Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with
us at WFHR. Take it, Marvin. Got your host, James behind the mic. Join by Melissa. Good
morning. Seth. Morning. And the best listeners and radio. Thanks for being here, everybody. Hope
you're all having a great stir to your week out there. And you had a good Easter. We appreciate
you joining us. We're going to have some fun getting into some entertainment news and a little bit. Got some
other great topics for you. We want to dive into as well before we wrap up the show for today. But
it's Monday and the 9 o'clock hour. We all know what that means. Good morning and welcome to
the kitchen's open on WFHR. I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend spending time with friends
and family. I had the bonus excitement of preparing the segment. Thanks to our sponsor for
today, the little corner bar and grill. Very cool. Yeah. So if you're curious about this restaurant
and what it has to offer, Wisco Foods dot com describes it as a cozy spot in Stratford,
Wisconsin where you can enjoy hearty meals with a warm and inviting atmosphere. This charming
restaurant is known for its all day breakfast, delicious lunch options and friendly vibe
that make every visit feel like a gathering with friends. Whether you're in the mood for a
classic skillet, a juicy burger or a Friday fish fry, the little corner delivers comforting
dishes that hit the spot. Perfect for a casual meal. This local favorite has something for everyone.
And I can concur that that is exactly what it is like. Nice. As a part of their sponsorship,
I had the privilege of heading up to Stratford area to not only visit this little treasure,
but to interview the owner, Julio Cruz Montejo. Now, please be mindful English is not Julio's first
language, which made communication a little bit more challenging with this one. But I think
you're going to enjoy listening to his passion for this business. And so we're going to play this
first interview for you. I am here with Julio who is the owner and chef at the little corner bar
in Grille. And this is technically Roseville. Roseville. Roseville. Right outside of Stratford.
So it has a Stratford address, but it's a great, liberally little corner in a small town.
You blink, you miss it, but you don't want to miss this restaurant. They have a wonderful staff
and great people who will greet you at the door as you come in. But I'm here with the owner
and to begin, what led you to your love of food? What is your background in restaurant business?
Oh, I started cooking the first time I was on Wisconsin Rapids. Like, 14 years, so I moved here
and looking for something by myself. So I want to do my business by myself.
How long ago did you take ownership of this restaurant? Like years and six months.
A year and six months. So for a year and a half, you've been here. What led you to have your own restaurant?
Because I love whatever I'm doing. So I want to do like myself. So I want to do my business
because I have like a little baby too. So you want to support your family doing something that you love?
And what led you to love cooking? Is it something you did a lot growing up?
No, somebody teach me on Wisconsin Rapids. So I don't like it because it's too hard work and the kitchen.
So when I'm starting, I'm so scared. So when I have like a six months, so I do the best one. So I say I'm moving here.
Okay. So why did you decide on this location? Was it a place that you looked for? Was it one that you just happened to find?
Yeah, I like like a small one. I don't want to do like a big one. So just small one. So it's easy for me.
Do you have a lot of regulars that come in? Yeah, the local person who is coming here.
So what is your favorite thing on the menu to prepare?
Everything I want to make it look like. I've got whatever it is on the menu.
And what led you to develop the menu that you have? Because it's a pretty diverse menu. There's a lot of different things on the menu that you make.
What made you decide to have so many of these different things?
Because I have experience to make it. So it's more easy. So I don't want to do like a different kind of food because I don't have space to make a lot of food.
So these are the things that you're experienced at making. Is there one that you like to make the most? What is it that you like to make the most?
Like a friendly lobster, a deep one steak, a Mexican, some tacos, chimichanga, nachos, and quesadilla.
So you'd like a lot of the Mexican food? Is that more from your childhood then? Yes. Okay. So tell me about the lobster. Where do you get lobster for in the middle of the country?
I went to Reno, Ryan Rhodes. Yeah.
So you found a distributor that's in the area that helps you out. That's wonderful. So what is one thing that you would recommend to somebody who might be interested in cooking at home or in the possibility of opening their own business?
So what would you recommend to them about cooking?
Like a deep one, friendly one lobster, some fish doing Friday.
So cook extra, extravagant things. And is there a special technique? Is there a special skill you need to be able to make these unique items?
Yeah.
So what is that skill?
Good girl. Good girl.
Yeah. Good girl or fire?
So have good equipment to be able to make the good food.
So do you get any of your ingredients locally or are they all from distributors?
Distributors.
And some locally, okay. Is there anything else you would want people to know about your restaurant?
Famion.
Famion.
Famion?
Family place.
I notice that you have a lot of regulars that are know you by name. Do you get a chance to know a lot of your customers?
Yes, sure.
They are all really their family to home.
Yes.
What would you say to have somebody come here to have food? What would draw them here to eat?
Yeah, it's home made with food.
Dining outside. Good drinks.
So do you like cooking better in the summer or in the winter?
On any time.
Any you just love to cook.
There is a family business behind this and you said you want to support your family.
How big is your family?
I have one little girl like 16 months now.
So I have one boy to like a 17 or one girl 16.
So your teenagers, do they help here at the restaurant?
No, it's not here.
It's not cool.
They're both in school, okay.
So they don't help in the evenings or anything? No.
Are you hoping that one day they might be interested in participating in the restaurant?
Yeah, he wants to.
Your son does.
What would you start him doing?
He wants to start with me.
If it's work with me, so I'm looking for someone new one.
Would he help you in the kitchen?
Yes.
Yes.
What would you show him to make first?
Whatever.
I mean, making here.
So I have an experience to teach him.
So when he got so looking for a new one, by himself.
If he wants to like keep somebody, then he knows how to teach somebody as well as yours.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Well, thank you for taking the time.
Is there anything else that you want to say to our audience?
I request somebody to welcome here in Little House.
And when he says that, he means it.
You come in the door and they greet you with a smile.
Thank you so much for being willing to meet with me.
Yes, thank you very much.
So you heard a female voice in the background.
That was his manager, Desira.
Okay.
So she is great about helping him understand what people are asking and then kind of interpreting for him
so that we can understand.
She also is one of their bartenders and she warmly welcomes you as soon as you walk in that door.
I got to visit on a Tuesday, which is their taco night.
And she let me do a little bit of a taste testing with Julio's specialty street tacos.
So I spoke with her a little bit more about the restaurant and was able to share a little bit about the food.
So we're going to play that clip now.
This is Desira.
She is the manager here at the Little Corner Barn Grill.
So how long have you been with this restaurant?
Over a year.
Yeah, actually about a year, actually a year.
And how did you get connected to the restaurant?
My niece for my niece.
So your niece was connected with the family and so that's how you got brought in, which is great.
What is your favorite thing about working here?
Probably the people, the people, and the way I work with, you know, and just being a part of something.
So you've gotten to know Julio pretty well, as she've observed his cooking, what impresses you about how he prepares the food?
How fast he is, and efficient he is, and how he prepares things, and his cleanliness, and his ability to create new things.
What has been your favorite menu item that he makes?
Oh God, really?
Did I have to pick just one?
I really love our baked cod and our unicorn fish on Fridays.
That's my favorite because I love fish.
Any of our seafood stuff is good, but everything is good on the menu.
And I can attest to that everything is good on the menu.
They have, let me try the fish tacos and the steak tacos, and they are to die for.
The shrimp was cooked perfectly seasoned well, the balance of the cilantro and the onions were to die for.
So it is worth coming out here to just try the tacos on Tuesday.
And Tuesday is their taco Tuesday, so there's always a special for that, but they're also known for their fish fries on Friday.
Tell me a little bit more about that.
We have a variety of fish on Fridays.
You know, that we serve, we've got cod, haddock, walleye, salmon, unicorn fish, jumbo shrimp.
You know, we do that, we have some steaks and stuff too, and we also offer lobster if you do want it on Saturdays with that.
On Fridays with that's on Saturdays, so a good nice beer batter.
It's excellent.
You cannot go wrong coming to the little corner bar and grill.
Thank you so much.
Desira.
So it was a lot of fun getting up there, and it's just a cozy little thing.
You get to the intersection, and it's just right there, literally on the corner.
I like the drive up there.
It's a nice view.
It's a nice view. It's a nice drive.
A nice area too.
And I have to say two quick notes, if you don't mind me throwing in there, Beth.
What Desirae does is very similar to what Melissa used to do for me for a long time on the air here.
So I really, I really recommend, she was great.
She was wonderful.
She was wonderful.
There are dozens and dozens and up and down this state of these types of restaurants.
And the more you go there, the more you're keeping them alive, the more you're helping local economies and impacting them.
And that's all very important.
It's one of the defining things we do around here is buying local, supporting local.
And that is expanded to all of Wisconsin.
Yes.
That said, there is so much great food out there in so many great chefs and cooks.
And I don't know if there's a better thing than finding that one place that's kind of, you know,
you don't, nobody else really knows about it.
It's not that popular or something like that, and you find it and you fall in love with it.
And we want more and more of these businesses to join us.
Absolutely.
I really feel like we fell into something here, whether it was intended or not, of turning Beth into our, our, our, our not feary.
Yeah, right.
She's just going to be our guy feary.
And we're just going to send her up and down the state of different restaurants.
I would welcome that.
Absolutely.
It's what I want to do.
I will trade places with you.
Right.
But there's so many great places out there we want to hear from.
And we really appreciate the time and investment and working with them.
Absolutely.
Because they're really good people.
Yeah.
And the amazing thing was, you know, I'd never been up there before.
I was brand new and you never know what you're going to expect, you know, what to expect when you walk into a new place.
I walked in through the front door and the regulars are sitting there going, hey, welcome, come on in.
Wow.
So you are just greeted not just by the staff, but by the customers, by the, the other patrons of the bar.
Really cool.
To, to just come on in and join and, and have a great meal in a wonderful atmosphere.
I want to say, too, really, it's really cool to see someone like, like, Julio, you know, he was working in a restaurant in Rapids here.
But he was like, no, I really want to do my own stuff.
I want to make my own thing, having the confidence in his own skill to say, no, I'm going to open up my own place.
That's, I mean, I don't know how much people know about that.
Opening restaurant is a lot of work.
A lot of put, you got to put so much into that and there's no guarantees that you're going to be successful.
It is more likely for it to close in the first year than it is to succeed.
And the fact that he's been going for a year and a half tells you he knows what he's doing.
He does.
And he wanted to be able to do it his way on his own and he found a great little spot to do it.
Cool.
So I thoroughly enjoyed my trip up to the little corner bar in Grill and I look forward to not only going back there,
but the opportunity to bring other businesses who like them would like to be a sponsor of this segment.
So you can explore that option of sponsorship from highlighting to your business during this segment,
to an interview or even a broadcast live from your business.
If you're interested in learning about these opportunities,
just give us a call at 715-424-1300 and speak with Pam.
She'll put you in touch with Ashley who will work out all the details with you.
That number again is 715-424-1300.
And with that, we'll close the kitchen.
Excellent.
That's another great episode.
Great interview.
By the way, too, Beth.
Love it.
Nice to meet you.
We're visiting every Monday for in the 9 o'clock hour for another edition of The Kitchen's Open.
Keep in mind, next The Kitchen's Open, though, everybody will actually be in the 10 a.m. I won't be shifting now.
And we'll be shifting our show just a little bit.
Just shifting it a little bit.
I'm moving with it.
Yes, and we appreciate that.
We appreciate the work as always.
Good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
We'll take time.
I will come back and have some fun with some entertainment news coming up on the morning show.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you.
Thank you so much for joining us, everybody.
Big shout out to Beth and The Kitchen's Open.
Nice work done there.
Now I want tacos.
Yeah, right?
Yes, yes.
I want to try their unicorn fish.
I don't even know what that is, and now I want to eat it.
I don't know what that is, but I want to eat it.
No, I'm a billion percent with you, Seth.
I didn't want to ask questions that you didn't know if the answers were there or not or anything,
but I had a lot of follow-ups to unicorn fish.
I need a lot of follow-up questions to that one, yes.
Let's dive into some entertainment news right now.
Tim Allen gave us a new tidbit about Toy Story 5.
Those that did not know there is going to be a Toy Story 5.
That's out of the bag.
There's two stories right here with that one.
Up until this point, not much was known,
except that he and Tom Hanks would return as Buzz and Woody.
Okay.
Tim says, quote, I can tell you that it's a lot about Jesse.
Tom Hanks and I do Woody and I do realign,
and there's an unbelievable opening scene with Buzz Lightyear.
I can give you that, but I can't give you much more.
It's not confirmed if Joan Cusack will return to Voice Jesse,
but it's not the same if it isn't.
Yeah.
I mean, Joan Cusack has a very distinctive voice to begin with,
and then her Jesse voice is so much fun.
I love that voice.
Plus, you can't replace Cusack, let alone Joan Cusack.
I'm telling you.
Yeah.
You can't.
James, I'm sorry, who may be my favorite Cusack Joan.
She might be my favorite.
I have no issue with that one.
My sister is the exact same.
I've had this conversation with her because how much I love her brother
and I think I'm like, I get it.
I get a Joe Cusack's adorable, just wonderful.
Incredible, powerful, strong actor and all of that,
and almost double that as a voice actor.
She's brilliant.
She's really good.
I want to do, I want to make a animated movie
just so I can cast Kristen Shawl and Joan Cusack
and have them both going back and forth voices.
Oh, that'd be awesome.
Oh, it's one of my dreams.
It's amazing.
I don't even know what we'll do, but I don't want to do it.
Who can make them do it?
Hey, go ahead.
No voices.
Toy Story 5 is also...
Now, they are looking at the sequel to hit theaters.
The sequel hits theaters June 19th and 2026.
Okay.
So, you've got a while I hear about this one and everything.
But they are looking to keep the series...
They're kind of doing this in a weird way.
They're not doing this so that they can make Toy Story 6 and 7 and 8 or whatever.
There was just such a bad taste in people's mouths from the one Toy Story
that they're still trying to get past that.
I don't know if it was Toy Story 3 or 4 or whatever, but people did not like how that what I did.
And they're still trying to kind of like bring the stock of Toy Story back up.
Right.
Man, I got to say the spin off the light-year movie that they did.
That was really good.
That what they did with that one.
They should do more like that, I would say.
It's completely different in this animation style and all that.
But they did a really good job.
I thought they did fabulous.
A lot of people are still excited about seeing those movies.
One of the things that they have learned, yeah, everything you and I,
and we've talked about with IP, how important that is.
But one of the smarter ways of going about that is yes, you have your IP
and you make money off of that.
But if you're really fortunate and good at this, you get these generations
where you have people that went to their theater with their parents to see Toy Story as kids.
Right.
And then they're now taking their kids to the theater to go see Toy Story.
Yes, yes.
And boy, you can create that.
Oh, money maker.
And yeah.
It's the Muppet Universe about that one.
Oh, yeah.
Everything.
It's pretty big.
Just a quick look at the box office numbers.
Not nothing too crazy happening over the weekend, especially with a holiday weekend.
But a little bit interesting note that the movie sinners took the number one spot.
And well, it did very well, by the way.
The Minecraft movie came in second.
Wow, that's still very well.
Man, that's been rolling.
The King of Kings movie is being looked at as a bust.
So not a whole lot coming out of the weekend really news-wise.
But I bring up the bot weekend box office numbers in part because a movie
like sinners doing well is just extraordinary.
Yeah.
It's a smaller type film, yeah.
Well, the suspense or horror movies traditionally are not only done
but seen by a white audience.
And you're seeing something with Jordan Peel and with some other work right now where...
Right and cooler, yeah.
Yes, with Ryan Kugler doing this movie here and everything where you're seeing,
okay, we got an untapped market.
What are they?
Okay, well prequels, sequels.
We're going to do a bunch of those in every show.
Superhero movies.
Okay, the horror movie industry has kind of like gotten turned on its head.
So what are we going to do?
Oh, we need to poo and Mickey Mouse or horror characters or whatever.
Nothing really that crazy going on and really nothing reinventing of the wheel.
Right.
But one thing that has actually never really happened in cinema
is having horror movies designed for certain people in certain groups.
Yeah.
And that is something that Jordan Peel and now with Ryan Kugler doing this movie that you're seeing more of.
Right.
Different groups.
Or adventure.
Yeah.
Which is interesting, a way of putting it.
Different genre.
It's people, different groups of people because of society, you know, societal norms and different cultural things are afraid of different things.
And it's really interesting to see, you know, those come forward with, you know, with your Jordan Peel and now this movie.
What are certain groups?
What is the, what is the trigger for them?
What are they fear?
And that's really interesting.
Not only as a commercial thing, like, you know, selling tickets, but also what does that say about where we are culturally?
Which I think is interesting too.
Growing up around a lot of ethnic people in the melting pot.
And that, not just hearing this from African Americans, but hearing this from all kinds of different races and creeds and women in general.
About, hey, what about us, where is the representation?
But the thing that I've always heard about this stuff is, well, they don't, most don't have any interest in this because what Nightmare on Elm Street is in a suburban neighborhood.
Yeah.
White people's fears, right?
I've made the joke for years that nobody's afraid of that.
We got our own horror stories called gangs.
Yeah.
You know, like real stuff everyday stuff, right?
Yeah.
Actually scary stuff.
Yeah.
So that stuff doesn't really, you know, Freddy Krueger, you know, doesn't really intimidate me when I've got my own kind of stuff that I grew up around.
Now to what Seth is talking about, if you tune that and all this sudden you're looking at it like, hey, this is in this and this and this because it touches bases that are relatable for a different world.
Yeah.
That's right.
And you have a whole new market untapped that you're tapping into.
It is Ben and Jerry's in making a vegan ice cream.
Right.
It is essentially doing that.
And it's new and different.
Yeah.
So instead of everybody just pointing and yelling at Hollywood, hey, do something different or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Here we go.
Here's something different that's happening.
People are responding.
Number one movie.
Yeah.
Sinners was a number of movie in the market, but also in the box office.
Yeah.
But also to that point, the success of Jordan Piel and what he has had.
Absolutely.
And him kind of bringing back the Twilight Zone TV show.
Yeah.
You got that back to some moderate success.
Yeah.
Did pretty well.
I bring that up in Ryan Kugler, director of Sinners, because Ryan Kugler is looking to bring back ex files.
What?
Really?
Yeah.
Really?
Now Ryan Kugler and the recent interview did confirm that his reboot of the ex files is the next project he is working on.
Keep in mind, I understand not everybody knows who Ryan Kugler is.
He's one of the most sought after and best directors in the game.
Black Panther.
It's all you need to say.
Right?
Black Panther.
It did the Creed movies as well.
The Creed movies too, yeah.
But he is so sought after.
And when you are a sought after director, you will never have to do TV again.
You never have to do movies till the end of time, right?
Yeah.
You're good.
You're amazing.
To go back to the ATV.
Yeah.
Because he's a big fan of the ex files.
He really likes to show and he likes all this stuff.
He says he wants to make it, quote, really scary.
He's keeping his fingers crossed that Jillian Anderson will return his Dana Scully.
Jillian said in a 2024 interview that she's not ruling it out.
Oh, for her, that's going to say something.
I was going to say it.
They really can't do it without at least her or David Decovney.
Yeah.
I mean, they've got to have one or the other if it's going to be a real one.
They look like both of them have said that they would be willing to do it.
If they can work it out.
That's cool.
That's crazy.
So I mean, it's just very interesting.
We'll see what happens with that one.
Right.
Some of this stuff can get, you know, kind of lost into shuffle and never even happened.
So we'll see.
But it looks like this one, especially with him attached.
And he's not coming out and saying it in interviews.
If, you know, there's an actual like pen to ink or pen to paper going on here in contracts being signed.
Right.
A lot of that.
Sure.
Interesting.
And along with that one, one of the touch on this because I thought this was quite interesting.
Hayden Christensen took his share of abuse for playing Anakin Skywalker and the Star Wars prequels.
But he is, in recent years, kind of really been able to kind of like full circle with that.
Yes.
With the Ashoka series or the Obi-Wan series.
He's been able to re-play this character and really show, hey, by the way, I actually can act.
I could have done this really good the last time.
If it wasn't for the director.
And writer.
And writer.
And writer, actually probably would have been fine the whole time.
And you actually could have seen what he could do here and everything.
But he's coming back again to play Anakin.
He'll be playing Anakin in season two of Disney plus the series Ashoka.
Oh, cool.
The announcement came down at Star Wars Celebration of In Tokyo.
When Hayden walked out on stage and said, quote, there's not much I can share.
But Anakin will be back for season two.
Nice.
Good for him.
I'm glad not only that he is getting the opportunity that he's embracing it, which is so cool.
He had to go through so much.
Man, when he did that for the prequels, I feel bad because he did the best he could with what he had, really.
It's good for audiences.
The continuity.
The continuity is important with audiences in all mediums.
And it seems like a subtle jazz.
Just subtle.
Anyway, so it's smart on them to do that to keep him cast and everything like that.
I do give them credit for keeping him in the role because before this recent run and kind of the role,
people going back and being like, hey, he was actually all right.
He's a good actor, all that.
It was very controversial.
His performance was seen very poorly.
So bringing him back for the Ashoka series or the Obi-Wan one was I thought was impressive to begin with.
But then his response to all of this, going back to what you said, Seth, from when he was young
and taking all the heat in early internet days, the internet was in part built on Star Wars haters.
Star Wars fans being haters.
Yeah, exactly.
And he was almost a number one enemy.
He was a tar jar binks.
He would have been the number one guy everybody went after.
And how did he handle that?
Did anybody ever hear him say one bad thing?
Nope.
Or talk one negative note.
Nope.
You've never heard any actors or directors or anybody ever say a single bad thing about him.
Mm-hmm.
So I believe without a shadow of a doubt that a big part of the reason this character has been brought back
and he was brought back to play that character is because of the way he treated people.
And the way he handled adversity.
And that goes so much farther than you think people realize.
Not just in the industry, but in life and karma wise.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
It's good on him.
Good on him.
Uh, when we come back, we're going to talk a little local theater and get in some other fun stuff as well.
All that stuff coming up for you.
On the morning show, we're WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Mornings with WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you.
We hope you're having a great start to your week out there.
Uh, we're going to get into national parks in a second.
I want to talk that, but I want to talk a little local theater with Melissa first.
Because not only did they announce the WRCT 50 first season for 2025, 2026.
I'm curious to check that out.
Especially if you ever thought about directing, be sure to head on over to their page.
Right now they're looking for directors.
Yeah.
Apply for directorial ship like Melissa did.
Melissa, can we, if you don't mind going a little before we get into the actual play,
can we tell people if we're encouraging them to apply for directing?
What to expect a little bit?
You know, you throw your hat in the ring and you see where you end up.
Yeah, I'm pretty much.
You head to their website and you find the application and fill it out and submit it.
That's pretty much it.
Pretty easy.
You have to choose which play you want to direct or multiple.
So if there's more than one you're interested in and then the board, I believe,
goes through and decides who will be directing the shows this next season.
That's right.
It's an easy process.
It's, I think, helpful if you can have a couple ideas about the show or if you have experience with it
or it's when you're passionate about or that you really like.
Or you just, you know, you have other directing experience and want to try something new.
That's what I did with noises off.
And how has that experience been going?
Oh, it's been fantastic.
We have such a great team, a great crew at WRCT.
The build crew is fantastic.
You guys, I cannot say enough about this set.
This set itself is really, it's a character in the show.
And the beautiful dance that's going to happen when the set changes position.
Because this whole thing rotates.
Yes.
And it's in multiple pieces.
This had to have been one of the biggest challenges the set builders have ever had at WRCT
in the 50 years that it's been around.
Because I know I remember hearing some of them talk about it like, oh, we're going to do this.
But they always come through.
They always do it.
Yes.
Jeff Friday did a fantastic job designing it and then implementing the design and the builders did just such a great job.
I'm just so thrilled.
I can't wait for people to see it.
You can see it.
It's May 1st.
It's coming up, everybody.
And that's just the set.
I didn't even talk about the cast because they are fantastic.
We'll talk more about that tomorrow.
Well, listen, I will get into this a little bit more.
But for now, we encourage you to go to wrctheter.org.
Fill out that director application.
Get your tickets for noises off.
And make some plans with us.
We'll meet you there.
Yeah.
WRCTheter.org.
Let's talk a little national parks.
National Parks Week kicks off tomorrow.
Yeah, this week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they're waving entrance fees on the first day to kick off this celebration.
Cool.
There are 63 national parks in the U.S.
But some are more popular than others, of course.
The national parks service recently shared which places were visited the most in 2024.
And here are the top 10.
Now, popular and visited the most, I think are two very different things.
Okay.
I know what you're saying.
Location.
Location.
Location.
What's the thing in real estate?
Something as closer it is going to be seen more.
Exactly.
That's very true.
So it doesn't necessarily mean it's more popular.
It just made me more accessible.
But it doesn't.
But it also has to be pretty good for people to keep wanting to go there.
It's a travel to get to it.
I would say, I don't really have a bucket list.
But if I did, on it would be to visit as many national parks as possible.
It's great.
Many of them as I caught.
Because they're so diverse in what they are.
There's so much great history and so much natural, you know, accelerating the natural beauty
of the United States.
I mean, it's very cool all the way around.
With all those places, we wouldn't have any pristine wildlife left.
Absolutely.
Be gone.
I mean, that can't, that isn't protected and untouched.
And yes, it's not that it's completely untouched.
But you don't want to mean.
Yes.
Exactly.
Here are the top 10 of the National Park Service that they shared in the service.
The place is visited the most.
Okay.
Number one, a great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Hmm.
Yep.
Yeah.
They need some more visitors this year for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No kidding.
And that's, I mean, that's beautiful.
Those mountains are just gorgeous.
Yeah.
Man.
Zion National Park in Utah.
Oh.
Yeah.
The pictures.
Everything I've ever seen of that.
I've never seen it before in Arizona.
Man, one day, I'm going to get there.
I haven't been there yet.
I've been there yet.
Have you been there, Melissa?
You haven't?
No.
Not, not well.
I mean, kind of.
Not really.
No.
Okay.
You visit Arizona a lot more than I do.
So that's why I'm not kind of curious about that.
I was close.
I was close to it.
Does that count?
No.
No, you have to be now.
I've got to get there.
Yes.
I've got to check it out.
I, you know, there's something about the Grand Canyon.
I just always wanted to see with my own eyes.
It's like the old shack, you know?
Yes.
I knew, I knew, I didn't know why, but I knew I had to see the ocean with my own eyes.
Yeah.
It wasn't until then that I completely, I think, still can't wrap my mind around how big
and how great the ocean is.
I mean, you can see all the pictures you want, but until you can actually see it there,
it's, yeah, with something else.
I don't know about others.
I mean, Mount Rushmore sounds interesting, but I'm not drawn to it like the Grand Canyon
or something like that.
Sure.
That I just, I feel like I have to see.
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho comes in at number four.
I've been there.
It's nice.
Very cool.
It's all faithful.
Awesome.
They got to see it get wet from the sulfur water, you know?
Because you stood, because the wind shifted, I think when, when all people went off and
everyone got wet, so it was pretty fun.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
I saw that when I was 16.
We took over.
Very nice.
Very cool.
And we got to see Yellowstone.
One of the squirrel chipmunks, it was a chipmunk, stole, they're tried to take a choreo
from my baby brother.
And he wasn't giving it up.
So it was, it was a chipmunk, it was not a bear, you'll be bear.
No, it wasn't a chipmunk.
No, no, no, no.
I'm trying to steal Cheerios from a baby.
How dare you, chipmunk.
I'm picking a biscuit.
Give me your cheerio.
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado comes in at number five.
Very cool.
Now the Rocky Mountains and, you know, so the two big mountain ranges, of course, in the
United States, the Rocky Mountains for me, just awe.
Yeah.
Sure awe because of their size and just the, the majesty is just amazing.
Yeah.
You know, semenine.
Yep.
I was just, I spent a decent amount of time in Colorado, but I don't, and I saw the Rocky
Mountains.
No, yes.
Really didn't go to the National Park.
You know, semenine National Park in California comes in at number six.
Acadia National Park in Maine at number seven.
Oh.
Oh, I've heard of that one.
Number eight, Olympic National Park in Washington State.
Cool.
So all good ones.
It's all interesting.
And I'm with Seth.
I did a couple of these.
I haven't, I didn't, I don't know anything about.
I've heard and heard of the one in the main or the one in Washington State.
That's cool.
Well, the fact that there's more than 60 of them is just awesome.
That, that alone is, it's so cool.
Yeah.
At number nine, Grand Teton National Park in Maine.
Teton, Teton.
Teton Mountains.
Yes.
That's a really good one.
Yeah.
Pretty well known one.
Yes, they are.
To the point where you shouldn't get the name wrong.
James.
You're fine.
Teton.
I don't know what I was saying there.
I don't know what I, this is what I do with words.
I add letters.
Like, I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't know what my brain is doing.
At number 10 to wrap it all up.
Glacier National Park in Montana.
Yes.
Up near the border.
Yes.
Very cool.
And I actually think that this is just an interesting part of this article.
The three least visited are the remote gates of our Arctic National Park and preserve
in Alaska.
Makes sense.
North Cascades in Washington State and Kubrick Valley in Alaska.
Okay.
So two of them in Alaska.
But I bring these up and I think they're brought up in the article in part for us to be encouraged
to go to these and use these parks.
Yes.
If you're in Hawaii, of course, you should try the volcano park there that as long as it's
not erupting.
Yes.
Don't go then.
Good, no.
Good, no.
I got to see it when it was right before it, yeah.
Right before it erupted and then like two weeks after we left, it went off.
So I was lucky.
I think that it would be fascinating to be that close to something that is then magnificent
like a volcano or whatever.
I don't really have a lot of interest in it, but if I ever am near one and one does go
off, I'm good with that.
I mean, we all got to go out like how did you go out volcano, like, oh, hey, that's
kind of cool.
That's pretty impressive.
I was just standing there and doing it.
I mean, you got to go.
I mean, there's a pretty impressive way.
And it's pretty great.
God, we've all seen Dante's peak.
I mean, yeah.
No, we haven't.
Right.
Dante's put the town on a lot.
Put the town on a lot.
Melissa.
There was that time.
The time of the 90s where they did volcano movies for some reason.
And that was the volcano one with like Tommy Lee Jones or something like that.
It's the same thing.
And that Joe versus the volcano.
That was earlier than that.
Perfect.
Perfect movie.
We do this in Hollywood.
It's why I always laugh when people get like, oh, Hollywood's so lame they're doing this
and this again.
They've done that the whole the whole time.
It's been yes.
It was the same thing with natural disasters movies.
The 70s.
The day after tomorrow or the day after the day after tomorrow.
Deep impact.
The Armageddon.
Yeah.
That was the 90s.
There was the 70s ones too like towering in Fernow on the Poseidon adventure and all those things.
Yeah.
And don't forget the like Congo.
Oh, there you go.
Yes.
Effective disease.
Those are the true horror movies in my opinion.
Those ones freak me.
Don't watch the Androma strain then.
Yeah.
Overall, the National Park Service reported a record 331.9 million recreational visits to
the National Parks in 2024.
Wow.
The previous record was set in 2016 with 331.
Wow.
That is how popular they are and how vital they are.
So let's keep those national parks going everybody.
Yeah.
We'll take our natural places natural.
Yes.
We will take a quick time out.
We'll come back to wrap up the show for today.
That morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back everybody.
I'm coming home baby.
Mornings with WFHR.
Hope y'all are having a good one out there.
Got Melissa Seth and James here with you.
Wrap up the show for the day but we'll be back tomorrow in our time slot.
Yes.
And then starting on Wednesday and going forward we will be 9 to 11 spread the word about that.
Everybody make sure that they know not only are we still here in present and doing live local radio
but we'll be from 9 to 11.
Just shift it down a little bit.
We'll be spreading the word about it ourselves and talking more and more about it.
Of course.
Over the next couple of weeks.
Yes.
Did have a couple of things one of the note as far as our scheduling goes.
For the next two days we will still have midday magazine in its normal time slot 4 to 5.
And we got a good one lined up for area to kick off the week.
Part 1.
We're going back to my old stopping grounds, Lincoln High School, Lincoln High School,
and the music preview of the lightning date.
Yes.
Yeah.
Their show coming up here next week as well.
Yeah.
Got a bunch of the cast and crew involved with this one that will be in for the interview looking forward to that.
Cool.
And part 2 will talk to Sherry Paulson from Little Charlotte's Rescue.
Oh yes.
Yeah.
That's a little program we got going on.
We'll be talking about them and the work that they are doing over there looking forward to it.
And of course one of our mind, everybody.
Our great friends over at LCAFA have networking with the Heart of Wisconsin tonight from 5 to 7.
Over at 221 Market Avenue in beautiful Port Edwards.
Get there for appetizers, raffles.
It's open to members and free to attend.
Check out the wonderful networking with the Heart of Wisconsin.
LCAFA tonight from 5 to 7.
Over at 221 Market Avenue in beautiful Port Edwards.
Because they're awesome.
Yeah.
They're on a Monday when they're not normally open.
Yeah.
Who knows what kind of great appetizers they're going to have there.
Oh wow.
I think of that.
I mean, they're probably some really fun things because they usually do.
Oh man, you're right.
Yeah.
Oh, that's going to be good.
Yeah, but that was very inventive.
Yes, he is.
Our great friends over at the South of County Historical Museum.
We're in with us last week.
We're talking about the Laura Engel Wilder exhibit.
That's great.
That's right.
Because she's of course known for her little house books based on her pioneer childhood in the late 19th century.
Her first book, Little House in the Big Woods is said in Pepin, Wisconsin, which is also where she was born.
Her books all later chronicled her childhood moving west ending when the family eventually homesteaded in South Dakota.
So this is a 16 panel display provided by the Laura Engel Wilder Historic Home and Museum.
And the Missouri Humanities Council contains photographs and information about Laura Engel's Wilder.
Her famous Little House books and America's Westward expansion.
And they're going to have a special presentation about this exhibit on the 27th.
That's this coming Sunday.
Lynn Urban will be here from 2 to 4 to talk about all about Laura Engels and the move westward.
And that is free and all ages are welcome.
And we do want to remind you that they have some other great traveling exhibits coming at the Southwood County Historical Museum.
This one is going to end on April 30th.
But then coming up at the beginning of May, becoming the United States Colonial America in Reconstruction.
This one sounds really cool as well.
It explores our past from the first interactions between American Indians, Europeans, and Africans to the Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War.
Man, they're doing great stuff over at the Historical Museum.
Wow.
Check it out, everybody.
Yeah, check that out, everybody.
And keep in mind that our community has their drug take back day coming up this weekend.
Mm-hmm.
Very important.
April 26th will be taking place.
And this is going on in all of our areas over in the Marshfield City Hall, Pittsville Police Department, town of Rome,
Nicosacourt, assisted in living, port Edwards Fire Department, and here in Rabbids at the Pick-In Safe.
You can find out more by going to doseofrealitywi.gov, doseofrealitywi.gov, encourage you to do so.
Or you can go ahead and if you have any other questions, give our friends over at the...
What was I going to say there?
I was going to say what kind of health department?
And I don't know, I was going to say something other than that.
What kind of health department?
I don't know what that was.
Yeah.
But you can give them a call over at 715-421-8911.
A big thank you to them and everybody in this community, making that a very successful event.
Yes indeed.
Very important.
Take a look at some good stories around the world.
A guy named Michael Amitiel O'Brien got swallowed by sand at a beach on Lake Michigan last weekend,
and it turned into an unlikely love story.
What?
He was walking with his best friend, a coworker named Brianna Sika.
The beach swallowed him like quick sand, and he was buried up to his waist.
So they both called 911 at the exact same time she referred to him as her boyfriend,
and he said his girlfriend was also trying to call.
So it turned out they both had a crush on each other for two years,
but never knew the other felt the other about this way until they accidentally referred to each other
with the dispatchers that way.
Oh my gosh, that is an awesome story.
Oh my goodness.
Um, Mitchell is okay.
He and Brianna are now officially an item.
As wealthy should be.
Ah.
Man, that's a good one.
That's a good one.
Again, Hollywood?
Yeah, nothing on the real world.
Yeah, nothing on him.
The Orlando bomb squad did an Easter egg hunt for visually impaired kids.
You get a chance to check this out everybody.
They built special eggs that made a beeping sound so that they could find them.
The event was inspired by a first responders daughter who was visually impaired.
Wow.
How cool is that?
That's awesome.
Imagine, um, not only the beauty of this and then gaining to do this,
probably for the first time ever, ever getting to do this Easter egg hunt.
Doing something that every kid gets to grow up doing and, you know,
and really understand.
But also the idea that, uh, the Orlando, it was a bomb squad that was a part of this.
And, and, and them being inspired by that or a community being inspired by that.
Sure.
And maybe having a, a fire lit under them of like, I want to be more,
I want to know more about what it is to be on a bomb squad or something like that.
And the bridge that has just been built there.
Yeah.
With that.
Not only the great good that was done there, but again, good PR and, and good,
you know, what could happen from that?
There's ancillary things that come along with it.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And America's oldest serving astronaut got a pretty good birthday gift this past weekend.
Donald Patetti returned home from the space station yesterday,
which happened on his 70th birthday.
He's been up there for seven months.
Oh, wow.
What are you doing when you're 69 years old?
Yeah.
I'm in the international space station, you know, I'm just going to hang it out there.
You know.
Yeah.
I hit the blueberry.
I feel like that's going to be a tough one at the top, right?
I mean, seriously.
That's what you do for your birthday.
Oh, I came back to earth, you know.
Emergency responders in Pittsburgh save a dog that fell down a hill and onto the Ohio River on Monday
and Diver jumped into God and got him into his boat.
He's very cold, but he's okay.
Nice.
I'm bringing it up because it's, you know, a common story especially this time of year.
But as we're getting closer and closer to the end of, you know, all of this and everything and hopefully warmer weather.
Yeah.
And just a gigantic thank you to every single human being that was involved in helping an animal or a distressed person out on ice over these colder months.
Right.
There are so many stories of this that do not only has it been normalized, but we don't even get a chance to cover half of them.
No.
There's so much of it that goes on.
And in every winter, we get done with it and we kind of just, you know, that's just winter or that's just how it is or whatever.
I refuse to normalize this.
It's amazing what these individuals, what these people do to be able to go out there and help more times than not strangers helping strangers.
Yeah, 100%.
And it's pretty amazing and pretty cool and we need more of it out there.
Get those stories, man.
Tomorrow, Melissa and I will be hanging out with you.
We will get into our scheduling realignment and more and got some other fun stuff.
We're going to be talking about looking forward to that.
Keep that in mind, everybody.
And do us a favor and please keep spreading the word about these changes that we're doing.
So we can keep, uh, oh, uh, entertainment everyone informed.
Yeah.
Have a great day, everybody.
Be good to each other out there.
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 A.D.E. Wisconsin Rapids.
And always streaming on the Civic Media app.
