square ponds

Collin and Brandon are back from the magical land of Oklahoma. Aaron is newly married. They share exploring a mysterious town with the worlds worst rocks.

- magical land of oklahoma

- Wewoka switch

- world's largest McDonalds...or is it.

- Where IS Meramec Caves?

Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com

Follow us on Instagram

Check us out on Youtube

A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

oklahoma, building, drive, listeners, missouri, town, mcdonald, merrimack, caverns, cave, weird, geology, lake, place, barn, colin, store, largest, nice, woke

SPEAKERS

Brandon, Collin

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure it all out. It's your hosts, Brandon, Pollan, and Aaron. On this week's show, square ponds.

Brandon  00:21

Why, Colin? I'm staring at you in the face as we record, it's exceptionally awkward and weird. And we should have sat on the same side of the table. That would have been even more awkward. That's true. Like when you say, Yeah, you don't wanna do that, like in a restaurant,

Collin  00:35

you don't want sitting next to each other. No, no,

Brandon  00:37

that's wrong. When you do that.

Collin  00:38

I could have set that. Then Susan could have been the art or audio. True Life presentation.

Brandon  00:45

To Susan, that would be even less weird listeners. She is adjacent to us on the couch, giving us the side eye as they say. She's waving hello listeners. She

Collin  00:56

will be credited on the on the IMD be yes. Definitely recording. Yes. That.

Brandon  01:02

Can Yes, you have to say hi. That's the rule.

Collin  01:05

I have you heard of that? different artists record different things. But you know, the different edits or people being? Oh, yeah. It was but he was like, Yeah, we had like Dave in the corner, breathing and so we gave him credit for things based on nice.

Brandon  01:23

He was support right, emotional support, moral support something supporting from side to side here. She has to listen much more closely than normal. She just hears me from the other room, making random random vague comments about stuff, but at least

Collin  01:41

you'll know both sides of the conversation this time. So hopefully, thanks so much.

Brandon  01:46

For lessons and listeners, you helped us decide we don't know for sure.

Collin  01:51

We're also recording in a different way using different things. So there's no there's no AI robot to be tracking. Oh, to be made angry. Oh, I wonder if I got an email saying it's at

Brandon  02:06

can we stood it out? Because we're recording in person? Okay, I

Collin  02:11

have not received one yet. But usually it's not until Oh, but we're also recording earlier. And so here in a little bit. I'm gonna get an angry email from the AI overlords asking to be let in.

Brandon  02:24

Nope, eagerly today, buddy. You can get read the audio later.

Collin  02:30

As as you were intended to? Yes, it does. I felt it does try its best to give you a summary of one of the summary talks.

02:41

Makes me happy to talk about it was

Collin  02:44

like none of that actually makes sense.

Brandon  02:47

No, but it's great. It's trying really hard. It's just humorous. I like how humorous it is like what what and I also don't know why it just it will like where decides to stop with the line of saying oh, they talked about this like I was in the middle of a paragraph and you're just like here what

03:07

part of any thing what I didn't even for a while.

Collin  03:13

It got on a weird Bender where it thought you were the only person talking and I understand we sound a little bit late because sometimes

Brandon  03:20

I am the only person talking for very long stretches of time. Now today I can see Colin rolling his eyes going oh my gosh, we can't You can't see me doing this. Yeah, no, I can't do that off actually put your head down on the desk.

Collin  03:35

Oh, my chair back up like

03:39

oh, no, but

Collin  03:40

for a while I would go in it would auto assign speakers. So it's supposed to learn people's voices over time. Yeah. And it was just a random block effect. And so I was having to go in and manually be like, No, I think I said that and hit return. clays blame me.

Brandon  04:01

blame myself. Older brothers just take everything from you. It's just how it works. Raise go.

Collin  04:08

And then and then at one point I'm I'm in there as different I'm in there as Colin F and then there's Collin Funkhouser, and it randomly assigns like I'm different people and I really think it derives from the fact that I did a lot of recordings whenever I had like, a really bad chest cold it was like this is sick. Does it recognize

Brandon  04:28

your voice column A, column B. This is Colin was drink too much coffee

Collin  04:36

whatever he's vibrating and seeing sound through apparently happens a lot more than

Brandon  04:47

it's fine. It's okay.

04:55

But listeners,

Brandon  04:55

we have much to report. It's official. Aaron is Mayor Read. There was much rejoicing.

Collin  05:02

Yay, crackers, crackers. Oh, I hit the face with some confetti everywhere hate

Brandon  05:08

it when you get confetti in your eye. It's

Collin  05:09

already in the face states confetti dead we traveled to the magical land of Oklahoma where nothing is real.

Brandon  05:16

But the pollen is real right now.

Collin  05:20

On powers most of that, what did we learn? We learned that they have square ponds,

Brandon  05:25

they do have square ponds in Oklahoma. This is confirmed.

05:30

I don't know why they have square phones in Oklahoma.

Brandon  05:35

It's very confusing, right? In Missouri, our ponds are generally round or just irregular shape. Right? You know, like water does. But there were several ponds in Oklahoma. I am not joking. They are I think they have right angles. Right? Like,

05:51

what? What wizardry is this? It's almost

Brandon  05:56

harder to make a pond like that. Right? It's him so

Collin  06:00

symmetrical and maintain it, you have to maintain it. Something that I know is that water does it like angles. And so this is something that you have to like, almost like erosion is a thing keep up and and do so I must just be part of their annual or every five years on maintenance and make it more square.

06:22

Yeah, we won't bore you with

Brandon  06:25

the reception and the wedding is very lovely. It was very nice, right.

06:28

However, during our downtime,

Brandon  06:30

we did some exploring

Collin  06:33

what you just said was, yeah, wedding yatta yatta yatta. Let's just know

Brandon  06:38

what a wedding was. It was nice. It was lovely. Right? They came down, there was a song I had to sit in a room for five hours. That wasn't very exciting.

06:45

But you know, other than that, it was great.

Collin  06:50

They came down to Anakin theme or something that

Brandon  06:54

Anakin that dimension theme. I don't really know what that it was a piano or

06:59

something.

Brandon  07:00

I don't know. It was a Star Wars thing. That was a classical or it was a it was a different take on it from it. I don't know the exact artists the I don't know the arrangement, but it was nice. It was soft piano. Lovely. Walk down. Outside wedding, right. So there was some touch and go because the day before during rehearsal, it was not nice outside. very rainy,

Collin  07:23

not even a little hold. And

Brandon  07:25

so everyone's like, fingers crossed man.

Collin  07:30

But yeah, we did survive that it was nice. People said things they did things Mary meant was to be had. It's true. But yes. Prior to all of that, though, we did go exploring.

Brandon  07:42

We explored small town Oklahoma.

07:44

Yes, we learned anything. least of which is upon

Collin  07:50

which when you start with the fact that bonds are our square, and you say that the least of them.

Brandon  07:54

Yeah, that really does a weird.

Collin  07:58

Elevate exactly what we did.

08:02

That's true. Right? So what small

Brandon  08:05

town were we in Colin? Where were we? Well, actually,

Collin  08:09

well, I would say well, I was I was I was chastised for my mispronunciation of and it's Wovoka Ah, yes, not on we woke up we woke up which is how it's spelled it spelled but again remember Oklahoma land of match places when we printed when we asked the town that was that was literally i x l. Yeah, I know, which we learned is three letters pixel by found an Excel Oklahoma. Also,

Brandon  08:34

we learned that most of Oklahoma Central Oklahoma. This is very centrally located southern central Oklahoma. no cell service anywhere was so bad the entire time. I felt like we were at the wedding. Like I'm missing this picture.

Collin  08:50

No. Kidding. Or I will send a text just like no photo,

Brandon  08:55

cause like I will call someone Nope. I don't need to text somebody.

09:01

I need to text dad. Nope.

Collin  09:04

Not Not a thing. You will not communicate via modern technology. You will in fact,

Brandon  09:10

not carrier pigeon Pony Express probably. But yes. Many adventures are had in the small town of Walker, Oklahoma population

09:18

3000. However, historically, population is much, much larger. This is what we learned today.

Collin  09:25

Yes. First we ventured and we found the woca lake there is a lake right? Would you which is massive, massive. Like there was a sign that said we woke a lake. I was like, okay, whatever. And on the map. It was like the same size.

09:41

It was huge. It was so big.

Brandon  09:43

It was a long right long thing. Erin was very surprised. He was like, What do you mean there's a lake so he did not he was busy being weird, though. Understandable. He didn't have time to explore with us. However, we did find a lake. And it was kind of cool, right? It's like when you adventure and explore are small Midwestern towns. Right? Or I guess? Well, Oklahoma is fairly outside the grip of the Midwest. First of all, let's put that as, as has been previously determined on this exact podcast. So it's like a Great Plains town.

10:14

Right.

Brandon  10:17

And I know that Oklahoma sits firmly in the Great Plains, specifically, we'll woke up, because on our way to the lake, we found some buffalo. All right. And so we know for a fact. Oklahoma is not in the Midwest, because there's buffalo there. So that's not how it works. Okay. Firmly a western state, but we call it was called Great Plains. Right. Yeah. But like, as a lot of like, these kinds of towns, we'll call it Mid America, right? Like, there's a lot of stuff that like,

10:52

used to be cool.

Brandon  10:55

Right? And then, like, just a question mark on how long ago that was. So you get to see some very, like, interesting infrastructure that was like, how people built things in 1955. That's what woke a lake right, like,

Collin  11:11

moral the story, we woke up in 1950 1985 was a happening place. But it was really neat to see the because it definitely wasn't a modern lake or modern, like picnic camping area, because it was like, Hey, here's a little drive in and a little grill. And here's a little drive and they were just crammed next to one another. But it might be very interesting to see photos from that area. Around that time. When it was built. I didn't see

Brandon  11:38

some photos of like, more recent times in that part where the swimming thing was right. It was there was like a lot of kind of happened right? There was a bunch of like, pontoon boats out there and like, just like swimming it was from like, last summer so like, again, it's again the day that we were there listeners called Windy nobody it was so windy. Turns out in Oklahoma, the wind blows swiftly across the plains, right. Who knew that happen?

12:07

But beyond the water

Collin  12:09

was something quite also fascinating about what we discovered at the Wilkin lake.

12:14

There was k there.

Brandon  12:18

Oklahoma. Geology is a foreign concept to me, right? As a Missouri boy and geology enthusiast, all of my geologic knowledge revolves around like Southern Missouri geology right like I understand vaguely not like expertly right but like

12:36

I have a pretty good grasp on

Brandon  12:39

geological layers and land formation and all this stuff right. from Missouri limestone we love limestone and dolomite here in Missouri it's our favorite

12:47

but Oklahoma the soil is confusing

Brandon  12:54

I don't understand and we found at Willow oak lake the sandy highest sandstone that has ever stone right

13:01

it was so loosely attached

Brandon  13:09

right? My science brain is turned off and I can't think of the word that I need here.

13:12

But like

Brandon  13:14

lithified There we go. Good. Yeah. Oh,

Collin  13:17

there you go. That was a fall save

Brandon  13:20

geology teachers and they that is so loosely lithified so it's in these big solid

13:29

constructions right

Brandon  13:30

big huge solid like rock faces. But if you grab the rock face and squeeze it will disintegrate in your hand

Collin  13:38

and almost like squeeze out more water it's

13:42

weird like it's not a stable Oh

Collin  13:49

which is fitting because we've crossed over like a Sandy Creek it was like Oh, I wonder what is in that?

Brandon  13:56

What substrate is this river system

Collin  13:58

but is not the course even sand coarse sand you'd find out like on like a beach like sand. Go to a beach resort

Brandon  14:05

This reminded me of like baking powder it was so it's so incredibly fine it's like baking powder because on the shore right they have the little beaches if but if you

14:14

touch it, it just it it doesn't feel coarse. Yeah, the grain is so small that it is just so fine

Brandon  14:25

like to get like a baking powder like consistency which I imagine is why the racks do not with the five array straggly together as the substrate is not big at all. Yeah, there's no like big pieces that adhere to each other. It's very strange. You know, is there a rule in

Collin  14:46

in that geology of size of particulates to pressure required? Is it Is there a relationship with like another

Brandon  14:55

might be actually I don't know the answer to that question. I thought my head that would make sense right?

14:59

The more fine grain material, the

Brandon  15:05

more pressure you need for it to hear because like if you think like chalk cliffs like life so chalk like the Dover Yeah, you would think that we need a lot of pressure because

15:12

chalk is literally just like, you can look at it, it breaks.

Brandon  15:15

You know, for those of us old enough to remember chalkboards that horrifying experience if math board races on the chalkboard? Yes. But I would imagine that you need quite a bit of pressure. So for this sand

15:31

in air quotes, right, because

Collin  15:33

dust it's actually dust. It

Brandon  15:35

seems like just like a finer grain. I think geologically speaking, it would probably be classified as a smaller particulate size sand. Yeah, I have a chart somewhere in my desk, but like, I could look at that. Maybe tomorrow and like the particulate matter sizes

Collin  15:58

but you could really take that rock. And that was the shocking part of you could you could see that, that big formation, break off a chunk and then in real time in your fingers, reduce it back to the sand.

Brandon  16:11

As the wind was blowing across the lake, you can see the water lapping and hitting the rock and you could watch erosion happen in real time. Right? This is a very it was like a solid rock and you could watch erosion occur.

16:25

And it was like

Brandon  16:29

how is this beach still hear?

Collin  16:31

Like, what where was this? 50 years ago?

Brandon  16:34

How big did this used to be? This point must have extended like 100 meters out

Collin  16:39

it's a really good point. That's a Yeah. Like didn't used to be this big. They actually built it much smaller. No, he's been able to wrote itself electrical way

Brandon  16:49

into the side right like

16:52

it's growing on its own.

Brandon  16:55

We can't stop it. It used to be square.

Collin  17:00

Oh, now you know why they make them square because they have to keep it under control.

Brandon  17:04

They don't organically grow like a blob right like

17:13

but once we left, the mighty Lakewood waka we headed to downtown Boca,

Brandon  17:20

the mighty downtown mighty downtown will woke up at one time. This was a very mighty indeed. Very classic Americana, extremely wide roads. Right, Rick? As far as the eye can see.

Collin  17:35

And I didn't really get excited about it until I saw the trading post.

Brandon  17:41

Yeah, so it's not on again, like many towns, including like my own. The, the Old Main Street is not the current main street, right. And so we were driving on this other road. And we were like, Okay, well,

17:57

let's go over there.

Brandon  18:00

So we've meandered around, and yeah, we're like, oh, here's some old brick buildings.

18:04

That's cool. What's that?

Brandon  18:07

A super old trading post. Oh, my gosh, we just

Collin  18:12

had that. You said that. Planes, the frontage to it with a low rang. Like super tall story listeners.

Brandon  18:21

Imagine a western movie. Okay, you've done it. This is what you've seen in.

Collin  18:27

You have you've seen what we have we stumbled upon? Driving through? Yeah. And it was,

Brandon  18:32

there's kind of a surprise like, Wait a minute. That's not what I thought I was gonna find. I figured, like, break downtown buildings like all close together. Right? Not, not 1880s Trading Post, just like, right there. Yeah. So that was what drew our eye. And then, conveniently located next to the 1880s training post was the 1880s train station.

Collin  18:59

Turns out they used to build them kind of close to each other. Right. And it was very weird to see like, oh, this was like, this was town. This is where town started. Yeah. As in this thing right here then grew South is what happened along that along that main road. Yeah. And that was really weird to think like, this is where it all like this was the trading post. This is the depot and it was the original depot as we saw from other photos, yeah, to see that this is the this is the origin, right? This is point 04 out

Brandon  19:31

of town. And like it again, listener. It's like, you know, we were kind of looking at it and we're like, is that a because now it's like the town commerce business center thing. Yeah. But you're we're looking at it and it's going that way along and I got a better look at the front. And then I was looking at a building that is just in Red Dead Redemption, right. I was just like, Wait a minute. I've seen this building I've walked through these doors before I did this in Red Dead Redemption two, it's the exact same front there was like,

20:07

Oh my gosh, what?

Brandon  20:11

So we learned interesting facts like, what around the 1880s The train business was so booming that the population jumped from like 25 2500 to like 25,000 people over the course of a few months. So we can imagine how terrible that was.

Collin  20:31

And that's, that's insane to think about that kind of stuff. That's so bad. And the fact that now the town in 2023 has, let's just say, roughly the same population 3000, as it did in the 1880s. Like, that tells you the big boom and bust that happened back then and how it never really recovered because it was was it was it the trading business was it was there wasn't? It wasn't because it boil? Well,

Brandon  20:58

there was so it was like a depot for like, a lot of other places, right? So there was oil, obviously, because, again, as you drive around Oklahoma, you're just like it is oil pump just ran the most random places. It just like throws me off because it's like this, just an alien enough to my daily life in Missouri, where like I'm not expecting there to be like a Walmart and then an oil rig right next to it like what?

21:23

But like, yeah, it was like a depot.

Brandon  21:25

So then after that, that was like the main thing. And then there was like other manufacturing things came up around there to support that. Right. So that was a very interesting bit of history to know. And then Collins favorite bit. The other picture was to read a little bit where have we learned? Oh,

Collin  21:46

yeah, let me scroll back through this real quick Yeah,

Brandon  21:48

we learn a very interesting fact about woca Yes, that's we have added a new term to our lexicon right. So this was forever shall be

Collin  21:57

yes. So while this while this they had this big boom with boom came with a apparently lost freight. There was inadequate telephone service, cramped railroad facilities, growing congestion at the switch, because this is called the woca switch switch. It became this became so common. Oh my gosh, I mean, do this 1000s of freight shipments bound for different destinations and thought to be in transit were found hidden at will the will woke us which, upon being questioned by customers about late or missing orders, many merchants that standard reply and excuses became, yes, I have it, but it's in the wewoka switch, meaning that they had been unable to track the merchandise and we're caught in a quote, tight spot. The expression I'm caught in the woodworker switch grew to imply that one suddenly found himself in a bind or truck or a trying situation.

Brandon  22:54

This is not good PR for your town. Right? If your town is synonymous with stuff not working properly.

Collin  23:01

Yeah. And it was so bad that the railroad itself just anytime something was thought to be missing,

Brandon  23:09

they just went to they just call them okay. Do you have this? Like, yeah,

23:13

the back is back. So ladies, gentlemen,

Brandon  23:17

in case you were concerned that like supply chain issues were like a 21st century problem. No, no. It's not this is not a new phenomenon that's occurred in the last few years. hands all the way back to 1880s Oklahoma rail raise losing stuff in the back.

23:36

Quite right.

Brandon  23:38

What about this this switchyard right from what's still there? It doesn't look like it was very big anyway. Well, it looks like a two track situation from kind of what's there now when they still had some tracks? Will they find some tracks like some of it was just like in the shrub over on the side

Collin  23:57

but you're right coming into it you could really stand there and go oh, this is wide enough for

Brandon  24:01

me to hear because you can see it's still flattened out right now they've built other things around it there's like some other stuff and other buildings but like the flat area where railroad tracks should be

Collin  24:15

nominally they'll

Brandon  24:16

kind of exist so maybe there was some more because they probably moved some fields. I think that picture showed there was like a track that went in front. Yeah, moving right. And so but it wouldn't you would look at it in person looking at that. You would go oh, if there was a lot of freight coming through here. It's getting lost, right? Yeah.

Collin  24:36

There's no way this could handle the amount that was coming through here. No, not not

Brandon  24:41

even a little bit was not surprising, but it was just interesting. I just like that terminology that will walk us which means that get the switch stuck at the switch things are not going away.

Collin  24:54

Things are going very poorly. I'm gonna have to climb into a switch up Caboose? Yeah, they had their

Brandon  25:02

I do love random train cars, right? This is uh, this is essential United thing, right? Not just the Midwest to the south. And like the plates at each base have random train cars places.

25:12

It's like them it's like

Brandon  25:16

I don't know like there's like a bromance tied to the railroad in the United States, right? It's very like frontier very, very like rugged very like whatever. So like, train cars is just cool. Like old cabooses are the coolest part. So I mean, usually

Collin  25:29

found in downtown locations and or ball fields.

Brandon  25:33

That's true. We have one out in front the school.

25:35

Is anyone here and getting in the park? To park? Yeah, by the pond. It's

Brandon  25:42

round, by the way, just so you know,

Collin  25:44

as God intended. Yes.

Brandon  25:53

We stroll down the main drag for a while we found some really cool, again, buildings that used to be interesting buildings that places where buildings should have been. There's definitely lots of evidence of fire. In the old downtown, we'll walk up like there's like, wood nailed to the side of the building. But it's charcoal now. Right? And like, so. Some there was a series of happenings, right, where things didn't go? Well, it looks like but over the course of I don't know what time several buildings have been lost. There's still several ones they're in various states of use. Right? Yeah. It's hard to tell. Because apparently, many things are closed on the weekend. And so it's hard to know how much of those bills some of them are like offices, right. So like, you know, they weren't open on Saturday, like the law office and like some other random buildings. And there were some that were like, closed for construction, but hearts know how long they have been closed for. You know, so I was very interesting, but it's just again, very architecturally interesting journey, where, if you like old brick, and you like interesting shaped buildings, right, and you can definitely tell Colin, we walked in front of the building, and Colin just looked at me and goes, Alright, tell me when that building was. And the facade of this building screams 1960s. Like, so hard.

Collin  27:26

So wonderful.

Brandon  27:27

It was I liked it. But he was not wrong. It just, you know, there it is, boom,

Collin  27:32

stainless steel, upper window

Brandon  27:35

arrow, like white brick. Yeah, we know, we know where that's wrong.

Collin  27:40

That was, you know, thinking about that, it's kind of neat to walk down there, because you start back over at the train depot, and the trading posts, which are all wood buildings, right? And wood, you know, I don't know what kind of that's that's what it's called, but posted beam or whatever, timber, timber, and then saying things turn, but then to see the how, you know, obviously, those don't last very long. And so those are probably the two last remaining structures like that, that they have, and one has been heavily updated and kept up. And then you see the the brick and then the changing of the brick. And there's some stones there on the facade. But yeah, seeing somehow there's like, Oh, this is actively falling down. One of them is actually a pile. There's three there were three of them three buildings. And it's a typical downtown structure. And the two on the ends are being used. And the one was a literal pile.

Brandon  28:35

Yeah. Yeah, the one in the middle of be piled up. There was like one of them was actually just in there was a bobcat thing parked out front where they're like, Okay, we're gonna scoop it out here. Yeah. But we had some of those downtown here, the place next to the pavilion, few years ago, even that that building was falling down. And the city was just like, Alright,

28:55

last like it really, like,

Brandon  28:57

it had to be think it was, you know, the cities there came down by itself?

Collin  29:01

Well, they're in a tough spot, because they have the infrastructure there, but they have to make that decision. Can this be used to generate revenue? Right? Are we collecting taxes on this? Or it's just this just becoming an eyesore and a liability to us?

Brandon  29:14

Yeah. And, you know, that is pretty common mentioned where we were there, like, it's gonna be maddening, right? Because like, they have all this potential space for lots of stuff to be, but like, there's nothing there. And then, the more there's nothing there, the more the buildings fall into disrepair, and then the cycle inevitably continues right? And it spirals downward into terribleness. Right and sadness and you've lost all this cool stuff, which is really sad.

29:41

But you know, it's the

Collin  29:45

so the whole thing but yeah, it's that's part of the the lifecycle of the of the of towns in some areas and yeah, but you hope to see some stuff come back in there but if the building so broken down or busted, and you know, Well, like the theater that movie theater

Brandon  30:01

was oh, right, like from what we can see from the door because again, because again shuttered but it was really like the big marquee outside like you could they had the seats pulled out. So they were at one point attempting to do something maybe I don't really know like, Who knows if they were like working on it and then like COVID and stuff happened and they had to like you know, they couldn't couldn't go anywhere. So they lost money and they had to shut down the project right? It's hard to know timelines by just visiting over a weekend right? But it was pretty cool there's like really cool stuff but like you know, you drive around these places in the town is kind of big it's I mean, it's not like big big but it's very spread out right. But as you drive around you go like where's this stuff? I wonder if people that live here like where do they work? Right like where does the Where do you have job like I don't see any place like other like stores and retail and stuff but like there's not a lot of like

31:04

me actually doing anything?

Collin  31:09

Well, I didn't even see where there was a hospital I mean, they had some health clinics and stuff so like health care.

Brandon  31:16

Probably had to be in some other types of Seminole probably right I don't know some of those bigger we didn't go to Seminole sorry, the middle finger No,

Collin  31:26

yeah no shade we just don't literally don't know what No, no, we didn't go there see aforementioned land of magical places. Yes. But did you know they had the school their school was building was pretty cool. Like that was one that they had really kept up. It was nice. That was on the outside.

Brandon  31:41

I don't know Sam Davis from Oka. Right. We should have asked the basketball girls taking donations outside. What's it like on the inside? That would have really creeped him out though. Like what are you taught gonna ask you about like, tell me about the layout

Collin  31:53

of your school. Right? Like, here's $10. The bleachers are like

Brandon  31:59

that's, that wouldn't have gotten over well,

Collin  32:02

that's a nice knock on your door from the police. Yeah, excuse

Brandon  32:05

me, sir. Why are you asking high school girls about the layout of their school building? Like, I don't know. I'm just an architectural enthusiast. I say as I'm literally in handcuffs, right.

Collin  32:22

On the on the Seminole nightly architect enthusiast arrested for testing to gain

Brandon  32:29

knowledge of the interior workings of high school hallways like no no, no, I just want to know what it's like in their quest. The exterior of the building is sweet right? It looks really cool. It's one of those buildings that like you. You know in a movie when you have like a movie High School. Id like nobody actually has a school that looks like that. Yeah. woca Tigers have a school that looks like that. I'm not even joking you This is like the Back to the Future school right this is the school from like 10 Things I Hate About You right like the big stone brick there's a tower right like

Collin  33:03

minarets on either side of the door coming in front

Brandon  33:07

with like multiple giant staircases to the entrance like it

33:11

looks

Collin  33:12

sick. Yeah, big, wide open courtyard. lawn in front of it between it in the the the road. So it's set back with like, lots of rain, and it's triggered posing.

33:25

It's beautiful. Now I know what the inside looks like, could be falling down.

Brandon  33:32

It could be just the same bleachers that were built in 1939. I don't know. But probably maybe they're raising money for it. I've never found out never found out just do somebody say alright, they go by Hey,

33:45

median. Yeah. But yeah, it looks cool. I don't know if it works.

Collin  33:54

But it looks cool. Which is which is half the battle most days of is it as a form over function? As we all know. That's my motto for sure. Yeah.

34:05

So you know, and so whatever.

Collin  34:11

But it was a very you know, and we saw the library, which was the library was also really cool. Most adorable. Coolest library not open on Saturdays and open. Who doesn't Why is there no reading on Saturdays? Oh, reading us. Hey, it's

Brandon  34:22

small. I mean, again, if you have a ton of like, no people can't keep your building open all the days. It makes sense. But but you have to give your staff of one a day off sometime right at the time.

Collin  34:34

But yes, the librarian in the group was quite displeased with the

Brandon  34:38

US she wanted she's patting on the couch. He's shaking your head and pouting. Sweet weather rain, though,

Collin  34:47

had a book on it. It was deceptively small whenever you looked at it from the front, it's not a very wide building. Oh, no. You like walked around back and it was like a thing and a thing. Like, like,

Brandon  34:59

yeah, So it's a very Okay, so the library listeners I want you to imagine, colonial building long rectangle with the fireplaces on each end. It's a very east coast shaped building, it was very confusing to be in the middle of a moment, right? But then so it's like a rectangle, right? And then then you could if you walked around the side of the building, you can see where it was they built back, but it was like, inset from the sides. So it sort of like was a step pyramid in and then there was another section and then after that it sort of stepped pyramid in again in a smaller space

Collin  35:41

where they didn't want to you could tell they didn't want to mess up the front, but they needed a little bit more space. So they were likely what if we just built a taper

Brandon  35:48

to the back the back was like a Tetris piece almost right like like the T Tetris piece, but if that last block was smaller again, right? Yeah, that's what looked like. So it was deceptively deep when we were totally looking, inconspicuous. Peering through the glass door with the front middle of the afternoon right car still running like that morning car out front running doors hands pressed over your eyes at the glass you know like like Colin are both doing it right now. You can't see Yeah, this is just how it works. Do this be like oh my gosh, look at that over there. Like totally inconspicuous? Nobody

Collin  36:30

suspected a thing Yeah, man Monday morning security footage review was going to be lit

Brandon  36:36

in ways people walking around the building was staring at the door like

Collin  36:42

Missouri plates. What is happening I

Brandon  36:46

just want to read man reading if we wanted to see yeah, see we'd love we even love books in Oklahoma see our multi part series about the outsiders. Boom, there you go.

Collin  36:59

It's it's, it's all it's all on brand. Brand. Nothing else be on brand

Brandon  37:05

brand. Wandering around the strange building in the mid morning, right? Like looking for books. Right? It's fine. Just wondering how many copies of the outsiders you had.

37:18

donate some. Yeah. Well, we we did see the one the one

Collin  37:28

business that we did see was the flowers and coffee or three, three girls and yeah, that was like the a boutique of boutique. Like it was all Yeah, it was boutique to max very much in downtown. It was the only thing open that morning that we came across. Yeah.

37:47

It was like it was weird. Because like, okay, so it. It

Brandon  37:54

was an old soda fountain. Right, because you could tell they had the bar thing. And they had the barstools and they had the tiled floor. They had the big marble counter. They actually still had the soda fountain, the fountain thingies Yeah. Which was super cool to see. And so like it was it was like a boutique and coffee bar. Right? The one of the groomsmen said it was the only place in town you could get coffee anyway,

38:18

turns out turns out, but like so it was this building. And it was

Brandon  38:23

like real weird case because it was like this building and it had all this stuff in it. And it was like real nice. And then over top of that they just like draped a bunch of boutique stuff. Like weird shirts, and like handbags and like old lady candles and like

Collin  38:41

lots of knickknacks and things. Yes. Nick Mackey and they had a Yeah, then they had the coffee bar, which I didn't even see like a menu for I saw at the very end there was like a blackboard. Oh, I missed that. Was not very big. So like I can be excused from like a foot square. Good. I'm not completely blind, which is nice. It was very tiny. But it was the hop and place downtown like

Brandon  39:12

well, we like all the places we saw people there was like eight people in there.

39:18

Goodness.

Brandon  39:20

We're come from why oh, now? Yeah. So TG decorations and coffee. That's where it's at

Collin  39:33

all of this exploration came from the fact that one what we're going to do for all the hours that we had on our hands for this entire time on a Saturday morning, but also because on our way into town, we saw the most beautiful science of all that intrigued us what what beheld the riches now the riches within

39:51

listeners. After I

Brandon  39:56

drove into town, I drove car drove us down there right up My loving brother. We drove into town we saw the Welcome to Oklahoma sign.

40:06

And then

Brandon  40:09

you know a little bit further we traverse we were looking around, we were kind of talking have this dialogue about like, what's here. I wonder what this town is like, you know what I

40:19

saw sign it said guns shop. But the s was $1. And I went that's not right. That's not how

Collin  40:33

words function. And that's not what we thought that was the highlight however, and the just around the corner directly next to no now is executed adjacent to this sign sign adjacent sign adjacent, a sign adjacent sign was another sign that said,

40:49

fish in stuff.

Brandon  40:53

letter in didn't have an apostrophe, which is handy. There's a hand painted green with a brush on just like a white piece of plywood. I was just like hanging like a nail to a railing and I was like, Oh no. Where am I text this to my friend and her only response was

Collin  41:17

which, which which which other than a grown and and headshake is probably the only other response acceptable right? It's probably in that. Yeah. To do is it the should have read fishing stuff? Or was it literally because I see apostrophe and I think and was this fish? I

Brandon  41:36

don't know. And stuff. I don't know. I didn't go into the fishing stuff, sir. Because I was a little terrified. I didn't know if it was like a, you know, down by Dora, Missouri. They have Jack's. And they sell almost everything down. Right. It's like this weird gas station. Right? It's like a gas station. And then the store next to the gas station is like

41:55

a warehouse. And it literally has everything in it. It's

Collin  42:01

like you're like

Brandon  42:01

I wonder if they have Yes, they do right here. Right? They have a belt? Yep. Do they have a pan? Yep. Do we have this? Yep. It's

42:07

everything's crazy. Right?

Brandon  42:09

I don't know if this was a store like that. Or if it's a fishing stuff thing out of these like your fresh eggs sign from a long time ago. You remember that? Here that time, that Jim Oh no. I don't know, addresses. colloquialism of spelling. Fun advertising or they didn't have enough board wasn't long enough. I don't really know.

Collin  42:40

Well, they certainly got our attention. And here we are talking about it. So it worked well,

Brandon  42:44

enough for me to go inside. Now. It might have even been open. I think it was

42:49

so close. But

Collin  42:55

I will say I was also thoroughly impressed by Oklahoma's embracement of the embracing of the CBD. Medical marijuana revolution every five

Brandon  43:05

feet was a shed like you fire from Lowe's. And they just like plopped it on the street corner. The land painted a portrait of it like green of course has to be green. What else would it be with names of varying description to like some of them are humorous some of them are like that's not what he does.

Collin  43:27

So what what was that what I forget what town it was, but it was like the dueling the dueling CBD shops across the street and they were literally across the street category to one another. And one was just like it was at the dank store thing and and then the other one was

Brandon  43:43

the grass station which it was actually an old cast

Collin  43:53

which was so what not only was the name on point because it wasn't an obvious take on marijuana. CBD it was it was it was unique. It was hilarious. And it because it said it was grass station, it was in a gas station and it was like

44:10

perfect.

Collin  44:12

Perfect for all of that. Other than

Brandon  44:15

that the drive all the way down to woke up from here is not

44:20

eventful at all. It's very long. Trying

Brandon  44:28

to lift people not driving correctly on the turnpike. And like don't don't know how trucks that are just like yeah, I'm just gonna come over right now even though you're next to me. It's fine. Don't worry about it like I'm still.

44:41

I have a question.

Collin  44:44

We drove underneath the McDonald's which we learned used to be fast food joint from Howard Johnson, Howard Johnson. I have always been told nominally by our Father, that this is the world's largest McDonald's. I don't think that's Drew, but I have never seen a sign because let's be very real again, even even though it is Oklahoma is not in the Midwest. One thing that we know about Central US roads is that the world's largest, they love the world's largest things. And this has never had a sign on it that has.

Brandon  45:19

You know, that's true, because I also had heard that as a child, and I don't. That's not I don't think that's true. I think I googled that one time and it was like, it's not actually the world's largest. It's like the only McDonald Well, I don't know, but now, it goes over a highway. Interstate. Interstate interstate two, please. Give it its Craig the Will Rogers turnpike's and credit here. Ooh. Yeah. But it does go over that I think so listeners if you're unfamiliar with this, you can Google McDonald's Veneta, Oklahoma,

45:55

right.

Brandon  45:57

It is this big arch structure thing that goes it spans the interstate, it goes all the way over the top, like the trucks go under it, which is very, it's the appeal when you're a child to eat your cheeseburger and just like watch the trucks drive under you, right? It's very exciting. And as an adult, okay, it is adult

46:22

but I don't I

Brandon  46:23

don't I don't the building itself does not claim to be the world's largest McDonald's.

Collin  46:30

And if ever there were a place to have this emblazon it is this Oh Susan is we're getting past information here phone.

Brandon  46:38

A research assistant. Oh my gosh, we're gonna do this more often.

46:46

Let's see

Brandon  46:47

COVID-19 87 is one of it's kind of filling a bridge that crossed i 44. The big glass

46:53

house

Brandon  46:55

was the hole for time the Glass House was undisputedly the biggest McDonald's in the world. But ah it was largest in square feet

47:06

only and some of it the whole entire building is not McDonald's that's there is less space for other store

Collin  47:18

yeah there's a subway in there

Brandon  47:20

yes last station that

Collin  47:21

well yeah, yeah cuz that's the other thing is like in the feet and the face of the art on either side you there's the where you can go and get the restroom you can get it's convenient store

Brandon  47:31

top there's like some gift store things and there's just some dead space.

47:35

Right so it is not the world's

Brandon  47:39

largest another world luxury that was appeared in Moscow in 1990. But as there is no more McDonald's in in Russia at all.

47:46

That it can't be true anymore.

Brandon  47:49

In the world's largest entertainment McDonald's opened in Orlando, Florida entertainment Mecca. I don't know what that means. And PlayPlace known entertainment McDonald's is.

47:59

I don't know. Don't

Collin  48:00

don't give us those and those are no entertainment for you.

Brandon  48:05

We only get weird things like that in Florida. But there we go. Largest in square feet. So that was the largest square foot building containing a McDonald's I don't know. But it was not solely occupied by McDonald's. Okay, so

Collin  48:17

So what do we say? half true? half truth half true half truth. Okay, fact check. Kinda

Brandon  48:24

kinda true at one point in time, but maybe not now, but it does still go overrode and it is still cool looking. Right? Very 1950s architecture, various arches steel. Classic rails like is Frank Lloyd Wright approves this message.

48:41

What he though

Brandon  48:43

was curved, so maybe not. Yeah, no flat roof only.

Collin  48:47

Why don't you have 18 feet of overhang on your roof? That's a good point. So

Brandon  48:51

there is a lot of overhead. I mean, the whole thing is overhanging. Right good

48:55

tactic. tactic. That's fine, but it also has a root Yeah. However, because I googled that I do now have the

Brandon  49:08

Wow, the world's largest gift store and the world's largest fork by mass, both in Missouri. Look at that for five.

Collin  49:17

I love

Brandon  49:19

the qualifier qualifier here. World's

Collin  49:21

Largest four by nine mass. What is it made of? What you're right. What's the really dense one? I don't know what it is. It's your Springfield Springfield Missouri forecast. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon  49:33

It used to be it was a it was a forever restaurant

Collin  49:36

it was and then it was moved to Chesterfield village just from village. Yeah, still resides,

Brandon  49:41

I think so. It was some random restaurant like a like a random salad restaurant.

Collin  49:45

It was it was it was like a terrarium one to where it was all glass on the outside was

Brandon  49:50

done by like swear circuit chatter

Collin  49:51

used to be in by over by chatters. Yeah. Yeah, it was really that giant fork.

Brandon  49:56

I think I've been here. I've been to the world's largest. I've been To Phillipsburg, Missouri, this building looks familiar. I haven't even buy

50:03

this. That one.

Collin  50:07

Yes, that's on I 44 I think so. Yeah. On the web in look up Phillipsburg. I don't know it's on this side or the other side of Rolla, which the listeners will have no idea what that means. either South

Brandon  50:19

or North. Oh, it's apparently this side of Lebanon. Yeah, way wrong is between Marshfield and Lebanon. I 44 Ah, I've driven by this building 8 million times. I've never been in it. And again, that is the world's largest gift shop gifts. The world's largest

Collin  50:38

gift store gift store. Goes there is one thing that well, there are many things that you will find along i 44. Some of them not good. Many of them are fireworks stores. True and gift shops gift shop.

Brandon  50:56

Also, yes, that's yeah, we can't say that on family friendly showcase. But there is there's a very famous fudge store by St. Louis Missouri. I'll just say that. Although we made a note of this on the way back right, so there is in Missouri have stopped by fiddling this microphone has collapsed on me listeners. I apologize. I just like touched it to move it and it fell down. Ah, I see misfire, it's fine. Nothing happened. Alright, so there is this like a very famous like thing, right? If it was very is the caves date for those of you didn't know how right? Yeah, not just the show me state. Like show me caves, man. Right. So the caves date there is a place called like, Merrimack cavern. Right. And they have at some point in the past what they have done is they like, paid a landowner to paint the Merrimack Catherine sign on their bar next to the highway. The Interstate. Right. And so it's very distinct. It's like this blue red black thing. Right. It's it's Merrimack caverns real big. Right. There's like some sort of tenuous Jesse James connection, I think. Right. That's on some of the signs right.

Collin  52:23

Oh, is getting a hit hideout? Right. Because you know, that have allegedly have been probably one time and they probably were

Brandon  52:33

near at once. And they're like they hit here for sure. Like, Oh, definitely.

Collin  52:37

That's what he did. He always hung out here. Now listeners. Importantly,

Brandon  52:42

I have traveled the roads in Missouri. My whole life. Basically, I've lived in Missouri almost my whole life. I'm closing in on 40 years old. I have no idea where Merrimack happens. The signage is so far afield from the actual location. I do not know where it is located.

Collin  53:03

Trying to triangulate it based on signage, location and marketing is not. It's impossible. It's

Brandon  53:09

impossible. It's basically the reason I bring this up is I saw for the first time I signed for Merrimack caverns on i 44 in Oklahoma. So this actually made it even worse because it extended the possible range to where it could be. Right is a terrible sign. I don't know you see it, or you see it on like 44 all up and out. I think she on other highways, too. Yeah, right. It's just like the side or the roof of some barn. Missouri barns add to this weird thing where like, there is that the roof of a lot of these old barns is multi pitched. Right. So again, think like a Western barn where it's like, it goes from the top a little bit and then there's a different angle. And then it flares out again at the bottom. But a lot of them have this like side building within it like one side of the barn extends way out and they always painted on that side. So you have this huge roof or side of barn thing.

54:07

Merrimack caverns meaning no actual idea where it's located.

Brandon  54:15

I can't if you were if it's like one of those shows like a cop show. And you'd like pinpointed all the locations of all the barns and then you tried to like triangulate the actual locations of Merrimack having to based on the signage that Colin said

54:28

it's impossible. I don't know.

Brandon  54:31

I've never been there. I don't use no like a hot and cold you can't like hot and cold your way there based on me sign jersey. It's not possible. I don't know where it is. Well,

Collin  54:40

and you made a really good observation of the signs have always looked old on these barns as well. They have. They have never looked brand new. They have never looked like they were just done. But they've all they're all the same age which is somewhere between like 10 and 20 years old or older than that. It's gotta be older than that. And I want to know As a Merrimack caverns, PR person and marketer, how do you where do you go about finding these bargains? Like, how do you make these phone calls? And then how do you like I was saying about this? How do you introduce yourself for that sales pitch? Right?

Brandon  55:14

I'm Matt clevers sales and marketing and I want to know, can I paint your barn? Like?

55:21

Yeah. What?

Collin  55:24

What kind of lease agreements do they have on? This is like that I'm going to need to be

Brandon  55:27

kind of forever, but that's fine. Yeah. Was it like a deal where they paid him one time and they're like, Alright, here's your 150 bucks. Painting this on the side of your barn and it was like, Alright, whatever. I don't care. And they just left it for like 60 years. I don't know. I don't know.

Collin  55:43

They're just and the family is just collecting like 100 bucks a year or something to have this on.

Brandon  55:49

perpetuity for just like having the signage on your barn forever. Like, does anybody go to I don't need to even know anybody that's been to Merrimack caverns. I don't even know of that. Have you been Susan shakes her head vigorously. No, I haven't been you've been no, no, I have not.

Collin  56:05

I don't know of anybody who has been either.

Brandon  56:09

Does Merrimack caverns actually exist? Is

Collin  56:13

is this a front?

Brandon  56:21

Don't Google I don't want to know now. I don't want I don't want this illusion to

Collin  56:24

shattered. Remain less remain a mystery at all time.

Brandon  56:27

Yeah, I write some secrets and must remain. Where is it?

Collin  56:34

No. Nobody knows. listeners.

56:37

If any of you have ever been to Merrimack caverns, please. message us. Email us. Tweet us.

Brandon  56:43

Instagram us. I don't know when doesn't have a handy thing. But like, let us know. Okay, please use the gram us grant. Hit us up on the grams. Yo.

56:54

Right. Do that because we we want your input. Was it good? Was it were you just like yep, cave. Got it. Done. Like I don't know.

Collin  57:06

Because we have been to the other famous caverns. The ones that are very fantastic. The really fantastic ones. We've been to though,

Brandon  57:14

allegedly, the world's only drive thru cave.

Collin  57:17

Because that needed to be a thing hashtag only in America. We love our cars so much. We will drive that through a cave have

Brandon  57:24

to make special ones that bring propane only but we will drive this case. It's kind of cool. I've been to the civilized city cave. And to have it as it was they've been to,

57:37

like, always mancave

Collin  57:39

isn't a silver war. That's what it's associate with the Civil War,

Brandon  57:43

I think in some way. Yeah. It is kind of sweet though. Right? Like, it's pretty cool. Like it's humongous. It's the story of Anheuser Caverns is crazy, too, right? I don't think I remember this. Okay, so like, there now there's like a huge interest. They found like this massive entrance, right? But like, whatever year they discovered it in, right? It was a long time ago. I'm gonna Google that real fast. But the first explorers it was like four people, right? They, they just like, they're like, ah, again, early America, like Missouri. They're just like, Oh, I'm just gonna go in this hole. And they had like a candle. And they just like went in this like, teeny hole. And we're like, down in this huge thing for ever. It was like this lady. And like somebody else I

Collin  58:36

don't remember. Because during during the drive, right, I remember you stop. And the driver, at least in the one I did. I think I remember historically. shuts off everything. It has a little candle lit. Just show you the immensity. Right, because what's neat about this is that they've they've currently not only do they have a driving track through this, but they have lit lights that go all through this that light at various aspects of it. Yeah, that they turn on and off. Yeah, they turn everything off. And they hold up a candle no like this. This is what they expect. Now that you say that I remember that going. explored this entire thing.

Brandon  59:11

Yeah, accidentally discovered by John Knox and his dog in 1862. Right. And so he like, did some stuff and then they on got 12 women belonging to the Springfield Women's Athletic Club. They explored it for the first time. So these are the first explorers of the cave. Well, members of the Springfield Women's Athletic Club. Again, what's that opening line?

59:39

My dog found all around. It says he wanted to keep it away from the Union

Brandon  59:48

and Confederate governments in 1862 that are the SL the middle Civil War. So he didn't want any of the armies that were traipsing through Missouri at the time to know about it. I like standing stuff there. So he like didn't say anything. And then he got some ladies from Springfield to explore it with a candle there. Yeah, their names are carved in the wall there. They like wrote it on there.

1:00:13

All right. And yeah, so it was a thing it was

Brandon  1:00:20

part of it was a speakeasy during Prohibition. There was live music concerts in the 50s and 60s and it's also a registered

1:00:28

fallout shelter

Brandon  1:00:30

so it was I don't know if it's still good for that or not but there are like these big huge Fallout Shelter doors. Oh, all right in the air people. Air we go back to last week's conversation. Cold War terror. Fantastic caverns still. Yeah, it's still weird connected histories us be afraid. Yeah, that's what it was like these ladies like crawled through like this kit and there's like that because that room there's that one roof. Yeah. They always call it like Yes. And it's like this a massive high ceiling. I think the thing is, like I found that we're like it's really big was it we go in another page somewhere, be like, walk down the walkway into the cave is anything that for instance, Tiller sitting down another another one is like we were in. We were in a cave in New Zealand but I also took a fourth grade field trip. Maybe that was our it's done by the brain is not bringing really big there's like a huge ramp that goes down there. I don't know listeners. I will get back to you. Other caves I've been in. Well, long and exhaustive spelunking history, apparently and

Collin  1:02:12

yeah. So confusing.

Brandon  1:02:16

have vague memories of some of the caves and

Collin  1:02:19

we'll put a pin in now and put our thoughts together. Yes. From the magical lands of Oklahoma to the mystical caves in

Brandon  1:02:30

your town. Yes. Fantastic. Cameron's. There we go.

Collin  1:02:34

Interesting. The link a link between both of them is geology at the i 4014. And with that, we'll leave it at that. Let me do