we went to with you. It was beautiful, it has a gazebo, the little pond and everything. That was really, that's one of the tourist camps that is there too. Yes, that's the tourist campsite. So we've got another guest joining us here, so everyone, I think we're going to go up to Minnesota. See, this is how we do it, everybody. We start off in Winnipeg, and then we go all the way down to Oklahoma to go up to, we're going to go to the source of the Mississippi. We're going to go to Park Rapids, we've got Park Rapids Lake area, Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, the President and CEO, Derek Riki joining us, Derek, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm doing great, thanks for having me, it's great to join and talk a little bit about Northern Minnesota. Yeah, this is exciting, everyone can go to parkrappeds.com, and Roger was all excited, he's like, you've got to contact Derek, he's got to be on the show, right, Roger? We want more. Yeah, I haven't had a good chance to talk with Derek in recent year, but I know that we need to talk further, and Park Rapids was actually the host of our 2014 conference, I've spent 10 years, but we've made a ton of progress since then, and there's a lot of excitement, and Park Rapids is a great place, there myself. It's beautiful, it looks absolutely beautiful, Derek, I know that we've been talking a lot on the show today about this amazing convoy coming through, going from, you know, all the way from Minnesota, all the way down to New Orleans, and you're one of the destinations, right? Yeah, yeah, we're super excited here, it looks like I kicked up in October, you know, they're going to hit Itasca State Park, and you know, it sounds like you're going to spend a good half a day here in Park Rapids, and we're hoping they get to experience a little bit of everything we have to offer to cover in just half a day, but I tell you what, we're looking forward to having them there and showing them a good time, and at the very least, I would think they should be able to, you know, stop downtown, and downtown Park Rapids, where we have a really unique and historic layout, we have middle parking, so for those, you know, it sounds like New Rogers has been to our community, but it catches some people off guard, so we'll see how the convoy does going down our downtown, down our media. They have a very wide main street, yes, remember very well, it's really good, I guess, from the old, there's no shortage of ice cream, that's for sure, I think we have about four or five different spots down there, that'll get you fixed up with that, so, but yeah, so our downtown is set up from our logging heritage, so there's, if you go down the street, there's parking on the right side, there's parking in the middle, and then, so there's a, you know, so parking on the right, you got your lane of traffic going one direction, there's two, like, parallel parking lanes right in the middle of the street, and then there's another lane of traffic going the other way and parking on the far side of the street, so there's essentially four sets of parking area, as well as two lanes of traffic going on through our downtown, so it's pretty unique, pretty fun to see. We have two really great pictures, one of my two favorite Jefferson Highway pictures, one of them is a sociability run, in Park Rapids in that same downtown, and seeing all the people on the street, and seeing the people on the original sociability run, and then we have another really cool picture of what I would, you know, have a motorcycle, they were not, in 1916 on a motorcycle on the Jefferson Highway somewhere around Park Rapids. Wow. Wow, that is cool. That is way cool, that is way cool, so Derek, tell us a little bit about fall, what does it look like, I mean, because you've got lakes, do you have fall colors that people should be aware of, and then, you know, we want to talk about food, I know there's ice cream, we like to hear about ice cream all the time, but yeah, tell us a little bit about fall. Yeah, it's an amazing time of year in our area, you know, we, it's heavily wooded, we get a nice mix of hardwoods and towering pines where, you know, there's this mix of incredible fall colors where you get the weeds changing, but you also kind of have that evergreen feel as well, and it really provides just a really pretty setup, whether you're going down on different bike trails, or off-road trails, or hiking, or, you know, obviously, like you said, we have over 400 lakes in the area, so a lot of people like to get out on the water or take a new kayak down rivers, and, you know, that's a, our area really thrives on outdoor recreation, and there's few better times to experience that than fall with the changing of the colors, it is beautiful here this time of year. Oh, nice, now do you have pumpkins and corn mazes and things like that, or should we be aware of pie, beer, what's happening on that level? There's always good beer, that's stuff to pass up, but yeah, you know, agriculture is definitely a part of our area as well, so we do, we have, we have some, we have two different like fall festivals that are actually set on local farms, and you know, so they're getting revved up, they'll start, I believe their first weekend of operations here coming up the end of September, so when the, you know, when the convoy comes through town, if anyone wants to check out a fall festival, the names remember our Carter's farm, or Pike's corn maze, so both of them are, are great opportunities to kind of get out and enjoy those fall festivities on, on actual local farms, that still, you know, provide produce to, you know, local farmers markets as well as on a bigger scale, so that's kind of a fun experience for young families and people of all ages. Ah, very cool, very cool, and for lodging, what is the lodging like, I always like to ask people about that so people can plan ahead to know what, you know, especially if you have anything historic, I know when we talk about a historic highway, it's cool to do some history if it's there. Yeah, no, that's a great question, you know, in terms of historic lodging, I would encourage people to check out some of our area resorts, we actually had a resort recently featured as one of only five resorts in the state of Minnesota that have been in the same family for over a hundred years, and in fact we have seven or eight different resorts that are over a hundred years old, you know, small family, mom and pop type resorts that really focus on providing a great, you know, experience and ensuring people come back and, you know, embrace those family traditions and many, many people are, you know, coming the same place for 30, 40 years, because they just enjoy it so much and it's an escape from reality. It's a travel back in time and focus on the things that matter. These resorts of Minnesota are so historic and to the route and, you know, some of them like I said have been generations up there, I mean even the Douglas Lodge inside of Tuske Park, I mean, we have indications of tourists staying there right on the route and it's all over and it's just really a part of, I have a really good book on resorts, early resorts of Minnesota by me and my friend, Paula, who's a friend of ours, and we, it's just really something that you certainly should be checking out if you're going up the route and I'm sorry. Love it. I love it. Everyone ParkRapids.com is a website to go to and as I always say the links are in the episode notes, whether you're listening to this on Facebook or YouTube or Podbean or Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening, look at the episode notes for the links to these destinations because we all want to go. Thank you so much, Derek. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. Stay in touch. Thank you both for having me. It was my pleasure and we look forward to welcoming everyone to our community. Awesome. Thank you, sir. We look forward to talking to you again soon. Happy fall. Take care. I don't think they say happy fall y'all. There's no happy fall y'all in Minnesota though, right? That would be the, that would be the New Orleans side of it all, the Nakadish side. But, um, Roger, we're going to go on, we're going to have another destination in Minnesota. You ready? Sure. All right. We've got Glenda Smith is coming back on the show. Now, Glenda was on our show, Oh, it was back in 2022 in December of two, I think, wow, Roger, have you been doing the, we've been doing the podcast for a few years now, haven't we? Yes, we do. I know we've been doing good with it. It's fun. Glenda Smith is back and she is from Visit, Oatona. And I encourage you again to go to her website. It is visit Oatona.org and that's O-W-A-T-O-N-N-A and I have to tell you, you must go there because Nancy and I actually went there and we had no idea we were going to be able to go there. Remember? But Nancy and I did that road trip, Roger, and I surprised this all because we didn't know we were going to go like that day and we ended up in Oatona and I think it was right around the 4th of July weekend and we just didn't know we were going to be doing the Jefferson Highway and we did a lot of it. And Glenda, welcome back to the show. Your town is beautiful. Thank you for having me and yes, I'm glad you had the opportunity to visit over the 4th weekend. It's always a great place to be, but summertime is all time. I guess there's not a bad season, there's a different fun breed season for sure. Yeah, it was a, I don't think we were quite on the weekend, I don't know what happened, but it was, we just ended up with these extra days of time and we went, let's go to the Jefferson Highway. So what areas did you visit? Do you remember where you stopped? You know, Roger, remember, I started messaging him like, we went all over the place. Well, we had the great pleasure of visiting Oatona during our conference in Mason City two years ago and they were a great bus stop for us and you have got to go into the bank there for sure, that is the most amazing place, I mean, your mouth just drops, oh, when you actually walk inside there, your whole main street, like the whole downtown and that bank building and then the square, the actual bus is so gorgeous and that's why we had a picnic in the park. Yes, yes, that was a great, that was a fun day, that was great, had a great group with you that day, so we had a lot of fun. And then we went to, you had another park and we went to, and it has a bridge, a beautiful bridge. Oh, so more house park, sure. Yeah, gorgeous. And then we went to, we start, well, see everyone, if you go to jeffersonhighway.org, there's a map on there and once it gets onto your phone, if names go anywhere near the Jefferson Highway, it's like, you need to stay on the highway, you need to stay on that. In our parks, they're gorgeous in the fall, I mean, just like any of them are in our area, we have over 37 different parks with, I think there's about 20 miles of trails that connect them and whether you're on bike or just walking, running, the parks are definitely a beautiful place to be in the fall time, especially with the leaves changing and absolutely gorgeous. And of course, the bank is always an architectural masterpiece. And if you remember, shopping is a little fun for us in there. We got to walk around for an hour or so and picked up some really neat things and ride along, right past the bank and then around the square there was several really neat places. I remember a bookstore there, that was really fun. Yeah, the little professor bookstore and of course, the cost is candy. That's something. Oh, yes. Yes. Very good. Oh, we like that. There's this historical park we went to and they had gas, like a old gas station kind of thing. They had a beautiful church and just all these historical buildings, it was like a little village in there. Yeah. So the Steel County Historical Society has also the village of yesteryear and that's the buildings that you're talking about. There's 19 buildings on site all through the buildings came all throughout Steel County. So they collected them into one space and really just tells the story of the history of Steel County. Yeah. We got to stop there and a bus to also. Wow. Great. And then we went from you to Faribault, I think. Faribault? I don't know if I'm saying that's right. Faribault. Yep. That would be the next one just north of us about 15 minutes. Yeah. We went there and we went to a beautiful nature. It was a nature park, like a reserve, an arboretum out there. Do you remember the name either, but yes, I know it's very bad I think. I think it was Riverbam, but Minnesota is absolutely gorgeous, but your town, even on the way in there was another one I know and it was because we were doing all the courthouses and everything. Nancy and I both sat there and went, wow, this is so charming and so historic. And I think Roger is really right about the shopping. I mean, that's a thing, you know, but obviously the colors are major for fall, but what about festivals? Do you have those kinds of activities? Yeah. So actually we just wrapped up. We have two October fest that happened in the community. One of them just completed this past weekend, which was a great, successful, beautiful weather. We had the Ipoka band was there and just a lot of different fun things happening throughout the weekend. So that was at Mineral Springs Brewery, October 5th for most brewing cooperative will be hosting their October fest. So if you're around and want to stop in for that, that's on a Saturday. Another great way to celebrate fall, of course, we do a lot of the first two weekends in November is jam-packed with bazaars just throughout the community. Different craft shows and bazaars and get a little extra shopping done before the holidays hit. And you're also going to be part of the military conflict, correct? We are. They are stopping or coming through Oatana on October 6th and we'll be at our Steel County History Center. So similar to where you stopped, we thought it was a great location. We have the Veterans Memorial that was just complete this summer. So it's kind of a great way to introduce that to some new visitors and our community is very excited to have those military vehicles coming through town on that day. They're already on their way. I talked to some of them today. They're getting ready to move. Drive up there to start to convoy and I know they'll have a good stop in Oatana. Oh, sure. Yeah. We're excited to have them. American Legion and VFW is on board to help host and welcome and help direct parking and all that. Yeah. Wow. I know that that would not be my job. No, you do not want me to be. Yeah. Yeah. Air control. You know, we're, you know, with the convoy there, I think this is so epic, right? And it just it because there's so much history on the on the route on the Jefferson Highway. But what about lodging when people come out for fall? And, you know, just where would you, where would you recommend people stay? I mean, do you have historic inns and things like that? We don't have historic inns, but we have quite a few of our, the name brand. We have a court guard Marriott that's right downtown. That's all it is. That's one place to stay our home to suite just opened in the end of May. So that's a new hotel that was built here. And then, of course, our Baymont country and in suites quality in. It won't be in time for the fall, but we have double tree opening up out by cabellas starting in early next year, January, February, depending on how quickly construction goes, but, and then comfort and is out right across from them. So lots of places to stay, no lack of hotel space for our visitors. That's great. That's fantastic. You know, because then people know what they're doing and what, you know, that's that's having a lot of space is always good because the highway is getting busy. Exactly. Yep. Going right through 35, there's, it's a great stop whether you're here for a couple days or on your read of somewhere else. Yeah. What I liked about is how the city is like, you've got the outside area and then you've got the downtown, like it's really kept its, you know, its authenticity and integrity. Yeah. I think that's the really cool thing. I just, I, I think Nancy and I drove around the square like 10 times just in awe. Like I was like, wow, and, you know, but you can just see they have a lot of pride. Oh, sorry. If you have time, if somebody is stepping in and have, they have a few hours, we do offer, it can be self guided or you could have a guide help, help make your way around town. But it's the historic walking tour and we have that all packaged into a summary with the map and numbered so people can come into town, learn a little history about the buildings on that tour. And again, you can take as much time or as little time as you want. So that's another fun way to just explore our community. It's still, it's still ongoing. Now tell us what you say for like fall food. What would you say? Oh boy. Something people have. I know you talked about candy. Now candy is always good. Do you know what I've, I just learned a new candy thing for fall. People putting corn candy. I don't know if you say candy corn or corn candy here in this country, but corn candy with salted peanut butter. I mean, not peanut, peanut. Peanuts. That is a very popular fall treat. It's just fun about this. Yeah. And now it's like a really dangerous thing. It's the thing I don't have any because once you taste it, it's, wow, you'll never go back. That's a very, very good point. Yeah. That's something that is hard to stop eating once it's there. I want some right now actually, please. Yeah. Perfect. Some of our other restaurants, Old Town Bagel is popular, whether it's morning or lunch. They have the ice cream shop that's in there too. Our Tories is kind of a staple of our community for the past 15 years. Roma is Italian eatery, is a new restaurant that just opened up about a year ago, right downtown. And I don't know that they would have been open when you visited this past summer. I feel like they would have just been opening shortly after that, I think, in August. So not this past August, but the year before. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool though. So you got, you got good restaurants. It seems like ice cream is a big deal in Minnesota. Is this a, is this a thing, is this a year round thing or is it summer? It depends. Who the, that go from May in some of it kind of depends on how the weather is for sure through September. Sometimes there's, there's a couple days, even in October, but we have a couple that are open all year round as well. I think you could take, easily take a pint of palm ice cream too. I know, this is dangerous. This is really getting dangerous. Each show lately has been hard, man. Come on. Roger, every time, I mean, last time we were talking about meat pies and beer and, you know, steak nights and pie and, um, pies and, okay, you know, it's, yeah, I'm ready for fall because we get to have, you know, all that comfort food that we're not supposed to have. And then it gets even worse into the holiday season and then January, we go, don't tell anybody, I still want corn candy and peanuts. I don't care. So one of the, all right, the candy store that I was talking about, they do caramel apples, kind of later on homecoming is typically when they get the, and that will be October 4th and 5th is our homecoming weekend. So if you're looking for some really good candy apples, they use apples from one of the local orchards as well. Oh, can't turn those down at all. And did they do cider? They do not do cider there, the orchards, um, just, just north, half of town here. They do the cider there. So it's a terrible area that you said that you stopped in Northfield. They have a couple of orchards that aren't too, too far from a orchards. No. Oh, cool. Cool. Well, this is good. We like orchards. And especially if there's, I don't know if you have you picks out that way, but that's always fun for families and for kids to see where they come from. You know, yeah, to get some, but I mean, we all want caramel apples. That's a good thing. You know, um, you know, they say apple is in there, so it sounds pretty healthy. Yeah. You know, caramel apple a day keeps the witches away for fall, right? Just some great communities up here, you know, and the Latana is one of them. But fair ball, Northfield, Albert Lee, they're just really, well, we did that, Albert Lee, we did that. We went there. That huge courthouse was that we went to, beautiful. I think I got the right place, but I mean, that was, we had a good time. I mean, Minnesota is just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And this is a good time of year for our folks to go to, do people ever go kayaking and water out there? Like in the fall and we do that is often in the fall time. It generally tends to be a big summer activity. I wouldn't say you couldn't. I think that, you know, it's just a little cooler. Okay. But it would be beautiful to go through down the straight river with the trees turning and definitely a good time to do that. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming back on the show. It's always a pleasure. Everyone, Glenda Smith again, go to visitoatona.org and all the links for everybody on the show today are listed in the episode notes. So happy fall. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Glenda. Thank you. Thank you, Roger. That was fun. We had a good time. And now I'm hungry. Are you hungry? I am very hungry. I have not had dinner tonight. And now you made me really hungry. Nation. I know. See? Oh, you know, the highway cafes just on the road from you, you know, so I'm just saying, you know, but I think so much everyone again, keep up with us at jeffersonhighway.org. That is the website for the Jefferson Highway Association and courage you to go in there to learn more about the convoy coming up, it has all the towns listed on there and then also keep up with the lodgings. There's a whole section on the website now for historic lodgings and keep up with become a member. That's a really cool thing, whether you're an individual, a family, you get the newsletters that come out that really gives you some really fascinating history, but also for businesses to join and be part of it. That's a really important thing and watch out for our upcoming digital travel guide for the Jefferson Highway coming out next summer for the conference coming up. So thank you everyone for joining us. Take care and rev your engines and get on the highway. Thank you for joining us here on the big blend radio, Jefferson Highway Show. This show airs every fourth Thursday and we encourage you to go to jeffersonhighway.org to learn more about the Jefferson Highway Association or even become a member. You can also dig into the history of the highway and share travel notes with friends at the Jefferson Highway Association Facebook group. Follow our shows at bigblendradio.com. Happy travels!
