you
Good morning and welcome to the Morning Show.
Great to have you on for Community Conversation on a Wednesday.
We're going to talk about Greater Richland Area Tourism today.
Marty Richards is here.
We'll also introduce you to Hailey McGlynn and we'll talk about how she's spending her summer vacation.
Good morning Marty.
Who little did she know?
what her summer vacation is going to entail.
Right.
We're going to make her write a theme.
Well, she forgot to read the job description and that part where other duties as described, um, that's pretty broad.
She's learning.
Okay.
But that's part of the internship is to learn.
So
cleaning the Pine River, being on the radio,
you know, she did not see those two things coming.
I'm pretty sure.
We'll talk to her about that.
Um, we hinted at it the last time you were here, but the 2025 tourism economic report, uh, has in you've had a chance to kind of go over the numbers and what do they look like?
Yeah.
So I think the high points, uh, because I could dig into the facts, figures and all the minutia of data and you'd probably fall asleep in about two minutes.
But I think the high points, uh, talk points that are big, um, the greater Richland area or Richland County, uh,
in this data measurement, it's Richland County, has put together five straight years of increased direct visitor spending.
And these are figures that come from the Department of Revenue and Wisconsin Tourism.
So I'm not making these up out of thin air.
If I was, we'd have
great stories to tell, but the facts tell us that for the last five years, those visitors who have come to see and enjoy everything in Richland County have spent more money every year, the last five years than they did in the past.
When I look in the history of that data, so looking back into 2008, 2005, all the way down,
Richland County has never strung five years of new record spending or new record growth in their direct visitor spending.
So that's really something to crow about because honestly, you might remember the last couple of times I was on, I was kind of bracing people for this.
You know, I was kind of telling the tourism commissions, guys, you know, the end of last year was soft.
We didn't get snow.
Uh, well, we got snow early, but not enough to where it could attract snowmobiles or people who really enjoy it because we still have the hunting seasons going on.
Um, we also had a little bit of that affordability issue was coming up, uh, that was hitting people in the bigger cities.
And we could tell by our lodging that we were really starting to get a little soft about November, December, as opposed to previous years, but.
when all the data was in for all of 2025, it was a 2.2% growth of direct visitor spending.
Now somebody out there might say, wow, you know, inflation rate was 2.9% for the year and you're right.
So we don't like
you know I really don't like to look at one year's inflation rate because we literally could have one year inflation rate was low the next year it could be 3.5 which is a high inflation rate and we have seen that but if we take those five years aggregate put them together and get the average we have average about a 3.4 percent growth of direct visitor spending on average over that five-year period and that outpaces
the inflation growth.
So that tells us that's truly new money that's being spent, more people are coming and spending that money.
So it's true growth for the area.
The other thing that I kind of caught out of this report
is that when I look at surrounding counties that are comparable.
So I throw sock County out, we, we don't have a Dells boat company or a Pine River boat company that we're running all summer loading people into boats, a casino, we don't have a casino.
We don't have an upside down White House.
So right, well, some would argue we all have one, but we don't have the attractions that you see in Wisconsin Dells.
And really sock city, Baraboo as well, we don't have those.
But I
do look Crawford County is not unlike us.
You know, a grant has some comparability.
You know, so Vernon is pretty close.
So we can kind of look at those and kind of draw some comparisons.
We have the same weather typically, we have some of the same economic things, but also we have the same geographic area.
So they're all in the driftless area.
And
those make us pretty comparable.
And what I like is when I look at over over the last five years for all those counties that we kind of compare ourselves to, we've outpaced that growth that they've seen as well.
So we are doing something that's working.
We're seeing that we do have increased visitor, you know, just traffic and spending in our area.
And so it's really good news for us because
And I've tried to make sure people understand this that when visitors come here, spend money, you know, they're paying the county sales tax.
If they stay in the lodging and in some of our areas that have the room tax, they're contributing not just to
are marketing but they're also contributing to that township because the townships keep an apportion of that room tax and that is other people's money that is not money that is coming off from our local tax base it is not money that's coming off our local taxpayers and so
That is something we want to grow.
That's going to help us with improving our roads.
It's going to help us with improving just the economic conditions of our area.
I think that it's data that you can really study better than you could even like 10 years ago, because you were talking about the hub city dirt drags and the way you can track cell phones like cell phones that haven't been used in the area.
Well, you're giving up one of my secrets that if the vendors, I mean, they, I think they know what I'm doing.
But there are two different companies out there that really, they offer their services for a fee, but they will give you a little bit of demonstration how it works.
Pacer AI is one, the other one is a rivalist.
And those two companies, what they do is they track point of sale.
uh, purchases, uh, in all categories, or they will track, uh, just cell phone pings to try to figure out, okay, as an event or an effort you're making, is it working?
And they work across all industries.
So, you know, they work for major corporations, McDonald's places, you know, trying to figure out how, where are we getting people from?
What's working for attracting those people?
So then we could better target our efforts.
Well,
It costs $18,000 a year to contract with them.
Not in the budget?
That is not in the budget, Phil.
Hailey is going to want more money if we can afford that.
what I've done is I've just had, I think in the last year I've had four demos from them, the two companies, so two each, and they're always willing to do a demo until they figure out what I'm doing, I think, but I'm able to pirate some of that information.
And one of the things that I've started to look at to try to explain, well, what, how did 2025, why were those numbers so strong?
I know one of the things that played into it came from one of those reports, and that was the, uh,
Hub City dirt drags.
Uh, so those saw some expert, just exponential growth over previous years to where this last spring, uh, there were 19,000 cell phones at the Richland County fairgrounds during the two days of the hub city dirt drags.
And that outpaced the rodeo.
It outpaced any other event that was held
at the fairgrounds when I looked at the year by year comparison and that many people did not come in the previous year.
So we know that is making an effect because those folks who are spending money then that's being registered as, you know, a taxable item.
and that's where the Department of Tourism is getting their info.
So growth in that information, kind of understanding what's driving our increase in numbers, it's increased events, it's also just increased opportunities or
you know, businesses or tourism experiences.
So one of our new ones, the lavender experiment, which is a lavender farm just south of hub.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, just south of hub city.
The Walters family, Rick and Stacy, kind of etched a lavender farm out of an old tree farm.
And they've really grown.
They had hands on experiences last weekend that were almost all full.
They did a great job.
It was so pop
positive for them that then this weekend they're offering again and they've expanded so there were more slots available.
Discovered Driflus in Lone Rock.
The Puzon family, Holly and Dion, they've really taken what was an old livestock sales yard and turned it into just a really nice enjoyment and vent space.
The willows over in Ithaca.
we've seen some growth of opportunity as well.
And when I kind of sneak a peek at those reports, just for a brief minute, I'm screen capturing with my phone and just doing what I can to kind of remember what I'm seeing, we can see what's happening.
And that is the new experiences, the ability for us to then communicate those experiences, that is starting to drive even more traffic here.
How do you track cash, Marty?
Cause it's easy to track a card.
Yeah.
It's really difficult.
Um, the only way that you can, that we're going to get a little bit of an idea of cash is through the department of revenue because if businesses, and I'm not going to tell any secrets here, but if businesses are reporting their cash sales, that's going to show up in the tax revenue and
They will know Department of Revenue does know was that gas was it lodging was it you know because they that's how you do your tax report and That will show up there.
So it you will get that as long as you know, it's being reported accurately
Okay, how long how many years have you been having an intern come in so this is
the
second and a half year.
Okay.
So about yeah, about a year and a half ago, I kind of dreamed up the idea because it just there is too much for one person to do, especially in the summer.
And about a year and a half ago I thought, you know, and I'm on a school board at Ithaca and I really always have looked for opportunities where we could get kids that are, you know, in high school and going to college or tech school or whatever their schooling is going to be that needs bigger experience.
And I'll be honest, a little bit of it is trying to hook them into maybe I can find my successor and Haley signed a six year contract with us.
So I missed that.
I don't think she, but she didn't read the fine print.
She did not read that.
I need to give Erica Steinmetz Kudos.
She was the first intern and it's a paid position, not getting rich by any means.
but it is a paid position because I think their efforts are valuable to us as well.
It is a learning experience, but it's not like the 80s when you got an intern and you made them do the dirtiest work and it was for free.
And they should be thankful that they had that experience getting coffee, right?
No, we really want to kind of help them understand what is going on.
I think for Haley, she'll have to talk about it, I've made her
kind of watch some of our history videos.
So when people stop in the depot, she can tell them the facts about the depot, about Richland Center, about the area, things like that.
So it is a learning experience.
But Erica was our intern for about a year and a half, and she was very instrumental in getting some of our website items updated with Travel Wisconsin.
She did a great job there.
She also was played a little bit of an investigator and went out on the short term rental.
platforms and kind of hunted and pecked and found how many short-term rental properties are in Richland County and where are they at.
And that's been extremely helpful.
So then she went on to college, has been going to college, and she just said, you know this year I'm not going to be available.
no problem.
I kind of anticipated that.
And then I, through CISA, I believe Tom Martin through CISA kind of found Haley.
And all of a sudden Haley made the mistake of saying, Hey, I'm interested in this.
And I'll let her tell the rest of the story.
But I, it's a program that I feel strongly about, because
It helps every, it's a win for everybody.
You know, for greater roots in tourism, we're getting fresh eyes on things.
I like to, as she'll get accustomed and learning how we operate and what we do, she's going to have some suggestions of her own.
And I'm looking forward to that.
Good morning, Haley.
Good to have you in the studio with us.
So tell us a little bit about yourself, if you would.
So I am going to be a senior at Weston High School.
And I play volleyball and softball as well as involved in many other activities in school like FBLA, FFA, NHS, student council.
So very busy.
Sounds like you're pretty good at time management.
What attracted you to this job with tourism?
I just wanted to learn.
I feel like I'm not dead set on what I want to do after school.
So I thought this is a great opportunity to explore tourism and
a little bit of marketing.
Yeah, there's a constant sales job.
Hailey came to me right away and I'm like, what are, what do you think of it?
I like accounting.
Well, the more this goes on, I'm like, yeah, well, you know, marketing would be good.
Maybe even hospitality and tourism would be great.
Um, and.
And I would say one of Haley's strongest skill sets is her personality and energy.
And I would hate to see that go to waste in a room being counting.
So you've had variety so far with the job, right?
Sure.
So give us an example of some of your things that you've done here in your first few weeks.
My main job is taking care of the visitor center.
So I'm there at least one day a week.
And I answer any questions that people have when they come in.
And I've also learned that you may receive a text of, hey, you wanna come do this with me?
I'm like, sure.
And I never really know what to expect, but it's definitely fun.
Had you ever been in a kayak or in this case a canoe on the Pine River before?
I have,
but it
was not cutting down trees.
So you got a little bit, did you get wet that day?
We
didn't fall in, but.
We did get splashed.
Good.
So you got to learn a little bit about the river and its importance.
Have you had any crazy calls yet while you were manning?
I
don't think so.
No?
I think your visitors have been pretty sedate.
They've
been pretty nice people.
The rodeo parade was exciting for you though, wasn't it?
It
was an experience
for
sure.
I've been to many parades, but I've never like managed one.
So yeah, that was definitely an experience.
Well, you guys did a great job because it was nicely paced and there were a lot of entrants this year.
So good job there.
So let's talk a little bit about your year at school.
I saw you in softball.
What a nice run that
was.
Yeah, it was very exciting.
Yeah.
And, uh, hopes of doing it again next year.
Yeah.
It's crazy going from like before we were co-opted at the cut, like being bottom of the conference.
And then this year going to sectional finals, that was really exciting and fun.
The one thing I noticed though last year when you were just a Weston team, you were showing great improvement by the end of the year.
Yeah.
And maybe talk about coach Larry Villard and his impact on the
team.
Yeah.
So our Weston team was very like, we didn't have a lot of experience.
We've had girls who've never played softball before, girls who played when they're little, but then hadn't played for a few years.
And Larry, I think really helped us grow.
He had so much knowledge of softball and was really able to teach the girls who haven't played for
for years or have never played before like how to play softball and I feel like by the end of the year like the girls have never played knew how to play softball and even the girls who continued into this year really grew from last year and I I give all credit to Larry because he's just so knowledgeable of the sport and made it so fun
yes I can imagine and then co-opping with Ithaca and I talked to Val Bauer about it as well because she was on with this I know she's a Western student too but she said didn't take very long where you were just a team it wasn't your school in mind
school.
There's still friends to this day.
I talked to most of the Kaka girls all for the summer.
It's just it was really fun and to gain new friends because Weston's a very small school.
You don't have you know that big community of people and then co-opping with Jessica.
You gain so many new friends and they're so nice.
What do you think you're going to be taking from sports and some of the things you've learned at Weston for future years and maybe your career someday?
change may be hard and I feel the co-op is different and it can be hard but there's so much good things that can come out of it and just to go for it and not be scared of what may happen because good things really can come out of a big change.
What are you looking forward to the most with your senior year coming up at Weston?
I'm just looking forward to just
Enjoying my last year of high school.
I feel like it goes by way too fast So I feel like I'm just excited to experience everything one last time and really take it in
well said and then what are you hoping to learn this year with Marty, you know, I shouldn't say that
I don't know.
I'm excited just to explore more about hospitality and tourism.
It's not something I've really ever explored before.
And you never know, maybe I'll get into that in my future career.
Yeah, I was going to say, do you think that this might be something?
Because there are a lot of avenues you can go with this position, right?
I don't know.
I'm enjoying it so far and I think I like it.
I'm excited to dive a little bit more into marketing because that interests me.
Good.
Marty, anything you want to add?
No, I just, all I would say is that Haley really, I cannot say enough about Haley's approach to the position because I think we really need to be open to trying the new experiences and really seeing what's going on.
And she just said it herself, you know, big changes sometimes, you know, that's how we learn.
If we stay in that same path and same lane, we'll get sedentary and we don't exercise our mind and we don't learn new things.
And the world is constantly changing.
And if there's one thing that's carried me through to where I'm almost 62 now, but I can still use AI.
I was a social media adapter early on and it's kept me to where I'm able to function in the business world today.
And Haley has shown that already where she's like, okay, whatever, you know, the experience is, let's check it out.
How can I help?
Just that forward look that she has and then the willingness to try and mistakes are made, you know, are going to be made.
We expect that.
And I like that.
Um, I haven't, I don't think you've actually made any real mistakes yet.
Except the one wrestling match you had with the limb on the canoe.
on the pine that as you're wrestling with it, I took your picture and she said, that's really not a good time to take my picture.
But that was more me than you probably.
But Haley really, I cannot say enough positives about her approach and her outlook and her willingness to learn and
to just help.
Sure.
I think we learn sometimes when we get out of our comfort zone as there has there been, you know, cutting the limb, was that getting out of your comfort zone?
Or if not, what was Haley?
Well, I grew up on a farm.
So you never know what you're going to get thrown at.
So I've cut wood plenty of times before.
So
it
wasn't nothing out of the ordinary.
It was just kind of like, I'm trying to do something.
And then I just see him in the back trying to take a picture of me.
I was like, really?
But I think you bring up a good point on the farm.
I think you are, you kind of grow up with that.
You adapt, you kind of roll the flow, right?
Yeah.
You think you're going to do one thing.
You're like, okay, this is my plan for the day.
And then you get a call and you're like, oh, nevermind.
That goes right out the window.
It does.
I think, I think farming what, what that does because there are no job descriptions in farming, right?
Um, so you just deal with the day as it comes to you and really in, in the, uh, work that she's doing with tourism as an intern position, it's very much like that because one of these days I'm going to bring to her.
Okay.
Now it's time to learn the back office, um, online, uh, how to manage website stuff.
And that's going to be very different from organizing a parade and lining them up and, you know, working on the pine or greeting people.
So.
Um, that's, that's the beauty of the position, but also the beauty of the willingness to learn.
You've probably learned from her a little bit sometimes with,
uh, technology.
I can see it coming.
Uh, I can tell she has a hesitancy.
She won't say it yet.
I think she's getting comfortable with me, but she hasn't said it yet.
Um, although I was, and you know me, uh, I tend to be five to 10 minutes late, usually getting where I need to be.
Cause I can always do one thing, one more thing.
Um, we were to meet.
last week for something and I just texted her real quick and I said, Hey, just a heads up.
I'm going to be 10 minutes late meeting you had this meeting went long and she texted back and I believe the line was, don't worry, it'll just show up in your review.
And so there, she's starting to get comfortable with me.
Um, but yeah, it, you know, it's just a, I, I've already, uh, have seen
that Haley is starting to become more and more comfortable.
And I think that's the goal is to get her one day unsolicited.
She said, hey, I'm comfortable being at the visitor center by myself.
That was huge.
And that's kind of the farm perspective, I think, where she's like, no, I got this.
I'm good.
And that confidence is real important.
Great.
We'll come back and talk a little bit more about it after the break.
Marty Richards is here and Haley McGlynn representing Greater Richland Tourism will be right back.
Is our day to talk about greater rich on tourism and Marty Richards is in along with Hayley McGlin, who's interning in the office this year and wanted to talk about some other things.
Uh, you mentioned briefly about room taxes, but I guess maybe we want to kind of put the light on that a little bit.
So maybe we understand, understand it a little bit more.
Yeah.
So, um, about six years ago, I went to the Richmond County Towns Association and I remember talking to that group, uh, cause this discussion was really new at that point.
Uh, and I remember talking to that group and they were looking at me like my hair was on fire because I just started to explain room tax and how Richland County is very different from a lot of counties.
Um, our lodging is not based on traditional hotels.
The, the, you know, majority of it, the majority of our housing or lodging for short term stays is based on private.
So Airbnb.
VRBO, Expedia, those types of individual secluded, more country rural and scenic states.
And it makes sense in the driftless area.
We firmly have a great example of that.
We're a great destination for people from Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis.
They seek out locations like
Richland County or the greater Richland area to disconnect, recharge and then be ready to go back into the noise again.
And so, um, I kind of brought this idea to that group and said, Hey, you know, you're, you're missing out on an opportunity.
If we drive down, I've done this plenty of times.
If I drive down to O'Hare airport, it costs me a good eight to, well, two ways.
It's almost $20 in tolls to drive on their freeway, which is not very free.
And I thought son of a gun, you know, we have that same, they're coming here and staying.
Uh, why aren't we getting a little bit of revenue for the wear and tear and the use of our services as well?
And, um, I think the idea that townships could pass the room tax was foreign.
It was new, but there were a few people that when I was talking that time, they got it.
Uh, they really understood it.
and Eagle Township kind of led the way with that and they understood that, you know, we do.
The state of Wisconsin is not going to show up and give townships the money they need to make sure their roads are in great shape and culverts are all fantastic and that our services were providing or paid for.
The township discussion closely tracks with school district finance.
The state revenue does not keep up with inflation, nor does it keep up with just the basic needs to maintain that township.
Eagle Township Leadership understood that.
They adopted the room tax and away we went.
Since then, you know, we have the City of Richland Center and then five other townships who have adopted the room tax.
And I'm going to use Ithaca as an example.
It's the township I'm in.
I collect room tax from my guests.
I have two short-term rentals in Ithaca Township.
They passed the room tax in 2022.
And every now and then this argument kind of crops up that, oh my gosh, if we pass a room tax, it's going to be hazardous or harmful to our stays.
People aren't going to come here and stay because it'll be too expensive.
Well, we've got the illustration now and I know Forest Township, their experience since they adopted the room tax very much tracks with Ithaca's.
And that is in 2022, Ithaca adopted the room tax.
At that time, there were
were basically two short-term rental properties.
So since then, so we're using 2022 to 2025 because we don't have 2026 numbers yet.
But in the three years, the annual room tax collection dollars in Ithaca Township have doubled.
They have added, so the business has grown.
whole tourism aspect in Ithaca Township has grown.
There is now an event center.
The Willows was added since that.
They also have a short-term rental opportunity there, so that's more revenue coming to that township.
Then there have also been an addition of more short-term rental properties, because in Ithaca we started with the two.
There's at least six, and I know there could be one more that I'm missing, but
All of that to say, the adoption of the room tax, especially in Ithaca, I know in Forest Township, it's proven out.
It actually grows that business.
It grows more opportunities.
So the addition of the Willows, their event center and the venue that they have there, that is bringing more stays.
into Ithaca Township because people want to stay close.
And myself, I've seen that.
We've had guests that we knew there were things going on at the Willows.
They called us right away to see, you know, do you have openings?
Since 2022, I can tell you our occupancy rate is higher.
We do have more guests, not fewer.
And I have never had a guest say to me, uh, probably, you know, I was, I was concerned about staying here because you have a room tax.
That does not happen.
And the data, we've looked at it and I really, I had to research and find this, but Airbnb and VRBO have the data.
They know when people are looking for places to stay, if they, you know, like one or put it in a trip, a potential trip folder to purchase, they can see what people are doing.
They can see everything they're doing on their platform.
And they have said,
that whether a property has a room tax or not, as long as it is under a double digit.
So as long as it's under 10%, which in Wisconsin, 8% is the highest room tax anybody can have.
But as long as that room tax is single digit like it is in Richland County and the townships that have adopted it, it is not a detriment to the rental of that property.
That is not a determining factor.
The determining factor is what are your amenities?
What is your location?
The one thing on price that they have found in their data that will change whether somebody's going to rent a property or not is the cleaning fee.
So anybody who has stayed in an Airbnb property anywhere will, will tell you one of the odd things about short-term rental platforms.
So VRBO or Airbnb or bring fight.
Oh, any of them is that they've got this separate cleaning fee.
Well the concept was was that you know originally the creators of Airbnb said let's have it separate because we don't want that long-term stay to have it built into the day every day.
So like in a hotel that cleaning fee is already into their rate their daily rate.
If you stay eight days well holy cats you know you're paying a lot more in cleaning that really may or may not be real.
But
in Airbnb and VRBO world, it's a separate fee and it's one time fee.
The problem is some folks have a cleaning fee that can be 25 to 30% of what the state cost is.
And that will be a detriment to people renting.
So people really need to look out for what their cleaning fee is.
And actually, those were hosts here in Richland County.
I tell you, if you do a little bit of research on this, the
The trend is to get rid of the cleaning fee and go back to how hotels traditionally price and build that expense in in the per night stay because there's been this thought out there.
If you, if you read any of the forums or do any research on it, there has been this thought out there that it's a bait and switch.
And if you think about the distrust of entities, government and everything else in generations that are 40 years old and younger,
That is one thing that they're really passionate about is making sure they're getting, you know, their good information and that they're not being told one thing and another thing is happening.
And so in the industry, they're starting to go back to the traditional pricing.
That's where some property owners can cause problems for themselves is that their cleaning fee is too high, but room tax.
is not doing it.
At an 8% room tax, which is the max that you can have in Wisconsin, that is not detrimental to stays.
In any way, the data proves it.
Ithaca Township proves it.
Forest Township proves it.
It actually works to help us grow that work.
Any idea how many are in your area?
How many Airbnb
short-term rentals?
Short-term rentals.
And, you know, we use Airbnb as a generic term, but that's, that's a company.
Okay.
And people could, you know, self-rent.
They could direct market themselves or it could be on VRBO, another site.
So overall in short-term rentals, through the work Erica Steinmetz did last year, we have found, and this,
This is fluid.
It kind of fluctuates a little bit seasonally because some folks will be open in the summer, they want to travel in the winter, they shut down, or people learn, this isn't for me.
You better really like people.
If you're going to operate a short-term rental property, you better like all kinds of people because you're going to get every kind of person.
But last summer, we know there were approximately 77 short term rental properties in Richmond County.
And talk about the growth of that.
If we go back to 2018, I had done a little bit of research as we were looking at, should we build short term rental properties or not?
There were only 11.
Now that's a pretty short timeframe for some pretty explosive growth.
And honestly, like this summer, you know, I've
I am booked on my properties with midweek stays.
It's not just weekends.
It's midweek stays, um, a good property.
And I'm not bragging.
It's you can look at the ratings, right?
We all get rated after a stay.
People was it five stars or was it four?
Or should they be thrown in jail?
You know, it's literally in that rating system.
If you get below a four star, that's not good.
but our ratings are very high.
We're like a 4.96 overall and you need to be there to be busy, but many in our area are.
There's a lot of the operators of short-term rentals in this area doing just a fantastic job.
Yeah, that number surprises me a little bit.
Uh, that's higher than I thought it would be.
That surprises most people.
Um, and actually when I talk with townships, I've had town chairs tell me, ah, we don't have any of those in our township.
And I'll say, no, I, I'll bet you do.
And you go talk to the town patrolman.
He knows the fella that maintains the township roads.
And I'll be like, no, yeah, there's actually, there's that one.
And that, and pretty soon he's naming off three or four at least.
And so every township has them.
Um, if anybody on a town board thinks, nope, we don't have any of those, you do that they are there.
Uh, they're, they kind of, you know, there's, they're meant to be secluded if they're a good short term rental for our area, because that's what attracts the folks from the cities.
It's an
eventful weekend this weekend, Marty.
My goodness.
Yeah, I was just complaining at the break with you.
I said, boy, June, we love to jam stuff into June, don't we?
Yeah, the 80 German warehouse kind of leads us off on Friday at the lounge where they have the last of Pretty Kitty Cafe providing food for purchase.
I've been there a couple of times.
Food from Pretty Kitty Cafe is awesome.
It's really good.
And then one of my favorite local acoustical artists, Michael Johnson is playing.
And I really enjoy Michael.
I don't know if he enjoys me showing up because I'm constantly requesting yacht rock type songs like Doobie Brothers.
And he did finally give in.
He plays Neil Diamond now.
But
We have fun with it.
It's a lot of fun and it's really enjoyable.
A nice way to kickstart the weekend.
Wild Hills Winery has their wine down Friday with live music and their pizza truck.
Then
I will throw out the Willow Valley Knight Methodist Church.
This is their strawberry social this Friday.
I believe that starts around 4.30 runs till about 7.30 ish.
Usually you want to get there early because they struggled finding strawberries this year.
And I know they finally found them and
Those don't last.
I've gotten there before and they were out of strawberries.
So, but that was back in the farming days.
So now I'm, I'm an old guy that eats, you know, dinner at five o'clock.
So, uh, not really.
I don't eat that early.
Um, and then also starting this Friday, the 12th annual gospel to Haiti, uh, the medical benefit, um, they do a fantastic job.
I've had that cat fish Southern dinner.
It is outstanding.
Uh, the only time I like hush puppies.
is there.
I don't know what it is, but they also have chicken barbecue if you're not a big catfish person that's at the fairgrounds starts at four o'clock on Friday and then of course Saturday they also have their auctions both Friday and Saturday food and stuff for kids to do on Saturday as well.
And then, of course, Saturday, Thunderfest kicks off.
It's kind of our fourth of July celebration here in Richland Center.
Thunderfest, they've got six bands.
I know you had Mick on the other day.
And he kind of listed through the bands at different genres.
So that's cool.
Something to work for everybody.
The kids, there's a lot for kids to do there.
So there's no admission, no cost.
Come see the bands.
You can come hang out all day.
Wouldn't cost you a dime.
For the kids, there is a fee.
for some things.
I know the pedal pull is free and get into that without a without any charge.
And there's some other ancillary items for kids to do the I know the clown with balloon animals will be there.
But the pony rides does cost $5 and then $10 if you want to get three.
So they got a break on three.
pony rides.
So Phil, you could ride three times $10, save you $5.
That poor pony.
Yeah.
You'll have back surgery the week after.
Oh, I can't say anything.
I'm right with you.
The kids zone, you know, so there's other trampoline parks and other things.
The kids zone is $5 per event to experience or just get a $15 armband.
Let's
let your child go nuts and have a blast.
And then Saturday and Sunday I should mention the Rockingham Ranch down on Highway 14 as you get towards Sextonville.
I know we did a feature on the Rockingham Ranch on our social media channels and I was surprised we had quite a few people mention we wondered what was going on there.
But at the Wyoming Saddle Company you'll notice there's a big arena there and
That is the Rockin M Ranch.
So it's Terry and Mike McCormick.
And they have different events throughout the summer and the fall where they have barrel racing and some other horse events that's pretty exciting to watch.
What's really fun about it though is they have Pee Wees.
So I mean, I have really young kids doing the barrel racing up to masters, which I've learned you and I are masters, maybe not a barrel racing, but our age or joke telling, maybe.
Humorous anecdotes to some people.
But at the Rockingham Ranch, that starts at three o'clock on Saturday.
And then there is a two day event.
Sunday, it starts at eight o'clock and they start with the Pee Wees.
You want to really get there once and see that.
That's very entertaining.
And then on Sunday, the 80 German warehouse always has their tours every Sunday.
Those started 11 o'clock and then they leave on the hour.
I believe the last one leaves at three o'clock.
And then I do want to give a shout out the Lone Rock
folks have their fourth of July celebration coming up the following weekend Friday and Saturday.
They've got a 5k walk run.
Um, the parade, that parade is always exciting and a nice one.
Uh, chicken barbecue on Saturday.
Uh, there's a lot of kids events there during the day on Saturday.
They have a sand wrestling tournament.
Um, no word if there's a master's category there, but
Let's hope that your wrestling career was about two years.
It
ended.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, fifth and sixth grade.
I
got a sixth grade ribbon for fifth place.
I think it
was fifth
place.
Yeah.
So at Ithaca tournament, luckily one kid went home to do chores and took a four feet.
Hey, you know, they can never take that away from you.
You got that ribbon.
Um, they, and then at Lone Rock, they have the DJ as well and dance and then fireworks there too.
And, and I hope I mentioned at Thunder
fireworks to round out the night as well.
So you're going to get fireworks in Richland County and the greater Richland area two weekends in a row.
So lots of opportunity to enjoy that.
And as Mick mentioned, I think the Richland Center fireworks, because they're not on the fourth, they can afford a little bit more bang for their buck.
Yeah.
I, I like how Mick puts that, you know, we don't want to be last.
We want to be first.
It's not like a Ricky Bobby line, but he's right.
You know, the demand on a fireworks display the week prior, much different.
than on the fourth.
And that's, you know, I'm sure that raises that rate quite a bit.
If you're going to have a fireworks display on Saturday, July 4th.
So that was a smart move for that organization.
All right, Haley, you didn't know there's going to be a quiz on this now.
You've taken notes on all the weekend things.
No, just kidding.
But you've certainly learned a lot about your county so far in this area, haven't
you?
I
didn't know there's that many, like,
short-term rentals in the county.
Right.
So you've taken notes there and you'll be working, so you've got probably some volleyball camps and things like that to work around.
At the end of July, we hit the Western, or yeah, our school has a volleyball camp, Jamie Johnson, the head volleyball coach at Versailles Center puts that on for us, so I have that.
Volleyball league every Monday night, softball league every Thursday night, so yeah.
No long vacation away from the farm.
Well, she got to go kayaking already once this year.
I don't know how much sloughing off you want to do.
There you go.
Well, on rainy days back in the farm, those used to be able to go to town.
So maybe you can actually do something for half day or something.
I have offered to buy her lunch once and she's why I just say, I'm not that hungry.
And then I'm like, I look at myself and go, well, if you're not hungry, don't eat.
You didn't ask me.
I have not.
Thanks, guys, for coming in today.
We appreciate
it.
You bet, Phil.
Thank
you.
We'll see you soon.
Marty Richards, Greater Richland Area Tourism, and Haley McGlenn, who's interning this summer, joining us on today's morning show.
