Welcome to Big Blend Radio's third Tuesday Golden Activity Show where we explore what you can experience in the state of Louisiana's oldest city. Hey everybody, so excited. It is October. It is fall season. Fall y'all. I'm allowed to say it. In the state of Louisiana, the oldest settlement in the state. You know, fall, October is a wonderful time, so is November, the temperatures are cooling down. Nancy and I visited there last year in November. Got to go to their Christmas lights event there. Oh my gosh, that's a big deal coming up. So you know, the weekend of Thanksgiving, you know where you need to be. But today we're going to talk about Halloween. We're going to talk about kayaking. We're going to talk about mining for your kids. Yeah, this is going to be very cool. We're going to talk about a little bit about cemetery tours, zydeco breakfast, and also the El Camino real, so highways, historic highways. So the El Camino real, de las Tejas National Historic Trail, and it goes from Mexico to San Antonio and all different branches and leads all the way to Nicodice, Louisiana. We're going to talk about that. And the military convoy going through on the historic Jefferson Highway that these guys started in their historic military vehicles. I mean, we're talking about medic vans, all of it, right, tanks, not tanks. I keep wanting them to do tanks, but they said they can't, but they went. So the Jefferson Highway goes from Winnipeg, Canada, all the way through down to New Orleans. Nicodice is one of the very first places that started the conference where they meet every year. Next year it's in, well, it was in Alexandria last year. It is in McAllister, Oklahoma. But this is this epic event with these military vehicles, historic military vehicles doing a convoy all the way down in one swoop this entire month. And they are on their way to Nicodice where there is a actual park. There's a tourist camp sign or there a sign at the tourist camp and the park, the actual Jefferson Highway Park is on Jefferson Street, I believe. Nicole's here, as usual, she's going to correct me on all of what I'm saying, but it's not far from her office, which is on Front Street, which is a brick street that overlooks the Cane River, but the Cane River is not a river. It's a lake for a lake. So you want to explain all that, right? Nicole, welcome back. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. You're doing great. You're getting to be an old pro at all things macadish. Man, I love your city, Nancy and I, you know, we keep saying, like, if we stop traveling full-time, well, we may have to, you know, I don't know, we may just end up there, you know, and then you'll see me doing the walking tours downtown every week because I don't think you could do one and not get, you know, there's so much history on those walking tours with the Cane River heritage area. So I'm just doing a plug for that because when you go to Nicodice, that should be one of the first things you do, right? Absolutely. I encourage all of our first-time visitors that they make that their first stop, take that tour downtown, you know, you're always, no matter how many times you do it, you're going to pick up on something new and it just gives you a good perspective, a good bird's eye view of maybe something you want to delve more into. So we encourage all of our visitors to take that walking tour. Awesome. Now, I'm going to bring our special guest on the show. He's no stranger to big wind radio. In fact, we met him and his wife, Jason Summerlin, is on the show. They run Dark Woods, which is like this. It's like Disneyland in Nicodice, right? In a very cool way, it's a small business, which we love, right? We met them. We're trying to figure it out. We went there and we have all these, like, connections that are just all connected. It's wild. It goes from Colorado to Nicodice and includes Alice Cooper, I'm just saying, because the same company that does their, some of the work that you will see when you go there to the Dark Woods is the same company that does the tour. What do you call it? The decoration. It's hard to talk about decorations with Alice Cooper because they're all bloody as heck, right? So, but anyway, the Dark Woods is an amazing place to go. They have a haunted attraction. They have what's called Lost Treasure Mining Company for your kids to search through gems and minerals, and Jason's going to explain this all. And now they've got kayaking things going on. That is super exciting. So welcome back, Jason. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me back, Lisa. Well, you know, so you are like Disneyland there, right? Is that right? Those are big shoes to fill. I know they're big, but then you'd have to go get the clown shoes, which I know you've got to have clown shoes somewhere, right, because you can't have Halloween without a clown. Oh, that's right. That's right. And we, you know, if nothing else, we at least have the aspirations to be to be that, that type of family entertainment place that people can come. So you know, we don't have size, but we try to pay attention to the details and do as best we can to present a really good entertainment product for families while you're here. I've heard, though, that you do make people really scared and that sometimes people do kind of like, oopsie, I got that scared, like oopsie and the pants scared. Yeah. Yeah, that happens. Sorry, Nicole. It's that time of the year. This is when Darkwood's Adventure Park becomes host to Darkwood's Haunted Attractions. And this year we've got, we've got two attractions running this year. We have a brand new indoor attraction. We've, if you've been with us before and you visited the dark carnival, the dark carnival as a, as a UV light or was a UV light attraction here for the Halloween season. And we've completely broken that show building down and, and rebuilt it since last year. And we reopened it just a few weeks ago as Alice's Bad House and 3D. And so it's a, wow, it's a neat mix of, it's still a UV house and still a blacklight house, but we've mixed the, the elements of a, of an old turn of the century asylum with a, with a verse, our version of Alice in Wonderland. And it's, it's a weird, wonderful thing. I can just hear Grace slick right now, your head like that could be kind of trippy going through there, right? Yeah. Yeah. The Alice in Wonderland can get weird. That's, that's kind of is by definition weird, Lisa. I love this conversation already. I love this. Well, because like when we went in there, and it, I think it was right before or after COVID, none of us can remember. So maybe we had COVID. I don't know. I'm just kidding. We didn't. Um, but when, when we were there, like, I remember going through it and I got, I got the creepy vibes. I mean, we had fun and we want to talk about the loss treasure mining company because that is special. By the way, I have an arrowhead that my friend turned into a necklace. That was from you guys and she made into a necklace for me. So that's really cool. Um, because you guys like, oh, you can take this and we gave all the gems and everything, but I'm not, you know, but there are all these precious stones, right? I gave them back because we're not kids and we, we travel and, but I took that arrowhead and you guys are like, take that. And it's like, this is my safekeeping in the car, the friend turned around and made it into an necklace for me. And that's great. It's cool. I mean, it's travel around. Think that went to Georgia and back and it's, it's our protector in our car. It is. It hangs from the, the, the review mirror as a protector. Isn't that wild? And it's next to a devil's claw because we are talking Halloween. So the devil's claw is a seed pod that you can get out in the Southwest and it looks like a devil. And we have them here. We have them here. I see them periodically. I see them periodically. I had one laying on my desk here for the longest time. The devil's claw. See, this is good. This is good. So what do you call, is it props? That's the word I think I've been playing. It's the word that we would use. That's the word. Yes. Talking about Ed and Marcia Edgens from Distortions Unlimited in Greeley, Colorado. They have been instrumental in providing props for us here. We use a number of their props and their illusion products and their stage products here and the things that we do. And they are, they are staples in the haunted attraction and the horror entertainment industry. And yes, they did, they have been working with Alice Cooper's touring stage productions for many years. We saw all kinds of bloody things in there, right? And clowns that are evil and all kinds of crazy, crazy things. And when we were in Greeley, Colorado, this was pre-COVID 2019. And we got to meet them and learn about Monster Day and not, how not to be a monster. You can tell people about that, but it was so cool interviewing them and going through a tour of their production facility. And Alice Cooper was getting ready to go on tour and we couldn't tell anybody about this. But there were, now the tour is coming gone, right? But there were bloody babies everywhere, like this is some crazy stuff. We have our little pink sock monkey Priscilla and we put her in there with those bloody babies. We just weren't allowed to post any of the pictures. So maybe it's time we can do it now, you know, because it was all hush hush. And then of course if it's hush, you feel real special, you're like, I saw Alice Cooper set before he did, you know, but you know he did, he saw it all. But it just is, I think that's amazing, these connections that go back to Nakadish. It's just like, I'm going to say, Nicole, El Camino, you know, Nakadish is this oldest city of the state of Louisiana. The Louisiana's history is just, I mean it's delicious, it's diverse. It has everything from pirates to British generals. I mean, you've got Native American heritage, you've got Creoles, you've got Cajuns, you've got all of this running through the veins of the state. And Nakadish is the oldest place. So when you think about Halloween haunted stuff, I don't know, it feels right to have the dark woods in your backyard that you think. We kind of hit on all of those things, you know, Lisa, we actually sit on the El Camino Reel. We're in the corridor here. Oh, that's right. You do. So yeah. But the Erwin Grady Reserve, aren't you near that? Yes, we are literally less than a mile from there. Our property is joins to a, we have a, there's a shared, longer piece of property behind us that joins the two pieces of property, but we've, you know, we sit right here on that. We do delve into just in terms of our, our inspiration for what we do here at dark woods. We, we try to delve into that history of the Lost Treasure Mining Company, for me, is themed out of. And we brought that out of the old stories of the legend of John Merrill, the, the Reverend Devil that raided this area when it was no man, part of no man's been back in the turn of the 19th century. So, we used his legends and his stories of buried and lost treasure to, to open our own version of that with, with Lost Treasure Mining Company is just a. Can you tell people a little overview of that story because we don't know about it. Yeah. Last treasure, Lost Treasure Mining Company is just a, we're not an actual working mine. We're just an attraction mine, a sluice mine. We have actually the largest water, a wooden water, a sluice in a four state area. It's a little over 130 feet long. And this is where you would pan for gemstones and minerals and we take all the work out of it. We leave all the fun. So you have a variety of pre-packaged mining rough options there that go from everywhere, from just simple arrowhead hunts all the way up to one that we call the mother load that has a little bit of everything in it. It has fossils, it has arrowheads, it has gemstones and minerals, just a wide variety. And we, we deal with a company there that provides those from us and they come from about 14 countries around the world. So it allows you to come into dark woods and be able to take home, not just a souvenir from Natchish, but get some, you know, if you're a rock hound or you're a collector, it gives you an opportunity to take some things home with you that you might not necessarily have access to in other places, but it's a lot of fun. It's a little, a little wet at times, but it's a, it's a, it's a really cool educational experience. It's fun for all ages, it's not just for kids. Although we do quite a few thousand, at this point we've built to, to where we do several thousand school kids a year in our summer programs and our spring programs for classrooms. And that's expanding every year, but it's a, it's a neat little, it's a neat little attraction. Of course this, this month we're doing, we're focusing on our dark woods haunted attractions and, you know, we were, we're, we're, we're, okay, this is our third, third weekend. We're going into our third weekend here. So we're open Fridays and Saturdays in October and it's getting easier and busier. Yeah. So I mean, we're lucky you're even here on the show right now. So how long did, so does it, when does it stop for the haunted attraction for folks? Actually, this year we, we end on Day of the Dead, the Adellis Martha's, is November the second. So Halloween actually falls on a Thursday night this year. So as a haunted attraction, we're always, we don't want to run too far over Halloween because, you know, once Halloween's done, people are pretty much done with Halloween. Like we will. The day of the dead is cool too. I mean, there's candy that comes with that. Yeah, that kind of locks into lockstep with us and kind of goes back to, you know, some of our other area, you know, I don't know necessarily how much did Delis Morthos was celebrated here historically during the Spanish period. But you know, of course, Nakadish was, was the, one of the key trade locations here during the Spanish occupation, Louisiana after the French left. And so, you know, I just kind of locks in and locks. I like that your company is bringing in this, the historic roots so that, you know, for the youth, they get to experience it and learn something too. You are mentioning going back to the loss treasure mining company, a person that inspired that right from the lost, you know, when you think about no man's land. Can you tell us a little bit about that person so we have some background on him because that sounds fascinating because no man's land, this and everyone you can go to visit no man's land.com. I think that's right. Nicole. Am I right? Just off the top of my head of no man's land because this is like a three year period where there was no law and order in Louisiana and you know that pirates and privateers and sites and gators in rampant, right? But it is. Yep. No man's land, right? It is. There are several places online that host information about no man's land, but probably the most, the easiest way to find it is to go to mackettish.com where we have a whole section on no man's land and it will take you to all the other sections. You see, you see how good she is. Look how good she is at her job, right? Look at her. Look at her. Nackettish.com, everybody, y'all, and it's N-A-T-C-H-I-T-O-C-H-S dot com. And that is linked in the episode notes because if you haven't been there, you may not get the pronunciation, but when you go there, you'll learn pretty quick. Within a bead of beer or a local beer and a gator floating by, you'll learn real quick. But yeah, please, Jason, if you can give us a little bit of that history about the lost treasure mining company. Sure. Sure. Sure. So when you're here in Nackettish, you're going to have to forego the abita and stick with the flying heart. That's what we produce here in Nackettish. So... Oh, okay. Is that the new brewery? Yeah. The new brewery. Yeah. We haven't done that yet. Okay. Well, we have to come back. All right. So the way, this guy that we've patterned this whole thing after, and I'm a history nut, you know, I worked for Office of State Parks for about eight years, and so my background was working with, and I was even, I was fortunate enough to work with some of the research that went along with the master plan initially when National Park Service was first beginning to look at Nackettish as a place to put the National Historic, or the National Historic Park. Yes. Yes. We had some things that we did with the state prior to the new State Park Museum over at Fort St. Jean Batiste. So it just... I came across a lot of things during that time that I just kind of filed back in my back of my brain, and some of it I'll literally file back to use it a later date, and John Merrill was one of those guys, and you know, we talk about things here in Nackettish and in Louisiana being interlocked, but I think John Merrill is one of those things that if you start touching on him as a historical figure, he just kind of ties back to everything a little bit in terms of, you know, history, he was a real guy. You know, we don't know how much of his story is actually true, but we know that he was... He was... Because he was better. Yeah. You know, it's a legend. That's the fun part of the legends, is it might or it might not be true, but the stories are good, and that's all that matters when we're looking at it from a storytelling standpoint. And he was a person that was... We would call him a land pirate today. He was basically the same type of person that you would have seen on the high seas minus the boat. He would have been using a riding horseback and had a crew of guys that went with him, and he was a very pretty notorious in Louisiana, no man's land, Mississippi, Tennessee. He actually ended up was... I think he was arrested in the 1830s and ended up dying in a Tennessee state prison, but that's an entirely different story. But the legend here was that he robbed and pillaged it across the southeastern United States and in this trans-Mississippi area through here prior to the Civil War in the 1830s, and he stashed and hid treasure all over the area during that time. Of course, as the stories have cycled over the years, various decades have seen different treasure companies come out and look for it. But what really put it on the map, I believe, in the later time period, and of course it goes back to how everything here is connected, Ms. Kamey Henry had a guest out at the Melrose Plantation that was riding at the writers' colony for a number of years named Ross Ferris. And he published a book called "The Reverend Devil" in 1941 that gave a novelized version of John Merrill's escapades and his adventures here, and I think that more or less started that first big round of treasure seekers, and in the 1950s there was a series of professional treasure companies, kind of our own nakitus version of the treasure of the curse of Oak Island. And we had some professional treasure companies from Texas and from Shreveport area come in and spent quite a bit of time actually looking at various locations that were reported to be locations for some of that treasure. And of course it was never found, which is why we like to still call it the lost treasure. So we kind of just tie that in a little bit, in other areas, Colorado, we've been talking about Colorado a lot this morning this afternoon, so in Colorado you have stories of gold miners and gold rush and all those types of things. There's still a hidden gold, I think actually somebody found it, so there is stuff still hidden, right? Isn't that exciting? Yeah it absolutely is, and we don't have that gold rush fever type of atmosphere and those stories here, but we have our own stories, yeah we've got our own legends there. So that's where the lost treasure mining company kind of came out of that as a base. And as we've added other things on, we've got a brand new attraction that's set to open and march officially. We may have some soft opening prior to that, but in March we'll be open in our newest attraction called Buccaneer Bayou, Adventure Mini Golf, and oh and you see you're going to the Buccaneers now, see you look at this. Yeah, so we're going to, if you touched on pirates, so I'm having to come right back to pirates. So, you know, Nackadish as a colony was here from 1700, 1714 was the official date, but you know the French were here a little earlier than that, but they were in this area for about 65 years or so before the Spanish took over, and all during that time, they were these these folks here were just like colonists in other parts of the country, whether they were in the English colonies or the Spanish colonies is that they could not subsist without piracy bringing cheap goods in. And so, you know, we have some indirect, we have some indirect ties with some of the Golden Age of piracy, the La Loyne brothers, the Iberville and Bienville were notoriously affiliated and associated with what we would call today piracy in the Gulf of Mexico. And of course, later years you had John Lafitte and some of these others that came in after the fact, but we just wanted to take that. That's such a popular, such a popular adventure trope, you know, for us. And so we're trying to pull in a variety of adventure tropes here into Darkwoods Adventure Park. You know, we've expanded so far beyond our haunted attractions because of COVID, you know, COVID, COVID wasn't necessarily a bad thing for us. It gave us some time to step back and reevaluate and come back with some fresh ideas. And these are some of the ones that have come to the front now. So this is the cycle that we're going into in 2025 is not just a mini golf course. This is unlike anything in the state of Louisiana. There is not a single attraction in Louisiana that does mini golf, even that comes even close to where we're at with this project. It's about a two acre, completely themed, custom built course. We've been working with an international company that's been working for 50 years building these courses, state of the art. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, this is exciting. Now, listen, are you going to have like a cocktail lounge for the adults before many putt? Okay. Wrong tavern. You know, I don't know. That's not something to discuss. I just, I'm just saying we need something, you know, maybe not cocktails, maybe, you know, the local brew. I don't know, but I know you had ice cream. Wasn't it dull whip when we were there? You were getting that in when we were there. That was on the horizon. Yeah. Wow. This is cool to see, you know, I love this because, you know, I always talk about in tourism, it's about the small businesses that really create these authentic and unique and fun experiences. You know, that's why we travel as travelers is to have something new to learn something, have an experience, something memorable that you, you know, you look back with your family, your friends, or even if you're a solo traveler going, look at that. That was so much fun. I did this. I learned that and you seem to be putting the education and fun and really incorporating family stuff where, you know, at this point, you're going to only pick up your phone to take photos, right? Or look up a gemstone, but this is something that transcends what we're doing in this day to day life of grindstone work and being kids and phones. Kids, they're saying kids are on their phone now, teens, eight to nine hours a day. And so this is where I think travel is so important and having these experiences to kind of break that. It's like a interrupt the pattern of what they're doing to let them see that there's something else beyond your phone. See, I hesitated there. I almost said something. I shouldn't. No, I mean it because it's so important and I think parents are trying. And I think the only way to get these enter a pattern interrupt is a term I learned from Nancy and I learned from Bobby Deporter's leader in education. She's retired now and she, she ran quantum learning. She taught teachers how to teach and how to find out how your students are actually taking in information. It's actually the same as people in podcasts and stuff. Some people are visual. Some people are audio, right? Some people need both, you know. And these experiences for kids, just like our parks, and you understand that too, with your background at Jason and in parks, it takes this and doing it repetitively, consistently, to keep breaking that habit. And so I think as a family, instead of arguing and you don't get this, you don't get that and I get like we have to do some like limits as parents, right? And I'm not a parent. So everyone you can yell at me later, but I'm just saying, I know, hey, I taught myself how to stop smoking years ago. So I understand pattern interrupt. It is about getting, having like a change of scene and making it fun instead of like a punishment. Because kids fell into this. This is what their life cell is, because that's what's there. So travel and these kinds of experiences, Jason, have you seen that with families kind of connecting with what you're offering? Yeah. And that Lisa, that's everything that we've tried as we, as we start looking for attractions and additions and things, I mean, we first and foremost, we tend to gravitate to the things that we personally like, you know? And then from there, we want to see what the market value of that is. And looking at, you know, can we execute this? Can we execute it well? You know, we being a small business, we tend to phase everything in so that we can build out as we can afford, you know, we're not, I know you said the D word earlier, but you know, we're not, we're not capable of coming in and putting, you know, multiple, multiple millions of dollars into a completed and finished product right off of the bat. You know, like a larger corporate entity would be able to do. And so we tend to- But that's cool though. So we can afford it. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool though. But we're trying to just find things in that way that get people off of the couch, get phones out of kids' hands, and I say that and we, you know, we advertise heavily in social media, but, you know, ultimately we want to keep them on their phone long enough to find us and then take it away from them once they get here. Exactly. Like here we are, Dr. Bye. No, but when they're there, are you seeing like it's photos, but maybe they're actually engaged or something else. Well, you know, we've done some pointed things in there to keep some of that from happening. You know, we're in such a heavily wooded area with rough terrain, which you're aware of. And that actually tends to block cell signals. Good. We've made a conscious decision because as a business, we're just like everybody else. You know, we can't subsist without internet connections for, you know, for registers and for information sharing and all the things that we do as a park, but we've made a conscious decision at this point. Now that doesn't mean that we won't change it later, but at this point, we've made a conscious decision to not incorporate public Wi-Fi here on the property because we want people to be present. And you know, where we tend to provide activities that are that are that are down and dirty. Hands on. Yeah, you're down and dirty. If you're going in a kayak, you're going to be, you know, oh, so the kayaking, how went, like, I want to go kayaking, but we learned, Nancy and I learned how to kayak on our first trip to Nackettage, but we went into, we went neighboring, sorry, Nicole, the town over. That's where we learned. And then we went neighboring again. And then I learned, I really can't and Nancy can. I need a guide or I don't know what I was doing, but I like, anyway, that's a whole other story. But I want to go back. Like kayaking, it just is like, you got to do it in Louisiana. So can you tell us a little bit more about that? Like what, what are the most like, are we, where are we going? Well, we have, you know, we've, we've worked for the last 10 years to build what I would call not really pseudo adventures, but they're not actual adventures. You know, we don't have pirates actually robbing your, robbing your van as you're transferring and, you know, we're not making you dig for treasure when you're at the treasure mine. Yeah. It's just fun. You know, we're just doing fun stuff. So, but last year, we, we, we had an opportunity and, and, and started working on a project called Darkwoods Outfitters. And we, we actually have self service kayak rental units on all three bodies of water here in Nackettage. You can rent on Cane River. You can rent on Sibley Lake and you can chaplains like it Northwestern. There are hourly rentals. We provide a variety of two different types of kayak. You have a tandem, which is for two people and singles, which is obviously for a single. And we provide you with all the, the protective equipment that you need in your paddles and everything. And you literally are able to just take the kayaks out of the racks and use them as you need them and then bring them back in. And I'm beautiful to worry about any of that. We provide guiding services. We are a licensed guide within the state of Louisiana. And we provide guide services on occasion for larger. We may need that. I, I'm just saying because I'm stupid, I'm stupid. I go in circles. I need someone to teach me how to not go in circles. So I was fine until I didn't have a guide. I thought I was able to do everything until I didn't have a guide and I went, okay. And then Nancy just laughed at me and I went in circles like literally in circles around and around and around. And I drew a crowd that actually watched me go in circles around and around and around and around and around. It was crazy. It was, it was, um, oh, there was a state park up in Florian. That is not, not there anymore, but it was, it was a beautiful, one of the best state parks. Honestly, I think Louisiana had and it's sad that it's gone. But I went out and I took the two person thing thinking I could, oh, I went kayaking a week ago. I can do this. No. No, you've got to learn. And I think though, you have so much water in Louisiana that it's so magical to go in a kayak. There's nothing like it. I went canoeing after that actually in Yuma, but in on the Colorado River. But it's the kayak experience. If you want to see birds and nature from a different perspective, it is one of the most beautiful things to do. It really is. It's very easy and it doesn't, um, you know, of course, the difference with us is is that of course we don't have none of our, none of our kayaking units are on flowing water. So, you know, you're passing both ways. You're not going to have the ability to flow, of course, Cane River Lake is exactly what it says. It's Cane River Lake. But you know, you have with this and not that, you know, if you're in an hourly rental type of person that you would, you would do this. But Cane River has about 35 miles of that unbelievable Cane River scenic capability. I mean, there are so many places that are within, you know, an hours paddle of the downtown area that are just incredible and you'll see all kinds of wildlife. Every kind of bird, alligators, yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. And by the way, the alligators do leave you alone when you're kayaking. They are kind of chill. They just like, all right, you're in my way, you know, go this way. They're not. I don't want people to get freaked out. But like, it's cool. Like seeing alligators, egrets, I had frogs jumping on me, it was so cool. It's a very, it's a very unique experience. I mean, you know, you can get on to Cane River in a boat and that's one thing, but there's something about the silence of a kayak and being on the water by yourself. You know, here locally, I know Cane River gets a lot of the, you know, it's the, it's the sexy model of body of water, you know, it's the way everybody wants to get on. But what people don't understand is, is that we have simply Lake here that's about 17 acres and it has 37 miles of bank line and sloughs and backwaters and that's where mariners is, the restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. And you get some of the best sunsets out there too, man. Beautiful. Yes. Beautiful. Matter of fact, I kayak, I live on the, I live on the lake out there and I kayak out to the island across from mariners, a lot of different afternoons and evenings because it's such a good place to watch the sunset and it is. It's gorgeous. It's just, so we, we're just trying to, you know, we want to be able to give, we want to be able to give people an opportunity. You know, we're, we haven't, no one has stepped up and I'm issuing the challenge here right now. Nobody has stepped up here locally to do boat rentals in Nakadish in this area here. Like are so common in other, other tourist related areas, but you know, you don't have the ability to rent a boat here. You know, we have excursion tours on the Kane River Queen, but it's not quite the same as being able to get out on Sibley Lake or to take your own watercraft down and because. Chaplain Lake, because you got Chaplain Lake, you know, no, that's something new for me to know about. Well, Chaplain Lake is just a finger of old Kane River Lake that runs down beside Northwestern State University. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's right when you, I know where that is. Yeah. Beautiful sunsets there too. It's not, it's not as long, but it's, it's a good place to get some exercise, a good place to get out on the water, see some wildlife. But the other two, the other two bodies, Kane River Lake and Sibley Lake are just unbelievable. They're, they're great for family excursions. They're great for individual excursions. And our units make it possible to, you know, you don't have to have any gear. You don't have to have anything, literally. You just show up and swipe your card and pull your gear out and get on the water and it's. Okay. Well, this is it. Like, I'm homesick now. I know it's not my home, but like Nancy and I, like, Nacadish has stolen our hearts from day one when we arrived. And I mean, that was 10 years ago, actually, yeah, because it was 2014, summer over 10 years ago, and I don't know, man, Nicole, we keep coming back. Nicole, and before we go, I want to touch on some other things people can do on today's of Halloween and fall, fall, y'all, you know, we get to say that. And that, by the way, I've been doing shows about fall and I don't care who's coming out. I'm like, it's fall, y'all. Cause I didn't care. I don't care. I represent right now. That's not bad, but El Camino Real, a de los Teas National Historic Trail. This is really an amazing historic route. And it does actually is, you know, on the American side, like San Antonio to Nacadish, I know you guys have the sale on the trail that goes from Nacadish, Louisiana to Nacadoches and, you know, and beyond that a little bit too, every May where it's like, you know, garage sale deluxe. Right? Yard sale. Girl. Yeah. Deluxe. But apparently October 19th, just a few days away, this is a big event. It is. It's the inaugural El Camino Real Day. There are events all along the trail planned, but we have two special ones here. We're going our fort, which I know you have visited in the past, is going to have demonstrations that represent how children would have lived on the El Camino Real. So that's going to be very interesting. And then also out at Los Deas, which is the little west of Nacadish out in Robelline, they're going to have an event out there as well with several demonstrations. So it's the inaugural event, you know, so a lot of times people want to be the first. And so this is a chance to be the first and participate in that day. Well, this is so funny, I'm addicted to these historic trails, and we both are doing them all. And I just got an email as we're recording this from the actual association. And this is the 20th anniversary event, right, of the El Camino Real Day Los Teas being designated as a national historic trail. So the trail, the forest chapter of El Camino, they're doing a mission in, they're doing like a mission to Rancho challenge. So there's all these challenges. So this is the 20th anniversary of this trail. I remember when we went to Ken River Creole, I think it was the 20th anniversary or something like that of the park. I don't know now, or was it, it's the 20th of November that it's, that was designated. I don't know. There's something to do with 20, but, but this is amazing. So there's all these little events coming up accordingly, right? So this is more of a Texas thing, but, um, because I'm looking like, why don't you have Nacadish in this email? Yeah. But it has, uh, yeah, that's what we're saying. It's so cool. Yeah, they have regions and we're actually in the Caddo region. So between, uh, Nacadish and Nacadocius, you'll find different events. So a little part of Texas, a little part of Louisiana, we get together, play nice and uh, celebrate. So I love that you said that, Nacadocius, because a lot of times as travelers, people say, oh, this county and that county and we're like, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what county I'm in. No, no. I mean, really it's actually one of the most annoying things as a traveler. You don't know what county you're in or everything's about the county and you don't know what time I'm like, am I in this county? What county am I, you know, it's, it's, but you, well, for you guys, it's parishes, right? Right. So when you say Caddo, like that at least gets people to know that's this region between Nacadocius and Nacadish. And then you're our Nacadish parish. So when, you know, you want to know, that's that, um, I have also want to give a shout out to the American Cemetery walking doors. This is a good time to get it in. Absolutely. Yeah. Every first Friday, right? That that happens. Yeah. So the next one will be November 1st, girl weather, uh, hopefully, hopefully it's not a rainy day, but it'll, yeah, unless it's raining, it's going to be perfect weather to get out and enjoy a crisp fall afternoon in the, in the cemetery. I love the cemetery tours. I mean, the stories of people in Nacadish parish or the region, you've got shootings, you've got civil war heroes with two names. You've got women's history. You have all kinds of stuff going on in that cemetery and then it could be the backbone of a, uh, of a story of a TV show and well, it was in the movies. It was in the movies. Right. Right. Right. With the movies. Right. Yeah. It was a famous scene from still magnolias. Right. But I think it holds a movie all on its own, just the history of the American cemetery. You could. I, I love that cemetery and it's said to be the oldest cemetery in the state. Now there's one in Louise, uh, New Orleans, Louisiana, right? But they moved it. So, uh, huh. Yeah. That's awesome. And title. Yeah. Ha ha. But anyway, now, so now let's go to this military convoy. Is this not so cool? I've been following this. We've done shows on it on our Jefferson Highway podcast. And, uh, watching this convoy of military, I mean, these are historic military vehicles. Right. Right. So, from Winnipeg through here, they're coming to you. When do they come? When? What's your name? They're going to come into town Thursday, October the 24th, so they'll be here in the evening. Um, but the really cool thing about their convoy is we're going to have them set up on the riverbank on Friday, October the 25th. So all of them will be on this way, um, on the riverbank. But the really interesting thing, and we are so excited that we were able to integrate this and get it all together, that's also our Northwestern State University's homecoming parade day. So we are putting several of the military vehicles in front of the Northwestern homecoming parade. So they will actually be leading the homecoming parade, which is going to be so cool to see. So we're excited because of that. So they're going to be on the riverbank from 830 till about five o'clock, and then they're going to line up at Northwestern State University, and they will actually lead the homecoming parade back downtown. Um, so just a fun, great, fun way to get them involved in our university for our kids who are here, either going to school or our students to be able to learn, you know, this is one of those touch of truck kind of moments you get to get out on the riverbank, you get to talk to the drivers, you get to learn about the vehicles. It's really history right in front of your eyes, which to me is so much better than hearing it in a classroom is to be able to see it and actually reach out and touch it. So we're super excited about that. This is like the past and the present, you know, it has the future of meeting together, right? Yeah. And that's the thing. This military convoy, I don't see it happening again, like, like immediately because it has been in the works for several years. So it really takes, um, really takes a long time to play in. They have done a great job. They're already on their way. So they are actually going through other states as we speak on their way here, uh, set for the 25th. But, you know, you've got to think of the people that own these vehicles, work on them, keep them maintained and you just, you know, the age of everything, right? Right. The chances of this happening again, I'm not saying things won't happen. I'm not. Yeah. It just is we need in our lifetime, we need to experience an, unfortunately, and I can't and I really want to. I have so much, um, respect for what they're doing because, you know, I, I was so excited about it, especially for Louisiana, because of the Louisiana maneuvers that happened through Qasachi National Forest, your backyard, military history is in your backyard and part of the no man's land, you know, right? They are going to be traveling. They're going to make a special, um, not necessarily a these two were, but just not actually on the actual, um, track, but they are going to go through the peace and ridge area, which is out in Qasachi National Forest and it's where they do active, um, training now. Um, so. So that's going to be a cool book for them for folk. Right. Yeah. Well, it's for Johnson now. Um, it's been changed to Fort Johnson just in the last few years, but peace and ridge remains the same. Uh, peace and ridge. It's on how we won 17 between that condition burn and perish. And so they'll be coming through there, making a, making a slight curve, but they're going to come through there. Uh, and we're excited to see them end up on the riverbank. That's amazing, isn't it? Yes. That's amazing. And you've got men. Are they going to Mansfield? Like, yeah, I believe so. And I, our, um, our local VFW is going to host them for a, a course meet pass. Of course, we're going to feed a mother here. You can't talk about the show without a meet pass. It has really turned into be a great community event. We're super, you know, super excited about them coming to town. We're looking forward to them being here. It's a great historical moment, educational piece, um, and community project all wrapped into one. So we're super excited about that. I love it. And I hope they go to, you know, the veterans memorial park next to Lazion's and, and just, yeah, I hope people get to go there and, and just kind of connect with it. Yeah. This is really, really special people of, I mean, this is just, you know, when you think about the mass vehicle and the TV show, it, that's it, man. That's what we're talking about. And you know, and even, you know, to support VFWs, ah, they're in danger across the country of not being there, you know, yeah, we have a, we have a great group of VFW members here in town. They have a, they have a great facility. They are really working hard to be able to sure to ensure that the community is very welcoming and of course, get them some meat pies. Love it. Thank you so much, Nicole, and thank you for getting Jason back on our show. Yeah. Cool. Jason, thank you for joining us. It's been fun. You're very welcome. Thanks for having me again. Oh, this is cool. I, it's what a great business story. Honestly, I love it. I love it. Thank you everybody. Go to neckanish.com and Jason, you want to give everyone the website. I have darkwoodspark.com is at the best place. Actually, you know what, we've shortened it and made it even easier. It's just darkwoods.fund now. You can come. Oh, wow. That's all year long. That's fun. See. I knew it. Yeah, I knew. But you know what? You're always evolving and changing. And that's what small businesses do. They keep evolving and changing with the times. And that's why we need to support them as travelers, you know, and when you go to neckanish. Thank you. Yes. Go downtown. Go to the candy store. Go to the art. Yes. Get a hotel room and stay for the weekend. Absolutely. And stay longer. Don't do one night. Absolutely. Stay three nights. You can't do neckanish in one day or two days. You got to stay at least three nights. I think. Yes. Absolutely. I'm a week. I want a week because you know what? We're changing that steadily. You know, we've called ourselves a weekend destination for a really long time, but there's so much to do here, Lisa. You really need about four days now a weekend's not going to do it anymore. No. And now that people are working remotely, I think the weekend is going to change a bit. And I mean, it's kind of in a flux because now everybody's going, go back to work and they're like, no, no, we don't want to. Right. You know, I got kids and dogs, you know, you know, y'all, I got that. But the reality is, you know what? People can work remotely. And if you have that ability, if not everyone, right, can have that. But if you can go on a vacation with your family and still get a little bit of work done, maybe, you know, mom and the kids go and do lost treasure mining company in the morning and then dad and the parent, you know, everyone gets together for dinner and minibut or whatever. You know, it's, you know, mom may be doing the work honestly too. She's like, Hey, y'all, you know, go to your dad. I'm doing my thing, you know, so it's everybody's got their thing. It's for everyone with what's ever is going on. The world is changing significantly since COVID. And we have to adapt and change as travelers and as the destinations. And that means, Hey, something new. It's cool. You know, just look at it differently and have fun with it. And I think Nakadish is just, you know, Nakadish keeps its roots, which is, it's authenticity. It's real story, who people are or who people are. You guys get together. It's like you feel like you're in the community when you go to Nakadish. That's why we feel so attached to it. It's like it's a community and community pride because it's like a community. It's, it's amazing, friendly, happy. So we feel like we have the best story in the state. Well, I, I'm serious. I mean, we've traveled your state in like, like, I love Louisiana, both of us do, Nancy and I, but I'm just saying there's something about Nakadish. And I think, you know, when you're the oldest settlement, you've been through enough stuff to know how to get along through things. And that is a welcoming feeling when you come into the town and when you can bring your family and know you're in a place where your family feels safe, I actually think that's a huge thing. You go to an attraction like yours, Jason, your kids are running around and having fun. It's not like in a big city where now you have to worry, right? That's correct. It's kind of a different vibe and I think Nakadish just feels, I know it's a city, but I don't think it is, you know, I know you got your box stores on the one side, you know, but you have your authenticity and places that keep their authenticity are more welcoming and remind everybody else that comes into their community to have more respect, to have understand the heritage. There's just this thing that happens. It's magic when people keep it and a lot of places don't, but you guys really do it well and do it in the right way and understand that family is multi-generational as well. That's the other key that you guys have. Everything we've done in Nakadish is multi-generational. Every single event, every experience is multi-generational, which I think is hugely important in these days and times and should always be. So and it feels safe, it feels fun, it's festive, it's exciting, it's delicious. But when you go to the Darkwoods, you may really pee in your pants. So I'm going to close with that because we started with it. You could. You could. Yeah, they're open. I didn't do the other one. Saturday night. It's through November 2nd. All right. Well, thank you all. So everyone go to darkwoods.fund. Did I do that right? Darkwoods. That was perfect. Darkwoods. Fun. That's dark. Fun. And everyone, again, nakadish.com. Thank you all for joining us here. We are here every third. No, every second is it every third Tuesday. I don't know anymore. I've been escaping hurricanes lately, but every third Tuesday we're here with Nakadish and we have a good time. Thank you all. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thanks for having us. Thank you for joining us on our Big Blend Radio Golden Nacadish Show. Keep up with us at bigblendradio.com and plan your adventure in Nakadish. Go to nakadish.com. That is N-A-T-C-H-I-T-O-C-H-E-S dot com, nakadish.com. [BLANK_AUDIO]
