Born and conceived inside of a hot tub in Florida. G'day and welcome to treasures of our town podcast where we take you on our journey around USA without ever leaving the comfort of your own home or car. Each episode will transport you to a new destination, exploring the sights, sounds and tastes that make each place unique. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or simply dreaming of your next adventure. Join us as we share insider tips, fascinating stories and inspiring experiences from the road. So sit back, relax, and let your imagination take place as we embark on our next journey together. Oh, isn't that a nice intro? Josh? Oh my gosh, can you believe well done episode number episode number one we are here. Can we believe it? Now? I can't remember. Did we actually write that intro? Or did we let the robots write it for us? Well, well, I actually let the robots write it for us this morning. Hey, we got to start somewhere. Right? We really do. We really do. I have never been a part of hosting a podcast before. So I I'm just going to be completely honest. I don't even know what I'm doing right now. However, Craig, yes, you have hosted your own podcast before. So yes, I have. I'm totally leaning on you. And all your amazing, wonderful expertise. Oh, wow. Well, firstly and foremost, welcome to everyone listening out there in your cars or on your sofas or couches or lounges, whatever you like to call them. Wherever you are. Grab a beverage and make sure it's either hot or cold. Mine's actually hot. I've got a hot cup of coffee with me this morning. Josh, what have you got? I've got a hot cup of coffee with some creamer in it. It is also delicious. And hopefully it will make my voice sound Oh, so smooth. Delicious for an American I'll bet with the cream is I still can't believe it. But anyway, getting on with the show episode number one, Josh this. You know what? This is gonna sound a bit sort of a bit. Narcissistic, if you like, but this is all about us this episode one. So just people Yeah, well introduce people to who we are. If they don't know who we are. We're gonna introduce them to who we are exactly. They they need to know who we are. They need to know what this podcast is about. I mean, yep, they want to know, they want to know, should they be clicking that subscribe button? And the answer is yes. Yes, they should. Absolutely. Well, we'll start with you, Josh. Just tell us a quick background about yourself. If people don't know you, who you are, where you're from, what you do that sort of thing. And we'll get we'll get get a start. Okay, my name is Joshua Johnson. On the internet. I'm known as the Geocaching Vlogger. And we'll talk a little bit about geocaching a little bit later, but I am a YouTube creator. That's what I'm known for on the internet. But I'm also a husband, a dad, and public speaker. For my day job. I actually am sort of like a motivational speaker but not like the not like, you know, live in the van down by the river type of public motivational speaker. And I've been on YouTube creating YouTube videos for over 12 years. I saw that. Yeah, it's a long time. It's a long time. And one of the things that I love about first of all the hobby of geocaching, which we'll get to in a little bit and creating videos is the wonderful places that geocaching takes you and I love travel. And that is sort of the passion behind treasures of our town. Exactly right and and we'll get into that in a second in terms of how we come about this particular podcast and how it was born. But for those people who don't know me, my name is Craig. My YouTube name is Seema shell or the Ozzy geocaches in my shell. You can see that there's geocaching geocaching. Yes, that's how we met Josh and I was through the lovely hobby of geocaching. But I too am a traveler and obviously by my voice I am not from the good old USA. No, I'm not. And no, I'm from Australia. People actually asked me where am I from? Like then they think I'm from Great Britain, sometimes New Zealand. I even get South Africa here, Josh. But no, I'm over here now living in the good old US of A with my us of a wife, whom I met on my very first trip across USA back in 2018. I think it was and you met her at a geocache event. Well, actually, a year after the gigger event where I met you. I met her the next day. So I met you face to face in person. On that day. The very next day, I met my now wife. So that's an amazing story. Just that so you're in New Jersey right now. I forgot to tell the people where I'm from York. I'm from Philly. Right now. Cold chilly snowy. Great Midwestern. plains of Minnesota. I'm from the Minneapolis St. Paul area, which by the way, is a great place to travel to maybe not in the month of February or March. But it is a beautiful place to live. And I've lived here pretty much my whole life. So I forgot that part because my name is Joshua the Minnesota geocaching. Vlogger like versus like the Aussie geocacher That's right. That's well, that's not in my branding. No, no, not at all. Mind you Josh. I did say this morning. You in single digit figures Fahrenheit there this morning. Oh, of course. Oh, of course. That's that's very normal. That's a normal day here. It's a normal March day. Yeah, we just had St. Patty's day there is if you if you look at my window right now there is absolutely no green at all out my window right now. See, now if you look at my window, and I'm in New Jersey, New Jersey, do get snow often as well. But this year, I've had one flurry day of snow flurry. That's it. That's it. Lucky. We've got we've got green. We've got flowers that are blooming at the moment as well. You know, like this spring flowers are coming out now already down near the seaside. The Jersey Shore. Speaking of seaside? Yeah, I think we need to tell them. What is the Genesis? What is the birth story? What is the origin story of this podcast that you're listening to right now treasures of our town? Because it was born? Let's just say it was born by the sea. It really was it we were wet at a time when it was born to just you remember it? Yeah. We were wet. This podcast was born and conceived inside of a hot tub in Florida. It sounds wonderful. Weird. It sounds weird. But it's not weird. Because you know, you always have to start somewhere. Right? Exactly. Exactly. Well, let's be honest, Josh as well. The actual idea of you and I are getting together to do a podcast. So was was come about from a fake, like podcasts that we we attempted to launch, so to speak, called under the lamppost. You remember that? Yes. Yeah. About this time last year, April 1, we we started our podcast. Yeah, this actually isn't my first podcast. This is my second podcast. Yeah. Because even though it was a fake podcast, but it was a real fake podcast. Yeah, it was only one episode podcast. But it was a podcast who's to say that they're not more episodes, and they only come out once a year. Craig? Exactly. But in saying that this one isn't this one here. This episode is going to be every second week on Monday morning, Eastern 9am. That's going to goodness, because let's be honest, Monday mornings. Oh, it can be a little rough. And when you have something to look forward to, to download for your commute. Or if you're sitting at your desk or wherever you're listening to this. Yeah, Monday mornings. Perfect time to have a new podcast come out. It really is. It really is. Now, we spoke about this in the hot tub in Florida. And you were very apprehensive about everything. You were like, you know, ah, I don't know that we'll have the time. I don't you've never done it before. So you didn't know what was the back end of you know, hosting your podcast is gonna be like, Yeah, I was nervous. But before I say that, I was excited about the idea of it. Yeah. Because, as I've said before, I really believe that our wonderful activity and hobby of geocaching and Munzee Yeah, it's location based games. And where do location based things take you to locations. And let's be honest, sometimes obviously, the locations are going to be sort of, you know, under a lamppost in a in a parking lots of things. And they're not so good. But predominantly, most of the times when you at geocaching or at a good Munzee location. They take you to places where the general public do not normally go to if you're a tourist. Yeah, that's something Yeah. And they take you to community sometimes that are not always highlighted, you know, a lot of a lot of travel, maybe podcasts or YouTube channels, you know, they focus on on the big sort of touristy spots. And one of the great things about our hobbies is that it sometimes takes you takes you to those smaller communities, because within every little smaller community, if you talk to the locals there, you realize there, there are hidden treasures there. There's history there. There's great places to eat. There's great people to meet. And so, as we were in the hot tub, I was thinking, Craig, I think if I would ever start a podcast, it would be a podcast about travel about exploring hidden places. Maybe off the beaten path. Some of those things that maybe people just drive by or a flyover country that our hobby has brought us. So I want to say the idea wasn't necessarily a geocaching podcast. No. It's got just got geocaching slash Munzee slash location based gaming in general, because there are other other games out there as well. They got that little sprinkling of it, but predominantly, this is going to be a travel, a travel podcast. Yeah. So this this podcast is not necessarily a geocaching or location based game related, but I would say, Craig, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Hopefully we're on the same page. We've been on the same page a lot. A lot. Is that this podcast our travel is guided yes by our hobby of geocaching Monsey. Exactly. Well, we were in Florida in that hot tub because of of our Monday. We were in recently we were over in in California because of Monsey as well. We've went to yuma arizona because of geocaching. So we got to those places. And this is you and I together. Yeah. So yeah, we go to these places, because of these outdoor games that we play. But at the same time, I can say now in Yuma especially those peanut butter abuse that we had, and I think with Bosque they were delicious. You know, those are the things those are the memories you have. It's not just about finding hidden container or scanning a QR code. It's more about meeting up with friends. You know, getting out doors, having fun exploring new locations. And but as I said that peanut butter be that chocolate peanut butter. Yes. See, I still got that on my my taste buds. And yet here I am. What it's 18 months later, two years later, yes, you're still talking about it, you're still thinking about it. And those things deserve to be shared. And just like anything like I do, as far as my motivation for putting anything out into the world as far as social media content is to inspire people to realize that there's more out there to explore more to see. And I do it through the hobby of geocaching. But it's because of geocaching that I've had peanut butter beer. It's because of geocaching and Monsey that I've discovered the Wizard of Oz Museum in Cocoa Beach. Really good. We could go on and on. And our hope is to be able to share those things with you all. And who knows, maybe you will book a flight to Norfolk, Nebraska. You may never have thought about going to Norfolk Nebraska. But but because you heard it here, and you heard about my adventure creg or our adventures together. You might be like, You know what? I think? I think I'm gonna find the treasure in that town. Exactly, exactly. And that's what this podcast is about. So we're gonna be focusing upon towns only in the US at the moment. Until we get a bigger budget, Josh? Yeah. And I'm just gonna say we're currently in debt. Like not personally, this podcast, we're, we're already in debt. Yeah. But that's what happens when you start up something like this as well. So because that's how we got started with this you gave you come up with this idea with a podcast in the hot tub. And that was all like fun and games that was all well and good. But you have you're nervous about it. And then all of a sudden, like, like, what is it like a month later? You received a beautiful microphone in the mail from me. Come on, Josh. Let's go pull your finger out. We'll get started. I'm sure if I even. I'm not sure I even agreed or actually said yes. Maybe I did. If I did. It might have been after a few beers in the hot tub. I don't know. It was middle la Mila Hyla. Yeah, we were living the high life in the hot hot tub. And then all of a sudden, two months later, a microphone shows up at my house. And it's like, oh, remember that podcast? We're doing it? And I was like, Yeah, okay, sounds good. Exactly, exactly. So but as I said, we as we stated before, this podcast itself is not just about the outdoor gaming itself, we were actually going to show people what traveling has shown us when we traveled us what can we do? We're gonna do some shows like a top 10 style, you know, top 10 places to be your Top 10 Top 10 big things for instance. Oh, wow. Okay, can we stop right there? Oh, yeah, I am a huge fan of roadside attractions. I love like the world's biggest rocking chair in KC Illinois. I love the Jolly Green Giant that stands 55 feet tall. In southern Minnesota. You just did the enville as well. There was a big anvil saw there's a giant anvil in Gilby North Dakota. These places I want to do we could do many episodes on just we could just like one thing like why why is the Jolly Green Giant in bluearth Minnesota like that it'd be so much fun. And actually, Craig, I was just thinking about this. There's a woman that I follow on Instagram. And she has a Instagram account called Silly America. And her Instagram account is about traveling to big things. Or roadside attractions. Wouldn't it be great if we have we're gonna have guests right from time to time? Yeah, we can say what are your top 10 Best roadside attractions? There's so that the the United States is so big. The possibilities are limitless. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I love that sort of idea. We get to also do some tips and tricks. Tell us about that, again, tips and tricks for your tips and tricks. I know travel travel tips and tricks. Wow, that is hard. So you can let us basically be your tour guide. Why not? You know exactly what, Greg, I'm gonna put you on the spot right now. Because we got it. This is the introduction, but we got to provide it to provide value, right? Yes, I know. Yeah. top of your head. Your best travel tip or trick? Go? Oh, wow. This is you. You've got me never off. Skrill we are totally off script. It's now gone. I got one. I got one. What do you want me to? Personally? Yeah, no, no, I got one. Okay, right off the bat. And that is preparation. Preparation is key for me. So the travel tip would be say for instance, I'm actually currently in the process, Josh, of researching some places to go and see and what to go and see in Cape Town, South Africa. Wow. So yeah, so that's we're looking but my wife and I are looking at doing a towards the end of the year. And yeah, that's what I've been doing. So you research and planning and preparation is for me is the biggest key to your travel. That's great. What about you? You tell me what you got. Some people know this. Other people don't know. But when writing in a plane on the aisle seat, you have that? You have the aisle armrest. Right. And that thing doesn't move up. And a lot of people don't know. And some of you might be listening like, Josh. Everybody knows that. No, not everybody knows that because I put a video on tick tock about it. And it was mind blowing. All right. But underneath that armrest is a button. There's a little button, you press the button and the armrests can actually go up. Yeah, give yourself a little more room on that long flight. Exactly. Especially when you go to a big Butler for someone like myself. It's very, it's a lot of handy. I knew that on Josh. I knew that on because I've traveled to and from Australia and America on those long haul flights several times over the past few years. And during COVID times as well especially. It was a great tip because there was no one traveling during COVID times and I was traveling back and forth back on board at some times Josh in the middle. Middle seats, I'd have all four middle seats to myself. Wow. And so I'd put all the armrests up and I've got to lay flat bed. The only problem was at that time was that the air steward still wanted us to sort of make sure we buckled up so I had to try and buckle up and then twist the twist the belt so I could lay down anyway this story so I died so there you go. We're already hungry ghosts already providing value. Exactly. This show was well we can make friends on the show. Why not? Yeah, we became friends through this world of geocaching. Yes, we did. And for those of you who don't know because we do get asked a couple of times how you and I actually met and it was basically when I first started geocaching I was a newly single dad and I had my two kids as well. And we were going out geocaching. And then after the day of geocaching, we'd come home and while I'm cooking dinner, I would hear Josh I would hear your voice playing on my iPad from my son watching your video because did it sound like this? Hey, guys, it's Joshua The Geocaching blogger and we're gonna head out on a great adventure today. It really did. Actually, it wasn't as lively back then it was more subdued. You become more lively. Oh, I have I thought I've kind of hollowed out as I've gotten on another. I love I love your first first ever video. No, that one. Well, that was the bit that was That's horrible. And we're not going to talk about it anymore. Well, that's your that's your first video Josh. You see, and like this. This is our first podcast. So really, we're going to look back at this podcast and go Oh, Josh, that was horrible. Yeah. Right now you're all listening to the worst of the treasure of our town. Yes, it's not the worst one. This is the worst is gonna get so it's only gonna get better for me. If that doesn't make you hit the subscribe button. I don't know what if you want to hear us get better then keep on listening. Right. So yeah, so that's how I heard of you basically was through you YouTube channel. And then a few years go by. And of course kids grow up and they get your to cool for geocaching and whatnot as well. So they sort of moved on. But I didn't I had the I had, I was addicted, I had the bug and I was still following you at the time. You then brought out this thing called Patreon. Yes. And I was your number one where Patreon. Craig was the very first person to support the geocaching. vlogger on Patreon, and I'm not sure it's because he loves me the most or if he was just awake, because he lived in Australia. Everybody else was going to sleep maybe I don't know. But you are now I think I think I was awake. You were still are still supporting me on Patreon. Absolutely. I haven't stopped certainly having substance in. Well, speaking of Patreon, Josh, you know, we've got a Patreon. We do. We weren't gonna mention this. But I'll at least say we do. We've got a Patreon. And we've got we've already after 24 hours, we've got three members. And can what can I say that our first one you got to shout them out. They decided to support us before we made anything, almost anything, anything at all. And our number one is marimba. Oh, you remember how I love that guy? Guy was that makes some amazing geocaches in Long Island. And because of him, I can't wait to go to Long Island again to find more of his geocaches. And he's just he's just a super nice guy. So thanks, Jamie. So just we also got two others as well. So there's three in total. We've got Kaylene. And I do believe her geocaching name is no angel. And she's from Australia. Awesome. And then yeah, and then we have I think you know this guy. The truck. Remember Dan truck? Yes, I know. Dan. Yeah, another Pennsylvania the great guy. geocacher. And that's amazing. Thank you so much. It really is it really, we are on our way. And I was joking that we're in debt. But the only reason we're in debt because you're listening to these beautiful brand new microphones. Yeah, we thought, you know, a good podcast has to have have quality sound, right? The truck good audio, it needs good audio. You know, because people aren't. Well, this has been with us. You're not going to watch us at this point in time live. This is all pre recorded podcast. It'll be edited and audio only. You know, let's be honest. We've seen our ugly mugs, you know, in other other means, like on YouTube and everything else as well. So this one here is just the ears. Oh, yeah, they want to see our faces and places to see our faces. But I I do appreciate that. I got up this Sunday morning. And I didn't have to blow dry my hair like I normally do. Oh, Craig. Craig is seen my morning routine. It's very extensive. Especially for me. I thought I thought like, you know, this is my I'm on my second marriage now. And so I've had two wives, both of which combined, a shorter than you when they're combined getting ready in the morning. Wow. And can I just quickly Oh, good, quick story for everyone as well, while we're out there because we do have a little bit of time. On our recent trip to California. Josh and I and we were with another good friend Tim, Minnesota boy. And Josh wakes up from the first night in in California. And we were there and he's hustling. He's hustling around everywhere. She like a little mouse and we're like what's wrong with Josh? And then he starts he starts getting upset. I can't find a blow dryer. Can you believe it? I can't find a blow dryer. I'm like, Who was this? Is this guy like what? It was to blow dry? He was he was gonna blow dry his hair. Yep, yep. And he you are you got I can't find a blow dryer and you're getting cranky. Well, come on. Now. Here's another tip for you out there if you ever will choose to be an Airbnb host. Yeah, gotta have a you gotta have a hairdryer. Yeah, every hotel. Every hotel has a hairdryer every air b&b Should this one did not an ion as well. I'll just say this. It's to be honest. You're going to go what they should have. And they should have an iron as well, because every hotel has an iron. But we should have known Josh because the hand soap in the bathroom was dish soap. Yes. That that Airbnb was clearly managed by? I don't know. Yeah, I it was somebody that clearly did not have maybe an eye for detail. Exactly. Now, that's another thing that people can expect on this podcast, because we're going to talk about this and we're going to talk about where we stayed the types of Airbnbs we stay at because predominantly, we don't actually stay we're not hotel guests. Really we're Airbnb guests. We like to support the the mom and pop sort of shocked sort of things. So we're gonna talk about Airbnb. We're gonna talk about where we eat when we travel. We're gonna talk about where we drink when we travel. Yes. So that's, that's a lot of what we're going to talk about. I totally want to say to you Are are generally positive people, and we're going to be totally honest about everything that we share. But we're really gonna highlight the best, right? And we will, every travel experience, I'm sure has some negative some things that aren't so great. But I rather spend time here talking about the great things that we experienced rather than, rather than maybe some of the negative things that we encounter. Exactly. Unless Unless those negative things, you know, a bit humorous, like you're not fighting. It's a big deal. I like well, I remember the first time I encountered you, you reached out to me via email. And you asked about this app that I don't think even exists anymore called Keadle. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah, I just unlocked a memory for you. And basically, what he did was that you could you could create, like an adventure for somebody, or you could set a location, and the person couldn't open up a message until they got to a certain location. And I think you were setting up some sort of Rite Aid or something like, exactly what I did. I set up a multi stage, like a multi waypoint, I should say, multi waypoint, location based date, for she was a geocacher at the time as well. And yeah, so I got her to sort of travel up and down the main street where I was the whole time, I was actually sitting in the restaurant watching her walking up and demonstrating like a stalker. And then she found out the the main location, because I've never told her at all. Where I was taking her on. It was my first date not didn't tell her where it was, or was it was what she should wear, and gave her GPS coordinates to her first clue. That was a great, Harry. That's very creative, and very stalkerish. I don't think I recorded Well, actually, I did I think I've got a video. That's funny. I did. I did. Is it still on your channel? Good luck. One. It is. On my YouTube channel, the OCG caches see my shell. It goes back a few years now I'm talking. That'd be eight years ago. Wow. Do we have? Do we have shownotes? Can people like it? Click on things that we share on your? Yes, yes, they can. They will be in the show notes. And our show notes will be on our website. Our website is treasures that of our town.buzzsprout.com. Nice so or you can just Google treasures of our town podcast and we should come up. So we mentioned the Keto app. But a lot of people that might be listening, maybe not initially, I'm guessing probably. When this comes out most of the people that will listen to it for the first time. They probably either know who we are. They probably know about geocaching, or Munzee. Yeah. But you know, they're years from now, we might still be doing this. And people want to go to the very beginning. And we're talking about this this hobby activity obsession called geocaching, I think it's important. Let's give them just a little bit of a primer of what exactly we're talking about. So geocaching, to me is a location based game where you get coordinates to go to a location to find a hidden container of sorts, predominantly, that is geocaching. So it's like a real life treasure hunt, in my mind. Obviously there's other avenues around when it comes to virtual caches and webcams and all these other types. But predominantly, that's what it is, in my mind. It's like a virtual treasure. I like to call it a scavenger hunt rather than a treasure hunt. Because let's be honest, people think treasure they think they're going to arrive there and have great loads of cash that they will find Well, it's called geocaching. And people assume it's cash like money. Yeah. Or jewels or treasures. And the cool thing about geocaching is, you know the locations that brings you. So I've learned the people you meet the people you meet. I've learned about a lot of cool places locally, like neat parks that I never even knew about because of geocaching. So if you're listening to this and you're like That sounds interesting. I always tell people download the official free geocaching app, create yourself a free account, open it up and just take a look and see what's around you. Exactly, exactly and if you want more information on any of this I've actually got a full tutorial on my YouTube channels well like tutorials in terms of from how to start, how to download the app, even how to place one yourself when you want to at the time as well. What best there is a how to get GPS coordinates. That's all on my YouTube channel in terms of tutorials of how to geocache, so that's fantastic. Yeah, you show your channel mostly shows the excitement and the locations and the value. Whereas mine is more tutorial based, but insane that people have asked me and I'm good They go a little bit off script again, here, just people have asked me why I've been so absent on on social media. And if you don't know me, then I am a ex police officer in Australia. And I had a lot of mental health issues going back 18 months ago, Josh, and that's when I sort of stopped with my social media stuff. I sort of stopped YouTube videos, I stopped a lot of things. And I'll put this out there as well. If anyone is out there listening to this, and you do have issues with mental health, whatever it might be. Mine, personally is PTSD. And I turned, I turned Josh, I turned to geocaching. And I turned to Munzee. To get me outside, get fresh air, listen to me on Kraken. It's still there, it is still there. I'm still I'm still fighting the good fight. But I'm still getting outside, I'm still the fresh air in my lungs, I'm still getting sunshine on my skin, all because of these two games. And I do believe that, in some way, these two games that we play, it's saved a lot of heartache for me, if not the worst, you know, just so