Mike Witte and Samuel VanHouter met, hit it off and created the band Kentucky Bend. Not only are these two talented guys helping create a cool local music vibe, they are also proof that sometimes the best adventures start a little later in life. This is a fun conversation full of friendship, laughs and amazing original music.
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This episode has been brought to you by Nexthome Team Ellis, Security Bank of Pulaski County, TK’s Pizza of St. Robert, and Sugarcreek Farms.
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**Welcome to the Podcast**
Host: Welcome to the Fort Not Lost in the Woods podcast. I am in studio today with a couple of guests, a couple of guys that are on the creative side, which makes me happy because that’s what I’ve been wanting is to talk to some folks that were in that realm and maybe not so serious like some of us get sometimes.
So guys, I’m going to let you introduce yourselves. I don’t know who wants to go first.
Mike: Hi, I’m Mike Witty. I am one half of Kentucky Bend and this is my partner Sam.
Sam: And I am Samuel Vanhouder, and I am the other half of Kentucky Bend.
Host: So tell me about Kentucky Bend. Well, before we get to that actually, we’re going to talk about Kentucky Bend. Before we get to that. We’ll just go back to you and start with you, Mike.
**Guest Introductions & Backgrounds**
Host: Where are you from and how did you end up here? And I say that assuming that you’re not from here because most people I talk to are not.
Mike: Right. I grew up in St. Peter’s, Missouri, a little north of here, St. Louis County area generally. I worked for McDonald Douglas. They sent me out to the West Coast, spent nine years out at Boeing in Seattle. And then when I got an opportunity to retire from that place, I chose one of the most beautiful places in the country. I love to fish and hunt and seemed like the right place for my wife and I to come back to, to our home state.
Host: Yeah, so how did you know, I mean, you you did you know it was one of the most beautiful places? Like, how did you know about this area?
Mike: Sure, my grandfather, my mom and my father always brought me down to Bennett Springs, taught me how to trout fish down here and so I spent a lot of time just in the area, traveling the backwoods of the Lake of the Ozarks region and Pulaski County and Lebanon and all over the place.
Host: Now, did you two know each other before that or did you meet after that?
Mike: No. No.
Sam: We met about a year ago.
Host: Oh, wow, that’s so cool. All right, Samuel. I I know a little bit of your story because, um, I’ve had your lovely wife, Leslie, on the podcast before, but tell me about how you ended up here.
Sam: Okay, so I’m pretty much out of Kentucky and, uh, my wife and I have been gypsies and traveled around quite a bit, bounced around in the the world. And we were in River Falls, Wisconsin, for the last ten, five years. I ten, five or ten years, and I ran a hardware store.
Host: Five or ten? That’s a big difference.
Sam: It’s somewhere in there. And once, uh, we decided that it was time to make a change, we thought we would head south. And I’m an avid motorcycler. So when I got down in the Missouri area and realized how curvy all your roads are, all through the through the mountains here, loved it. And here we are. We bought the Talbot House, um, in on the Waynesville Square, in case you didn’t know. Um, and we’ve been in the process of remodeling that.
Host: Yeah, it is such a cool place. So I talked to Leslie about this, but you have to tell me your thoughts. Haunted or no?
Sam: Well, here’s what I will say. I’ll tell you a quick story. So I was coming down, when I was remodeling, tearing all the carpets out, I was coming downstairs. It was late at night. Um, I was just wrapping up for the day, and as I was coming downstairs, I had that little feeling you get on the back of your neck when your hair stands up, someone staring at you.
Host: Oh, yeah.
Sam: I didn’t want to turn around, but I kept going down the stairs. I glanced back and I don’t know if it’s the light or what, but I could swear that I saw a outline, let’s say, of a lady in a long dress. I don’t know if that was just me, because people have told me that, but yes.
Host: See, you have you gotten a lot of stories from people?
Sam: Yes, we we’ve heard quite a few stories since we’ve been here.
Host: Well, that’s cool. I think it’s super cool. It’s such a lovely place. How do you like living on the square in Waynesville?
Sam: Love it. Um, easy access to all the all the cool events that happen on our square, which we love. Um, and I’ll tell you, at about five o’clock, the whole town wraps up and we’ve got the whole place to ourselves.
Host: Yeah, that’s nice.
Sam: So it’s kind of nice that way.
**Forming Kentucky Bend**
Host: How did you two meet? Not you and Leslie, but you and Mike.
Sam: So a good a mutual friend of ours, uh, Dave Edy. I hope I pronounced your name right, Dave. Um, he runs the open mics around, uh, Waynesville and he’s got one now going on in St. Robert also at the And so I just started, my wife made me go down and and play an open mic one time.
Host: My wife made me.
Sam: Yeah, so I did it, and Mike happened to be at one of them as this went on and you know, he just really had all that crazy energy that I liked when I’m out trying to play too. And so we just got to chatting and that’s how we met, it’s through an open mic.
Host: Oh, that’s so cool.
Sam: At the Piney River.
Host: Yeah, awesome. So you formed the band, Kentucky Bend. Okay, where did the name come from? Whoever wants to take that one.
Mike: I’ll I’ll take a shot at that one. We tossed around a lot of names, as you can can imagine to try and come up with the right one. Sam being from Kentucky, we wanted to tie that in. I’m actually, went to college in Cape Girardeau and in Southeast Missouri State Region, stole my bride from there. Um, know a lot about New Madrid and the earthquake and how the river kind of backed up and changed a little bit and the little bend of the river there called Kentucky Bend.
Host: Oh, okay.
Mike: Right, it’s actually a place.
Host: Oh, okay.
Mike: And you can’t, you can’t really get there from Kentucky because it actually, if you look at it, it looks like it’s either in Missouri or in Tennessee, which is even neater. And then if you look at it, the only way to get is there is from a road from Tennessee, which you either got to come from the countryside to Nashville, or the rock and roll side of Memphis, right? So it just kind of naturally flew together and, uh, we kind of liked it. And then we came up with a little, uh, a logo, which people look at and they go, “Hey, that tattoo, you got the Kentucky Bend logo,” and I went, “Well, it was probably there before the Kentucky Bend name,” but it’s kind of fun anyway. Um, so that’s how the name came about.
Host: That is so cool. And so what kind of music is Kentucky Bend?
Mike: Sure. The fun part about this adventure for Sam and I when we got together, talked about forming this band, is Sam leans real heavy on the on the countryside, but then dips his toes and his ankles and his knees in the rock and roll side as well. And I lean real heavily on the rock and roll side. And then I dip my toes occasionally in on the countryside. So there’s a little bit of an overlap. And I guess we kind of got a vision for Kentucky Bend, um, where those two worlds come kind of together, and that’s where we’re writing right now. The songwriting, um, that we’ve done individually is really taken center stage and it’s really neat to see that develop.
Host: Yeah. So you spend a lot of time writing songs?
Sam: I do, yes. I spend uh, I spend a lot of time writing.
Host: Both of you?
Sam: For for sure.
**Short Stories & Cosplay**
Host: Yeah. Well, and we’re going to I so I had each of you tell me a few things about yourselves and one of the things, I usually cover this at the end, but I’m going to go ahead and throw this out there. One of the things that you do, um, Samuel, is you write short stories. What kind of stories do you write?
Sam: So I write a variety of kind, but the world that I’ve really built is more of a fantasy adventure. And, um, so far, I’ve got three, nothing is published unfortunately yet, but I’ve got three short stories already written and the whole world is totally mapped out. Um, I also have a sci-fi adventure that I’m I’m writing. And then I’ve got a detective novel, um, short stories that I’m working on as well, and they have kind of a dark twist to them.
Host: You’re you have a lot of fantasy in your life, right? Because I mean, I’ve been in your house and I’ve seen your I I don’t know what you call them, your I don’t know, what you
Sam: All my outfits, all my.
Host: You’re Yeah. I don’t know how to call them an outfit, but yeah.
Sam: Yes. So you’re right. Um, what what you
Host: That’s great.
Sam: I’m a I’m definitely a cosplay, I guess you call it.
Host: Cosplay, yes.
Sam: I am a cosplay builder. I I’ve built a lot of, um, costumes.
Host: Yes. So whenever the first time I saw one I thought it was metal. Like, I really thought it was like big and heavy and metal, and then it wasn’t when I touched it.
Sam: No. It is it is only foam. It’s just foam.
Host: It’s crazy. How did you get into doing that?
Sam: So I used to have all of these foam mats laid all over my garage. And, uh, one day it rained and my garage leaked. And then mats all became very slick and hard to walk on. So I thought, well, this isn’t going to work. So I pulled them all up and I had a huge stack and my wife and I are just not people that like to throw things into landfills and things, so I thought, well, what can we do with these? And my wife told me that people were building costumes out of them. So I took a Exacto knife and I started cutting up stuff and making costumes out of them.
Host: Wow.
Sam: And it took a little I’ve had I’ve got a pile of, uh, my beginning stuff for sure. It didn’t all turn out good, like like they have been lately, but.
Host: Oh, they’re really neat.
Sam: In the beginning they were they were rough.
Host: Where can people see your work? I mean, I know obviously you live at Talbot House of Ideas, but I mean, it’s not open for people to come see your work, right?
Sam: Not yet, but we are leaning that way. We’re hoping to make that happen. But, uh, what I do is a lot of times when the square puts on things like Freedom Fest, um, Halloweens, those kind of things, anything for the kids. I like to dress up and go out and just wander around and do that, because they just seem to love that.
Host: Yeah, that’s so cool.
Sam: So I try to go out during those times.
Host: That’s so awesome.
**Musical Community**
Host: All right, well, back to your band. Where where do you play very often? How often do you guys get to get get together to play?
Mike: As much as we possibly can. And that’s kind of the fun thing about Kentucky Bend is we call it a band, but it’s it’s really kind of more of a I don’t even know.
Host: Couple guys.
Mike: Couple guys or Confederations, Kentucky Bend is no doubt Sam and I, right?
Host: Yeah, yeah.
Mike: But what it what we’re trying to build and and what it’s kind of become, it’s something a little bit bigger. So we will play quite a bit, um, down at the Piney River Tap Room. And, uh, we’ll like to play there. Uh, so we’ll be playing there on Friday. And then, uh, Saturday, Fourth of July, we’re going to play for a few hours over at the ice cream place.
Sam: Sweet Sam’s.
Host: Oh, how fun. I love them so much. They’re such sweet people.
Mike: They are. They take a great care of us. They let us play right there on their veranda. I guess is what you would call it. I wouldn’t know what the right word for that is.
Host: That’s a cool word. I like it.
Mike: And then we’ve been playing other places up and down out in Richland some, uh, a little bit down in Scotland, trying to work our way up to Rolla. So we’re keeping quite busy, but what we’re trying to do is we’re branching out a little bit now and we’re adding other acts to when we go and do a show. So if Sam and I go do three hours, that’s a lot of fun, because it’s the two of us. But if we do four, five, six hours, that’s even more fun, because then we can invite, well, think about it, then we can invite some of the other amazing talent that we’ve met. Sam has alluded to the open mic night where we met. It’s an amazing group of talent in this just general area. You wouldn’t you wouldn’t even imagine the the the folks that show up, grab a guitar and play something and you go, “Holy macaroni and cheese, where you been?”
Host: Yeah, do you think that people don’t realize how much talent we have here? I mean, because if you don’t go to these open mics or you’re not out and about seeing that kind of thing, you wouldn’t have a clue.
Sam: Right. I I did not have a clue, to be honest with you. When when I first when I first started going to the open mics when Leslie and I first moved here, uh, it was only probably two or three of us, maybe four of us that showed up to it. And then all of a sudden, now it’s 15, 20 sometimes, it just really depends. It’s it’s gotten quite
Mike: And it’s a real It’s I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to step up. It’s a really neat community. I mean, who would have thought that you know, I’ll lose. Because even this past time this past Saturday, you know, we put on a five-hour show, had a few folks show up and play with us. It was a lot of fun. And then, uh, Dave ran the open mic that evening. And it was interesting just to watch people that had never been there show up, uh, and and try and play and how loving the community is to accept new members, uh, which is kind of cool. And, uh, there were people that showed up without instruments, people loan them instruments. It’s just a really neat community of artists and and folks that show up to these kind of things. A lot of talented people in this community. Um, it’s a great way to get out and about and not spend a whole lot of money and check out some great music.
Host: How much do you think it adds to like your quality of life and like feeling at home and at peace, and like you have a community when you get involved in something like that? Because I’m just sitting here thinking about both of you are from somewhere else and you both came here and then, you know, you you found each other, but you found this music scene and that has to make you sort of feel more planted, you know what I mean? More at ease, more have some roots kind of thing. Because you’re meeting like-minded people and people that are enjoying that, you know, creative outlet.
Sam: I would say so. Yes. Yes, we’ve built quite a quite a little, well, I’d say we, but we and the community and Dave, and I mean, we built quite a little music community that’s really been growing at the at Piney River Tap. And it’s kind of been our little seed right there because they’ve started they helped us to help Dave, helped all of us start the open mic thing. And since then, that’s just kind of been our little meeting ground. We’ve met so many talented people. I wish I could name them all, but I can’t remember everybody’s name right now, but I mean, honestly, we have just met a just a slew of really talented people.
Host: Well, you guys brought some guitars today. Are you going to, um, sing for me?
Sam: Heck yeah.
Host: All right, so this probably is a good place to take a break then. So we’ll take a break, let you get your guitars and we’ll come back and we will actually hear some original music from Kentucky Bend in just a moment.
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**Welcome Back**
Host: All right, so we’re back with the Fort Not Lost in the Woods podcast, and I’m so excited to have the two guys from Kentucky Bend in studio with me. And I guess they’re each, you’re each going to do a song, right?
Mike: Sure.
Host: Okay, who’s going first? Samuel, you’re going first or?
Sam: I will go first.
Host: All right. So I’m going to turn my mic down, leave yours on, and here we go. Are you ready?
Sam: This is a little song that I wrote. It’s called Bucknaked.
**Musical Performance: Samuel Vanhouder – “Bucknaked”**
Sam: (singing)
Clear the bourbon, sweet river wine
Then my baby she begins to unwind
She could be a lady, don’t be a fool
Comes to dance buck naked by your swimming pool
One shot, two shots she won’t frown
Three shots, that lady comes closer to mine
Oh, she could be a lady, don’t be a fool
Comes to dance buck naked by your swimming pool
It’s right
Baby, it’s right
It’s right
Sweet mama, it’s right
She said, “Bring me out the bourbon,” and it’s taking all night
When we were at Mike’s just the other night
Laughing and joking and everything was all right
He broke out the bourbon and I said, “Oh, Lord,”
She was headed buck naked at his patio door
One shot, two shots, she won’t frown
Three shots, that lady comes closer to mine
Oh, she could be a lady, don’t be a fool
Comes to dance buck naked by your swimming pool
It’s right
Baby, it’s right
It’s right
Sweet mama, it’s right
She said, “Bring me out the bourbon,” and it’s taking all night
We got the sweet Kentucky bourbon
And it’s taking all night
**Post-Performance Chat**
Host: Oh, so good. I have to say, that reminds me of someone, but I I’m going to say about that. I have someone in my head the entire time you’re singing that.
Mike: So funny. So like that was the first song he played when we met. So at an open mic. He shows up at an open mic and unloads with this. An original song.
Host: Oh, really? I love it. I love it. And you you two have different styles, right? You kind of talked about that a little bit. So now we’re going to hear Mike’s, right? All right.
Mike: This is called Riverside. I think it’s a song I played. So we might as well go back to the beginning. Let’s go to the beginning.
**Musical Performance: Mike Witty – “Riverside”**
Mike: (singing)
Do you like my car?
Go a little fast
Do you like the speed?
When I hit the gas
Do you like my style?
Go in my way
Wanna go for a ride?
Tell me what do you say?
Roll the windows down, let’s feel that breeze
Park it by the river beneath a tree
Cruising along in my automobile
Holding you close, you know how I feel
I like your smile on a sunny day
Got the top pulled down to catch some rays
We can get some wine, we can drive all day
Turn the radio on, listen to the blues away
Listen to the blues away
Roll the windows down, let’s feel that breeze
Park it by the river beneath a tree
Cruising along in my automobile
Holding you close, you know how I feel
Take a look behind, sun’s going down
I’ve had a good time driving through town
We can do it again, call me anytime
We can take a ride
Out to Riverside
Just you and I
Out to Riverside
**Post-Performance Chat**
Host: Oh, man, I love it. That’s so good.
Mike: Thank you.
Host: That is so good. I I feel like I’ve heard both of those songs. Like I love when I hear a song and it just connects or you know what I mean? You don’t feel like it’s you feel familiar with it already. I felt that way with both of those songs. So.
Mike: Thank you.
Host: Oh, I love it. So, um, who are your guys’ who are your musical influences? You get up here a little closer.
**Musical Influences**
Sam: So I guess my musical influences are going to be from way back would be Lynyrd Skynyrd. That was my my background. And then from there, my my father was a studio musician in Nashville and he bounced back and forth and had bands growing up. So, um, a big, he was kind of one of my inspirations. But Dwight Yoakam is a huge, huge inspiration to me. Um, if you ever hear us play, you’ll catch that pretty quick. Um, but yeah, uh, Earl Scruggs, good old good old bluegrass music. I got a lot of
Host: That’s awesome.
Sam: Backgrounds.
Host: That’s awesome. What about you, Mike?
Mike: Well, growing up in the St. Louis area, I was born and raised on a a specific radio station up there with a little pig. You know what I’m talking about. Yes, I do. Yeah. Okay. Yes. So, um, a lot of a lot of classic rock. So anything from the Beatles, uh, all the all the way up to, uh, Ga Rolling Stones, um, Lynyrd Skynyrd, of course, Bob Seger. I think I said that. Otis Redding, you know, some of the great classic R&B guys too. I love that kind of stuff. And then, of course, the country stuff a little bit later in my life.
**Social Media & Local Talent**
Host: Yeah. Do you guys have a Facebook page or a way to follow the band?
Mike: We do. We do have a Facebook page and it’s simply called Kentucky Bend. And we’re the only Kentucky Bend that we know about other than the actual Kentucky Bend. So it’s easy to find us. Uh, we understand Instagram and, uh, TikTok are big too. So we’re going to be moving into. We’ll be moving on to those, uh, those mediums as well here in the near future.
Host: Who are some of the people like not, I mean, people in general, I guess, but some of the bands, some of the performers, some of the other artists that you guys have met, you know, in doing the the open mics and stuff. Is there anyone I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t ask you this because you can’t want to leave somebody out, but is there anyone in particular that you’re just like, “Wow, blown away every time you hear them,” or?
Mike: I’ll let you go first, my friend. Uh, I can make my list.
Sam: Yeah. Um, personally, I’m almost surprised every open mic that I go to that somebody, um, comes in there. We had a young man come in this just this last one. And, uh, I’m going to I can’t think of his name. Sorry, buddy. But that kid, he just really, Chris Baker maybe.
Mike: Yeah.
Sam: I think that’s his name.
Mike: From Crocker.
Sam: From Crocker. And I’m telling you, if you haven’t heard that kid play yet, he he really
Mike: Beautiful voice.
Sam: Beautiful voice. So, yeah.
Mike: Let’s see. I mean, I’ll I I can name a couple. Um, you’ll have to help me with last name, Sam, if you if you know their last names. I know Abe from up in Rolla comes down and rocks the joint. Um, a lot of fun.
Sam: I believe Williamson is his last name.
Mike: Williamson. Um, yeah. And then Julia, uh, a young lady, and, uh, she played this past week. And, uh, Val, another young lady from Las Vegas who is new to town, I think, found the open mic date. Recently, they joined and played. And the neat thing is once people come and do the open mic night, they get a little bit of a feel for it and then they want to do more, which is always kind of fun. And we’re in an environment down there where you have merchants and and people in this community that are anxious to have live music. And, uh, it’s a lot of fun to go see people really achieve what they want to do and their dreams. Yeah. So, you know, those are a couple people, Chris Lippert comes to mind, of course. You know, Chris has been with us for a long time. So those are a few people. Dave. I won’t leave anybody out and that’s
Host: I know, I know.
Mike: Probably left a bunch of
Host: I’m such a jerk for even asking that question.
Mike: And and Sam is really sorry he didn’t remember everybody’s name.
Sam: Mike is too.
Host: And all of those of you who we forgot.
Sam: And if we didn’t mention you, we love you to death and we’re glad you come and do us come and hang with us too.
Host: Yeah, yeah. So what what can people do that want to get involved in the local music scene? I mean, what is your suggestion to people? Do they just And maybe when I say involved, like for me, I am so not talented when it comes to this to music, but I absolutely love live music. So just to know that this is going on and I can come down and catch it, you know.
Mike: Well, there’s a couple of great ways. I think this region, the town, St. Roberts, Waynesville, they do a great job of advertising what’s going on locally in town. So that’s one way to do it. You know, I I’ve found the information on Google. I found it on Facebook, wherever you’re going to find it. Certainly on our page. And you can always contact us because the other thing that Sam and I are starting to talk about getting interested in doing is actually production of larger type shows where we would have multiple bands doing something someplace on a local level, right? So you’re seeing the the folks from your town, the people you’re growing up with, your high school buddies maybe. I don’t know. Maybe the folks who went to the army with, maybe some retired guy from Boeing.
Host: You know, we didn’t mention that about you guys actually. I’m glad you said that.
**Rapid Fire Questions**
Host: Okay, so I asked you both some questions. We’ll start with, let’s see if I can get my glasses. I’ll tell you who we can start with. All right, we’re going to start with Samuel. So I asked you list three things people might be surprised to learn about you. And you said that you write short stories, which we already talked about. But you also served four years in the Navy, and you worked in theater as a set designer and builder. That’s really cool. How’d you get involved in doing that? The set designing.
Sam: So I’ve always been interested in the arts and crafting and painting and all the crazy stuff I do, creative stuff. Um, and then when I met Les, she also is into costuming and she’s done some stuff with theater. And so we moved to in one of our many bounces around, we moved to a place called Sedona, Arizona. And we hooked up with the theater group there and we started doing theater where I we did a lot of stuff with that theater, but I did mostly I did the set designs and, uh, ran some lighting and some sound once in a while, but a lot of set design and building.
Host: Do you consider yourself a hippie?
Sam: Yes.
Host: I love that. I love that. When you said Sedona, I’m like, yes, he’s got hippie vibes. Yes. I love that.
Mike: Oh.
Host: Mike, you’re not you don’t consider yourself a hippie, do you?
Mike: Why are you saying that because of my haircut?
Host: I don’t think you you don’t he looks he to me he’s got hippie vibes and you sort of I don’t know, I can’t figure yours out yet. I can’t figure yours out yet.
Host: All right, also Samuel, um, I asked you what’s your favorite thing about the Pulaski County and surrounding area. And you said as a motorcyclist, you love the scenery and all the twisting roads, and you love living on the square. I’m so jealous of you for living on the square by the way. Um, that is just super cool. And do you think this is home? I mean, do you think this is it or what what does the future hold for you?
Sam: Um, you know, yeah, I’m going to I’m going to go with this is this is home. Um, you know, like I said, we’ve always been gypsies, but we’ve kind of been slowing down as we’ve gotten a little older.
Host: It does happen, unfortunately.
Sam: You know, and we’re starting to create between Mike and I here, we’re starting to create such a a music scene that I’m just really I don’t I’d hate to leave it at this point, you know.
Host: Right. You’re building something sort of, yeah.
Sam: And another thing with that is that with us being on the square and having that house, I I would really, we’re going to start moving towards having, uh, what we call round circles on the front porch where we’ll have, we’ll invite other artists, people who play some kind of instrument, music, and we’ll have round circles on the porch.
Host: Oh, just everybody sitting around jamming.
Sam: Yeah.
Host: Oh, that sounds like so much fun.
Sam: Cause Les likes to do all her painting and all her crazy stuff outdoors. So we thought, well, if we’re going to do that, and if she’s going to have any kind of art classes or art things outside then we’ll have music.
Host: I love that. All right, Mike, let’s get to you. Let’s see what your form said.
Host: So you lived in Seattle for nine years. And you’re a Seahawks fan.
Mike: Yes, I am.
Host: We still like you. Retired from Boeing. What was it like to work at Boeing?
Mike: It was amazing. It was amazing. It really was. It was a lot of fun. I I started there, uh, way back in the eighties. Um, so it was just a great a great place to work. When it was McDonald Douglas, I had a lot of opportunities to travel all over the world, see a lot of different things and make some really fantastic things for our men and women in uniform.
Host: That’s so cool. Um, and you have a graduate degree in economics from St. Louis University. I mean, economics these days, that’s got to be pretty good to have, right?
Mike: Well, the answer the reason I actually went to that that that side of the of education is simply the right answer is it depends.
Host: Oh, I guess that’s
Mike: So I got away with that for 35 years. It depends.
Host: It depends. Yeah, that’s a great answer.
Mike: And they let me retire.
Host: And that that worked out just perfectly. And I ask you what’s your favorite thing about the Pulaski County area. You said it’s the most beautiful place on Earth, the seasons, the rivers, the small towns and the people. I love that answer and that’s that’s the the answer I get more than anything on that is just the people and the beauty of the area. And, um, I feel the same way. I just I just love it. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Well, guys, thank you so much for doing this. Oh, you know what? Before you guys leave, actually, I almost forgot. All right, it doesn’t matter who does it first, but one of you spin that wheel.
**The Question Wheel**
Sam: Oh, oh.
Mike: Sam’s going to do it first. He’s brave.
Sam: All right.
Host: What a whippy spin. Man, come on.
Sam: Oh.
Host: Oh, that’s kind of a hippie spin. Yeah, yeah. It was a hippie spin.
Sam: Yeah. And it landed on my favorite an my favorite question.
Host: Well, your favorite question is, favorite way to relax. Okay, is that a hippie answer?
Sam: Um, I’m going to say my favorite way to relax. Let’s just go with I love to sit on my front porch with my guitar and play.
Host: All right, Mike. We’re going to leave it right there.
Mike: Boy, I hope I don’t get that one.
Mike: Can you read it? It’s so bad.
Mike: Erase one minor.
Host: Wait, what? Oh, yeah, you’re right. Uh, erase one minor inconvenience. I have to say no one has ever gotten that before. So like one minor inconvenience in life. Like it could be putting batteries in the remote control or, uh, doing laundry or whatever. What is one minor inconvenience you could just erase? One minor.
Mike: Oh, wow. That’s really a tough question.
Host: That is, cuz there’s a lot of minor inconveniences in this world.
Mike: I would say, you know, anything that just gets in the way of having fun. Really? You know, life is just too short and there’s so much craziness that goes on around us. Let’s just have a good time. And I’m glad to have Sam here to remind me of that. We just did a big road trip. And he reminded me the whole step of the way that life’s too short to worry about what’s in the rearview mirror. Isn’t that right?
Host: Yes, I. I love that. Where’d you go on a road trip to?
Mike: We went to Duval, Washington to play a Solstice Festival.
Host: What?
Mike: I swear I used to live up in the hippie community of Duval, Washington in the foothills of the Cascade mountains.
Host: Wow. That’s so cool. I have a feeling that you guys would be a lot of fun to hang out with.
Mike: Hey, Friday, come on, hang out with us.
Host: All right. Well, guys, thank you so much for doing this. Oh, you know what? Before you guys leave, actually, I almost forgot. All right. Not responsible for what happens after this. All right, guys, thank you so much for taking time to do this. It’s been a lot of fun. And thank you for bringing a music scene to the area. I mean, I love it. I I think that’s great and it’s just going to grow from here, I’m sure. All right. Thank you, guys.
***
This episode of the Fort Not Lost in the Woods podcast is sponsored by Security Bank of Pulaski County. Next Home Team Ellis, TK’s Pizza in St. Robert, and Sugar Creek Farms, your home for farm fresh pork products. The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of O’Quinn Media, its hosts, affiliates or sponsors. Content is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Thank you for listening.