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OPE S2 Episode 57 Top 5 Bucket List Places with Yooper_IA
31 Plays5 months ago
Aloha and welcome to another episode of Ohana Packers Edition! This week Mike is down with the sickness so Iowa Joe brings in a guest host. That host is Yoop Jon from the Motor City Metrics Podcast! Iowa Joe and Yoop talk about the topic that was picked by the listeners, the top 5 bucket list places we would love to visit!
Make sure to find us wherever you get your favorite Pods, Subscribe and Drop us a Like! Also, be sure to check out our merch shop and our articles over at ohanapackers.org!
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Transcript
Introduction and Co-host Change
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of the Ohana Packers edition podcast. I am Iowa Joe and there's no Mike. Mike's kids got him the greatest present in the world and that's to get him sick for Father's Day. So he he had to kind of bow out this week. But I am still here.
Motor City Metrics Podcast Overview
00:00:50
Speaker
I did get a last minute co-host, John from the Motor City Metrics podcast, a Detroit ah Detroit lines, a Detroit Tigers, Tigers, the other cat podcast, ah or as he likes to go by you because he is from the Upper Peninsula. I said that's a lot of words to put out of my mouth. I'm not used to doing the openings on this thing. Can you tell?
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'm the same way on our show. I don't do the opening either, so I hear you. John, it's great to have you aboard. Why don't you tell so tell us about your podcast real quick? Oh, thanks. Yeah. um You know, for about four years now, I've been a part of the Motor City Metrics podcast with a couple of great guys out of Detroit, Rogelio Castillo and Chris Brown. Weekly, we kind of recap Tigers week. We talk about what's coming up. We talk about the direction of the team, you know, all the standard things. Try to do it with some fun. We cover the Detroit Tigers minor league system as well.
00:01:53
Speaker
um We'll hit on the big topics of Major League Baseball. It's just a fun discussion, good chat every week with a good couple of guys.
Iowa Joe's Braves Fandom
00:02:02
Speaker
That's great. My two sports are football and baseball, but unfortunately, I'm a Braves fan, so I don't listen. I don't pay attention to the Tigers too much. yeah and And my team's not doing great middle far than here so So in three bucks.
00:02:21
Speaker
When I was a kid, I was a big Braves fan as well with the Tigers. Cause you know, we only had seven channels and one of them was WTBS. and that's watchy but as soman Yeah. When people ask me how I became a Braves fan here in Iowa, it's the same answer. When I was a kid there, you know, we had more channels than what some people had. I mean, we still had probably 20, 30 channels or something like that. But the two main ones that you watch baseball off of was WGN and TBS. yeah Well, when I was growing up, that was right when they went on their 14th straight NL East championship run.
Bucket List Travel Discussion
00:03:00
Speaker
So, you know, it was hard not to get into Braves fever. And of course, you know, they had a lot of top guys, Chipper Jones, Greg Maddox, John Smoltz, Tom Glavin, guys like that all the way through. So it was hard not to get into the Braves when you had them on your TV all the time. I mean, it was hot. You just mentioned Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer. So yeah, it's pretty easy to root for those guys. Absolutely. That'd be a real fun decade for you. No question. Yeah. Yeah. So it it was, that's how I got into it. and
00:03:35
Speaker
You know, that, that kind of leads into the topic for the day. Uh, we did put out the poll this past week on what the listeners wanted to hear us talk about. And we gave you four choices and the choice that was the most popular was bucket list
John's Northern Italy Aspirations
00:03:55
Speaker
trips. And by that, it means where in the world would you like to most visit before you kick the bucket? So.
00:04:04
Speaker
I've got my list. You've got his list. We're just going to go back and forth and just talk about what ones, uh, what we've got on our list. I'm going to go in order from five to one. You can do whatever order you want to do on yours. Um, but since you're the guest, I'm going to let you go first with yours with your first oil. Okay. Well, it's interesting. Um, I watch, are you familiar with Rick Steves on PBS, a guy named Rick Steves? I know the name, but I'm not familiar with what he does. He's a tour guide, basically, and he has a TV show visiting Europe.
00:04:40
Speaker
okay And I have a son who ah my son's in a wheelchair so we don't travel as much as we used to um Before he came on the scene. Oh, he's I'm his biggest fan um But so what I do now I kind of live through Rick Steve's TV show right When he goes to Europe One that really always sticks out to me that I would like to go to is northern Italy Yeah, you know the Tuscan region up north toward ah the Alps all that would be amazing Florence and you know Tuscany has just so much history ah so much incredible scenery incredible wine not far to travel on and go to go to ah France and Spain from there so for me the first one I came to my mind was northern Italy and
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, a lot of history, um you know, beautiful scenery and stuff like that. That obviously would be a bucket list choice for anybody. I mean, all of Italy italy would be a bucket list choice for anybody. But I mean, and like we were talking earlier, trying to narrow down all the places we want to go to just five is is really rough. But I think that's a solid one to begin the begin with. um Mine's a little bit, my number five is a little bit closer. It's possible. It just, I've never had the time or the money to go out to do it. um Mine is a little bit in a way of yours where I am also a big fan of history.
Iowa Joe's Gettysburg Interest
00:06:10
Speaker
So most of mine all have to do with historical sides of things. And so my number five spot would be Gettysburg.
00:06:18
Speaker
yeah um you know i Even as a kid, I did a lot of reading of the Civil War. i i have I'm a big genealogist where I've traced a lot of things. um So obviously one of the big things for anybody who's in the U.S. if they trace their family history back is of course Civil War. um Unfortunately, I don't think I know of anybody in my family that actually fought at Gettysburg, but beings, that's one of the biggest historical bad battles for that war. um And also on a side note, I'm a big paranormal guy. I do believe in ghosts. I do believe in stuff like that. And they say Gettysburg is one of the most hard battlefields there are because of the death and because of all the destruction and that there. um I know they do like ghost tours and that, wow and that would be another thing that I would love to do.
00:07:11
Speaker
I have a friend that has goes to Gettysburg regularly and she does the the ghost side of it and she said she's had a lot of experiences out there. So one, I'd love to get the history out of it and two, the paranormal side out of it.
Midnight Sun Game in Alaska
00:07:28
Speaker
I just so happened to have been there in 1990. I want to say it was 1999. It's amazing. I also i grew up with a lot of similarities. I read all Civil War and World War II history, gobbled that up all the time. um If you get to go, it's there you know you get on top, a little round top, and you look down that hill, where that Confederate charge came up and and the regiment from Maine beat them back, you know? yeah ah And just to imagine what was going on in those tight quarters with all those trees, just unbelievable. And it's really, you can make it, you can make easily a two-day trip out of it to see all the sites of the battlefield. Quite a few hills, you gotta be ready to walk it, but otherwise it's it's really amazing. I would love to go back.
00:08:20
Speaker
My mom and sister got to go for a school trip. ah Oh, hell, that was probably 20 years ago, if not a little less, maybe 19, 18, 19 years ago. And they didn't get to spend a ton of time there, but they at least got to spend some time there. And she's always wanted to go back to, um so I mean, and like I said, I got a friend that tends to go over there for the paranormal side of it a lot. And it's, from what I hear, it's it's a great place to go. and You know, like I said, it's one of those that's doable, but having the time and the ability to get out there is is what's the hard part about it. yep So number four for you or whatever order you're doing in. Well, I went back to my baseball side. This is very obscure, but every year in Fairbanks, Alaska,
00:09:13
Speaker
They have a game called the midnight sun game and it's part of the game the alaskan summer league Where they get a lot of the you know, very good college players up there for the whole summer Um, and and they go through about a 40 game season um, but on the longest day of the year on the solstice they have a game that starts at midnight obviously and uh, they play through the night, uh, you get them probably about two in the morning I would love to see as a baseball fan, I'd love to go there for that. There's a big brewery in Fairbanks called Hoodoo Brewing, which is just a fun name. So so if if i could if there's a baseball one, especially on the amateur side, I would love to go up to Fairbanks and see that one.
Iowa Joe's Alamo Ambition
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, that would be interesting. I, I was really, that was another one that I was really tempted to put on my list is I've always wanted to go to Alaska. I've on the, I'm on the side that I'm not a big warm weather person. So, you know, I always laugh that my vacations always tend to go to places that are cooler than where I, where people normally go. So I go to like green Bay and stuff like that. So Alaska would be on that Northern part where it would be fun to take a trip up there. Uh, but yeah, that definitely would be fun having, uh, playing the, you know, watching the midnight game because yeah, you know, they have days where the sun's up, you know, 24 seven. And so that, that would be really fun to see that, uh, kind of an honorable mention is the next time that they have a game in Dyersville. I'd love to go up for the the field of dreams game. yeah So the kind of fit in with that, but.
00:10:52
Speaker
um No, Alaska would be a fun one for one another one like the the it Northern Italy. the the The scenery would be amazing and then just to be able to spend time at that that ballpark and watch them play would be great.
00:11:08
Speaker
Well, my number four is another one that goes along with the history and could possibly go another one with a little bit of the paranormal side of things. Uh, but it's a little bit on the other side of the country compared to Gettysburg. And that's down to San Antonio and going to the Alamo again, big history type guy. That would be another
John's Rogue River Dream
00:11:30
Speaker
bucket list spot to go down and spend time around there. I know it's not and what it you know I know it's the big tourist trap now and it's got more of the stuff like that so you can't really do much around it but still you know we've what a lot of Americans don't understand is we're a fairly new country compared to what the rest of the world is so our historical sites are relatively few and far between compared to what
00:12:03
Speaker
you know, going to England or going to Italy or stuff like that is so. the Alamo would be probably one of our earlier parts of our history, and that would be a a fun one to go visit. Again, like I said, I'm a big historical guy, whereas you talked about, you read a lot about the Civil War and and World War II. I did more of the from the Old West back to like the early 1800s, so the Alamo was a big part of my
00:12:34
Speaker
reading structures. ah And of course, who didn't grow up with the stories of Davy Crockett and and Jim Bowie and stuff like that. So it'd be fun to see the place where they you know where these legends came out of. Sure. That'd be wild. and my wife has I've not been to San Antonio. My wife has. and A little-known fact is they call themselves the pecan capital of the world. ah really If you're a pecan pie fan of any kind, that's the place to be. Yeah, I love pecans and I love pecan pie, so that would be amazing. i had I could have had a shot at it.
00:13:13
Speaker
Um, when I started college, I was, I started to go through the journalism program and I started covering the criminal justice department and the year that I started, they took a trip down to Texas. And when they got back, I obviously did interviews and stuff like that with, with the, uh, ah what they call the advisors for the criminal justice department and the criminal justice club and all that and Me and him got in pretty good with each other and he said well next year, you know, we'll Instead of doing the interviews. We'll just take you with us Well, unfortunately things happened. I didn't make it to the next year. So it just it bypassed it and I didn't get a chance to go down with them so but alright, so number three is
00:14:04
Speaker
What you got? Number three for me is a little weird. That's okay. That's fine. Weirder the better. Jim Belushi. Okay. The actor. there was ah He had a short-lived show on a few years ago where he
Iowa Joe's Scottish Exploration
00:14:23
Speaker
was on the Rogue River in Oregon and he bought this dilapidated state park that was right on the Rogue River. and built this wonderful house. And he also built a large pot farm. I was going to say, isn't that where his weed farm is?
00:14:39
Speaker
i I'll tell ya, I fell in love with the scenery, you know, coming the water is coming down out of the mountains, a beautiful river. I would love to take some kind of boat excursion down that river or ah stay in a house on that river and it get out to the ocean as well ah in the band and area. um Oregon just looks like it's says it's a state not a lot of people talk about. I think yeah um i think it's pretty underrated in terms of scenery and natural beauty. Well, and then you're going to sample a lot of the product when you get over there with it. You got to do what you got to do. Um, yeah, that one's not one. Yeah. ah Um, or organ. oh yes Um, yeah, that one I wouldn't never thought of. I mean, it's a good, good idea. Uh, and you know, with it being a former state park, you got to believe the scenery would be just amazing for it. Um,
00:15:38
Speaker
And, you know, he's got the money to be able to do whatever the hell he wants over there. And Oregon is one of them open states where he can do that stuff. So, ah yeah, the whole area, that just the entire area what that he showed as part of his show looked very, very memorable and and just beautiful. beautiful like Nice little small towns, you know, the small town coffee houses. I love that kind of stuff. So, or in little breweries, those type of things. That would be a great trip. i've I've had that on my mind for a while. And the nice thing is that's actually a trip that with my son, I could see us pulling that off. So that could be a bucket listing that happens. Now, could that be one of the rivers that they take like the, the river cruises through?
00:16:18
Speaker
Um, I don't think so. It looks a little smaller than that. you know Yeah. But, uh, it looks like something like, you know, if you, you could kayak parts of it, that sort of thing. Yeah. Cause every once in a while, well, in our area, we get a lot of the commercials about those river cruises and they go up all the way to Oregon and back down. and that that's possible I guess I don't know. I shouldn't say no or yes to I'm not positive. Well, I know they follow, what is it? They follow the, one of them follows the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. that's the colu Yeah. So I didn't know if that maybe that could be like an offshoot of it or something, but no, that would be, that that would be a cool trip. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that now. I'm not a partaker of the.
00:17:05
Speaker
the ah marijuana. But I mean, you know, hey, you do what you do you with that. I'm open for anything. I just I'd love to be up there just for the scenery. Yeah. um So i don't smoke it. I don't mind a gummy.
00:17:21
Speaker
Well, and be careful in Iowa because we're losing those things. too I know. I know. Um, so my number three, I'm actually traveling over this, over the ocean. Um, this one is going to be a little bit of, of what I talked about where I do my genealogy stuff. So this is kind of as you want to call it, like the, one of the mother lands of one of our family trees. And that's to go to Scotland. um you know i I supposedly they even have a county over there that that's how my grandma's maiden name was formed was they just it started out as so-and-so of Forbes and it just ended up okay well now at your
00:18:11
Speaker
yeah your Jim Bob Forbes. And um so it just that, and I'm not just talking about the one area, I'd love to do everything in Scotland. I mean, you know, you got the, you got everything over there, historical wise, you got the William Wallace stuff, you got the Blarney stone, you got, you know, you got all this other stuff in, in Scotland. And it just, now whether or not I'd be able to understand them when I got over there would be a completely different story. um Yeah, that one from a historical and kind of a genealogy point of view would be my number three trip. Nice. No, I think yeah I used to play a lot of golf when I was younger. I stopped playing when I was
00:18:54
Speaker
basically about around time we moved to Iowa. But yeah, going to Scotland was always high on my list too.
Scandinavian Ancestry and Culture
00:19:00
Speaker
and Not so much recently, now that I don't play golf anymore, but right reading about the history, reading about if you're a golfer at all, and it's in Nirvana, everybody I've spoken to who's gone there loves it. But they also say if you get out into the country, into the rural areas, the people are amazingly welcoming of Americans and a lot of fun to talk to. But yeah, it's also hard to understand at times. yeah Um, and see, I've tried to, you know, I'm one of those that I like to experiment with like other country foods and stuff like that. So I have had their national drink, iron brew. and Now, um, Scotland folk, I understand it. It was not my cup of tea by no means. Um, it definitely is not one of those drinks that looks like it doesn't taste like how it looks. Um, it' right I don't know if, have have you ever heard of iron brew?
00:19:53
Speaker
No, I have not. OK, so it's sir it's a soda pop. OK. And it's it's orange as orange can be, but it does not taste orange. Really? it taste Yeah, it tastes like a weird bubble gum type flavor to it. And now I was told I did it kind of wrong. I bought the plastic bottles of it and they say it's best when you get it out of a can. And I just yeah, it wasn't. but it what was the it's got some kind of um chloroquine oh really yeah it's got like a form of chloroquine in it it's like because they're saying it's like medicinal too and it's like well of course it's medicinal it's got medicine in it
00:20:41
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Where did you get it? I found it on Amazon. Surprisingly Amazon, you know, you can get a lot of that stuff from Amazon. Sure. But yeah, like I said, I was told I did it wrong. I got the plastic bottles and I should have got the cans out of it. But Yeah. the ah Hey, you guys do you, I'm sure there's stuff over here that we have that you guys just have a fit over. So that's probably right. So yeah, that was my number three. So we're on number two. All right. For me, um, my last name is Urkela and I'm where I'm from in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Uh, a lot of people from Finland.
00:21:25
Speaker
emigrated to work in the copper mines and so on in upper Michigan. So I i now i i grew up about four hours north of Green Bay. That's how I became a Packer fan as a young boy. The Packers were always on it in our area. yeah We used to get local news. Two of the three um networks came out of Green Bay. So we'd get a lot of Green Bay news and and obviously then a lot of Packer news. So that that put me on a Packer track for ah for a lifetime. But because there's so many fins up there, I actually ended up working for a small school that unfortunately closed called Pinlandia University. ah And I was the next
00:22:04
Speaker
in line to go to visit Finland to recruit students. um But I quit to move with with my fiance at the time, my wife now to Minnesota. ah So I didn't get to go to Finland. um As someone with Finnish ancestry, I really wanted to go. um So for me, I would like to see Finland, Norway and Sweden and go through the fjords and all through the Baltic area. into the the north of the Lapland of Finland, um that would be amazing to me. And that might be a little personal because there's not that many Finns, right, that you that you know probably. But that would be something for me that would be a timeless trip.
Baseball Dream at Truist Park
00:22:47
Speaker
um But also, again, it all goes back to baseball for me sometimes.
00:22:52
Speaker
just for kicks during the pandemic I started following the Finnish baseball league which um really wasn't right yeah and it's terrible I mean I hate I wouldn't tell it to them I wouldn't say it to their face but it's probably it's probably ninth grade level back but baseball here in Iowa okay ninth you know Yeah, yeah, but the post all the games they take it pretty seriously There's a team called the Tigers and since I'm a Detroit Tigers fan. I kind of root for the Tigers. There you go Yeah, so I would love to go see a game and I'm also a baseball umpire So I mean it'd be kind of funny to see what the umpires over there like in Finland but mostly I just want to see Scandinavia in general because I think Norway also would be ah just unbelievably beautiful
00:23:36
Speaker
Well, I'm not going to spoil my number one then. So I'm just going to jump ahead and go into my number two. okay Um, my number two is. is baseball related. I mean, there is a historical side to it, but I kind of alluded to this earlier. I'm a big Braves fan, you know, and so my, my bucket list trip has always changed. Now I've seen the Braves play, uh, beings that I have family in Wisconsin. My mom would
00:24:06
Speaker
ah ah took me to a couple of Braves games when they played Milwaukee at Milwaukee. I was at i went the first year that Miller ah Stadium opened up, so I was there when they first opened their they're ah op their their dome, the retractable dome, that's the word. And then I was at Chipper Jones' last game in Milwaukee. nice um So, ah you know, I have seen the Braves play, but this bucket list
00:24:40
Speaker
ah place has changed several times. When I was younger, it was Fulton cal ah it was fulton County, yeah then it became Turner Field, and now it's Truis Park. um So obviously, it's Atlanta, Georgia. Of course, you got the history side of things too. sure um you know Obviously, that you know they did the march to the sea during the civil war and Burned down almost everything. So almost everything is brand new compared to what it was a kind of genealogical Side of things with it to some of my mom's or my mom's
00:25:21
Speaker
whatever times great Graham paws on two different sides actually fought for the union as they were going through Georgia. One was mortally wounded. The other two were able to make it back. Um, so, you know, that historical plus familial side there, but mainly I just want to see the Braves at tourist park.
Coastal Road Trip Fantasy
00:25:42
Speaker
You know, that's, that's the big thing. Um, again, it's another one of those that it's possible. just timing money, stuff like that has held me back from it. So ah yeah, that that one's my number two. It would probably be my number one, but I've got a special spot for number one. So very good. Now, hey, guy I would love to, you know, the Braves, they've had such a good baseball history in the last couple of, you know, three, four decades. It would be cool to get down there, to see a game. I'm actually heading down with my son and my wife,
00:26:15
Speaker
About 40 miles away from Atlanta, we're heading there in October. My son has been invited to play in the National Miracle League All-Star. Well, that's cool. Yeah. So he's going to get to hit the ball a couple of times and someone will push him around the bases. and But it's going to be with kids from all over the country. um And so we're taking the road trip down there. it's It's going to be a good time. Unfortunately, I was hoping it was during baseball season, but it's not yeah October 6th. You know, maybe the Braves might have a playoff game, but they they might be in the playoffs. There you go. So we'll see. Where where is he going for that? It's 40 miles on the other on the east of of Atlanta and I'm OK now that I know I'm on the here playing on the name. Yeah, yeah that's fine. But yeah, my mom had an uncle that lived down there and I think it was in Athens that they lived for the longest time so.
00:27:11
Speaker
I know the area a little bit. I've never been, but I know it a little bit just because I've talked to him and he's told me a little bit about some of that stuff. so But that's really great. That's a good cause to go down there and that'll you know get him to see a lot of things that he probably wouldn't get to see yeah normally either. so We're really excited. He's been playing Miracle League Baseball here in Ankeny since he was five and he's about to turn 14 next week. So ah he's he's to a lot of baseball games here and I take him to a lot of ball games at Principal Park. Yeah, Iowa Cubs. So this is kind of a pretty cool thing.
00:27:46
Speaker
Well, that's great. That's great. I love seeing that stuff. um And he's outdid me. I haven't even been to principal park. And for those that might not know, principal park is the AAA Iowa Cubs. It's the Chicago Cubs is a AAA affiliate. So, you know, they've had a lot of big names that have went through ah Des Moines to get to Chicago. um I think when I was a kid, wasn't, I think Kerry, not Kerry Collins, that's football dummy. Kerry Wood was going through. Yeah, it was going through at the time. So that would have been the big one to go see. But like I said, I just never made the trip. um That's just like in Burlington, which is only about maybe an hour away from me as the Burlington bees. And that was the angels affiliate for a long time and go figure Mike Trout would have been there. Yeah. um
00:28:41
Speaker
um who's the other big one that was there at one time that I completely whiffed on. Uh, but yeah, they, they've had a lot of them go through there. So it's amazing. Iowa has no professional team of their own, but they have plenty of like, you know, sublets of teams, affiliates. Uh, so, so, um, let's see, we're on number one. So it'd be your number one pick. Okay, my number one pick is something, um again, maybe not everybody else wouldn't be on top of everybody else's list, but it's for me and my wife, ever since we were young, we talked about, and I'm also like you, I don't mind a cooler weather. yeah I'm fine with that, especially ah we're going to the upper peninsula of Michigan where my old stomping grounds next week on Lake Superior. And right now they're saying the temps are going to be in the mid sixties, the whole week. Beautiful. beautiful
00:29:41
Speaker
So one thing we've talked about is on the East Coast, We would love to go to Maine and then up into Newfoundland in Canada. ah Some of the scenery you see there looks so amazing. You can stop and get you know low cost lobster dinners everywhere. It's right on the coast. We just think that a couple of weeks cruising up and down that coast, staying in small towns, seeing the scenery, Acadia National Park, those kinds of things, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful spots in the country. ah We would love to do that
Ultimate Swedish Journey
00:30:16
Speaker
coastline.
00:30:16
Speaker
and and do it in a way that you're kind of just lounging around for parts of it and taking it all in. If you had enough time to do it, that would be the way to go. Then in Maine, you can hit a lot of the haunts of the Stephen King universe. there you go yeah You know, you go through there and catch a lot of those. oh But no, yeah, that would be great. I'd love to hit Newfoundland too, just because of the Viking, you know, stuff that they've found through there. That would be really neat. um So yeah, that that would be a fun trip, especially about
00:30:53
Speaker
late June, early August. That way you're getting a lot of the beautiful site, but it's still cooler temperatures throughout that area. Yeah. Agreed. So that that would be amazing. that That would be a hell of a trip. And make it a ah road trip, not just you'd go there and stay in one spot. You just got to travel it. Yeah, a hundred percent. That would be great. So I didn't want to spoil my other my number one when you were talking about your your number three Okay, because you you started andt mentioning Scandinavian that well This one is my ultimate spot to go to because of family ties because of genealogy because of history and all that and that's Sweden um my
00:31:33
Speaker
My dad's dad and his siblings were the first generation born in the US. My grandpa's parents came straight from Sweden over to the United States. there you go yeah so And of course, I didn't know any of them. My dad didn't really know any of them because we both came along later in our parents' life. that by the time we came around, all of them were pretty much gone. So we never got to hear a lot of the stories. We never got to talk to a lot of the ones that had been over there. ah So, and I know I still have relatives over there digging through the genealogy and some of them are relatively close relatives, like third, fourth cousins still. So, um, it would be fun to go over there and make the trip. Um,
00:32:20
Speaker
beings that I have a ton of the the Swedish and the Scandinavian blood in me, you know, I feel Viking, so I got to go through the Viking heritage over there. um But I do have a ah cousin, it's be my dad's first cousin, Um, that did make the trip over there and did see a lot of the familial sites and meet a lot of the family over there. And she's always told me that that needs to be b the trip to make. And, you know, unfortunately, or fortunately for her, unfortunately for me, she had the means to do it because her and her husband are both.
00:32:59
Speaker
they're they're pretty much well off. She worked for NASA for years and her husband is ah is a doctorate in like physics and mathematics mathematics and and he worked for NASA and he was a college professor and he still gets called back even though he's retired like a dozen different times he still gets called back to work so they they had and he's actually from Norway so he had a house in Norway while also living in the United States so that was easy for them to ah go back and forth for it um but now that they're getting older it's harder for them to get over there but like I said
00:33:39
Speaker
Family ties, beautiful scenery, historical, and that's old historical. I mean, that's like, you know, three way pre United States historical. So that would be my trip. That sounds great. I kind of lump in Sweden, you know, it's on the border with Finland on the border with Norway. Yeah, just that whole thing would be just unbelievable to see. See, I made my dad do one of those ancestry DNA tests years ago. And
00:34:12
Speaker
Um, it's so funny because we know They came from sweden. So the you know that but we have to lump it scandinavia because they were so close together that You know the ancestral dna stuff broke it down to oh, well, it's this part norwegian this part finland this part swedish Well, we know they grew up and you were born and raised in sweden. It's just you know, it there's so much cross mingling in there that yeah That it splits up like that so that one and it would allow me to get over there and dig into some of the genealogical stuff over there and and because it's hard to
00:34:53
Speaker
even though we're in the time of uh Technology and we can get into that
Additional Travel Desires
00:34:59
Speaker
stuff. I don't speak a lick of swedish Yeah The good news is I believe everybody in scandinavia speaks like three four languages So I think half of them speak english and we'd be okay Yeah. Yeah. And, and that would be something that they could take me to the places where they have the records and that, and they could translate for me. So, you know, we we'd be pretty good on that one. yes yeah So since we've got a little bit more time to go, do you have any honorable mentions that you'd like to throw out there that probably should have made the list, but didn't quite make the top five? Yeah. Well, you know, going back to the Rick Steves show, I there's, um,
00:35:40
Speaker
this little place in Austria called Lake Halstadt. okay And it's this picturesque little village where they had a salt mine. And there's this beautiful lake that's kind of up in the mountains. So you kind of come out of the mountains, you come over this hill, and there's this gorgeous lake in front of you. It just looks like you know you're stepping back in time to about 1788. you know and All the houses are old. um you They get around with by these little rowboats.
00:36:15
Speaker
um Everybody eats fish that comes right out of that lake. That's what you know half your diet is. ah you know They have their own special liquors and stuff that they they brew right there. Lake Hallstatt for me is way under the radar, but I've seen that episode of steve Rick Steves enough times where I want to see that before I'm done. There you go. I'd have to say my ah honorable mention is probably Greece. um I'm big into also I love like mythology and stuff like that. So it'd be neat to see like the go to aland Athens and the Acropolis and the the Greek Senate and stuff like that to visit those places. So that would probably be my honorable mention.
00:37:01
Speaker
Um, but really it's a bucket list. There's a number of places that I would love to go that just didn't make the, you know, make the top five. And some of them you probably couldn't go to just because of political and, uh, and, you know, the issues that are going on currently are stopping from happening, but. You know, I'd love to go to like, uh, uh, you know, who wouldn't love to go to Moscow just to see ah the, uh, you know, the old Kremlin and, and the spires and stuff like that. But, you know, try getting into Moscow without getting yourself killed, being an, being an American. up in a prison be bad part Yeah.
00:37:43
Speaker
yeah Or, um, um, going to, uh,
00:37:51
Speaker
You know, obviously I'm not a big religious guy, but it still would be cool to go over to like the Middle East and see like Jerusalem and Israel and and those types of places just to see that old, because you know, that's old history. That's, you know, that's pre, you know, that that outdates the United States by like thousands of years. along and it would be Yeah, it would be neat to see some of that stuff. so But again, because of issues going on now, it's almost impossible to get over there and be safe.
Packers News Update
00:38:25
Speaker
But so obviously there's no news Packer wise going on. Otherwise we'd be talking about that. We're still waiting on the Jordan love contract extension. Uh, Kenny Clark did say that his team and the Packers are talking about an extension for him. Um, he said he wants to be a Packer for life, right?
00:38:46
Speaker
Yep. And we've always said this with him, you know, he's still young enough that it would not be hard to give him that third contract. Yeah. It's just whether or not they want to or not. Uh, other than that, there's been no trades. There's been no nothing. It's pretty much dead. That's why we're coming up with these, these off season episodes. But you, I, again, I appreciate you coming on last, last minute. I mean, this was last, last minute. ah um This was to the point that I was begging people on just random twitter ah random tweets asking somebody to jump on. So I appreciate you jumping on. Why don't you tell the folks where you can where they can find you and why don't you plug your podcast one more time?
00:39:32
Speaker
That would be fantastic. Thank you. Yeah, again, my name is John Ercola, a lifelong Packer fan, but I do talk about the Detroit Tigers on the Motor City Metrics podcast. A big baseball fan, all of us on the show are big baseball fans. ah You can find Motor City Metrics at all the normal podcast outlets. We also have a YouTube channel, just do a search for Motor City Metrics baseball and you'll find us, no problem.
Episode Wrap-up and Social Media
00:39:57
Speaker
You can find me on Twitter at uper underscore ia. At. Yupur underscore. I'll excuse me. I was gonna I was giving an email address But at underscore Iowa find me there. I have a lot of fun on Twitter talk baseball I'm a baseball umpire talked about rules a lot certainly talk about the Packers when that's appropriate um So we have a lot of fun there, but this has been fun tonight. This was a cool last-minute thing I will you know my wife and I were just sitting there watching Bridgerton. I've had enough but i up luer tin for a while So this was really nice Joe
00:40:33
Speaker
Well, and like I said, I appreciate coming on. Um, Mike, obviously it wasn't Mike's fault that he got sick and it wasn't his fault that I was looking for a last minute co-host, but I kind of drug dad out for a road trip down to visit a couple of cemeteries that I found some genealogical stuff for. So it was like, all right, well, let's just go for a road trip. And it kind of took us away from the house for a bit. So I wasn't able to do any kind of a co-host search like I normally would. But again, I appreciate you coming on. um You can find us at Ohana underscore Packers on Twitter. And I think that's the same thing for Instagram and Facebook.
00:41:11
Speaker
ah We are also on all the podcasting areas. If you don't, if we're not on the one that you specifically use for your podcast, let me know. I'm the one that has to go through and dig through and make sure we're on that one. um ah We are still trying to do a giveaway of the Jair Alexander 8x10. That's when the Ohana underscore Packers account on Twitter reaches 523. Now I have noticed that they i have cleaned up a lot of the bots on
00:41:43
Speaker
Twitter so we lost a little bit but we are at 465 so we're only 68 away from hitting our goal if my math is right math was never my favorite subject so you know we're i um but you must be following the path the ohana packers account You can follow me, you can follow Mike, you can do all that, but to be eligible for the drawing, you have to be following the Ohana Packers account.
00:42:15
Speaker
You can also find all our articles and our merch store over at ohanapackers.org. Please go buy merch. It helps us. It funds us. It is not cheap to run a podcast. It's not expensive if you do it on the cheap side, but it still costs money and any little bit helps. Please go buy merch. We have all kinds of it. We even have coffee. Go get Ohana Packer's coffee. Nice, um, or if there's something that you guys if there's something that's not over there again Let us know shoot us a message on twitter. Send us an email at out backpackers 1919 at gmail dot.com whatever you got to do, let us know we'll get it up get it posted and And like I said any little bit helps so get your merch it also helps us in in promoting the show so
00:43:11
Speaker
Any little bit helps. Again, any little bit helps. I'm begging here. Any little bit helps. But for me, for you, for the sick Kalano in his bed somewhere dying slowly because of his children, I do want to say have a, I hope you guys had a happy Father's Day. Uh, you know this episode comes out a couple days afterwards, but still we're recording on father's day So hope you had enjoyed it. Hope they got you something other than an illness like kuanosan um, you know, so As he would say we want to wish you a go pack go and an aloha