Today is Friday, February 6th, and we've got a fun episode planned today. We're going to dive into some of the top headlines from across the state. And if you stick around to the end, we're going to give you our Valentine's Day recommendations from Evansville to South Bend, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, wherever you live, you will find something within, I'd say, 45 minutes to an hour, even the region. We got a spot up there. So, we'll be sharing that at the end of the episode. But before we get into it, the first thing we want to talk about, Shane, what have you learned about Indiana this month?
What's something fun? Uh, we're constantly meeting new people, talking about, oh my gosh, whether it's history or vacation or travel or anything. We learned so many things and we want to take a moment and share some of that with the listeners. So, what have you learned about Indiana in let's say January, in the month of January, what did you learn? Well, in the month of January, we had record snowfall uh in Indianapolis. In a single day, we got over 9 in of snow.
And is that's a record for single day?
For a single day.
Cuz people were also comparing it to like the blizzard of 1987.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And it was not to that level.
That was over a few days.
Yes. That was spread out over a few days cuz I think the single day high of the wizard of 78 was like 4.9. So basically doubled that or close to uh just a couple of weekends ago. But on day two when that snowstorm basically blanketed all of Indiana and a lot of the Midwest and a lot of the South as well, I went out, shoveled my driveway, shoveled my sidewalk, like, okay, it's time like just bite the bullet and let's get this over with. And while I was out there, there was probably another five or six neighbors further down the street uh you know, just five minutes down the road in Broadripple, um out shoveling theirs. And so I was like, "Well, no one's going anywhere. There's literally no traffic." So I had my dog Bam Bam out with me. He's just like walking the neighborhood.
Bam Bam is a great follow on social [laughter] media. Uh I mean, what kind of dog is it?
Uh Alaskan Malamu.
Yeah. Like big furry snow dog.
Snow dog. He was in his element.
I mean like I think Bam Bam had more followers than all of us to start like hit 10K pretty quick.
So he uh so he's just like off the leash just walking down the road. There's again, there's no cars anywhere. The road hasn't been plowed. Um he's going up to neighbors that are shoveling their driveways and whatnot. And so while he's out roaming, I'm like, "Well, if he's being friendly, I'm going to be friendly. So, I'll go down and help these people out." And then as I started to help a few neighbors, we identified some elderly couples that lived on our street and knew that they would be snowed in for days. And so, we shoveled a few driveways and sidewalks of their houses. and you just see Hers come together. So again, it wasn't something that maybe I learned, but like seeing Hoosier hospitality firsthand and being a part of that with a group of neighbors that some I had met, some I hadn't, and we worked together for three or four hours that afternoon, it was
dude,
a warming experience. It was cool.
It's always fun to learn. I feel like everyone talks about how the people of Indiana are awesome, but learning firsthand and like getting to see it again. You like get done, maybe you like sip a cup of coffee or some hot cocoa and you're like, you know what, the people around here are pretty good. Cuz like I mean some of them you probably never met before.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. There was actually a really strange uh connection while I was shoveling. Uh we had just started on this couple's home and Bam is just walking the sidewalk and like plowing through the snow and doing whatever. And uh a gal comes up and she's like looking at me for a little bit and then she looks at him and then she's like, "Is that Bam Bam?" And I was like, and I didn't recognize this girl and she's just and I was like, "Yes." So then I was like, maybe she saw him on social media or something like that. And then she's like, "I used to live at uh River Crossing at Keystone." So the apartment complex that we lived in back in and this was right when I moved to Indie in 2017. And we had met this gal. She had a a small dog. And so we would see her dog in passing. And that was
almost 9 years ago.
That's crazy.
And she remembered his name. didn't remember mine. That's usually how it goes when you meet a meet a doggy like
Yeah, absolutely.
No one no one ever asked what your name is. What's his name? What's her name?
And Bam Bam's just like a very memorable name. [laughter] Um I learned some I mean interesting things. The one thing I learned is actually uh just the other day learning about the town of Zensville. So today we posted our small town breakdown all about Zensville. Diving in. Okay. Do you have you ever driven? So if you take 421 and then you are going west and then you go to get to the village of Zville and there's that like softball baseball field right there.
Apparently when it rains like heavy in Zensville that whole park I think it's called uh Lions Park
like will will get like under severe water and back on one of the buildings they actually mark how high the floods have gotten when that area floods. So, if you ever find yourself in Zensville walking around, find like this little utility bathroom building somewhere in the back and there'll be markers of how much water they've been under. And I think that's really interesting cuz it is like kind of set down that hill.
What is the source of water that gets backed up? Is it Eagle Creek there?
I have no idea. I I don't know about the source of it, but Zensville, it can experience flood plane.
Yeah, a little flood plane down there. So, check out your insurance. Um, we do want to go into a portion where we're talking about some of the biggest headlines from across the state of Indiana. The first thing we need to talk about is coming out of Loganport. This is Cass County. There is a $6 million incubator kitchen and pavilion that is that just opened up, I believe, right?
Um, the Cass County Community Foundation. They finished up almost I think it was almost $6 million. I think they got 5 million from the Lily Foundation and another 500,000 from someone else. And it's an incubator kitchen and 16,000 square f foot pavilion to host the farmers market during the winter. Uh and I think actually all year long, not during the winter. I don't know why I said that.
Um but this is designed to help entrepreneurs start, scale, and sell food products. pretty interesting coming out of rural Loganport, Indiana, Cass County, and like a a large bet that food and having really good food in these rural communities might be able to draw some tourism and get some more, you know, local businesses up off the ground.
Yeah, you boost the local economy in a hurry with something like this. And I think what had just started a couple of weeks ago at this uh new development is the launch menu. It's a free educational series like you said that helps people that are interested in just getting a a business started. So it can be something like the details on licensing and packaging and labeling and business planning all and all those little details and behind the scenes boxes that you have to check.
Yeah.
To get things off the ground. But then you've got the food sources there, the food products there. Well, we even talked about it um when we dove into the episode on send a friend a lasagna and like commercial kitchens. So, if you really want to create a business in the food space, you can't just bake cookies like grandma did, you know, out of your home. You really have to have a commercial grade kitchen with that meets all and obviously we want that, you know, we want our food to maintain sanitation and, you know, hit those boxes. But I think it's super interesting to bring that into a community again like a Loganport. It's like everyone all of these smaller communities across the state that are thriving kind of find a lane to really lean into. And I believe this was inspired from they did a similar model up in Grand Rapids Rapids, Michigan.
And I think they even hired like a person from up there to relocate down to Cass County, which is pretty sick.
That is
uh to see
saw saw something they liked, found an individual.
Yeah. recruiting, right? [laughter] Like talent attraction and and I mean obviously there had to be a pretty compelling pitch to get them to move. I mean Grand Rapids is a pretty large like relative city in comparison to Loganport. So there definitely must be doing things right and cool that the Lily Foundation uh invested in Cass County and I mean 5 million bucks again in rural Indiana like that can make a huge impact. So I'm curious to see uh this summer if you're looking for an interesting day. I think there's going to be some cool stuff coming from the the incubator kitchen in Cass County. So, keep that on your radar. Uh obviously, they're going to have public sessions about making food and building your business. Shane, if you were to start a food business, what food business would you want to start from the incubator kitchen in Cass County?
It's not necessarily a habachi.
Oh,
but it's along those lines. It's like a steakhouse. There's a couple back in Iowa that I've been to. Uh
for anyone who doesn't know, Shane grew up in Iowa. [laughter] Um, I don't know if I found any places like this here, but you select your cut
of steak. So, strip, sirloin, whatever it is,
and you grill it,
but you're like Korean barbecue style.
Yeah. You you are in the restaurant
and they'll bring it to you like you basically go up to a counter, see what cut you want, how many ounces you want, you take that to your table and then you can actually like
Is there a hot plate? Yeah.
I mean, think about that though. You are paying someone to grill your own steak.
Like it's an experience.
It's an experience,
dude. That was [clears throat] like I went to
It would be fun if there was like some coaching.
Yeah. Like how to properly Yeah.
You know, or even like a little video like, "Hey, this is, you know, guides to whatever." I went to a really interesting spot up in Cooko. I think there's a few locations around uh Yummy Bowl.
My buddy Blaine is from Cooko and he recommended checking out Yummy Bowl. And it's like a you go through the line almost like a buffet and you make your own like stir fry bowl and you can have like octopus and chicken and mushrooms and vegetables and all the stuff and then they like go and they'll like like uh walk like stir fry
like a Mongolian grill.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So there's one place in Iowa and this is where we went. We're in wrestling season right now.
Yeah. Yeah.
When we were in high school and we were wrestling this place was called Hooh Hot. Huh? Hot.
It was Hoohot. H U H O T. It was a Mongolian grill and it was that exact concept. You got a bowl. You could take two bowls if you wanted because you'd get like there were four or five different like noodle varieties that you could put in a bowl or whatever. You've got uh just like all the different meats that you mentioned.
There's probably halfozen meats to go through. Then you get to like a whole vegetable bar and then there's a sauce bar at the end and you layer on whatever sauce. And I I had a buddy um it it starts with mild and finishes with like flaming inferno or whatever. And uh he went with the hottest and they were bringing him pictures of water. He was like in a deep sweat. It was our heavyweight.
He put down like we always said like if you could get to a third bowl at a place like that like man you put down some you put down some food that day. And he put down every time we went he was like five bowls.
That's crazy.
Big boy.
Wow. And [laughter] I just like I can just imagine.
So you said yours was the name of that.
It was called Yummy Bowls. Yummy.
And I think there's one in Columbus, Indiana, and there's Cooko. It's cool. Um it's a total vibe. If I were starting a restaurant concept
out of the Incubator Kitchen in Cass County, I might choose Okay, hear me out on this, people. We're going to take a
Wait, that wasn't your choice?
No. No. That's a real place. That was a real place that that exists. I would start I'm going to stay in the same vein. I'm just going to like pontificate on this idea.
What about Midwest sushi?
What if it was like
like you know if you've ever had like shrimp tempura and it's like fried shrimp, but what if it was like pork tenderloin and like lettuce tomato, you know, all wrapped around maybe rice or something? Like there's a concept of Midwest sushi that could be pretty interesting. I've heard people call like I think they're pin wheels, you know, if you've ever seen like the turkey wraps. Like they call that Midwest sushi. But I think it'd be really interesting to do like um like a fried like chicken strips, rice.
I don't know. Like I I think that would be a fun concept to like pull a thread on.
My mind went to just like White River catfish. [laughter]
Some white river cat. There we go. Yeah. And you have some like
Oh man, I'm not trying to think of like what kind of Indiana, you know,
like Lake Monroe trout. [laughter] Good old. That would be fun. Um, okay. I also heard of an interesting hooer that everyone needs to know about. So, this came from Evansville, Indiana.
And I might butcher her name, so I apologize for that, but Lucy Juan Sidler, Wayne, w a hs i e d ridler. She worked as a riveter during World War II, and she just celebrated her 100th birthday on January 26th. That is insane. So, she riveted tail assemblies for P47 Thunderbolt aircrafts at the Hoosier Park Cardinal Company in Evansville. So, you're telling me someone uh this is like the Rosie the Riveter era. Super super cool.
She just turned 100, but someone who helped construct like World War II age like fighter planes is still alive and kicking. Like that's pretty that's pretty cool. I wonder how old she was. I should have looked into that. Uh, I wonder how old she was like when she was working in the factory there. Her service is actually honored on the Evansville Wartime Museum's war worker wall.
Say that five times fast. Um, and she remains actively involved with the museum. She's 100 years old. Like just so cool when you look at like the impact that people had. That would have been like in the 1940s. Like that is wild to me.
And it was really cool that the community around Evansville got together and Yeah. recognize her for her service. There's a whole celebration. Very, very cool.
All right. And then we're going to the opposite side of this.
Well, I want one question out of that.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, we had we had talked about this yesterday. You're in your 20s, 30s,
you are a 26-y old.
If you were born in the year 2000
and you're around until you're 100, what job will people be celebrating then?
They're still going to be talking about Fernando Mendoza and the boys from IU making their run. Like, they're going to talk about the turnaround. Coach Signetti, he'll be like probably like gone for 50 years by that point. No offense, coach. I hope you live for a very long time. But like I bet people will talk about that. I could also see something around being I mean this is a little political so I apologize for that in advance, but like something around data centers like whether that whether it ends up being a good idea or a bad idea, I have no idea. I don't know. Like there's someone in Indiana that's going to be like uh pioneering the right way to do data centers or like the like fighting for you know
the most efficient
efficient way to like save humanity as well as you know progress computers and stuff. I feel like that kind of thing they're obviously going to be talking about these guys who started a media company in Indiana and you know ran it up and you know helped
it'll be like what generation would it be to by that point? Yeah, there'll be a new host of Get In, [laughter] you know, for a year. Oh, man. So, if we started this in 2023,
we'll be celebrating our 77th anniversary. [laughter]
Uh, I will be Yeah, I'll be like a little over a hundred. I might still be on air,
be pushing 110.
You'll be hanging on by a thread, but it's great. That's an interesting concept. I'd love to know if you're out there, drop us an email. Tell me what jobs you think people will be talking about. Indiana Sports Corp and what their mission was here over the last couple of years and what they've basically wanted Indianapolis to become the epicenter of women's sports.
Yeah.
So, you've got Caitlyn Clark in town with the fever. I guarantee people will talk about her cuz she has transcended
Well, hopefully she like does sports.
Yeah. Hopefully she like does has enough accolades, too, to get get her statue. I mean, she was just uh doing some color commentary or like pregame analysis the other night for an NBA game and she'll be involved in the game until, you know, forever until she's gone. But you've got
maybe she'll have like a maybe she'll have like a Jordan moment where she like goes to like professional women's volleyball or golf or something and then comes back.
That would be pretty cool.
But you've also got the Ignite. You had someone from the Indiana Valor.
I think professional women's tackle football.
It's tackle football.
Crazy. But yeah, I I could see that like the work that Allison Barber and all of these other uh sports leaders uh that are really championing women's sports in Indiana, that could be something where they're talking like today we talk about Jim Morris being like the godfather of the city of Indianapolis when it comes to like sports and becoming the amateur sports capital of the world. I bet someone,
you know who it could be? Sarah Meyer at Indiana Sports Corp. Maybe we'll be talking about the work that you and your team are doing uh for just pioneering women's sports in Indiana. I think that's a great call, Shane. All right, now we've come to an interesting segment. This was really hot at the turn of the year, early 2026, and it's still hanging around. It's not like in all the national headlines, but people are really curious if the Bears are really considering moving to Northwest Indiana. Shane, I know you did a little bit of a deep dive into one, how stadium deals are funded, why it would make sense around the country. Are there other teams that are like the like again, is it New York one of them? Like the New York Giants don't play in they play in New Jersey?
Yeah, you've got the Giants and the Jets both playing at Metife Metife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but they both have New York attached to their team.
That's pretty interesting. It's not like that far out of the question. I know a lot of people think like no way they ever do it, but it could happen. and things are still progressing. So, talk to me, catch us up on what's going on with the East Chicago Bears.
Well, there's just a uh a very small $1.5 billion infrastructure plan that is just not feeling like it's going to happen in Chicago.
Yes, that's all the infrastructure they need to get the where they were Highland or no, what was it called? wherever that current um stadium that they had planned,
the site that they had planned. Yeah. In in the Chicago area. Um
Arlington Heights.
Yes.
Yeah. There are they need like a bunch of infrastructure. They're trying to get the city to come up for it and like there's a whole just
I'm just back and forth. And so then all of a sudden and it really
came out of the blue because this was the night that the Bears played
Packers.
The Packers
and in the crazy game that they came back in, I think won in overtime.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like right at the end like toward the end of the regular season.
Yeah.
Well, it was like a crazy g crazy.
It wasn't the playoff game.
No, it was but it was crazy to push them into overtime. Yeah.
So they come back they were down like 10 with two minutes left and they score onside score win OT and that day was the day that it broke from their owner that hey we are
their president right their CEO comes out and puts a whole statement and name drops
Northwest Indiana. Northwest Indiana like intentionally in his like official statement
and
and it was like we've exhausted, you know, we've we've tried and tried. We've had conversations. Illinois is pushing back. Uh the city of Chicago is pushing back. They don't want to build, you know, the infrastructure that is required for us to relocate and have this new stadium in Arlington Heights. So, we're going to cross state lines and
Yeah. And the the see what things look like. the ownership groups are really and like or the politicians are really pushing into the fact of like we don't want the taxpayers to fund a billionaires football team stadium and stuff like that when in reality if you look back through all of the stadiums that have been built uh they're usually taxpayer dollars usually 50 50 plus%
Lucas Oil Lucas Oil Stadium was 86%
86% came from public contributions a
$720 million stadium
what's the quick math thoughts on that?
I have no idea. We don't do public math, but [laughter] uh yeah, like Lucas Oil Stadium was a huge one, but it was like Indiana really wanted to retain the Colts, wanted to build, wanted to host a Super Bowl. And that's something you have to do like if you think of the economic impact that Lucas Oil Stadium has had. It's like you're I think you know the math starts to math down the road by bringing more events, bringing the Super Bowl, bringing stuff like that to Lucas Oil Stadium. Um but it is interesting. I think the one that had like the least amount of uh public money was the Rams charge at Sofi Stadium was 100% privately funded
covered. Yeah.
Which is like if you look at it, everything is for sale in that. Like everything is so commercialized.
They even have I think I saw one they sold one of their their field level suites to promote the new Piquey Blinders movie coming out on uh on Netflix. So, like in one of the corner suites, like imagine you're at a game at Lucas Ro Stadium and one of the corner endzone suites just has a bunch of like Peiquey Blinders looking guys with like the little like razor caps and everything just hanging out down there trying to get some national air time.
Legitimacy of it is that when that CEO had his statement, it was almost like is this just a
leverage?
Yeah. Just like, hey,
look where we're looking
now. Do you want to now do you want to help us out or do you want us to leave? We'll leave.
Don't make me leave. Yeah. Well, and it's like they looked at it and it was like I think it was Gary like uh the distance from Gary to down like where to downtown Chicago and the distance from Arlington Heights to downtown Chicago is like the same if not quicker.
Um and know it is interesting like it'll be I'll be curious. I think that the towns in the region are putting together proposals and like talking shop with the Bears
and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, he visited those sites. I think it was leading into maybe the Bears playoff game at home first round, but like that day had toured the sites in Northwest Indiana and just seeing what's laid out and now you've got legislators and politicians up in that area that are pushing hard for it.
I do
Governor Braun pushing for it. Like everyone is all in like, "Hey, we want the Bears."
And it's like how much if
you're a Bears fan in Indiana.
Yeah. And it's like how much time and resources do you want to dedicate to this? Because it's like you could spend a lot of human capital like sorting this plan out and in the back of you know the CEO of the Bears mind they're like yeah we're not moving to Indiana. So it's like a healthy balance of like pursuing it enough to keep it going but not like I don't know I think that that's a hard balance to do. The difference too with like you think of Indiana or Indianapolis funding the Colts stadium to a high degree was that like you're in downtown Indie there's already a lot of conventions and stuff that come here. I don't know like you know uh for instance we're hosting I believe at Lucas Oro Stadium we're hosting the final four and the what division NIA division 3 division 2 all all the championships this year
NIT
and it's yeah the NIT it's like I don't know if they're going to end up hosting stuff like that up in um
Northwest Indiana
Northwest Indiana either way it would be really crazy for Indiana to have two professional stadiums I'm curious to see how it how it plans out there. I hope it's not just a leverage play. I hope that we're like balancing how much again how much human capital you spend on that. But at the end of the day, very interesting. I looked through um one obviously New Jersey. The other one would be um well, I think it's like Washington.
That's the commanders. Yeah.
Like they're in
they're in they're Wow. The team officers are 26 miles away in Virginia,
but they're going back to DC.
They're getting a new stadium at the site of their old stadium, RFK Stadium. They're going back to DC in 2030.
You know, the other one that just did this was Kansas City.
Yes, they're planning to move to Kansas.
The Missouri side to the Kansas side. So, Kansas must be trying to play ball. Uh Dallas is in Arlington.
49ers are in Santa Clara.
Yep.
There's 10 teams.
This is a graph. I think this was in the IBJ, right? And it was distance uh from the center of the city the team represents to their
stadium or team offices.
Uh Santa Clara is 36 miles away from
downtown San Francisco.
Like Lake Forest is where the Bears office is and they're 28 miles from downtown Chicago,
which is interesting.
Think about like that is a healthy
that's a long drive
in cities of that size. Like I' I've been to uh Dallas's stadium four or five times, the the new stadium. And if you're in downtown Dallas,
like Dallas is what the fourth largest city in the US.
I think that's Houston.
But Dallas is a big I mean heavily populated. So, if you're 25 miles or 30 miles from downtown, if you're in a high-rise condo and you're like, I'm going to the Cowboys game or I'm going to the Bears game or wherever you live,
that is a heck of a commute to get there.
To drive from Lake Forest to Soldier Field is an hour and five minutes.
That's insane. Crazy. Well, we'll keep you guys informed on what's going on when it comes to all things. If the uh if the Bears are really playing ball with Northwest Indiana, we will make sure that you guys uh stay informed.
That's just a what
I mean,
will we still go to central time up there?
Yeah, you're in central time.
So, yeah, that would be a very quick drive from Indie.
Oh, to go to a Bears game.
To get to a Bears game.
Yeah, you gain an hour or two. Like, come home.
Shoot. Yeah.
Um the next thing we want to talk about is big events coming up uh across the state in February. And uh the first thing I have to say is tomorrow at Gainbridge Fieldhouse uh February the 7th, Rascal Flats are in town on their Life is a Highway tour. This is my question for you. How are they still on the Life is a Highway tour? Like I feel like they have not put out a new song, I mean call me crazy, in a long time. Like how long has Is this like the longest tour that the world has ever seen? The highway does not end. It's just never ending.
I mean, they're saying it's just 2026. There's just no way. I feel like they've been on the Life as a Highway tour forever. The tour celebrates 25 years of the band following their soldout return in 2025. Like, that's crazy to me.
But good.
Celebrating 25 years. This is their Life is a Highway tour.
So, they I think they took a bunch of years off, came back in 2025, and now they're on the Life is a highway tour in 2026. But it's like there's just no way they didn't have a Life as a Highway tour 10 years ago and five years ago. Like I feel like it would be wrong if any tour of Rascal Flats was called anything else besides Life is a Highway. Fun fact for everyone, like Rascal Flats, their song Life is a Highway is actually a cover of the original song.
Is it really?
Yes. The original uh the original song is by Tom Cochran and it's like way more uh a little more like rocky and raspy and then obviously cars blew up the life is a highway tour or the life is a highway song from Rascal Flats. All right, Shane, what do you have? What uh what event do you have to look out for in February?
I've got a couple both on the high school level. You had mentioned Gamebridge Fieldhouse, so we're going to stay there, but we are narrowing the field in wrestling for individuals across the state. So, we just had sectionals last Saturday. We've got regionals tomorrow up at Pendleton Heights. You and I coaching at Bishop Chitaard. Got nine qualifiers.
So, let's see how many we can send out to Newcastle. Um, but yes, you've got semi-states the following weekend on Valentine's Day, February 14th. And then the following Friday and Saturday, the IHSA state wrestling finals at Gamebridge Fieldhouse. Uh, we've had a qualifier, I think what, three of the last four years or four the last five years. um hopefully have one or two again this year and uh can coach some kids down there downtown. And then the following Saturday, uh sectionals just started this week, this Tuesday night, IHSA girls basketball finals are on Saturday, February 28th.
So Gamebridge Fieldhouse when the Pacers aren't playing, something else is going on there. So you've got Rascal Flats and now you've got
you've got wrestling championships and girls basketball championships coming up. It's a busy time.
A lot of fun times. Uh, the final thing I'll say is Winter Fair is going on at the Children's Museum through February 22nd. Explore a magical indoor world featuring a festive carnival-like atmosphere, fun-filled games, lovable critters, and hands-on activities. Again, that goes through February 22nd. So, if you find yourself in Indianapolis, if you're uh one of our central Indiana listeners, you have some kids, go check out Winterfare. Okay, this next segment, Shane has uh we're going to have a little fun.
Don't hop on my notes either. Yeah, I won't hop on the notes. Shane likes to test how much I actually know about Indiana. So, tell me what what we have planned here.
All right, I've got five towns. We've done the unincorporated communities, and you had to narrow from the four or five that I gave you and tell me which one wasn't in Indiana. Now, we're going to go with just towns in Indiana. I'll finish with one that's unincorporated.
Mhm.
And you're going to tell me what county, okay,
that town is in.
All right. This could be very bad. This is hard. I want to see what you How many are you going to get out of these five?
Three. If I got three, I'd be impressed.
You'll kind of see where I'm going with some of these.
I'm confident. I think you can get four.
Oh, wow. All right.
And I think you're going to get this first one.
If you don't get this first one, you're in trouble.
Okay.
Okay.
First town is Waveland.
Oh.
Oh, man. You've seen it, haven't you?
Probably seen a sign for it once upon a time.
Wave. Wave, Indiana. This is uh Oh my gosh. Population 439 as of the 2024 census.
I'm thinking Fairland, which is Triton Central School District.
Where'd you go to college?
Oh, is this in Putham County?
No.
Oh,
you would have seen this on your commute going between the Monan for the Mon.
Oh, is this this is between Crawford'sville and southern Montgomery County?
Dang. I'm going to go 0 for one. 0 for one. Wave.
They feed into South M.
Oh gosh. Yeah, I don't remember that. Montgomery County. It's just east of Turkey Run State Park.
Oh, okay. I'm I'm I'm toasted on that. If uh if that's the first one, I am I might be screwed.
I think you can get this one, but you're going to have to pick one of like three counties.
Okay.
Long Beach.
Oh my gosh. That's Porter County.
Nope.
Oh,
population 1,168.
Lake County?
Nope.
Oh, then it's Leaport County.
There you go.
All right. Well, we're [laughter] 0 for two. Uh,
it's just north. It's like right on the border. It's just northeast of Michigan City.
So, it's like on It's on Lake Michigan.
Yep. Long Beach.
Long Beach. Okay. Nice spot.
The third one. Engles.
Oh, I know. In Engles. Les. Oh, but
population 2,627.
This is hard because it's right on the border of two counties. [laughter] Uh, I believe I'm going to say that it is the southern.
Do you know where it's at? Yeah, it's up by on the way to Pendleton.
Bang.
That would be
It's on US 36.
It's either It's either like the top of Hamilton or the bottom of Madison. I think it's the bottom of Madison County.
Bang. All right. There we go. We got one. We got one.
All right. You can still get your three. You predicted the [clears throat] the fourth one. This is a goodiz town. I don't know if you've heard of it. Hunter Town.
I have heard of Huntertown.
Population 11,481 and it is growing rapidly.
Is it near Cooko?
Not entirely. In that neck of the woods, Hunter [snorts] Town.
Go east of Cooko.
Oh gosh, this is so hard. Hunter Town.
Population has almost tripled since 2010.
The population of Hunter. What's fueling the population growth?
Make my move.
Yeah, right.
There's a hint for you.
Is it in Allen County?
Got it.
Let's go. Got it.
That was a huge hint. Hunter Town. [laughter] Wow. Uh guys, this is not my best work. I won't lie to you. But we're we're making it happen. Yes, but you connected the dots there on Make My Move.
Sometimes you just need a little hint. All right, final one. You're going to give me an unincorporated community.
Unincorporated. And this is just going to be
Yeah.
This is going to be tough.
Yeah. Yeah.
Homer population was just under 200.
Yeah.
We have stayed in a hotel.
I know the answer.
Near is
this unincorporated community.
Is it in the county in near that hotel? A four-letter county. Yeah.
Is in Rush.
It is.
Homer in Rush County, baby. And that, let it be known, we've traveled a lot of the state, but for some reason, I just had I had the feeling. We did not know. Rush County Homer.
Remember, I did get the sweet upgrade at the quality in Rushville. Great [laughter] time. All right. We teamed with our friends at Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to bring you our Valentine's Day recommendations across the state of Indiana. You might have seen it. We're going to give one off the top. Vita won the title for most romantic restaurant in Indiana according to Open Table. There was a whole press release. They picked one restaurant in Indiana. Vita was number one. But again, Indiana Farm Insurance and we teamed up and we said, "Let's come together with something that serves the whole state." So Shane and I will go back and forth sharing some of our favorite romantic restaurants across the state of Indiana to take us out today. Shane, what's your first restaurant and where is it?
I'm starting up in South Bend. Yeah,
we had a a very call it an intimate evening at uh
it Salvation Bar in South Bend. So, this is a place that's in a a former Salvation Army. Uh Matt Lester was the mixologist there that was hooking us up with uh
with some awesome cocktails. And it's
I think we didn't have food there. I'm not sure if there is light appetiz I'll give you I'll give you a date night in South Bend. Go to dinner at Doc Pierce's. That's my recommendation for Southbend. It is like a legacy place. Very, very cool. Great date night. I mean, this might be booked up for Valentine's Day, but like maybe look for the Sunday or the Friday or maybe next week or before, but Doc Pierces and then catch a night cap drink at Salvation. That is a romantic evening in South Bend for sure.
Okay, I've got one for you. We're going to go south, way, way south, other end of the state in Evansville. We were down there maybe two years ago and we had dinner at Comfort by the Crossside Cricut in Evansville. Oh my gosh, the food was so good. One of uh someone we were with got the steak and it was like pre one of those precut delicious like steaks. It looked amazing. All the food was great in the Evansville area. That's the move.
Back to me.
Yeah. Yeah.
This isn't like a hidden gem or anything like that. This is one everyone knows but St. Elmo.
Yeah. I mean, if you you have to probably book next year's Valentine's Day recommendation now to get there.
That's a great one.
One we also in central Indiana that we recently featured that could be a good spot to check out 10 West up in Cicero. They've got like the back bar, the bunker, all that stuff. I know that was yours. I totally I totally stole
mine. But Robert was psyched when we were talking about it. We're like brainstorming
what places we would recommend and then he's like hearing us talk about 10 West and Cicero and he's like, "Wait, what?"
Dude, I'm going to go back north. The region always thinks that I discount them. I have a I have a romantic dinner recommendation for Chesterton. Uh, you got to go to Root and Bone. So, there's a Root and Bone in Indianapolis. This is a similar Root and Bone.
I think they're somehow associated. I had no idea. like it looks like the same exact logo, similar menu, like all these things, but it's it's Root and Bone Chesterton. Uh it looks awesome. It's I think it's a sister restaurant or something to the one in Indie. Uh I actually went Lauren and I went on our first date to Root and Bone here in Indianapolis.
So could be the move. If you're up in Chesterton, go check out Root and Bone. Rounding out, I'll give you a couple rapid fire ones. Uh obviously, everyone talks about Joseph Dequiz up in Rowan Oak. If you're in the Fort Wayne area, again, probably hard to get a reservation, but maybe your next date night after Valentine's Day, go check that one out.
That's a hidden gem of one of your recent guests.
Yeah. Uh the Wagu Farm up there. But then there's also the restaurant. Uh obviously, if you're out on the west side of the state, go check out Bridges in Green Castle. Delicious. I mean, bougie pizza. It's incredible. Uh obviously, we just had Tom on from Tinker Street.
Again, I actually haven't been to Tinker Street. It's on my list. uh an upcoming date night very soon. We're going to make it down there. It looks fantastic. And one that we've been to twice and we went there backtoback nights.
Yes.
We were down in Deo County.
Yeah.
Huntingburg is home to Butcher and Barrel.
It's housed in a building that was once a bank. Building is over a hundred years old. And there's three owners that we met.
We were down there for like a hard truth kind of like a dinner and drink private dinner. It was awesome. That was like just the teaser to what was come for the what was to come for that entire weekend. But uh yeah, then when Austin and Will came down, we're like, "Guys,
you got to go to Butcher.
We're just going to go to Butcher and Brail." Like, we don't need to overthink this.
It's fire. Great, great, great. And I think we have one more on here. We'll round it out. Uh if you're out on the east side of the state, check out the Spiceland Grill uh out in Spiceland by Newcastle. Everyone in the in the comments and the recommendations say this place rocks. Go check that out. I think that about covers it. We didn't really get down to southeastern Indiana. We'll save that for the next time. Uh enjoy your weekend. Uh gentlemen, if you haven't booked a reservation yet, good luck. Keep trying. Uh book something good.
Only got a week.
Support something support something Indiana based. Support something local. Uh have again a spectacular weekend. If you can make it to the Children's Museum, you have to the 22nd. All right, y'all. We'll talk to you soon. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at [music] Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoover State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
