Hit road. Don't you come back? Don't you come back? What you
said? What I said was it's time to hit the road America. This
is a nightcap special called the Great American Road Trip. Men, women,
children, dogs, hopefully not tied to top of cars. We're going to
be talking about famous road trips that our guests have taken, including myself and
my wife Chris to two point zero as we continue this evening, the first
day of summer, and Americans are hitting the road in spite of the gas
prices. Let's begin. I have been looking forward to this special and this
guest because I had him on a few months back, because his story is
just phenomenal. He is another radio host. He is on Serious XM sixties
Gold and I hope iHeart doesn't mind if I borrow him for a few minutes
or an hour tonight for the Great American Road Trip special on the Nightcap here
on seven hundred WLW. The fact that he doesn't mind is the most important
thing, and he said he'd be happy to do it. So we we'd
like to welcome in once again to the Nightcap and this special memorial night show.
Flash Phelps, How you doing Flash? All right? No? It
is great to be here on iHeart, especially on WLW. To be hurt,
I drive in my car, I'll pop up the Big seven hundred,
and I can listen almost everywhere in the entire country. I think it is
everywhere before at nighttime, if you hold your if you hold your mouth right
and there's not a storm or something going on, you can get seven hundred
WLW on your terrestrial AM radio. There's no doubt about an. And of
course everywhere on iHeartRadio and on the stream and all the other things that neither
one of us knew about when we started in this business over four years ago.
So I was talking about that I did my show from severe Ville one
day, nobody knew, and then the next day I was doing it in
Memphis for three days and I never said where I was. And then I
did it from Withhville, Virginia and the Boss cab and he goes, what
are you doing now? He thought I was just sitting here doing the show
in my home studio, and I said, I'm in Virginia. He said,
you are flash. I've got to tell you this is one of my
this is one of my dreams, and hopefully one day I will be able
to make this happen. I pray that God will allow this is. I
want to get a nice, pretty nice RV and a satellite dish or whatever
it is you use and do my Saturday morning show on seven hundred WLW from
a different location every week. That's my ultimate retirement goal is of course,
not to be retired, but just to do it from a different location every
week. And you would be the guy to call to find out where to
go and how to get there. And that's why you're on the show tonight.
So I know, great, And here it is Memorial Day. It's
a great day that now it's time to travel. Absolutely people kicking in with
summer vacation. So flash philps. I'm going to put you through the put
you to the test. Now, how many counties have you missed in the
entire United States? The last time we talked, you were down two No
to no, not to two hundred and seventy. I will actually look up
the exact number for you right now because I just hit another one that I
needed to go into. And it's very cool because I'm able to do a
thing. It's a user page, and I go into it and I mark
every county. As you know, I finished Ohio and I'm only down to
one more in Indiana, which is a really good one as well. So
I'm down to one more in Tennessee. So there's three thousand, one hundred
and forty four counties, and if you let me pull it up, I
will tell you a number. It's really cool because it gives me percentages of
everything I've actually done as well. So this is that's what's really nice about
it. And by the way, if you want to follow it along and
be a part of going everywhere, it's actually called mob role, is what
that is. So there's thirty one hundred and forty four. I've been to
two thousand, eight hundred and eighty two of the counties, leaving two hundred
and sixty two I have not been in That means I've been in ninety one
point seven percent coverage of the United States of America. And you've been in
every single state, mind you. Yeah, this is this is one of
the plums for this show tonight. And the reason you're here with me is
because you can talk authoritatively about every state in the Union. So here we
go. I'm going to put you to the test. Alphabetically, give me
somewhere that if people are going to the state of Alabama, somewhere they have
to go in Alabama. Flash. Right off the top of my head,
I just thought a twin because it's just very cool. And here it is.
We're in the Gemini right now, which are the twins? Up in
the northwest corner right off by twenty two, there's a place called twin.
Take a picture of yourself on both sides of the sign and mix them together.
All right, it's one of the funniest signs. Okay, that's a
great one. What about Well, I got a good one. Okay,
I got it. Go ahead, No, no, I'll tell you another
great one. Gadsden, Alabama. There's an incredible waterfall that deserves right off
by fifty nine. It is so where it takes about five minutes to be
able to go over and be able to see that. I did that walk
not that long ago. But we are on the way this summer, and
it's only about another month away that we're going to have a baseball game that
is played down in Alabama's the first time we have a Major League baseball game
being played in Alabama. I guess it's one of the first. But it's
the old stadium, old stadium, so it's not Wrigley and it's it's not
Fenway Park. This stadium is older and it's it's called Rickwood So I really
encourage people. If you're in Birmingham on the west side of town, Rickwood
Field, look it up. You go over and you can see this,
and they're going to a major League game. You remember how they've done Field
of Dreams out in the isle, right, they play games there. This
year they're going to play at Rickwood It's in July. It's coming up here
real soon, and the San Francisco Giants are going to be playing there with
the Saint Louis Cardinals, two of the oldest teams. And again, look
up Birmingham Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball stadium still in use today in the
United States. Alaska. The first thing Alaska. I'm getting ready to go
to cat Mai. Now, kat Mai is a great place to go,
either in the very beginning of the summer around July or you go in September.
And what happens is this is where all your black bears. They have
forty four of the living there and it's in south west Alaska, right near
to the start of the Aleutian Peninsula, and this is where the Brooks Camp.
They have Brooks Falls and you see all the bears. They come and
they wait for the salmon to jump into the air and catch them in their
mouth, and then they have the fat bear contest that goes on to see
who's still be the fattest bear. That's a very cool one. I love
that in Alaska. I just went to last year to the Midnight Sun Baseball
game, which happens on the twenty first of June, and that is it's
really cool. They start the game at ten thirty at night, it's still
daylight. The sun doesn't go down until right before one am, and it
comes back up about three am. So they play it and then right at
midnight, as soon as that inning is over, they come out and they
sing the Alaska national anthem. I had a great time I did that.
I drove up past the Arctic Circle, which took about five hours to get
up there, but so many great things to see in Alaska. My best
time driving it. I started in Seattle, I drove all the way through
British Columbia, Yukon right into Alaska, to Toake, Alaska, came down
to Anchorage, Keene Iplin Peninsula. Oh, so much to see. Go
ahead, that is amazing. Arizona, Arizona, Oh, Arizona. Some
of my favorites as well. Now, if you want the cooler place where
you had all the desert, obviously in the south, if you go to
Oregon Pike, which is down on the southwest side, that's right on the
Mexico border. I was so close my cell phone said, welcome to Mexico.
And if you go out, here's one of the places that wants to
become a national park. It's actually a National monument now. It's called Shirakawa
and it's down on the southeast side. So you've got to go past Tucson
to be able to see that. That's another really incredible park and they're hoping
for national park status. The other national monument. They're one of our four
hundred and twenty nine National Park sites. Okay, so that's a very cool
place to go when you're in northern Arizona. Here's one of the great places
page A lot of people miss Page. You're right on the lake at this
point, and it's called Lake Powell. They have the Rainbow Bridge, which
a lot of people know because of pets to that pass away, but it's
an incredible arch and you have to take a boat to be able to get
out there to it. Antelope Canyon, they have the Horseshoe part of the
Colorado River right there that you can overlooks called Horseshoe Bend. Oh so,
is there some of my favorite Arizona places ar Kansas? Oh? Yes,
And I just spent a lot of time there. I'm down the two counties
that I need. I went down there. I'm going to tell you one
of my favorite things is Glen Campbell's grave side. I know it may sound
weird, but Johnny Cash also from there. But if you're down in the
area of Texarkana and Hpe, that's where Clinton's from. You go little to
the north. They have this place called Crater the Diamonds. It's the word
that you find diamonds, Okay, so people go over there to try to
find them. Just to the south of there, there's a place called Bill'stown
and Delight the Light. You're going to see a picture of Glen Campbell on
a billboard. You go just to the south of there, towards Bill'stown.
On your left hand side, you're going to see Campbell Cemetery. Glenn Campbell
is buried in there. Now here's why it's really incredible. There's a historical
Arkansas marker. When you walk up to it, read it. As soon
as you walk past it. His grave is only about another twenty feet beyond
it, but it triggers Glenn Campbell singing amazing grace. So as soon as
you pass the historical marker, how cool like Campbell. It's one of if
they call it the singing gravesite of Glenn Campbell. If you've never done this,
do it. Look up Campbell Cemetery. It's on Google Maps. You
can find it. Campbell Cemetery, Bill'stown, Arkansas, and Southwest Arkansas.
I highly recommend that we do not have all night so for that. For
that reason, I will skip a few states. Obviously, California has so
many places you could name, and so many place if you could if you
could select one place in California to go back to, what would it be.
Uh, here's a place a lot of people don't go on US three
ninety five in East California. On the other side of this, heire is
if You can get there in the morning, so you're in between Death Valley
and then they have a place called Movie Road. They filmed so many movies
out there. It really looks Western when you're out there. There's some incredible
beautiful views to be able to see the mountains right there, especially if you're
there in the morning sun shining on it incredible. What look up Mansanar.
If you know where man Zinnar is, that's a place where it was an
encampment back there during the war, so that's the exact area. Look up
Movie Road. It's just really incredible. It's not too far from Bishop.
It's the Great American road Trip show. On the Nightcap on this Memorial Day
evening, our guest is Flash Phelps, who's on Sirius XMN tonight. He's
on seven hundred WLW give me give me a Colorado one oh one Colorado Maroon
Bells. If you do anything there, go to Marion Bells. It's right
at Aspen. You have to take the bus over so and set it up.
Go over on the bus. If you go earlier in the morning,
you get the sun. You want to see one of the most beautiful views
I think of Colorado maroon bells in the Aspen area, Connecticut, Connecticut.
You know, as soon as I just said that, I was thinking about
one of my favorites is the Gene Pitney. Know many of you if you
know sixties music, Geen Pitney, he's from Connecticut. They have an incredible
memorial to him. And Vernon, Connecticut's right off by eighty four. So
if you're heading up towards what I call Flash of Choosets, you're on eighty
four east of Hartford. You're gonna see the Vernon exit and then there's an
incredible memorial to Geen Pitney. It's his park. This is the first thing
I just thought of. But there are so many great things to see in
Connecticut. And I'm hearing the man who I'm hearing the man who shot Liberty
Balance in my head as you're telling you this, Well, that is right,
you know it. Well, it's called the Last Green Valley. On
the very east side, you're gonna have the interstate that goes over by Mohegan
Sun and they called that area the Last Green Valley. That is so worth
seeing as well. So that's the east part of Connecticut. But the man
who shot Liberty Valance that movie did not feature the Geen Pitney side, and
people would and people would call Gene and they go, I waited all the
time for your he goes, Oh yeah, they never used it in the
movie. That's true. Delaware, Delaware. Let's see well now that they
were the last state to be able to get a national park, and that
started out as the first state national monument that ended up turning into first state
national historical parks. And there's a lot of great places. Lewis, Delaware
is a really great place because there's a lot of history down there. This
is right where Cape Henlopen is. If you're familiar with all of our capes
along the East coast of America, Cape Henlopen is on Delmarva, and it's
right above a Rehobot Beach. And I love even the Cape May Lewis Ferry.
It looks like Lows, but the Lwes that's a great place. Dover.
A lot of people don't see either capital. There's two capitol buildings,
and there's a real capitol building and there's the old Capital and you can tour
inside the old Capital and it's right next to an area called the Green Again,
that's a part of First Date National Monument. So that's another great place.
Oh, Newcastle, Delaware. Love Newcastle. That is very historic.
Again a part of the First State National Monument. All right, a lot
of people from here in the Tri state area are making the trek to Florida.
I mean, everybody eventually goes to Florida, hopefully before they die.
But give me one favorite Floridian haunt of flash philps Oh gosh, I have
so many, you know, I really like the Panhandle. I'm a big
fan of the Panhandle going down from Pensacola, and especially the Dston because when
I worked in Tallahassee, Florida years ago, everybody said you got to go
to Deston and Fort Walton and I got out there and I just loved how
clear the water was. It was just one of my favorite places. But
when you're talking about going down on the Peninsula, I think everybody likes to
make a stop at BUCkies, whether or not you've gone into Yeah, in
the Saint Augustine another great place, especially going down the Space Coast. Always
so much fun around there. Do you know what their area code is now
on the Space Coast? Three two one. That's great, great, that's
they gave up. We've got a BUCkies near us in Richmond, Kentucky,
and we've got there. There's a Bucki's being built now in Ohio, the
first one in kind of in our area. I think it's going to be
a little bit north of Cincinnati, but they are building a BUCkies here.
I can't wait till it's a little bit closer. But you know, Richmond,
Kentucky, from where I live, is not a bad day day trip.
I love day now. That's not bad. Yeah, yeah, I
love it. You do ll do you? Yeah? Yeah a lot of
times because I'll just do it on the weekend because it's like, oh,
I don't really want to put another hotel on my credit card, so I'll
do that for the extensive ones. But I can usually sometimes on the weekend
get about five hundred miles away or so, and sometimes I'll go even further
than that, but I'll try to do it. And living here in the
Maryland area, I'm right between Philadelphia and Baltimore, so I can drive up
towards New England, I can drive down to North Carolina. I could get
out to you in Cincinnati. There's a lot of area that I could do,
even just on a quick weekend. Now what do you drive? It's
a Honda Civic Alex and a lot of people want he is the twenty eighteen
and I had always gotten to see I was driving Ford Mustang and then either
of them will go over one hundred thousand miles. So when I got to
start working here in the DC and everybody heard about my driving, they said,
you should get a Honda Civic. They go, that car is made
for you. So I got my first one to know one, and then
my five. I got one to know five. That thing with three hundred
and fifty three thousand miles. Then I got a twenty twelve model in twenty
eleven, and I took had a half a million miles and it was still
getting forty two miles of the gallon. Wow. And and so between twenty
eleven all the way until twenty eighteen, I did a half a million miles.
I was averaging between sixty to eighty thousand miles driving in the United States
every single year. So that's what got me out into doing it. And
then this latest one is twenty eighteen. Now that I found out that I'm
not going to be able to get a two door on my next one.
They're only coming in four door, but that's what I drive because it gets
me about forty four to forty five miles of the gallon on an all gas
car, and at that point in twenty eighteen cost me less than twenty twenty
one thousand dollars to buy it. Oh that's great. Yeah, good luck
finding one of those today. What about the what about the the Great State
of Georgia, the Peach State flash, Oh gosh, yeah, now North
Georgia with all of its mountains as well. Fund I lived and worked in
Chattanooga for three and a half years. I know about North Georgia and it
is beautiful. Absolutely. So you know about going to Lake Winnipeesoca, Oh
yeah, that's a great music. Now. See that's where my mom grew
up. My mom's entire family grew up in Chattanooga. So and when we
get to Tennessee. But that whole Georgia side is just incredible. And ye,
Bucky's there off I seventy five as well. A good place, Let
me try to find it. Here's a place that a lot of people don't
know about. Fun spot. So a lot of people think about Georgia and
they go to six Flags. But there's a great amusement park. It's just
southwest of Atlanta by about fifteen miles and it's down there with the Fun Spot,
same name as the ones the owners that are down in Florida that have
the ones around Orlando, and they have this incredible coaster there and I just
went there like, oh my gosh, I got to go ride this thing.
And I wrote it and I was blown away by how good it is
in a small little amusement park. It's very traditional, So that was one
of my fun spots to go there. I love Augusta. They have a
cool statue of James Brown right in downtown called the CSRA. The Central Savannah
River Area is right in that area. Tiger Georgia up in the northeast corner.
I love that Owen, especially Alpine Helen. If you've never looked up
Helen, Georgia, you know probably Helen right. Yeah. It brings you
back like you've gone to a foreign country. It's just really amazing and you're
still in Georgia. So I love that one too. We're running out of
time for this segment. We're never going to get through all fifty, but
I am enjoying a conversation. Why don't you hang around and we'll do more
of The Great American Road Trip on the night Cap with the one and only
Flash Phelps. It continues after a break. He're on seven hundred w l
W. From the sands of Fallushah to the frozen forest of the Ardennes,
from the waters of the Coral Sea to the skies over Kandahar. Brave American
men and women made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our nation and our way of
life. This Memorial Day, take a moment to remember them, their dedication
and their courage. Seven hundred WLW. Last season, millions tuned into the
Betrayal Podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning and now
we're sharing an all new story of betrayal on road again. Just wait to
get on again while I love this Magan music with my friend all roll in
and tonight. The music we're making is the sound of the highway beneath our
wheels. The Great American Road Trip Nightcap Special continues. I'm Gary Jeff Walker
talking about places you might want to go with people who, in some cases
have been everywhere. Man, They've been everywhere we continue on seven hundred WLW.
We continue an hour long conversation on the Great American Road Trip Special with
Flash Phelps, who was a serious XM radio personality and tonight he's a radio
personality On seven hundred WLW, Gary Jeff Walker on the night Cap and a
very special Memorial Day show. We've been going through. If you didn't tune
in before, you have to hit the podcast. Folks. We've been going
through places to see in all fifty states. I'm sure we're not going to
get through the list because well there are fifteen. We've only got so much
time. But we're up to Hawaii. And now did you drive? Did
you? Did you drive your Honda Civic to Hawaii? No? And the
fact the way I got into radio was I want a trip to Hawaii.
Well sort of I was. My sister heard the collage on the radio back
when I was seventeen years old, and she said, they're giving away a
trip to Rio de Janeiro and you have to figure out all these songs.
I figured out all those songs. I called and the program director was on
the air. He said how old are you? I said seventeen. He
said, you got to be eighteen to win. I said, I have
all the answers. I read them to you. He goes, if you're
eighteen, you'd be going to Rio. Well, the next week they had
a trip to Hawaii. I figured out all the answers. I called my
sister. I told her, and she called and she got everyone right.
We want a trip to Hawaii. And then we paid for her brother in
law. I said, no, no, you and your husband go and
she said, no, no, no, you got all the answers.
You got to go. We'll pay for him to go. So the three
of us went. In my senior year, the first time I ever went
to Hawaii. I've been eight times to Hawaii, and I've been to every
county. There's five counties in Hawaii. And the one place I want to
bring up about Hawaii, I love the big island. A lot of people
don't go over there in Kawaii and Owah, who is you know all the
city? But let me tell you about the island of right on the north
side, that was where those that had Hanson's disease were taken. And there's
this volcanic peninsula and it's called the Kala Papa Peninsula. In fact, that
first time I went, when we flew up, they just flew us by
it. They went on the north side of Molokai and it was just really
incredible to see. Well, now I wanted to go to it because that's
a county. There's four main counties in Hawaii, and I needed to get
to that one. It's called Kalauaiso County. It's the smallest county anywhere in
the United States. So I had to go there and I hiked down.
So you had to get permission to be there and then be on a tour
because of Hanson's disease being down there. And I went and did the tour.
One of the most incredible things I did in Hawaii. If you get
a chance, take the trip to the Kalapapa Peninsula. It's a National Historical
Park. Amazing site to see and you can ride them mule down. You
can fly in, and I just so I did. I flew what's called
top side, and then I walked down by myself. I went all the
way to the bottom, did the and then they flew me back to Oahu.
So I do highly recommend that one. That's a big one. Idaho,
the Land of Potato. Yeah, one thing a lot of people don't
see are craters of the moon. So it's in the eastern side. So
if you go over to the Grand Tetons of Wyoming and Yellowstone just on the
west side, go over to see craters of the moon. In fact,
the first atomic city is where that's locate. It's called Arco in Idaho.
And then you have the Bitterroot Range that goes all the way up and one
of the great places that were named after Lewis and Clark. As you probably
know the story coming by Cincinnati. Yep, there's Lewis coming by and he
meets up with Clark down there in the Louisville area. Well, by the
time they get all the way out there off the Clearwater River, they meet
the Snake River, and there's a great town called Lewiston, Idaho. On
the other side, it's called Clarkston, Washington, and it's the el c
Valley named after Lewis and Clark. And just to be able to see the
views from there really incredible. I'd say Lewis and Ida. See, that's
the thing that along with all these destinations and neat places that are sometimes off
the beaten path that people don't necessarily think of Flash. That's one of the
reasons we're doing the show. There is so much history embedded in all of
these trips that you have taken and you have seen. Yeah, And I'll
tell you what, I didn't pay attention in history a lot. And then
when I went out and I started doing radio and I saw these, I
said, I wish I paid attention more in school, because now I'm looking
it all up again, going, oh see, now it makes sense.
I've seen this history in person. Yeah. Absolutely. I grew up for
a few years in the state of Illinois. We lived there from sixty five
to seventy three, so I was a very young child and started elementary school
there. And one of the things they did in the state of Illinois back
then in public education was they taught a lot of Illinois history along with American
history. Is there any outside of Lincoln's tomb in Springfield? Is there any
great historical marker that you'd like to mention about the state of Illinois? Flash,
Yeah, Actually, this isn't going to be a historical marker that there's
Ronald Reagan was by the way, Ronald Reagan was the only US president that
was born in the state of Illinois. A lot of people think it's Lincoln,
but Lincoln was born in Kentucky, went to Indiana, then Illinois.
So here's where I always tell people to go. If you're on I seventy,
you're coming out of Tarahood, Indiana, and you're heading right down into
Saint Louis. You're on I said, hey, look for the town you're
going to see it. Say Casey. Now they pronounced it with a Z
sound on that s Casey, Casey, Illinois. They started putting up the
world's largest whatever that. Little by little they kept on adding to the world's
largest. So they started with the windshimes, then the sea saw, then
the bird cage one day after the golf club, the giant mouse trap.
You go into that downtown area of Casey, Illinois, and you will be
so entertained with the photo ops that you get right there. The world's largest
barber pole, it's just so much fun. The world's largest truck key.
Oh, it's hilarious. Just have a really good time. And you can
even go inside some of the places and they even have world's largest in there.
I've seen videos and I've seen news stories on Kazy, Illinois and the
world's biggest whatever. Nothing, I'm sure nothing like experiencing that in person.
And that is a doable road trip from here. Oh yeah, I'll tell
you. What's really doable is our next door neighbors. If you're in Ohio
or Kentucky of Indiana. Tell me about Indiana, Indiana. Well, I
was glad to be able to work there for five years and just so much
fun to be able to drive around the I'm trying to think of just one
place to be able to see when I'm like an Indianapolis place as well.
The Giant Dinosaur LTE. People miss this on the north side of downtown Indianapolis.
They're the Children's Museum. Have you ever seen the giant dinosaurs that are
standing up and they're looking in the windows and they're breaking out. Yes,
that's a great shot. There's also not too far away from there, there's
a crooked house. This is a house that goes up and it bends over
and the top of the house is back at the ground, so it makes
a U turn. I've never seen that. That's again. Look for the
U turn house that is right there in Indianapolis as well. That's a great
one. They now have these Indie signs that you can find. Oh,
I know what I like. Over there is the birthplace of right of Wilbur
right wilver Wright's birthplace, right off the I seventy. It's right not too
far away from Richmond, Indiana. And you head over there and do you
know there's an airport in the backyard of his birthplace. Now, no,
they put one in. Yeah, so there's an airplane there. You know
how Ohio is obviously for the aviation, but he was born, Yeah,
because when the Bazarble was born in Ohio, but Wilbur was born in Indiana.
And you go over there and it's so cool. They have an airport
right in back of his birthplace. So that's a fun place to see.
What about hi birth state? Speaking of birthplaces of Iowa, Oh, great
Iowa. There's ninety nine counties. I've been to eighty of them. There's
nineteen of them I haven't been in right now. But some of my favorite
places of the Hoover birth site, which is right there near Iowa City.
They now have all the Hawkeye statues right there around Iowa City, and great
places the bridges of Madison County. I remember seeing the movie with Clint Eastwood
MARYL. Street, and I said, I got to go see that,
So I went over. I made sure I knew which bridges were using in
the movie. There were only two of them that were used. And you
go over into winter set. Now the sad thing is back just a couple
of days ago, just west of Winterset, Iowa, where the bridges of
Madison County are. That's where they had that terrible tornado that just happened back
on Wednesday night when it happened. But that area right there, beautiful,
those bridges of Madison County. And go see John Wayne's birthplace. That's one
of my favorite Iowa places. Kansas staying in the Midwest, yeah, another
great one to be able to see. And my favorite thing is all the
way out in the west. It's called monument rocks. I have shown people
photos of me standing at monument rocks in Kansas and I say which state did
I take this in? And they'll all say Arizona, Utah, and they're
getting New Mexico. No, Kansas, And they look at it, they
say, Kansas. How red rocks. You got to look at the western
edge of Kansas. Out there, it's the Mountain time zone by the time
you get out there, right near the Colorado border, look up monument Rocks.
It's a dirt road, but it is so worth going. Dodge City,
Kansas one of the great places. One thing people miss is the ninety
eleven Memorial in Dodge City, Kansas. But it's all about gun smoke and
you can play poker with I think it's Bat Masterson in there as well,
and a James R. Nest statue was there. So Dodge City. By
the way, Dodge City is the windiest city in the United States. Amarillo,
Texas is second on the list. The windy city is not really Chicago,
that's true. I did not know that. It's the great American road
trip. Flash Phelps is our guest for the remainder of the hour here on
the Nightcap on seven under WLW. Okay, we're going to stay close to
home here looking for day trips in the Commonwealth, in the bluegrass of Kentucky.
Flag What do you got? Oh? Yeah, well, you know
what. I enjoyed the arc. I did go down to be able to
do that. Yeah, my wife wants to do that. Is it worth
the trip? It was? Yeah, there's three floors. I thought it
was some people will come back and they'll say, oh, it wasn't worth
it. But it's up to you, you know whether or not what you
like. I just liked the photo op, and the photo op was better
in the morning because the view is looking towards the west. So I just
thought that the photos were all very cool and I thought it was entertaining to
be able to see that I'm going around Lexington. A lot of people miss
the Secretariat Statue, which is on the west side is back in that.
You got to look it up. Secretariat Statue. These it's not in downtown.
But the one thing that is in downtown Lexington is you can run make
it look like you're in a horse race. And the best photo op is
to start running with it, and if you do it on video, you
can stop it and make it look like you're in front. But look forward.
In downtown Lexington, the horse race it's called the Thoroughbred Park, is
a fun one to be able to see right there. I really enjoyed.
I really enjoyed the National Corvette Museum in Bowling, ger Oh. I love
that. Yeah, Now did you go before or after the after floor?
After? You did go after, so you saw the hole yep. Yeah,
well there you go that they pretty much covered it up. Now they
pretty much come they let the they have a plexiglass over the little hole leading
down to as far down as it actually collapsed, the sinkhole. And uh,
they still have one car that they could not restore that they brought up
and it's there in the museum. So it's it's pretty neat, I tell
you what. Before our time is all up, let's let's skip ahead to
Ohio where we are located right now. And I know there are probably several
locations in Ohio you could recommend to people who are listening who might not want
to take a trip five hundred miles away, but just a day trip.
Yeah, definitely. Have you done put In Bay? I think Putting is
one of the Yeah, yeah, Kelly Kelly, Yeah, South Bass or
Middle Bass Island and Kelly Island and that whole, that whole area. I've
got some friends who are actually from Oak Harbor near Port Clinton, which is
just a hop, skipping a jump away from the ferry ride. And have
you since we're speaking of this, you've been to Port Clinton, Ohio obviously
to get on the boat to go to uh, put In Bay, okay,
yeah, oh yeah, a lot. Have you been to the Jolly
Roger for fresh fish out of Lake Erie. No, there's a lot of
things. I don't to around the food, the whole things. I like
that because I'll go out and I see the sites, I get the photos,
but I usually don't have as much time for the food. So that's
what I should do. Jolly Roger. The Jolly Roger, it's there in
Fort Clinton, and there's use. Typically there's a line out the door,
especially on a weekend night. But if you like fresh fish, it is
absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it. Oh cool, I just saw the
something in Ohio and I think it's still there. It's over at the Convention
Center at Columbus. So right there on the northwest side, number one,
there's Arnold Schwarzenegger's statue there. You know why he's there because he won mister
World in Columbus. Okay, so that's why the statue is there. Now
inside they have the world's largest I hope it's still there, world's largest selfie
machine. And you go in and you position your face right where it shows
you to do the outline. They take a picture of you. You go
back out and there's a giant head and they put your face on the giant
statue. If you've never done this thing, it's amazing. It's inside the
Columbus right there at the convention Center. If it's still there, it was,
it was great. Yeah, I think it's still there. Okay,
I've got one more recommendation for you. It's right off Highway State Route twenty
three in Ohio near Marion, and it's a town called Waldo. Where in
the world is Waldo? I know where Waldo is? Do you know where
Waldo? Waldo? Is it? You know what I was counting. I
think there are nine different places called Waldo in the country. And there's one
in Arkansas. I was talking about Glenn Campbell and there's one. I took
a photo with the where's Waldo there? I don't know if I've done the
Waldo one in Ohio yet. Well, the town, the town is called
Waldo. Yeah. And there's a place. There's a place me and my
wife love. It's the home of the world famous Boloney sandwich. And people
have come from all over the country to have the world famous Boloney sandwich in
Waldo, Ohio, which is basically a wide spot in the road at a
place called the GNR Tavern. So if you're ever in this neck of the
woods and it's got a huge sign on the side of the building, you
like photo ops, get the photo op on this side of the g n
R Tavern there in Waldo, Ohio, and then go in and get yourself
either a port tenderloin or a fried baloney sandwich. It's one of a kind.
It's wonderful. You got to do that. You know. I've been
to I've been to Center it what it called Center of the Universe, Ohio,
which is actually a place which is right there in near Youngstown. I've
never been. I've never been Center of the World. I used the Center
of the World, Center of the World, Center of the World, Ohio.
It's a real place, and it's right near where Neil Armstrong took his
first flight with his dad. It's right near that McDonald you can see,
and they made the entire Apollo eleven over there by it. But you'll go
through Center of the World one more flash before our time runs out. I
started my radio career and still kind of considered home, even though I've been
in Ohio or this area for thirty years. Now Tennessee. Tell me about
Tennessee. Oh, my gosh, Well, I spend so much time there.
In fact, I was just doing my show from Memphis, and a
lot of people don't know that. John Serny does some really incredibly murals all
the way around the country, and he did one of justin Timberlake. He
did in Aretha Franklin. He just did Tina Turner the Elvis Presley one.
So they're also in Memphis. There's a Johnny Cash Ring of Fire statue in
midtown right there in Memphis. That's a very cool thing to see. But
obviously everybody just knows Graceland, but a lot of people don't know Elvis Presley
had his first house that was on the east side of town, and so
that's a very cool thing to be able to see. Another one of my
favorite things, What was the one I wanted to go for for Halloween.
There's a Halloween city that I wanted to go into, and I got,
let me think of the name of that thing in Tennessee. Yeah, it's
a it's a hilarious name of a town. And I just said, I
got to go ahead and go up to this town. And I took a
photo with it. What the heck is the name of it? Hold on,
I have my Oh, no, you know what. Oh it's oh
gosh, scall Oh it's called Skullbone. Skallbone, Tennessee. Where is I
wanted to go? It is, uh, just near Paris if you know
where Parish, West Tennessee, Sure, West Tennessee. Yeah, and just
west of Paris, Tennessee. I went to Skullbone and they had a whole
reason of why they called it Skullbone. And by the way, just east
of there, they have a town called Christmasville. So I went to Skullbone
and Christmasville on the same little trip. That's great. That was a crazy
one. There's so many fun things to see her. I have one county
left in Tennessee I haven't been, and so I'm working it, trying to
go everywhere. What county have you not been in Tennessee? Oh, my
gosh, it's the very northeastern one that's right near the Cumberland Gap of It's
it's one of those I say it to people and they're like, oh,
and they go, what what county is that? And hold on, I
can actually tell you it's because you know where you've been to the Cumberland Gap.
Yeah, Okay, here it is, David. The county I need.
It's called Hancock County, Tennessee. It'll complete every county in Tennessee.
And the biggest city in Hancock County is called Sneadville, Sneadville, Tennessee.
I'm heading to Sneadville and I'm going to complete that whole state. Well,
I'm gonna put it on the map. Thank you so much. Flash,
what a great conversation, A neat hour on the nightcap on our Memorial Day
night special, the Great American Road Trip. I think there's none better.
We have one other person on the show tonight. It's been to all fifty
states, and maybe we'll we'll compare notes. But thank you so much,
my friend, and we'll listen for you on serious exam. Okay, well,
thank you so much for having me here on seven hundred WLW. It
just feels great saying that. Thank you, Garrey Jev. Listen, you've
been making house payments for years, right and right now your home's value has
never been higher. Right. That means you're likely sitting on a small fort
again. We are on the road again on the Great American Road Trip.
The Nightcap Special. I'm Gary Jeff Walker, and we continue our conversations with
people who've been down the road and back and down the road again. It's
the Travelog on the Nightcap and it continues now on seven hundred WLW as we
continue our little Travellog radio program on Memorial Day night. Joining us is another
guy who's been to all fifty states, and I wonder how common that is.
It seems like with today's air travel and everything else, that it's pretty
easy to, you know, fly in somewhere, But I don't think that's
the same at all as actually getting behind the wheel and driving yourself to these
destinations and locations. He's a guy that, through his brother Pete Whitty,
I just got to meet over the last couple of weeks. His name is
Rick Whitty, and he joins us on the Great American road Trip on the
Nightcap as people are getting ready for a summer vacation and hitting the road themselves.
So, Rick, how are you doing. I'm doing great. I
just finished my fifty estate two weeks ago. Where'd you go, Oregon?
What'd you think of Oregon? It's beautiful? It was. It was a
great one to leave populated by a lot of crazy idiots. But well,
you fly into Portland, then you get out of there. But the coast
is incredible breath. Yeah, and we found a couple neat little towns along
the way. We stayed in Florence, which is right on the coast as
actually a very conservative area of Oregon. But the whole cut of state of
Oregon is really pretty. I've heard, and I've never been, so I'm
gonna put it on the list. Absolutely. You just recently retired, so
you're you're looking for I mean, geez, I figured that you would get
to all fifty states after you retired, but you were in business, and
you traveled for business right quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, Now,
how many of those did you see driving? I drove in every one of
them, okay, but not not driven to get there, but driven through
or drive to or from the airport. But I've I've you know, and
I've never counted being in the airport as a stake. No, I don't
think you can have to. You have to set your feet on the ground.
You fly into Lax. You haven't been to Los Angeles or California even,
Yeah, you got to get out and see the so today the homelessness
and and the roller skating and Santa Monica and the rest of that stuff,
and I and I figured it out. I think there were of the fifty
states, eighteen of them I saw only because of business travel. Oh okay,
so you traveled a lot when you were what'd you do for a living?
I was in sales, so okay, mostly in the pet industry for
the past twenty years, the pet industry. Yes, yeah, yeah,
it's fun industry to be in. Well, yeah, absolutely. You get
to meet all kinds of neat people, yes, a lot of them on
four legs. Oh yeah, yeah, so you're usually the best. What
was the first state that you went to out of You live in Ohio,
right, right? Have you always lived in Ohio always? What was the
first time you traveled outside the state of Ohio? How young were you in?
Where was it? Well? If you not counting like Kentucky, Indiana,
you know, because those are easy living in Cincinnati, right, sure,
you're you're there. Michigan probably was the very first one. So what
are your recollections of Michigan? And obviously you've probably been back to you stayed
up north several times since that early visit, that's right. Any any favorite
places in the state of Michigan that you if you go all the way north
is my favorite area of that potent where Yeah, Pataski, that's right,
you go up there. It is it's it's beautiful. It's a lot of
fun neat little towns along Lake Michigan. You go up to Mackinaw Island,
which is a step back in time and that that was that area up there
is really wonderful. So they still not allow cars on Macinawe or correct,
that's perfect. In twenty twenty four, still no cars cars on Macinaw Island
and the Grand Hotels up there, which is a beautiful sea. It's wonderful.
Yeah. Uh So do you take family trips or do you do?
Okay, how many how many kids? You got three they're all adults,
obvious. Sure. Yeah. But we started probably with the kids we were.
We were one of those Cincinnati families went to Hilton Head all the time,
you know, and that was that was a big trip every year.
You know. Sometimes we went alone, sometimes we went with relatives, sometimes
with friends, but Hilton Had was the go to for for our family.
Now this is just me talking. It's just you and me. I'm not
going to tell anybody. Do you rather travel by yourself or with the whole
family? A little bit of both. I've always enjoyed the h in my
business travel, the anonymity. Yeah, it's it's well, you stop when
you want to stop, stop when you want to stop, You eat where
you want to eat. It's just it's easier. Right, you're alone,
you do it, you do, you go at your own pace. Do
you have a favorite trip that you've done solo? The one you can think
of solo and just it comes to mind? First? Yep? Alaska and
you did that by yourself. Yeah, man, it was a business trip,
no kidding. Where'd you go in Alaska? Anchorage and Fairbanks? Okay,
the two cities? Yes? Did you get out of the cities at
all? I didn't? And of the fifty states if you said, where
would you go? Like to go back and explore Alaska? For sure?
Number one? Sure? It is well, so much of it's untamed and
it's just yeah and unreachable. You can't drive, well, you can't drive
into Fairbanks. Yeah, No, you've got to fly into Fairbanks. Yeah,
but you can drive everywhere else. I talked to Flash Phelps earlier.
He's the other fifty stater on tonight's show, and he drove from Seattle through
British Columbia, the Yukon right into Alaska and he's done some of that exploring.
I'll have to hook you up with Flash so he can tell you some
things to see when you go back to Alaska. Yeah, and then you
know, you have all those little planes that take you and drop you off
at different places because most of the state you can't get to by car,
right right, Well, that kind of makes a road trip kind of difficult.
But so is there any place that you went, uh, not for
business, but just for fun, just for your own edification that you were
disappointed in? Hmm? I would I would probably say most of the state
of Florida, really, Yeah. I When you go down there, the
way they've developed the coastlines, it's it's just building after building, And yeah,
it doesn't to me, doesn't have much atmosphere to it. That being
said, there are a couple of neat towns we did visit. One is
done Eating. This little town is just west of Tampa, uh, just
north of Clearwalk. It is a cool little town, a great spot to
drive into spend a couple of days there, a lot of neat little restaurants
and pubs and breweries, very quaint, very neat place. And the other
one is Saint Augustine. Have you ever been to the Keys? Yes?
And what did you think about the Keys? Did you go to Key West?
We did? Yeah, what were your thoughts? It is a lot
of fun, a lot of debauchery, and after a couple of days,
I kind of equate it to Vegas. After a couple of days, you're
like, I gotta get out of here. Oh yeah, I can see,
but it is fun to see. But if you go up up the
road into like Marathon, Key totally different atmosphere, right, yeah, so
not as much nudity or chickens or six toed cats and everything else that you
associate with Key West. And the political climate changes too as you go up.
Really very very liberal in Key West, right yeah, yeah, but
Marathon total opposite. Huh Yeah. We're sitting in a pub and this guy
sat down next to us and we started chatting. He was retired and he
moved down there, sold his house, bought a boat, and he lives
on his boat. Because he said something's going to happen, and when it
does, I'm just going to get on that boat and go. My brother,
my youngest brother, lives just north of Jupiter, Florida, on the
Atlantic side with his wife and my wife and I Christ two point zero and
I went last Labor Day weekend, maybe going again this year to go visit
them. They sold their house last April and he achieved his lifelong dream of
living on a boat, owning a boat, fifty three footer and so we
spent three and a half days on a boat and it was great, slept
like a baby, wonderful stuff. Man. Yeah, And I think he
is of the same mind, you know, if it all comes down,
he's just shoving off right and heading out on a boat. The thing that
Florida. The thing about Florida is, especially if you're flying, I mean
you're driving in, you get the climate change as you're going through Georgia or
wherever, but you walk out of the West Palm Airport and that blast of
humidity just hits you smack in the face. You know, it almost slaps
you, all right. Do you like warm weather climbs when you travel?
Or you said you loved Upper State Michigan. Yeah, Yeah, you know,
if I had to choose, I'd probably go warmer. But one of
the neatest trips we did on a personal level was up the coast of Maine,
which is just a real treat. You know. Again, Latlow Coastal
Town's Portland, Maine is a wonderful place to visit. But you hit there's
Kent of Bunkport and Algunk Quit and you go all the way up to bar
Harbor see Acadia National Park up there, and to hide there is really special.
So that that is a great place to go. Obviously not a warm
weather spot. But when you take a road trip and there are opportunities and
it's amenable to do so, do you like to get out and do a
lot of hiking and stuff like that? We do. We've started to do
some hiking, but only you know, the day trip stuff. I'm not
taking camping gear and going into the woods and right and setting up. I
want to be in a hotel room in a bed at night. They're not
You're not ranger danger. Yeah. I'm I'm a glamor all the way too.
If I'm going to do something like that, yeah, yeah, give
me, give me two or three hours on the trails and then let's find
a brewery. What is the most spartan kind of place you've been to where
there weren't all those amenities, And yeah, I would. I would go
back to Northern Michig again. And when I started going up to northern Michigan,
once you got above about halfway through the state, it became forest.
Now it's all built up since, but you could go all the way up
and there's an area called Bert Lake and that was a throwback in time.
I was just across the across the bay from Mackinaw Island and that where there
was really nothing around, and so that was that was kind of a fun
place to see. But you didn't have a lot of options. Sure,
but it's great to get away, you know what. Once you get out
of cities and even even in the state of Ohio, and it's not like
there aren't McDonald's and little towns or anything like that, because the civilization has
crept in everywhere, sadly in some cases. But even getting out of any
large city, yeah, into the smaller towns, there's still that charm,
there's still that feeling of community without it being forced. I feel like a
lot of times people talk about community here and it's almost like a social engineering
force thing, you know. It's like, well, you know, our
community is like okay, So you're making people be a part of your community,
not that they want to. And when you get into those small areas,
it is really as fun and you get to meet some of the locals.
And if you spend a couple of days in a place like that,
as small as it is, and you really get a feel for it,
changes your whole attitude toward it. Yeah, it's fun. One of my
other favorite vacations that I've made with my wife was I went back to my
birth state, to the town where I was born. Never really lived there,
always had relatives there. It's a little rural town in southeast Iowa called
Mount Pleasant. It's in Henry County, Iowa, about thirty miles from Illinois,
thirty miles Missouri, YEP. Town of about nine times and people.
And yeah, they have a Walmart and they have all but it is so
small town. It is just what we were talking about, that feeling of
community that you don't get in any city. And it is the home of
the Old Threshers, the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion and festival every Labor Day weekend
and they've got all the steam tractors and threshers in this and it draws like
a quarter million people over that weekend to this little town of nine thousand,
and it is I highly recommend it. If you want to get away and
see small town America. Check out Mount Pleasant, Iowa, especially that time
of year. It's about fifty miles south of Iowa City, where the University
of Iowa is. But it's just it's phenomenal. But it is one of
those places like we're talking about. Florence, Oregon is kind of the same
way. Yeah, And it's a coastal town and you can tell there's a
lot of tourism there. But we were there off season, so we're,
you know, going to the coffee shop in the morning and all the locals
were there and they're all talking about the local news and what's going on,
and you know, then you talk to them about, Okay, what what
do I want to see while I'm here? What what do I not want
to miss? And those are those are fun places. Yeah, you go
to the local bar and you meet the people hanging out there and if you
feel if you feel comfortable enough where it's a comfortable situation. That's the thing
you do in a little place like that is you kind of quiz the people
there about what to see, and you know, uh, okay, everybody
knows about Applebee's, but not everybody knows about Miss Dodd's Bee House, you
know, on the edge of town or whatever it is. Yeah. Right,
Do you have a favorite in Tennessee because I lived for many years in
the state of Tennessee. Well, yeah, so I had two kids who
went to the University of Tennessee. Go Valls there, you go Big Orange.
So you've spent a a lot of time in Knoxville, which is really
a fun place and it's not one that a lot of people pick out,
like I'm going to go visit Knoxville, obviously, everyone's going to go Nashville,
yep, which is so that's where that's where I lived. Yeah,
and it's it's a totally different town than than when I left it thirty years
ago, obviously. Yeah. But Knoxville has has a really neat downtown area.
I'll walk you can walk from the University of downtown. They have an
old town square there and a bunch of different stuff to do. The River's
there, so it's it's I think Knoxville has a lot to offer. The
thing I was, the thing I was telling people about Tennessee and you would
agree with me you've done all this traveling, is that Tennessee's actually three different
states geographically. The West, you've got the it's kind of flat bluffs,
Middle Tennessee, Nashville in that area where I grew up and and where I
lived and started in radio, it's kind of rolling hills like Cincinnati almost,
yes. And then you get to East Tennessee and it's the mountains, it's
Smoky's it's the Appalachians. Yeah. So you know, you get a taste
of three to going from end to end, from west to east. It's
like a totally different state depending on where you're at. We're fortunate to have
friends that have a place in Norse Lake, Oh, which is you know,
there are so many beautiful things to see in this country that are only
a few of them are man made. Norse Lake is actually man made and
it is a wonderful place. Have you been to Lake Laurel in Kentucky.
It is also a man made lake and it is beautiful, pristine. We
took a summer trip there and rended a pontoon boat with a bunch of friends
to spend the day out on the lake. Again, you're a world traveler,
you've been to all fifty states, Rickquidty, I highly recommend Laurel River
Lake. Yeah, let's see. I tell you what. We need to
take a quick break and we'll come back and talk a little bit more.
Okay, great, because we got a lot of ground to cover. It's
the Great American road Trip. On the nightcap on Memorial Day Night, Gary
Jeff, our guest in this hour's Rick, as we continue on seven hundred
WLW. Get it great. It's just another time on the road on the
Great American road Trip, a night camp special on seven hundred WLW. Another
person with another travelogue as we continue our trip around the country on the air
on this Memorial Day night on seven hundred WLW. Again, our guest is
Rick Whitty, recently retired, just went to his fiftieth state, the state
of Oregon. So I'll ask him the question he was asking me just a
moment ago. Do you have any favorite big cities you like to go to?
Rick, Yeah, and I would say it's changed over time. Chicago,
was always a big favorite. You know, it was from Cincinnati,
was easy to get to four and a half five hour trip. But you
know, Chicago's changed a bit over the past five years, so not quite
the same as it was, but still it was a fun place to go.
I would say top of the list is Boston. Really Boston. There's
so many things to do and see in Boston from a historical standpoint or a
historical standpoint. Great food. Obviously, it's a walkable, very walkable city.
Once you get there, you can put the car away and get around
as easily as you can. Traffic is horrendous, but if you're walking,
it's it is a wonderful, wonderful visit. I'm going to get in trouble
for this, and I really don't care because this is how I feel.
And it is the capital of the state of Ohio. I feel like Columbus
is one of the most flavorless kind of I mean, there's good restaurants,
I guess, but I when I'm traveling on a road trip to some small
town in Ohio and I've got to go anywhere near Columbus, I avoid going
through Columbus. It's not just a traffic I just think it is the biggest
waste of prime farmland in the United States. Do you like Columbus, Well,
my wife is a buck guy, so I have to like it a
little bit. Sure. Well, see there's liking Columbus and there's being a
Buckeye. Yeah, it's two different things. Okay, Well, even the
Ohio state's right there in the heart of it all. I just I try
to avoid Columbus wherever possible. And I think there's every city has something right
and you have to find that something. Schmid's Sausage House, German village,
there you go. What are your thoughts on Saint Louis. It's kind of
a dirty city East Saint Louis specifically, but yeah, there's some charm in
places like Lacleed's Landing. Like I said, every city has some place.
Yes, down by the river. Lacleed's landing is kind of cool. Yeah,
near the Memorial Arch. Yeah. As a kid, we went up
in the arch. I thought it was cool, very very neat. Yeah,
and you know, Saint Louis is not really what you'd call a destination,
but there again, the arch. To go to a Cardinals game there
is really something because the fan atmosphere is so different. Oh, you talk
about Cincinnati being a baseball town, and we are, we are. We
do love our Reds no matter how they're playing at any given moment. But
Saint Louis, man, that's a serious baseball Oh yeah, yes it is.
Yeah, of course. You know if you were here back then joining
to at Badger Days, Jelly Jones came from East Saint Louis. Yeah,
remember he played Fred Badger. We used to live in Collinsville, Illinois,
which is just nine miles ten miles east of Saint Louis on the Illinois side.
And one night my dad, I remember, being real young, my
dad was looking for gas at midnight and he took a wrong turn and got
off an East Saint Louis. You want to talk about the look on that
man's face as he was just trying to make sure we could get home because
he was running on fumes. It's the Great American road Trip. Memorial Day
night on the Nightcap on seven hundred WLW, we're talking with Rick Whitty,
who's been to all fifty states. I'm gonna I'm just gonna mention a few
states and if you can think of something in particular, that's fine. If
not, we'll move on. We've got fifty of them after all. Okay,
and you've been to all and you said some were just driving through?
Was Arkansas? Drive through? No, Arkansas is a place I visited frequently
because I sold to Walmart. Yeah, you were in the pet food bull
Yeah. So I was in Bentonville pretty frequently. Which when you see Bentonville,
you see all this everything that's been built up as Walmart grew, and
it's it's not very attractive, but they have a little downtown that has developed
and it's bunch of shops and restaurants and a neat place to walk around.
But the neatest thing that I saw in Arkansas was the museum, the art
museum that one of the Walton family members built, which is you know,
it's out of the way, right, You're not typically driving through Arkansas to
get anywhere, but that museum that she built is amazing. Wisconsin, not
a lot of experience in Wisconsin other than some trips up to Appleton. Eau
Claire, Rhinelander is kind of a neat little town and I was there for
business reasons. But one of my favorite restaurants in the whole country the Rhineland
or pub and grill, and they do a pan fried walleye that will knock
your socks off. Ooh, that sounds great. I'm hungry now. You
want to talk about great restaurants that are specific to a certain area, not
change, although they I think they opened up a couple of different ones intonations
of Lambert's Cafeteria. Are you familiar with that name? I know the name.
I have knocked them. Do you know why Lambert's is famous? No?
They I think the original was in Cape Girardo, Missouri. They are
the home of the throwed rolls. You go to this restaurant and every fifteen
minutes somebody will emerge from the kitchen and say who wants a roll? And
you stick your hand up and they throw the rolls from the doorway to your
table. I mean, you better bring like your baseball glove or be sure
handed, or you're going to miss a hot, fresh roll. I've seen
them on the Food Network. Yeah, that's one of the places. I
highly recommend that if you're ever in that vicinity I think of Cape Girardo,
Missouri, you have to go to Lambert's Cafeteria and check that out. And
I told you that I lived in the Nashville area. Actually started my radio
career in the Nashville area back in the early eighties, and there was a
place in Sadly it's not there. You talked about how much Nashville has changed,
and then you kind of preferred Knoxville as far as cities in Tennessee.
Is there a place called Arnold's And no association with the Arnolds in Cincinnati or
the Arnold's Unhappy Days. But Arnold's was a classic what they call Meat and
three restaurant. Are you familiar with os? Yeah? I love a good
Meet and three. You got four or five different protein entrees on the line.
You got you know, seven or eight vegetables that you can choose from
fresh baked bread, usually some desserts, all for one price. You get
a meet you get three and Arnold's was the best. Remember we had a
little Meat in three down by Finley Market for a couple of years. Didn't
last Cincinnati Day. Yeah, I've always I always thought if I had enough
money and was stupid enough to start my own restaurant, it would be a
Meat in three. And just because it didn't work before, it doesn't mean
it won't work now. See my brother and Pete and I have talked about
this. For us, it would be hot dogs, because you can't find
a good hot dog in Cincinnati. You're right, those are tough. You
know. You can find Coney's out the Ying Yang, which doesn't sound good,
but you can find Coney's out the Ying Yang, But you can't find
a decent like old beef hot dog. There are very few places, it's
right, where you can get a good hot dog. Where's the best hot
dog you ever had? On the road? Hot dogs in Chicago, which
I don't think is there anymore. It's not. Yeah, it didn't make
it, but it was one of those places they did all those unique sausages
they have. You know, they'd have sausage made from boar and deer and
elk. Yeah, and there would be a line out the door all the
time. Yeah, he was doing a hot I saw him once on one
of the food shows, which is how I usually travel. Yeah, and
it was and he was bucking some ordnance they had in Chicago city limits where
they couldn't serve fog raw, and he had fog raw on this hot dog.
You want to talk about hoiity toyte best pizza out outside of Cincinnati.
You can't say any Cincinnati Nola Rosa's know, nothing like that. Give me
a best pizza on the road that you've ever had. Wow. Mine was
also in Chicago. Mine was in Phoenix, and I'm trying to think of
the name of it, but it was nearly downtown, kind of off the
beaten path behind the Convention Center. And I would say very similar to the
Corking Crust in Bellevue, which I think is a great local pizza shop,
but this was This was in Phoenix, and that was you could just eat
the crust. You didn't have put any toppings on that really really all right?
Let me give you another state here. You mentioned Ball, so we
covered Massachusetts County and that's that's a must see. Louisiana, Oh, New
Orleans, I think is the best food city in the country. Okay,
well what do you think of it? Otherwise, if you're in the right
spots, you're okay. I dated a girl from Lafayette, Louisiana, where
she was a suburb of Lafayette, and she was a self proclaimed what they
call kunas, which is kind of part Cajun, part Indian, part whatever.
And she called herself a counas and I went with her back home to
her place, her parents' place in karen Crow, Louisiana. And the thing
that struck me I did find something that I loved to this day, and
it's you can't get it unless you order it from there. Real stuff bu
dan, which is sausage. It's it's in a sausage casing, and it's
pork. It's kind of I get it, well, only there's rice with
it and spices. Boone is b o u d i n is is how
its spelled, pronounced bude and you can only get it in you know,
rural Louisiana, the real stuff. But I remember going into a market that
had meat and there was in the meat case there was dove breast that somebody
had just apparently shot and brought in and sold to the market to sell.
Unique food choices in Louisiana, for sure. They've also got mosquitoes with that
are so big they've got numbers on the side of them like airplanes. Well,
my son in law is Louisiana born and bred, so a couple of
weeks ago at our house, we had a crawl fish boiled. Oh.
I love a crawlfish boil gave me the mudbugs baby flew in ninety pounds of
live crawl fish and we had this boil on our back. Time that happens,
would you give me a call, We'll do that. You're on the
invite list. Good deal. Let's see. What do you think of Hawaii?
Hawaii? Yeah, fortunate that made a couple of trips or our honeymoon
was there, and then we took our kids when they were teenagers and just
it's it's paradise. It really is. Yeah, yeah, it really is.
It's it's as long as you're not affected or pay attention to the politics,
it's paradise. That's true of a lot of places. You're right,
you're right speaking of New York. Uh, the city is astounding. It'll
wear you out, but it's it's a it's a must see to me.
There's like New York, Las Vegas or something you have to experience at least
once you know. You may choose not that may not be your thing,
but to see it, the size of it is amazing, the number of
people, everything that that it offers is really but it will wear you out.
What about next door in jay Z, I like used to do a
lot of trade shows in Atlantic City. But then sometimes we then take a
couple of days and go south of there, like Ocean City, Jersey.
It's really really neat, and Central Jersey is actually quite beautiful. Well they
call it the Garden States. Yeah, that stills on the license plate.
Yeah. Virginia very little time. Most of my time there was as I
was visiting d C. And then I'd go into Virginia. But Arlington,
As is obviously very special to see. Yeh. Texas, Oh my god,
I wish I wish you could see the look on his face, but
you can't see on the radio when I said Texas, and he just grimaced
and shook his head, and oh what's terrible about Texas? I well,
I haven't been to Austin. I've been to San Antonio, in Houston and
Dallas, and I can't think of a reason to go back. Really,
Yeah, I'm not Yeah, I couldn't find any space that was beautiful.
And like I said, I haven't been to Austin, which I hear is
a wonderful place to visit, but I've been to the other three biggest.
What I hear about Austin is the same way you describe New Orleans or Las
Vegas. You want to visit, you do not want to live there.
You want to talk about some crazy mofos. Austin, Texas. Is that,
uh West Virginia our neighbor. Oh, there's some beautiful business in there.
There's really is. It's it's that's a different area people wise. It's
it's an interesting crowd. Okay, well believe it there. Uh South Carolina.
I lived in South Carolina when I was young. You know one of
my favorites. You know that that Southern hospitality is a true thing and not
no more than in South Carolina. I love Charleston. Charleston, absolutely love
Charleston. Yeah, you know sometimes going to Hilton had we would instead of
taking the director out go over to Charleston first and then go down along the
coast. And Charleston's uh true old charm Minnace Noda. Right time of year,
it could be a lot of fun. Minneapolis, Actually downtown Minneapolis.
Again, there's so many the big cities have changed so much, but downtown
Minneapolis used to be a really great visit and they had a true skywalk.
You could walk all over downtown Minneapolis without going outside and so it was.
It was really neat, and the river's there in the in the spring and
summer, there's a lot of activities that go on, but man, once
that winter hits, it's brutal. I was a big fan of the series
Yellowstone, Uh, Montana recall any of that kind of thing, Yeah,
watching Yellowstone. Well, I didn't watch Yellowstone, but I did spend some
time in Bozeman, and just it's specac It's everything that you see on TV
is and and now the lifestyle there is different, you know, it's just
slower. They're they're very comfortable with where they are. They don't want people
invading their space. Just a good luck with that. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, interesting. I was at UH. I like, I like hitting
some breweries when I'm on the road. When the craft brewery things started,
the pubs in Montana didn't particularly like that idea. So if you go to
a brewery, you get a card when you buy your first beer, and
there's three to a card and that's all you're allowed to have, and once
your card's finished, then you're done. Really yeah, so they cut you
off pretty quick in Montana's right in a brewery, Listen, I hate to
cut us off because this has been great. It's been better than I thought
it would be. And we never met before, No, we haven't.
And just talking to you about your travels is all fifty states, all fifty
and maybe another time we'll get to the rest of them. Rick Whitty,
thank you so much for your time. Thanksgary. On the Memorial Day night,
It's the Night Camp, the Great American Road Trip rolls on with a
few more stories about our travels on this holiday is Summer kicks off on seven
hundred WLW. In this edition of the Marketers Report, Angela Sapada, chief
marketing Officer of Hyundai Motor America, discusses measure It's our road trip. Party
on the Night Camp, The Great American Road Trip continues with more stories of
famous travels and maybe not so famous travels and maybe some infamous travels. Gerry
Jim Walker with you on this Memorial Day night on seven hundred WLW. And
our next tripper is our own Scott Sloan nine am to noon here on seven
hundred WLW. Winnie's not on the road or doing something else, Yeah,
yeah, and I ask you here's Scott, because tonight we're doing the Great
American road trip on the Nightcap on Memorial Day night. As summer hits and
people are hitting the road no matter what the gas prices are, they still
go out. During COVID, my wife and I called it asphalt therapy because
when everything was a look at downas drive, when everything was closed down,
we just got I said let's go and we'd find someplace that was open out
in the hallers and it was some of the best time that we spent during
that particular time in this country was being out on the road and just exploring.
I will say, no, there's no good road trip with kids.
A road trips comment by yourself or the significant other or someone you want to
be significant or buddies or brothers or sisters, whatever. When there's kids involved,
that is that's chaos, is what that is. That is not a
road trip. Can you have a good road trip? Can you have a
road trip with kids? I say no, my parents usually vacation is different
than a road trop Yeah, my parents used to take us on road trips,
but they were also business trips because my dad was a traveling salesman.
Sure we'd be going, well, we're gonna go to grandma's kids, getting
the station wagon and we'd get in the station wagon and all the way up
he'd be making stops calling on businesses. God, yeah, yeah, all
the way to Iowa. Last family trip, I think we went to Destin
and it was miserable that the whole trip there is just no one wanted to
go because of that and that age where they're just ungrateful little a holes and
all kids are like that. I don't care how good your kid is.
My kids and honors do and your kids an ale at a certain age.
And I had two of them, and like that's it as the last family
vacation. We're done. Now. Now it's road trips. If you're taking
a road trip and meeting the family somewhere or the kids maybe different thing.
Yeah, yeah, kids are older, maybe they live in a different city,
whatever it is. That's fine because I had a great road trip by
myself. Again, the trip was by myself. Yeah, from here to
Gallinburg to meet my parents and my brothers at a chilet that they'd rented at
the top of Wiley Oakley Mountain Road. They're overlooking the Smoky Mountain National Force.
That was a fantastic trip. But I drove there and I drove back
by myself. Yeah, and there is something to be said for that,
even without aussolutely. You know, it's great. You get on a maybe
a ride. Maybe you got a motorcycle, right, get on your motorcycle,
you drive out, you stop, but you know, get the dust
out of your throat, have some lunch or maybe a glass of whatever,
probably a pop these days. And you do that, you meet someone it's
like, what are you doing. I'm just roads, I'm just driving my
thing. She gets on the back of here your motorcycle. You drive next
thing. You know, it's Bob Seeger song. Well, I got a
full cooler with ice down. I just keep a blanket over it in case
I gain stuff. You never know, I never know. So do you
have a memorable road trip you wanted to recount? I never leave. I
just I don't do anything but work, so I don't. But no,
i'd have to go back in time. And this is I was living in
Milwaukee at the time, and this is a long time ago. And it
was great because it was just me. I think Michelle was still working somewhere
and I had had to drive down to Tennessee and I went by myself.
It was absolutely fantastic. Was like I could, I could drive as long
there as little as I wanted to. I really is on no timeline.
I remember stopping a couple of places, meeting some interesting people, then decide,
okay, alban to stay there like at a hotel that night. And
it was it was probably four or five days, and it was just it
was absolutely magnificent because you almost felt like you were tired, like I didn't
really have any responsibilities that all week could kill Sure. Did you go all
interstate or did you get off on the side right? I saw some side
roads too. I love that too the best. This is a family trip
of all things, going to the outer Banks. We got off the highway
in Virginia somewhere and just took like a state route. It was great because
I never had had like fresh peanuts before, because you get peanuts. I'm
telling you, if you haven't gotten fresh peanuts in Virginia at a roadside stand,
you are missing out on an essential thing. Totally different life, totally
different than that canister of planets. Right, it's like, oh my god,
these are amazing. We bought like three hundred dollars of the peanuts that
day because it was a good but you know what I mean, as you
see those roadside stops and you stop and it's just and there's something to be
said about the you know, if you're older, older that you know,
like around sixty six and making those drives, and you know, you lose
a lot with the interstate highway system. They're faster, but you kind of
miss the vibrancy of what makes America and communities and neighborhoods unique. Now we
do that. I think that one of my favorite road trips with my wife
was not too long after we'd gotten back together, and we were going to
go see my parents who live outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and we decided
that we were going to totally avoid the interstates all together. No sixty five,
no, not even the Bluegrass Parkway. We got off, went down
twenty seven from from Kentucky, went down twenty seven, and we stayed off
the interstate the entire time. And the one of the best parts of the
trip literally was where I took a wrong turn in some little berg and was
totally and the highway that I thought I was supposed to be on turns into
a one lane road and then it's a gravel road and I haven't turned off
of it. And we get to this place where there's a trailer up on
the left hand side and a guy sitting out in a lawn chair on his
porch of the trailer, and a dog was barking vociferously at us as I
first bark there as I as I get out of the car, and kind
of I'm at the edge of the driveway and christ is going to be careful,
God, they might shoot you out here. We don't know anybody they
do. Now we're just getting making a wrong turn somewhere. So his wife
just as I get out of the car and the dog is barking. The
guy sitting there and he looks like a friendly guy. The wife comes out
of the car and it's like, how is it. She was like she
was the one that I was worried about. It's like, Hey, no
big deal. And he just looked at her and waved his hand like get
back in the house. I got this right, and he came down the
driveway, was a really amiable guy and gave us instructions on how to to
get back back to where you are. Right. So that's a neat road
trip, but so for you. It was Milwaukee to Tennessee. Yeah,
to Tennessee, And I have no idea why I was going there, but
I can't. I can't remember it. I just remember it being so yeah.
I just remember it being very like, wow, I had to do
this more. And of course, you know, that was thirty years ago
and haven't done it since. I would love. I think that's a cool
thing to do, is just go, you know what, I'm gonna go
on vacation. I had no gol, I'm gonna play I don't know,
spin the bottle and whatever direction of point that's the way I'm heading. Wouldn't
be cool and just drive back roads, get out of an old school map
and just put on whatever and something along those lines. But although I will
say one of the last road trips I took this was last year. My
brothers and I went up to see because I grew up in Western New York,
went to see a Bills game. And we're driving up and like,
okay, okay. My brother, my middle brother, his wife just got
a new SUV and kind of luxury. One was like, okay, this
is great, A little used to whatever began, And so we're driving up.
I thinks fine, we're driving back, well, just come back Sunday
night. I got to work the next day. Whatever fatal mistake. So
we're driving back and it's on the P I think, right where the PA
line is and PA that stretch is the worst highway in America. It's alway
under construction, and we know it. There's like some debris on the road
to crap all over, like, okay, I don't know what. Something
happened. All of a sudden boom, we hit a It was like a
hunk of boar. Somebody was doing demolition work, look like drywall or something,
and they kept losing it all over the road and it got caught in
the undercarriage and jammed. I don't even know what the part is, and
I'm fairly mechanical, so I should know this. But the way it caught
and caught in the breaking system in the line is like we needed a part
and a tire. And it's it's now seven thirty eight o'clock on a Sunday
night in rural Pennsylvania. I think I got called into work for you.
Did you a's a no go? So we're looking I'm looking at going.
This isn't good right now? And so well, there's a dealership, but
it'd have to go to outside of Cleveland, which is about forty five minutes
away, and there's nothing we can do right now. So we had to
stay in this crappy one room hotel that I think I still have bed butt
bites, and we got a six pack of beer and passed out trying to
fight over a double bed and there's three of us, and it was just
it was absurdity after absurdly. Like then I had to call Scott Ryan Hard
and go, dude, I me and He's like, oh, yeah,
okay, you tear your car blew out. And then I got back and
I was like, why do you just say? Why didn't you just take
the day off? Why do you have to lie? I'm like, I'm
showing you the invoice because now my brother's wife is pissed because it's her new
truck and it needs two thousand dollars or the work on it because some clown
and then the troopers actually got the guy because I guess there are like five
cars that got blown up too, because these guys were not paying any attention.
It's great, sane, it's great to have a destination that you want
to go to, but it truly is about the journey. Yes, and
a great story all great road trips, right, you got a great story
out of it. Yeah, and I got an extra day of work pay.
It's all good. H Scott Slan. Thank you very much for being
on the road with us tonight. Happy Memorial Day. We'll we'll see you
around the house. Cheer's buddy or on the road. Seven hundred w l
w our next stop. Who knows? One eat seven seven Cars for Kids
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M series utility tractors. Our Versati utility tractors are tract Sagon the Great American
Road Trip on Memorial Day night, as we continue to look for America and
get ready to either thumb it or wheel it around the greatest country on the
face of the Earth. Carry Jeff Walker with you on this special Nightcap edition,
and we continue with another travelogue story on seven hundred WLW. We continue
our discussion on this special Nightcap the Great American road Trip with my friend Rick
Pasqually. Now you may not know Rick Pisqually, but you may think that
you've had pizza from his shop before, and you would be wrong because this
Pisqually has nothing to do with Pisqually's pizza. But they are friends of mine,
the Pisqually brothers. They're twins Rick and Ron and their younger brother Paul
Pisqually, who often and did again this year, go on their Great American
road trip to the state of Florida like many of us do. But Rick
has a different kind of road trip story that changed his life and he commemorates
it every year. And here to tell us more about that is the one
the only Rick Bisqually. How you doing, Rick, Good, Jeff Gary,
Jeff Good Good. Okay, So tell me about this infamous Florida road
trip. You and your brothers go on a golfing trip every year. And
I don't know how much golfing you do, how much beer drinking you do,
or how much fishing you do. But you go on this golf trip
every year. Where is it in Florida that you go? Rick, We
go to the villages if anybody's ever heard of that, that's where seeing that's
where senior citizens go to catch venereal diseases. I believe, got it.
Yeah, they're right on the money when whatever you hear about it, it's
true. No, it's a pretty wild place. And and but you have
a place specifically, you've got people's houses that you go there, right on
the water and near golf courses in the likes. So you're on this trip,
Mark eleventh, twenty eleven. And what happened. What happened on the
trip? Well, I was with another uh my my son was playing baseball
for a local college and uh they always go to to Florida in the spring
to play their first week of baseball. Okay, and uh, you know,
and one of my best friends from where I worked retired and in him
and his wife she had some health issues, so they went to Florida and
uh bought a place in the villages. So I would always stop and see
him and then go on to uh Port Charlotte or something, you know,
someplace down in Florida where they were playing baseball. But anyway, uh,
you know, we me and another baseball dad, we stopped and we see
my buddy and uh his name was Touts. What a name. But anyway,
uh you know, Uh, We're riding around on a golf coury.
It's a four seater. I'm sitting on the back. It's about five thirty,
like a Wednesday afternoon, and uh, I'm not paying any attention.
And these golf carts, if you've ever been to the village, as they
go ridiculous fast. Uh right, like twenty twenty two miles an hour,
which is fast than a golf car. I'm sitting on the back and they
made a couple of turns. I wasn't paying attention and I slid off the
side of the golf cart and hit my head on the curb. O got
got Uh it was it was bad, you know. So uh the air
carried me to Orlando Regional Medical Center and uh I was there for a couple
of months. I was in a coma for thirty eight days. Wow and
and and yeah, and uh, well I missed everything. Everybody was saying.
I was catching up on my sleep because I wasn't much of a sleeper.
But anyway, Uh, my brother, I have a twin brother,
Ron, and uh he was down there and my wife Lori. They were
down there the entire time I was in the hospital. Anyway, some of
the nurses, I, my my wife and brother got to know. I
didn't know anybody because I was sleeping. You were in a coma. I
was in a coma. And and eventually when I came out of it,
you know, I found out how much everybody was doing for me. I
didn't know what was going on, but behind the scenes, my brother and
my wife told me about, you know, some of the people that were
taking care of me. So every year after my one year anniversary, I
came home to Cincinnati. I was in and then they put me in Drake
Hospital. I flew on a med jet put me uh in Drake Hospital.
And that's where I learned how to do everything all over again. I had
to learn how to walk, I had to learn how to you know,
brush my teeth. I mean I had to you know, everything all over
again. You had to regain all your motor skills. Yep, didn't have
any motor skills. So uh, eventually it came back and and uh,
you know, so I I told my brother, I said, I'd like
to go to Florida and see the people that took care of me and were
instrumental in saving my life because I was on life support for two and a
half weeks. And wow, you know there was there was a lot of
a lot of problems and uh eventually came back around. But uh one of
the nurses was named Alan Tucco and uh Lisa Frey and and uh anyway,
we keep in touch. Alan and my brother and I started playing golf one
year anniversary. I went down there on my one year anniversary. Uh and
and uh he couldn't believe it, you know, because he as a as
a nurse. He would you know, uh he would say, well,
gee whiz. Uh you know, he was kind of looked at me like
I was casper to ghost. He didn't. He was like a shocked that
I was walking and talking and could play golf, and uh, you know,
everything was coming back. And uh, you know, so Alan and
I we keep in touch and and uh but every year, every year,
you guys make this road trip back in the year and you again touch bases
with this nurse who helped you and you didn't even know what was going on
and helped bring you back to life. Literally. So a road trip where
something horrible happens turns into another lifelong friendship for you. And that's the kind
of thing that I'm trying to get at tonight is that certain road trips can
be really truly life changing. And this one was for you and it continues
to this day, which I think is so cool. Yeah, we keep
h you know, we've been to each other. He's been a lot.
I've gone to his house. My brother and I have gone to his house.
We've eaten Midus house, We've met his son. He's he knows my
family. You know. It's uh and we do uh you know, like
the PGA last week. Yeah, we Uh there's like a group of us
guys and he's in on it. Uh. We picked four golfers and we
see you know, we keep track of uh. We text each other who's
got the lead, and so you know, he's uh, he's part of
our life. Well you know what's part of my life. I want to
say as we end uh the day trip, that I like to make road
trip on this Memorial Day weekend and hopefully for the fourth of July. We'll
see what happens. Is going to Rick and Ron's trailer river Camp in Patriot,
Indiana, because the last last year or the year before, I got
to ride in the Fourth of July Parade in a golf cart and I stayed
in the golf cart oddly enough and didn't slide off. So I'm looking forward
to that soon. Man. Listen, thanks for spending a few minutes with
us tonight. It is a good time and I'm glad Jeff, I'm glad
you recovered. Jez Well, thank you, and uh, you know,
you know, it's one of those things just uh, it's an amazing thing.
Hey, you know what everybody did eat, you know, behind the
scenes for me and the family. Uh is uh life changing, no doubt.
Never forget about it. Rick Bisqually on The Great American Road Trip Show.
It continues on seven hundred w L that's right, living in America on
a Memorial Day night, Harry Jeff Walker on the nightcap The Great American Road
Trips Show more tales of your travels on seven hundred WLW. As we continue
tripping on this Memorial Day night, The Great American Road Trip continues, and
first off, some personal road trips, and number one on the list is
a road trip I will never forget that I took with my three brothers.
I'm the oldest, and I have the youngest on the phone, who was
somehow called door key at some point because I guess he had the door key
of the car. I'm not sure why that came about. But my brother,
my baby brother, Chuck, is on the line tonight here on seven
hundred WLW and sounds like you're on a road trip yourself right now. Yeah,
I'm just heading down to Stupor from Paul City, so it's not too
far. Yes, this is my brother who decided to with his wife sell
their house and live on a boat, and they are doing that. And
so you know what, God, that sounds like a great trip every day
if you got a lot of money to spend. So anyway, Chuck,
let's let's go back. And I believe this was this had to be in
nineteen eighty seven or so when the three all four of us. Was it
eighty six? Yeah, I'm pretty sure with eighty six because I just got
my driver's flights. All right. So I'm in my mid twenties. I'm
twenty six Chuck has just turned sixteen, and the other two are in the
middle. And we went from our home in Middle Tennessee all the way up
to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. And it turned out it was a very poignant
trip, as it turned out, because it was the last time we would
see our grandma and grandpa alive. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson alive in Mount Pleasant.
And so let's talk a little bit about the trip. We definitely had
a mission mentality, Uh, drive a NonStop. What do you remember about
that particular road trip, my brother, Well, I remember it was one
of the first times I actually drove on the interstate and uh, you know,
of course, everybody we just kind of rotated that like you said that
way. The only time we stopped was for das we grab a bike at
the gas station or whatever or p Yeah, right, but yeah, there
was quite a bit of camaraderie going on, uh back and forth with each
other. And that's where the door key came into play. We decided to
one person was going to hold it a spare ignition and we're looking out here
called the spare door key, and I happened to be Dorgy, So you
were door key from that point forward on this and it was like a geez,
it was like what a seven or not? It was almost a nine
hour road trip, wasn't it? Or ten? They was like almost twelve.
Yeah, because we went from the Nashville area all the way up to
southeast Iowa to see Grandma and Grandpa. And again I remember meeting them at
at we took them back out to their house. They were both in assisted
facilities at that time. We went and picked them up and took them around
the yard. And the trip back, I mean, the whole trip to
me is something that I will never forget because it's one of the few times
that I remember where all four of us participated in something and got along right.
Yeah, there were some fights. That was one fights for sure.
I remember us stopping in Saint Louis on our way back, and we decided
to go to Jake's Steaks there on the waterfront. Man, in the fact
when you could actually walk around downtown, you when you could actually still walk
around downtown Saint Louis. Absolutely, but they had that ninety six ounce play
and John before and it was rapped with like three pounds of bacon. Well,
you remember more than I do. You don't remember the steak. I
kind of now that you bring it up. I do remember the steak.
I was probably about two or three Jack daniels in at that point. Yeah,
but when it cooked it perfect, I couldn't believe it. Biggest steak
out of a I've ever seen in my life. Well, yeah, how
do you have a ninety six ounce full A for God's sake? Uh?
Brother? Brother, thanks for the memories and continue your own personal road trip
and hope you have a good Memorial Day, sir. All right, yeah
you too, Love you too. It's my brother Chuck from from South Florida.
He lives there with his wife Kelly in Jupiter. It was just just
north of Jupiter, Florida, on their fifty three foot boat that they sold
everything and bought, which is another trip. It wasn't a road trip,
it was a fly trip that Krista and I talking. By the way,
I mentioned Krista two point zho. She is here in the studio tonight to
relate a couple of her road trips. In fact, in the about three
or four minutes we've got in this segment, Krista, how are you?
I'm sorry? What was that I said? I'm good. How are you
dummy? Hit the right button, Mike, I'm fantastic. So let's talk
about real quickly summarize the super Bowl road trip that you took alone. Oh.
I had to drive back from Tampa, Florida on Super Bowl Sunday,
right, and had to go through Atlanta. Nobody likes to go through Atlanta.
No, I mean whether even at the airport. Nobody likes to go
through Atlanta, which we've done. Yeah, but nobody wants to drive through
Atlanta anytime. So you decided that you were stopping for the night. You
weren't going any farther. No, you got out of Atlanta right, just
a little north of Atlanta. Yes, I can't remember the name of the
town. But and I got a hotel room and got to see the Super
Bowl and on the TV at the hotel room. Yeah. I'm sitting there
at home going, well, where is she? Oh? Oh that's right.
We talked and you said you weren't going to make it through and I
understood it was a long, long trip, right, And I didn't realize
how far I had driven in one setting, but it was like a twelve
hour drive. Yeah. So you're in Atlanta and you just wound up.
You had to go outside your hotel room to smoke. Yeah, so you
met some people who are also outside, and you want up having actually a
good time. Right. We kind of ended up having a little party super
Bowl party in then out watching the game outside smoking, drinking our beers,
and it was a fun. You probably had more fun than I did because
I didn't go anywhere. I just stayed at home and watched the game.
That's okay, more of our Great American road trips as we continue in just
a minute. Christa has another story she would like to relate, and well,
we've got one together. Specifically, that was right after we got back
together on the way to the parents' house from here down to Middle Tennessee.
That we'll explore as we hit the next As we hit the next exit,
it's the Great American road Trip on Memorial Day night, Gary J. Christ
to two point zero in this half hour and more ahead on seven hundred WLW.
Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal Podcast to hear a shocking story
of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning and now we're sharing an all new story of
betrayal. Wherever home is, are you getting away? From Home. The
Great American Road Trip Night Camp Special continues on this Memorial Day night on seven
hundred WLW as summer dawns and we're all hitting the road at one time or
another, or most of us are Americans by the millions, get out on
the highway asphalt therapy is what I call it, to see the sites and
just enjoy the journey. And we're recounting some of our favorite road trips.
Gary Jeff Walker with Christa two point oh, my lovely wife in here for
this half hour. And first I will tell you about a road trip that
happened PK prior to Christa or BK before Christa. I was we're going to
the mid eighties range again about nineteen eighty eight or so. I was married
to someone else. I'm sorry, dear, I forgive you, thank you.
And so anyway, my wife at the time had booked a cruise that
was leaving out of Miami going to Caribbean. I could not, because of
work reasons, join her. So she had a friend of hers, a
girlfriend of hers, join her on this cruise and the deal was then I
would drive down when the cruise was over, like six days. It was
like a six to seven day cruise and I would drive down from Nashville to
Miami, which is not a short road trip whatsoever, and pick them both
up, and then we would drive back through the Strait of Florida for the
second week or my week of the vacation and come back home and just kind
of drive back and stop along the way and stay a couple of places.
I think we stayed in DestinE or something on the way back. Very nice,
very nice road trip. But what I will always remember about that particular
road trip, and this is the thing that Scott Sloane and I were talking
about earlier, when you take a road trip by yourself, and Krista was
just talking about a road trip back from Atlanta and she wound up not having
a bad time at all. When you take a road trip by yourself,
there is nobody else to account for. You can stop whenever you want to
for whatever reason you want to, and nobody's there to complain or to object
or there's no debate, and they're just there's a sense of freedom there that's
unique when you're out on the road by your Some people think it's scary some
people, but for me, at that point in my life. It was
a nice release, a nice way to start my vacation driving from Nashville to
Miami, and I had a place a stop in Jacksonville, Florida. So
I made it as far as Jacksonville, which of course in the northern top
of the state. It's still pretty good haul from Nashville to Jacksonville, and
again the driving through Atlanta part. But I had somewhere to stay, someone
I knew lived there. But the first thing I did when I got to
Jacksonville was head for the beach. Now, for those of you who are
not familiar with Jacksonville in area, it's one of the largest cities in America,
not population, but in the area it encompasses. I mean, they're
like, I don't know, fourteen to fifteen bridges that crossed the river in
Jacksonville to Jacksonville Beach. And I found one of those bridges. And the
first thing I wanted to do. It was about sunset, so at this
particular time, it's about seven thirty or so in the evening, and the
first thing I did was drive directly to the beach. I got out of
the car, took my shoes off, walked through the sand to the ocean
as the sun is going down, the moon is coming up. Dipped my
toes in the water, and lo and behold, just above me was a
dock pier restaurant that went out on a pier right into the ocean, and
I saw the neon lights and going, what is that? Oh, that's
a place to get a drink. And I had drink set sunset in this
dock pier by myself and met some people and had a great time and consumed
about a dozen oysters on the halfshell. Delicious, by the way, and
then continued my trip the next morning. But when I got to Miami,
it was about four o'clock in the morning. Got to Miami about four o'clock
in the morning. Now Miami's a major city, but still there's not a
lot of activity at four o'clock in the morning in downtown Miami. Because I
didn't quite know where the Port of Miami was. I pull into a seven
to eleven. It's the only thing open downtown Miami at four o'clock in the
morning, and I'm trying to get directions and there's no one there who speaks
English. The guy at the counter have no idea what his nationality was.
But he wasn't speaking my language. Nobody in the store. There are three
or four other people, none of them English speakers, and of course I'm
not multi lingual, so I'm trying to and you know, when you don't,
there's a language barrier, and you think that if you just say it's
slower and louder, they'll somehow understand what you're saying. That didn't work either,
And then a Haitian cab driver comes in who actually spoke some broken English
and got me. But I'm going port of Miami big boats with my arms
outstretched like they would understand that they didn't. Now, Christopher, this last
road trip story, this was when we first was the first summer we got
together. We were back together, first summer. Yes, wanted to go
see my mom and dad in the Nashville area, and I decided I had
the brilliant idea that we weren't going to take the interstate. There'll be no
Geen Snyder Parkway, There'll be no I sixty five, no I seventy one.
It was a great idea, it really really was. It was a
lot of fun. This was we packed the cooler, we head out on
the road, leaving Southgate, Kentucky down twenty seven. Yeah, and at
some point in the middle of the wilds of Kentucky. And it was beautiful
too. I remember, oh, yes, going on these side roads through
all these beautiful streams and mountains and hollers and stuff. And the leaves are
in full greenery. It's just wonderful flowers. Everything beautiful. I took a
wrong turn at some little podunk town in central Kentucky and we got lost.
Why did the uh the two lane road eventually turned into a one lane road
gravel, gravel, that's right, not paved. And finally just did this
is you know, didn't have GPS or anything. Nope, did not.
We actually had maps. How long ago this was? This is how old
we are. Uh So, anyway, there's a house trailer whatever on the
side that we can see from this gravel road through the trees, and there's
a guy sitting outside in his lawn chair and his dog is out there.
I said, well, let me just ask him. She said, be
careful, don't get shot. Hey, they carry shot guns. Yeah,
especially if you're out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, you know,
justice is just us. So anyway, I pull up the driveway and the
dog is just going ballistic and the guy gets up and I'm kind of waving.
He kind of waves back. But then his wife came to the door
with the dog barking, and she stood there with hands on hips, just
glaring at screaming, who is it? Yes, And I thought, the
man's not going to shoot me, the dog's not going to attack me,
but the wife is going to kill us both. And oh the dog was
sweet. But anyway, he was nice, and he gave us directions and
we got back on a on a road where there was civilization. But the
four hour trip took us a total of how long eight and a half about
eight and a half hours. It's usually a four hour journey to Hendersonville,
Tennessee from here, but it was an eight and it was an all day
road trip, and it was fantastic. Again, one of those road trips
that will live in my memory as long as I live. I'd love to
do it again. And I think maybe we are due. We're more than
due. Yes, it's been about ten years. So I hope you have
had a fantastic holiday with family and friends. I hope you have taken time
to remember those who have given all in service to our country. That's what
this particular American holiday is all about. Truly. It also marks the start
of summer and summer travel season, and road trips abound everywhere. There is
so much to explore and so much to do, and if you get a
chance, get off the interstate, close down that mission mentality and just take
your time enjoy the journey. With that, we leave you with our star
spangled banner to honor America and all of the highways and byways and little one
lane gravel roads in the middle of Podunk, Kentucky. Here it is our
national anthem. As we close on seven hundred WLW