The Not So Hidden Backroads & Small Towns Of Central Illinois - Exploring Rural America On Road Trip
Small Towns in Central Illinois
Transcript
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welcome everyone Adam the woo here as
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the recording of This TGIF it is Friday
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June 21st
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2024 I have already drove 400
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miles left earlier from Minnesota
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Minneapolis Minnesota right outside
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Target Field where I tended a game the
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other day then I stayed the following
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night yesterday did Mall of America
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in that general area got up this morning
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and drove 400 miles and now I'm starting
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the episode here in Illinois and I'm
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going to be doing some small
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towns not really necessarily back roads
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but roads that run parallel to a major
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freeway that I have been on for a series
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of hours and I am currently according to
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this water tower in
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Oglesby Illinois I have no real game
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plan of today other than just driving
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through some tiny
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communities stopping by some places and
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seeing some wonderful
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things that I really do not know what
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they are until I see them I'm inviting
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you to join me I need coffee I had one
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earlier a couple hours ago but now I
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need a second one a large one to consume
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to complete the day I'm going to cover a
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lot of ground today heading Southward a
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little bit to the Bloomington area and
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then I'm going to be heading
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Eastward towards
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Indiana just kind of winging it it's
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good to have you here I'm inviting you
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to join me shall you this was obviously
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a Burger
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King parked over here says sorry we're
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closed on the side of this drive up
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window you really see Burger King's Clos
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down too often but this one
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did this one
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did all
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right continue moving it's a little warm
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outside but they do have their firewood
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in front of Casey's General Store where
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they most likely will have coffee in
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here they have Fountain drinks but I'm
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going to get myself a coffee need some
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Caffe yeah ended up getting coffee but I
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could have got some root beer over here
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in fact look at this little guy in front
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of the root beer stand going through
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downtown check out the police station
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they have a sign that says Serve and
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Protect almost kind of looks like a
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business
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John's some cows down there hello cows
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how are
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you doing
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good yeah I got some fly there's a lot
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of flies down there huh
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just waiting by the stream or walking by
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the stream down there I get those flies
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off your
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back lot of bugs in this
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area annoying
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flies they're not horse flies they're
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cow flies might be the same thing though
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don't know if the bugs can tell the
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difference in cows and
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horses yep just going to just going to
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go through some small towns cows I know
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you're not interested you're walking
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away but I had to make that statement to
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you
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all right I'll see you later
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Cals this is Highway 251 of heading
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South Highway 251 runs completely
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parallel to Interstate 39 which is not
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too
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far off in the distance runs parallel to
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that that's kind of neat this old
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decrepit Barn right here in the Farmland
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at the end of this
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driveway not in use anymore
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sitting there empty the yard is manicur
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though there are signs up saying I don't
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go down there so I'm not going to got my
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coffee bean a
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cup had Casey's the last couple days
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Casey's Coffee last couple days pretty
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good Casey is like a general story
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in the midwest there's a lot of them I
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don't have cases in
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Florida of course
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everything eventually ends up down there
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they're opening like all kind of chain
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places in Florida so maybe one day cases
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I'll make it down
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there or
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not approaching the village of Tonica
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population 750 the sign said when
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I entered the town or the village t n i
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Tonica plastic trucks empty
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buildings maybe an old radio station
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here or fire department here on the
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corner W look at this I don't see any
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railroad tracks that run through here
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but it definitely was an old train
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station without a doubt it's got the
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stairs leading up to
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it got the doors that you could see
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would open
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the workers and the luggage and all that
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there's an old station here but the
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tracks have no sign of any tracks
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anymore it's a great truck right there
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it's got the old Milwaukee beer logo on
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the front an F350 and this is their
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quaint little
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downtown right
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here very cute also interesting it says
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Len I State Bank doesn't have the O and
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the S on the end
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i l l i n i State
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Bank and just up the way a mile or two
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well probably 3 or 4
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miles is lost
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it spelled lost ant but connected L NT
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the first thing you see and pulling in
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to lost an or
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lost is this
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property I don't want to make the joke
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but yeah people are dying to get in here
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up there is the water tower only 450
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people live here according to the sign
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when I
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was pulling into
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town cute little area though cute little
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H cute little places little
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place nice
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houses farming Community got the grain
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elevators over
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there see you through the trees
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got the Budweiser sign right here and I
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guess it's just not necessarily a play
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on words cuz this bar is called Dave's
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lost ant and it has an ant with some
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binoculars well it's a bar and grill
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yeah lost ant look at this out front
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here it's like made of machine parts
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this mascot is that the Lost
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ant this is
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weona spelled like wona but instead of
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an
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i it has an e we
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knowa population of exactly 1,000
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according to the sign Pull It in
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here not
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999 not 1,00
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And1 exactly 1,000 the sign said a lot
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of good old signage here at a Budweiser
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Park Place and check this
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out they have a
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Vegas style
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sign welcome to
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Fabulous
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weona next to the public library that
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says Retro Music Hall right there it's
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like a little venue of some
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sort got the boardwalk tap they must
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call this the
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it's kind of neat they have the fabulous
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Las Vegas sign up here
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but not
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Vegas it's
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weona turn corner of West First Street
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and Chestnut Street so Chestnut Street
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is their main
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street that is awesome
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check this out in memory of their
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Sheriff Glenn T also known as Mike
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axline born in 1901 but in 1934 he only
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been 30 1935 at the age of
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34 some Bank Bandits got the best of
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them holy
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cow back up and get that that's
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cool there's the water tower over there
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now I've been to Las Vegas and you got
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to wait in a long line to get a photo
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with the sign entering into the area
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here no line at all got it all to
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yourself you don't have to wait in some
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kind of a queue or wait behind a bunch
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of people just walk up you get the get
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the photo with the famous sign here in
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Illinois it's a neat idea it's pretty
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neat idea I'm sure people when they pass
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through here stop and get a photo with
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it this is the Rutland Village Hall I'm
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noticing a lot of the little to towns in
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this area are referred to as Villages
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this is the the Rutland Village
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Hall the flag out front all right next
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up is Mino I or m i n o n k or
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Mino this mural for this garden shop
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next to
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Mino there's a W bug over there too take
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a look at that love this old retro
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rundown but still pretty awesome looking
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gas
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station yeah that's pretty dang
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cool look at this whole car wash here
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still open they got the Vacuums at least
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the sign said it was open
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yeah classic Straight Ahead El
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Paso El Paso
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Illinois water
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tower tractor out
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there doing some
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work El Paso Illinois El Paso city
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hall right here along the railroad track
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is the downtown
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stretch it's 5:00 p.m. right now not a
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whole heck of a lot going on on this day
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at 5:00
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p.m. there are some cars out but I don't
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see anybody
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walking that was my barber shop that was
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Adam's Barber
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Shop same name no affiliation with me
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though Le I don't think it is and I
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jumped on the interstate for about a
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half hour just to make up some time
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still got a lot of ground to cover but
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now going back through some of the small
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towns again I'm over here in
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Downs there's the Downs Water Tower
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right there and the next town over from
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Downs is Leroy where I used to live last
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time I passed through here was with my
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dad a few years ago 3 or 4 years ago
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maybe my dad and I did a 10day road trip
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where took him around the countryside to
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all the different places that he used to
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minister at we stopped by here this used
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to be the Leroy Christian Church he used
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to be a preacher at now it's a
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performing arts and media
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center but I have fond memories of this
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place when I was very young in fact the
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house I grew up in only lived here a few
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years but my dad taught me how to ride a
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bike at that house not going to go by
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there today covered it pretty well in
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that series if you want to go back and
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watch that it was a 10day series three
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about 3 years
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ago in fact the owner of the house we
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that we used to live in was nice enough
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to let us go in the house so I don't
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want to go back by there and bother them
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anymore I do want to come downtown show
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this welcome to Leroy Illinois fun fact
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Brett Ian who is the current voice and
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has been for quite a while now over a
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decade I believe of Mickey Mouse is from
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Leroy also he graduated from high school
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here we did not live in town at the same
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exact time frame I was I lived here a
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little bit before he lived here but I've
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met him a few times talked to him and
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we've discussed Leroy on a number of
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occasions we have share some stories of
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the town so yeah a little Disney
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connection you know how much I love
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Disney just a interesting coincidence
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that the voice of Mickey Mouse is from
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here as well and evidently there's a
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bunch of different Leroy Leroy Illinois
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which I'm standing at there's also Leroy
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Texas Minnesota Wisconsin Alabama and
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others just a cute little downtown area
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there it's a circle that goes
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around Main Street goes around this
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kazba then you got this the town and
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City Hall over there just a cute little
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area I like to every time I pass through
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this area I have to stop off here at the
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the circle I love this how you got the
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Leroy State Bank right there then you
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got another building that's dated 1897
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up here then you got the water tower
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popping out above it there kind of a
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cool angle soon as a car moves people
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walk out kind of neat looking never
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noticed that you can see the water tower
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protruding up there from this side
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it's great I feel like at some point
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during the day the sun will be going
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down on me I'm going to continue try to
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go to make it don't want to spend too
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much time here but this is just one of
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those things whenever I pass through an
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area that I had roots in I always like
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to kind of just stop off and you know
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remember where you you always should
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remember where you came from and where
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you're going and where you are at this
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particular moment so got some memories
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here figured I'd share and moving on
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cover some serious ground today still a
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ways to go and now heading up to the
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next place Gibson City it's a little
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town but it's called a city Gibson City
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down this way about 15 miles more
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windmills off in the
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distance really looking at this through
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the camera probably is not showing
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you the perspective of how massive these
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are doesn't really
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translate to a
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screen man massive massively tall in
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fact one of those
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blades when it's on the back of an
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18wheeler hangs off the
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back of an 18wheeler trailer by like 10
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ft that's just one of the blades so just
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put that into
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perspective and I may even be generous
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with the hanging off 10 ft it's like way
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off but from here even though it's not
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that far away it doesn't it just seems
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like looking at it doesn't look like
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it's that big but man it's it's
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massive some corn springing up here
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too it's just so peaceful driving
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through back roads going to small towns
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especially been driving as long as I
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have today covered a lot of I think I've
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already gone about 550
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miles just nice to kind of be at one
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with your thoughts out
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here it's nice to do every once in a
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while a road trip even though I am on a
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time crunch definitely going at a
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quicker Pace than I want to be going at
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but yeah still nice
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you got the water tower in view over
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there so check this out this is an
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active Twin Cinemas
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drivein and they're actually playing a
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movie over here tonight
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this is kind of neat when the movies are
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over throw your trash right
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here please pitch trash bags here if you
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miss keep going trash
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only want to be in the video Jim sure so
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Jim's here you might remember him from
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Denver we're a long way from home what
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the heck are you doing here what are you
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doing here we are a long way from home
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he wasn't riding with me but I met up
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with him here he said hey come over here
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I want to show you something cool yep
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and this is definitely something pretty
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cool I dig it two
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screens train tracks right behind the
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back screen there so every night a train
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comes rumbling through about halfway
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through the movies there'll be four
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movies tonight and one of them is
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Jurassic partment this is Jim's old
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stomping ground this is this this is
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where I'm
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from Harvest Moon Drive in just so
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happened we were in the same same place
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at the same time what are the odds let's
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go check it out they don't have the old
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school retro things that go on the
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Windows they use the the FM AM dial
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now snack bar snack
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bar it's Bacon Fest
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tonight you're going to be playing all
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Kevin Bacon
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movies I think all flavors of bacon on
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the food even have a vintage Carousel
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over
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here look at this a vintage Carousel in
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here
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oh you can rent these out too if you
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want to sit in the back of a a
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truck that's
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different y Jurassic Park trimers on
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screen too o trimmers is the project
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projector Booth All Digital now but
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here's the original film reel
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here every time I see a screen like this
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I always think of The Outsiders
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not The Outsiders Red Dawn Red Dawn
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that's what I'm thinking
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of Harvest Moon Drive in and across the
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way that used to be well that's a truck
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that used to be an old Pizza Hut you can
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definitely tell that used to be an old
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Pizza
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Hut all right other side of the water
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tower now over here at Mon's
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Pizza there might not be a dress code
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but you might need a monacle to go in
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okay Mr
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Peanut you must be the Monopoly guy this
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like a dough it's like spell it inside
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of it and they are celebrating their
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60th anniversary right here I want to
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know who wears these hats right here I'm
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just kind of curious who wears all these
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hats they also have sandwiches I think I
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might go with a sand all right here is
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my sandwich got the pizza action going
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on over here got the mushrooms on it and
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I got the little Ruffles they have
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ridges and I got the Italian beef
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sandwich yeah after the dinner Sun's
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starting to set over there it'll be dark
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soon well they let me eat without
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wearing a
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monocle pretty good food
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going try to make it over to the Indiana
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State Line maybe a little past the
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Indiana state line and then get a hotel
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for the
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evening got about another 80 mil punched
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in which I think think will put me at
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about the 615 630
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M trip distance today assuming I make it
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to where I think I'm going to make it
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over the state
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line not right on the state line but
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past the state line by a half hour or
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pretty nice catch up with my buddy Jim
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Denver just happened to be in the area
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doing some family stuff is old stomping
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ground had a nice dinner and now
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carrying on