From Rock Walls to Canoes: Exciting Adventures at the Gateway Outdoor Expo

Arnold Stricker: 00:00:01

Do you want to go climb a rock? How about getting into a canoe with Santa Claus? You'll find out how to do that on St. Louis in Tune. Welcome to St.

Louis in Tune, and we thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders, and everyday people who are driving change and making an impact that shapes our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Sniffles Mark Langston.

Mark Langston: 00:00:40

I know. My allergies are just raging.

The thing about it, though, is if you're in our business, in the radio business, it gives you a much deeper voice, you know what I mean?

Arnold Stricker: 00:00:52

And that's always good.

Mark Langston: 00:00:52

It does. Sometimes it does, yes. All right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:00:54

You could sing bass now.

Mark Langston: 00:00:56

Really? I know, I know. I have my cost switch rate ready to go, so I can turn it off if I have to cough.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:02

Okay.

Mark Langston: 00:01:02

Or sneeze button. I've had some good sneezes here lately, so I would say back off if you see me raring up here a little bit, but. Yeah, I know. I don't know what it is.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:15

It's the mold count.

Mark Langston: 00:01:16

It is global warming.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:17

But it's this time of the year when things change.

Mark Langston: 00:01:21

Boy, they are changing, aren't they?

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:23

Speaking of change, I'm going to give my own. I'm just going to do a spur of the moment, return to civility.

Mark Langston: 00:01:29

Oh, wow. He's all right. This is an ad lib.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:31

I'm not going to read one. This is an ad lib.

Mark Langston: 00:01:33

Okay. All right, I'm sitting down.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:36

You ready?

Mark Langston: 00:01:37

I'm ready.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:38

Everybody take a chill pill.

Mark Langston: 00:01:40

Oh.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:43

Return to civility. Everybody take a chill pill.

Mark Langston: 00:01:46

You think? Can we do that? I don't.

Arnold Stricker: 00:01:49

Yeah. We're coming out of an election and. Which made some people happy and some people sad and some people elated and some people depressed.

Mark Langston: 00:01:59

A lot of anxious things and a.

Arnold Stricker: 00:02:01

Lot of anxious people probably on both sides of the aisle. And I would just say everybody needs to take a chill pill. Mark and I were talking before the show.

Our country has endured quite a bit over the course of its history.

Mark Langston: 00:02:14

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:02:14

You just think of one major event, the Civil War.

Mark Langston: 00:02:17

Oh, my.

Arnold Stricker: 00:02:17

And how states actually renounced their participation in the United States of America.

And there was a whole lot of hatred going on and a whole lot of nonsense as it relates to rioting and how people were taking care of other people or not taking care of them and how they were destructive. We had a real race thing going on back then, and it was all about slavery, no matter what the south says. So Our country has endured a lot.

We came out of that because of the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln and other people. And we do look to leadership. And I'm not going to make any comments about that, but I'm making comments to the citizenry who really are the country.

Mark Langston: 00:03:05

And you have to say they voted the way they wanted to vote. The vote is the vote. And if we're going to live here and be here, we got to accept that. Sometimes you don't like the outcome.

I think we'll survive, though. Some people say, oh, no, it's going to be. We're done, we're doomed. But I don't buy that. I don't believe in that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:24

No, I don't either.

Mark Langston: 00:03:24

I think we're gonna. I think, you know, I think we could screw things up pretty good, but I think we can also fix things as well.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:31

I would encourage people to always be informed and to think and to read both sides.

And we talked about this in previous episodes, about listening to both sides of the news, reading both sides of what people write and forming an opinion of your own, not just hook, line and sinker.

Mark Langston: 00:03:48

Yeah. I can only be hopeful that will happen.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:51

Yes.

Mark Langston: 00:03:52

A lot of hope on that front.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:53

Return to civility. Take a chill pill.

Mark Langston: 00:03:55

Take a chill pill.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:56

And that's not, that's figurative, folks.

Mark Langston: 00:03:58

Okay?

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:59

It's not literal.

Mark Langston: 00:03:59

It's not like a square pill or round round or a horse pill you have to blow down your throat.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:04

It's just take deep breaths and this too shall pass.

Mark Langston: 00:04:08

Okay, Good.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:09

Okay.

Mark Langston: 00:04:09

Amen, brother.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:10

But what won't pass? What is our guest here today? Brad Kovac. He's deputy director at River City foundation and the publisher at Terrain magazine.

He's a professional writer, editor, publisher, creative project manager with over 25 years of experience working across multiple media platforms.

The primary focus he has is to create engaging and informative content that provides exceptional experiences for the target audience and drives business results. I love. That's the ultimate put together of what you are. Brad.

And he's here to talk to us about the upcoming show that's going to be taking place at the St. Charles Convention center, which is the Gateway Outdoor Expo. Brad, welcome back to St. Luis in Tune.

Brad Kovach: 00:04:52

Thank you for having me. Again, appreciate being here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:54

2024, open to the public, free parking. And you've moved from. And we were talking off air From Collinsville to St. Louis to Tower Grove Park. You were at the Dome and now you're out at St.

Charles. The evolution of that.

Brad Kovach: 00:05:07

Tell us why we're unintentionally migrating west, it seems.

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:11

Go west, young man.

Brad Kovach: 00:05:12

Yeah, last year was the big move for us.

We moved from being an indoor show for a number of years, then moved outdoor to Tower Grove park, which was really fun from the idea of having an outdoor expo outdoors. And the problem was it was a beautiful venue, beautiful park, beautiful people to work with. At Tower Grove, the weather was not beautiful for us.

It knocked down half the show for us. And we felt that it wasn't the experience that we wanted to give to the vendors and the attendees.

Of course, this year we're going back indoors, trying to get back to a climate, a guaranteed climate control environment is the way I'm looking at it. And yeah, we will have, we will be at the St. Charles Convention Center.

And what's great there is not only is the expo public, open and free the public. But yes, they do have free parking. They have great guest services there.

You know, along with being in an area where we don't have to worry about the weather knocking out the show, we'll be able to create, I think some fun services for folks coming in to experience the expo.

Arnold Stricker: 00:06:11

That sounds great. That is going to be folks November 22nd.

That's a Friday from 1 to 5pm, Saturday, 10am to 5pm, that's Saturday the 23rd and Sunday the 24th, 10am to 4pm so you have the Gateway Outdoor Expo going on and give people an understanding about what's the whole expo about. Because there might be some people new to the area or maybe they would like to go and they've never been and let's tease them out a little bit there.

Brad Kovach: 00:06:40

Sure. So the weekend actually consists of two things that I would like to explain. So on Friday we have the Gateway Outdoor Summit is what we call it.

It's more of a conference style event. It is open to the public as well, but it's more geared toward fol who are stakeholders in outdoor recs.

So maybe it's parks and rec people, it's government officials, elected officials, it's municipalities being able to come in and we have a really lively discussion.

We have a number of sessions that take place throughout that afternoon, each one with its own topic, but it's really geared toward being a discussion about expanding outdoor recreation in the St. Louis region and how we can get more people outside, remove barriers, create develop new projects, those sorts of things.

That's on Friday from 1 to 5, which you mentioned. And then on Saturday, Saturday and Sunday is the Expo, which is, as you would guess from the name is more of an exhibition where we have exhibitors.

We expect to have 150 plus booths.

And that can be anything from vendors who are selling outdoor gear, whether it's bikes, shoes, those sorts of things, to organizations that are sharing information about what they do. And then other events sometimes come to our events.

So maybe it's a marathon or a bike race or something else and they want to reach people and share information about signing up for their events. So it's really a broad number and style of folks who come there, but it's a lot of fun.

We build in also a lot of activities which I'm sure we'll probably talk about a little bit more here in detail. We want it to be fun for families and active.

So not just coming and looking to buy things or collect information, but actually participate in some activities.

Mark Langston: 00:08:17

What's your attendance like on. You've been moving around a lot.

Brad Kovach: 00:08:21

Yeah, it does fluctuate, but I think we feel pretty good about staying between 6 and 8,000 people is what we typically get.

Mark Langston: 00:08:26

That's a lot of folks.

Brad Kovach: 00:08:27

Yeah, yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:08:28

And growing. Yeah, yeah. I think you steadily been growing, haven't you? Every year?

Brad Kovach: 00:08:33

Yeah, we have over the years, which is some of the reason why we've also moved. We've outgrown some of the spaces that we've been in the past.

So it's really trying to find a space now that can host all the booths and the folks that we're bringing in.

Mark Langston: 00:08:45

I love the free parking. Yeah, you got me there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:08:48

Yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:08:48

We've heard a lot over the years. You get a lot of feedback and being downtown over the course of a few different years has been amazing. But people say, hey, we have to pay to park.

Vendors have to pay, attendees have to pay. And we want to remove every barrier we can possibly so that people can come out, not spend money to come to our show.

If they want to spend money at the show, that's great. But whatever we can do to get people in.

Mark Langston: 00:09:12

Yeah, I like it. Thank you. Kudos.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:15

We talked about at the front end of the show about go climb a rock. So you're going to have a 23 foot tall rock climbing wall.

Brad Kovach: 00:09:23

Yes. That is upper limits. They come most years to the show. They've been great partners for us and kids love climbing that wall.

Mark Langston: 00:09:31

So all of Arnold holds a belay. He's. I don't know if you knew that He's a official belay. Yeah. Do you know what a belay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:37

I belay that. No, that's how I would use it.

Mark Langston: 00:09:40

I'm A belay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:41

That guy.

Mark Langston: 00:09:43

I'm a certified belay. Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:45

Is that. You hold the rope.

Brad Kovach: 00:09:46

That's the guy. That's right.

Mark Langston: 00:09:47

That's the person that holds the rope. That's right.

Brad Kovach: 00:09:49

Yeah. That's the safety person.

Mark Langston: 00:09:50

Okay.

Brad Kovach: 00:09:51

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:51

Safety sand.

Mark Langston: 00:09:52

Yeah. And you have to. Do you do training for that too?

Brad Kovach: 00:09:55

You do?

Mark Langston: 00:09:55

Yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:09:56

Now, the wall they have at the Expo, which a nice facet of that is, it's auto belay, so you don't have to rely on a person. You are the machinery, or for lack of a better word is built in there.

Mark Langston: 00:10:08

And it works fine. They work fine. Yeah. It's fun to do. I've never climbed like that before. We've done it in scouting, so we do some of that stuff.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:16

I'd love to do that. I don't think my knees would allow me.

Mark Langston: 00:10:19

Oh, you'll be okay. You go up slow. It's not like you go running up the wall.

Brad Kovach: 00:10:25

We're not doing that.

Mark Langston: 00:10:26

We're going slow. Arnold.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:28

Now what intrigued me was getting your photo taken with Santa Claus in a canoe.

Mark Langston: 00:10:32

Sounds dangerous.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:35

Is Santa in the front or the back? Really?

Mark Langston: 00:10:37

I have a good question.

Brad Kovach: 00:10:38

I think Santa's in the back. It's the first year we've done this, so we'll see how it goes.

But yeah, it's a program called Canoe with Claws, which is actually hosted by one of our vendors called Big Muddy Adventures. And Big Muddy Adventures is a local out outfitter, paddling outfitter, so they take people out on guided trips on the rivers around. Around St. Louis.

They do this program on their own every year, Canoe with Claws, and they typically host it maybe in their facility or partner with a restaurant or a bar and maybe have it there.

This year, we talked them into doing Canoe with Claws at the Expo, which I think will be great because hopefully again, kids and adults are coming in, getting their photos taken, and then could take them to Thanksgiving or put it on their Christmas card and send it out. Something to note there. It's from 1 to 3 on Saturday and Sunday is when we'll be doing Canoe with Claus.

We didn't want to necessarily tie up the Big Muddy Adventure folks all day doing that. If you want to come and get your photo taken, make sure they're from one to three.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:35

It reminds me of some of those shots that you see about kids with Santa Claus and they're screaming or whatever, holding the kid outside the canoe.

Brad Kovach: 00:11:42

It puts a different whole different spin on it.

Mark Langston: 00:11:46

I want to see Santa with a life jacket on.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:49

I wonder if it's red.

Brad Kovach: 00:11:51

We could probably make that happen.

Mark Langston: 00:11:53

I love it.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:54

Our big inner tube.

Mark Langston: 00:11:55

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's good.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:57

Santa went tubing. Okay. Fly casting demo. Wow. And I know about Orvis and those are always fun to see those things happen.

Brad Kovach: 00:12:04

And this is the first year for Orvis at our expo. They opened a shop, I think within the last three or four months in Richmond Heights.

They were quick to jump on board with us as a sponsor and want to host an activity. So we're really psyched about that. So, yeah, they're hosting the flycasting demo.

So I don't know specifically what that will look like, but I would imagine you're going to get some quick tips and techniques on about how to whip that fly out there and work the wrist and.

Arnold Stricker: 00:12:30

Right.

Brad Kovach: 00:12:30

Whatever crazy twirly stuff they do in the air should be fun to learn a little bit about it.

Mark Langston: 00:12:36

That's a technical term, crazy twirly stuff.

Brad Kovach: 00:12:38

You can see how deeply I am ingrained in the fly fishing culture.

Mark Langston: 00:12:43

It's fun though to put on the.

Arnold Stricker: 00:12:44

Waiter, the expo tweets, whatever, mountain bike trial zone. And I'm just going to read some of these and you can respond. A swim spa demo. You bring your own swimming suit. Wow.

Brad Kovach: 00:12:57

That's also new this year. So we have a vendor, hot tubs of St. Louis, who are going to bring in a number of spas.

One of them is a swim spa, which I equate to a treadmill for swimming. So you get the current coming at you and you can just paddle forward and. But remain in place.

So if you are brave enough to jump in and want to try that, do bring a swimsuit, please. It's a family friend event. We don't want any birthday suits there. And if you are not interested in swimming, you can at least watch.

They're going to have some demo swimmers, I think on hand as well. And then we also, I believe have worked with one of the other vendors, which is a scuba diving vendor called Waikiki.

I believe they were talking with hot tubs of St. Louis to have a scuba diver in one of the spas so that you could just get a. That's a visual on what that might look like.

Mark Langston: 00:13:48

That's fun. Have you ever scuba dived?

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:50

Oh, yeah, I have. Yes, absolutely.

Mark Langston: 00:13:52

Open water. I love. I do open water thing. I know.

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:55

120Ft, is that right? Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:13:57

You went that deep?

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:58

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:13:58

I was in Cancun and we can only. I didn't know, but the Cancun was as clear as can be. It's only about 50ft deep. That's about as deep as it gets right there. I'm sorry. Go 125ft.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:09

Yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:10

That's crazy.

Mark Langston: 00:14:10

My head would be blowing up.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:12

It was off the pressure. Virgin Islands.

Mark Langston: 00:14:14

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:14

Where the shelf just drops.

Mark Langston: 00:14:16

Oh, yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:17

Now is that a special certification for that depth?

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:19

I'm only certified to 100ft.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:21

Okay. So they took us a little lower, right?

Mark Langston: 00:14:27

Oh, well.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:29

So yeah, I did my certification with Waikiki a year or so ago and it's been a lot of fun. We go out to Mermaid Springs. Have not been to Bon Terr Mine yet, but I want to go there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:40

Or a dry suit for that one.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:41

Do you? Yeah. I hear it's pretty cold.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:43

Yeah. Yes. So there's a giveaway of gear. Prize packages are worth more than twelve hundred dollars. There's some donated things.

Then there's a scavenger hunt. A photo contest gallery.

Brad Kovach: 00:14:55

Holy. That was in so Train magazine each year hosts a photo contest. We just announced the winners in our November December issue which just came out.

And for the first time we're going to have poster size blow ups of all the photo the winners from the photo contest and making a little gallery at the expo. Just the folks who want to get some recognition and to allow people to see a little art element along with the other vendors at the show.

Arnold Stricker: 00:15:18

That's neat. So you can get more information, folks. It's GatewayOutdoor Expo.com GatewayOutdoore Expo. Com. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St.

Lucien Tomb. We're talking to Brad Kovac. And Brad, you mentioned about Terrain magazine. Tell folks a little bit about Terrain magazine.

Brad Kovach: 00:15:34

Yeah, so we're actually celebrating our 10th year. This year we an outdoor recreation magazine that's based here in St. Louis, but we cover all of Missouri and southern Illinois.

And then we do also branch in a little bit into the surrounding states. But mostly we try to keep it regional to Missouri and southern Illinois.

What that means is all the content that we write about and develop and show is all regional stuff. We want people to not necessarily go away to other parts of the country. We love Colorado, we love Appalachia.

But there's so much here in Missouri and Illinois that people may not know about. So all of our content is focused on destinations.

Arnold Stricker: 00:16:10

Kind of like a weekend trip or a day trip.

Brad Kovach: 00:16:12

Sure, exactly.

Arnold Stricker: 00:16:13

Okay.

Brad Kovach: 00:16:13

But yeah, destinations and events and activities and people that you can know here so that when you're home, you don't feel left out of the outdoors. You can still get out and have a great time. So we're telling people all about that on a bi monthly basis in the magazine.

Mark Langston: 00:16:28

I know there's a lot in Missouri. I get the magazine that the Missouri that puts out conservation. But I. Southern Illinois. I have no idea what's going on over there.

Brad Kovach: 00:16:38

It's really a great place.

Arnold Stricker: 00:16:39

What are some examples that you could.

Brad Kovach: 00:16:40

Yeah, Shawnee National Forest is for me a go to. I'm there at least a few times a year. It's beautiful.

Mark Langston: 00:16:46

I mean.

Brad Kovach: 00:16:46

Yeah, you really. You get this northern, what they call the Illinois Ozarks, that northern Ozark sign topography.

So still very hilly, beautiful foliage, great change of seasons. Now would be a great time to go get all the color. My favorite place there is Garden of the Gods, which a lot of people have probably heard of.

Great rock formations, a little bit like Monument national park out in Utah, Arizona area.

Not the desert landscape, of course, but just these great rock formations that have been carved out by glaciers that you can go and hike around and tour. And a lot of great cabins and tree houses and just fun glamping opportunities out there as well. So that's a really great trip in southern Illinois.

Mark Langston: 00:17:29

Never knew it's not very far.

Brad Kovach: 00:17:30

So no, within two, two and a half hours.

Mark Langston: 00:17:32

That's great.

Brad Kovach: 00:17:33

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:17:33

I think about Johnson Shut Ins and Elephant Rocks and Tom Sock Mountain and all that kind of stuff.

Brad Kovach: 00:17:39

Yeah, right.

Mark Langston: 00:17:40

Yeah, there's a lot of that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:17:41

So biking, you're handling biking, climbing, hiking?

Brad Kovach: 00:17:46

Yeah, yeah. We camping or stuff. Truly really try to cover all of it. But yeah, the.

I guess what you might call traditional sports like running, biking, camping, hiking, and then we cover things like scuba diving and even hang gliding and paragliding. Really any you can do outdoors in our area, we try to put our toe in there a little bit and at least share that information with people.

It might not be for everyone. Not everybody wants to go parachuting, but if you do, you might be able to read about it in the magazine.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:11

Have you been hang gliding or paragliding?

Brad Kovach: 00:18:12

I have no. We've done stories on that. I personally have not gone.

Mark Langston: 00:18:17

What's the one with where you have the big fan behind you, you sit down and it's got the canopy and you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:23

And you're individually going around, right? Yeah, yeah, I've seen some of those.

Brad Kovach: 00:18:27

Around and I know what you're talking about. I'm not sure what you call that exactly.

Mark Langston: 00:18:31

It's sitting down with a big fan and you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:34

I saw one so high I thought he was probably in the flight path. Of a jet.

Mark Langston: 00:18:38

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:39

I was like, dude, what's going on with you?

Mark Langston: 00:18:40

Yeah, that's kind of scary. Sounds like fun though.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:44

Oh, yeah.

So that Terrain magazine, folks, is T E r a I N-M-A-G com terrain-mag.com and then there's something that I don't think we've ever talked about and you've been on the show a couple times. Here is the River City Foundation. What is the River City foundation and what do they do?

Brad Kovach: 00:19:01

So River City foundation is the nonprofit group that actually publishes Train magazine and hosts the expo.

We launched the foundation about a year and a half ago, I want to say, but we haven't really put the bullhorn out there yet because we really want to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before we do.

But essentially what we would like to do is collaborate, network with a lot of other folks here in town that are already doing outdoor sorts of programs and activities and act as a facilit, facilitator to bring those folks together and then connect them with youth groups, senior groups, school groups, faith based groups, and really grow the outdoor community and culture here in St. Louis. In that respect, we, we don't necessarily have the capacity to create outdoor programming ourselves.

We do some things here and there, like the expo, like the magazine, we have small reader events. But if we really want to affect large change in St.

Louis and really turn it into a large outdoor recreation community, we need to get our arms around everybody and help connect all those dots. So that's what River City Outdoors and the foundation wants to do.

And so in the past few years, we've worked closely with rec centers and school groups around town. We were able in the last year to get 3,000 kids outside that previously didn't have any outdoor activities as part of their program.

Again, we do that mainly with working with other groups. So I mentioned Big Muddy Adventures before a canoe paddling guide service.

We've had a bunch of kids get out with them or we've worked with other parks around town.

And like Upper Limits and the rock Wall that we mentioned earlier, we've been able to get Upper Limits and other programs to come to different parks around town and then work with rec centers or school groups to get kids out there and get actively engaged in these programs and in these activities.

You know, the hope being that the more that we can get these kids used to being outside on a repeating basis that they internalize that they take it to their home and their family and when they're looking for things to do. They think hiking instead of maybe sitting inside and playing on the tablet or the phone or whatever. So it's normalizing the outdoors in St.

Louis and making. Connecting all those dots and networking with everyone to make that happen. So that's more or less what River City foundation is trying to do.

Arnold Stricker: 00:21:14

That's a huge thing because, man, I remember everybody had a bike. We were always constantly riding bikes or we were constantly outside. We never stayed inside unless it was raining heavily or snowing.

And then even snowing, we were out sledding.

Mark Langston: 00:21:28

Yeah. And you had to be home by the time the street lights turned on. Is that right? How do you get your funding? How do you.

Brad Kovach: 00:21:34

The foundation is a privately funded nonprofit, so we have some donors and some folks who have been really good to us. We can also, of course, accept donations and go out and try to find some grants.

We were lucky enough to have a grant a few years ago which kind of kicked off the foundation from a group called Outdoor foundation is the name of the national organization. The name of the grant is called the Thrive Outside Grant. And what that did was give a $300,000 grant to St. Louis, which we then facilitate.

And part of that grant was specifically what we're trying to do, build this coalition of outdoor organizations to work together to help elevate outdoor recreation in St. Louis. And so we've been doing that for the past couple of years, and the grant was just renewed, I believe, for another year.

I think we're happy to have that happen.

Mark Langston: 00:22:22

I think it's great that you're going into schools and are you going into north county, other schools where some of these young kids don't have an opportunity to do some of these things?

Brad Kovach: 00:22:32

Yeah, that's definitely the key.

Mark Langston: 00:22:34

Okay. The little outreach going on there. Yep. Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:22:37

That's. You know, getting outside is really beneficial. It is not only for the exercise, but the vitamin D and.

Mark Langston: 00:22:44

Right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:22:44

I'm serious. Getting. You know, because you see kids and you mentioned the electronics. They're constantly. There's no light going on. It's dark.

No, they're just gaming or doing whatever and not getting outside. Just. That's why the pounds.

Mark Langston: 00:22:58

Nothing like walking through a creek, if you ask me.

Arnold Stricker: 00:23:00

Oh, gosh. Yeah. Just knowing which poison ivy plant to stay away from all of them.

Brad Kovach: 00:23:09

And ultimately, the hope is that it's good for St. Louis, for civic pride, for the economy. Outdoor recreation can do a lot of good beyond just the individual health and wellness of folks.

Arnold Stricker: 00:23:19

We're going to take a brief break, and we will Come right back. We're going to talk more about some outdoor kinds of activities. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. Don't go away.

This is Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in tune on behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.

In: 1857

,: 1868

The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man Dred Scott. But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen.

To achieve this goal, we ask you to download, sign and share the one page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org and click on the Dred Scott petition drive on the right side of the page.

On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis Intune. The United States has a strong tradition of welcoming newcomers and refugees.

The welcome Corps is a new service opportunity for Americans inspired to welcome those seeking freedom and safety and in turn help strengthen their own communities. Welcome Corps is a public, private partnership that is inspired by what Americans represent to so many around the world. A beacon of hope and refuge.

-: 9090

The Eagles: 00:25:24

-: 9090

Arnold Stricker: 00:25:33

Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune with Arnold Stricker and Mark Langston. We're talking to Brad Kovac. He is the he's the big cheese for the Gateway Outdoor Expo.

Mark Langston: 00:25:50

The Big Kahuna.

Brad Kovach: 00:25:50

I like that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:25:51

The Big Kahuna.

th of November from: 10:00

Mark Langston: 00:26:17

Oh yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:26:18

Makes. Makes a lot of sense.

Mark Langston: 00:26:19

That's right before Thanksgiving.

Arnold Stricker: 00:26:20

Yes it is.

Mark Langston: 00:26:21

It is the weekend before Thanksgiving when.

Arnold Stricker: 00:26:23

You were talking about this. And this is how my brain goes, Mark, sometimes that's going to be.

Mark Langston: 00:26:27

That's. We're still trying to figure that out.

Arnold Stricker: 00:26:29

Yeah. He has no clue where I'm going with this. We talked about the swim spa demo. So I'm thinking about.

You got this demo spa that puts out these jets where you can swim.

But, but it would be better then to have the fly casting guy just standing there and then Santa in the, in the canoe inside there with the kids getting. So you got a fly. Fly fisherman going. You got Santa in the canoe paddling in this.

Brad Kovach: 00:26:56

Right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:26:56

That's where my brain goes.

Brad Kovach: 00:26:57

I also understand that Sasquatch might be in attendance at the expo. So you throw him in the mix.

Mark Langston: 00:27:03

Really?

Brad Kovach: 00:27:04

And who knows what could happen?

Mark Langston: 00:27:06

Oh my. Oh, I'm a Sasquatch fan. I'm telling you right now.

Brad Kovach: 00:27:10

Come on out.

Mark Langston: 00:27:10

That's. Oh, I. Yeah, this Arnold. No Speedo though. We gotta tell you that right now. Thanks for clarifying that. But yeah, Sasquatch, that's. That's a lot of fun.

Brad Kovach: 00:27:25

Yeah, he was tough to get, I bet. We're working on Smokey the Bear. It's smokey the bear's 80th birthday this year.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:32

Really?

Brad Kovach: 00:27:32

Really?

Mark Langston: 00:27:33

He doesn't have a walker. See, there you go.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:36

I know.

Brad Kovach: 00:27:38

You never know who could show up at the expo.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:40

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:27:41

Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:42

Now let me ask you this, Brad. What did you do outdoors when you were growing up?

Brad Kovach: 00:27:46

It's funny Mark mentioned earlier creeks. So I had a creek in my backyard.

We grew up in south county and I think every day when it wasn't freezing outside, I was probably splashing around in that water. And then we had trails behind the creek in the woods there. They weren't obviously they weren't professional trails.

They were probably just old deer trails or something that we kids would go back in there and we'd be lost for hours. And you know, bless my parents for not sending out a search party or anything.

It was, you know, it was the 80s and 70s, so I guess times were different. But yeah, that's how I got, I guess, interested in just being outside in general. And then I was fortunate.

My mom, when we were in middle school, my sister and I took a job with a local outdoor summer camp. The, actually the camp itself was in Wisconsin, but their, the family that owned it was based here in Clayton.

And so that's where their winter offices were. And as part of her employment there, the camp owners asked me if. Or asked her if I would like to attend the camp when I was of age.

And so I said, sure, why not? Give it a try.

And I think the first year, like a lot of kids, I was probably a little hesitant, a little homesick, had to go through that whole process. But then the next seven or eight years, I was a camper there, and then I ended up working there for three years as a camp counselor.

And it just changed my whole life. We camped, we paddled, we hiked, we biked. Archery, softball. Everything you think of as a summer camp, we did it there.

But it was really just a coming of age, made great friends, really just changed my entire life. So that directly impacted my upbringing.

Arnold Stricker: 00:29:21

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:29:22

Yeah, you were hooked.

Brad Kovach: 00:29:23

I was hooked.

Mark Langston: 00:29:24

Absolutely hooked, line and sinker.

Arnold Stricker: 00:29:25

A lot of people don't know. You can take some archery lessons at Forest Park.

Mark Langston: 00:29:29

Yeah, yeah, Yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:29:30

I think mdc, Missouri Department of Conservation, offers archery, an archery program. And I also know there's an archery range out in Valley park, right along the Merrimack Greenway there, which is probably underwater right now.

So don't go there right now.

Arnold Stricker: 00:29:45

Don't ride that trail. So what's your. Do you have a favorite? Is it biking, is it hiking, is it surfing or. Yeah, I do scuba diving.

Brad Kovach: 00:29:53

I do. I'm a mountain biker, for sure.

Mark Langston: 00:29:55

You scare me. That scares me. Yeah, I have a friend that does that, and he just. I don't mean to interrupt, but he flies.

And I'm like, david, how do you not get hurt? It scares me when he tells me the stories about how fast he's going on his mountain bike. I can't imagine hitting a gully or something like that.

I'm sorry. Calling that.

Brad Kovach: 00:30:17

It will happen. You do fall. That's part of it. You learn how to fall, like skiing. Eventually you're going to fall.

And you could actually take clinics and classes with a number of local outdoors or, I'm sorry, mountain bike groups in. They don't necessarily teach you how to fall, but they do teach you what they call bike body separation, which is a nice way of saying how to.

Mark Langston: 00:30:38

You're flying through the air. Yeah, you're gonna hit a tree.

Brad Kovach: 00:30:41

It also applies to things like turns and going downhill. You want to get out of your seat and up on your feet. That's bike body separation. But it also does apply to falling.

Mark Langston: 00:30:51

Right.

Brad Kovach: 00:30:51

But, you know, you get safer as you get more experienced at biking. When things look Tricky look, perhaps a little sketchy. So it's not as bad as it might seem.

Mark Langston: 00:31:01

Okay.

Brad Kovach: 00:31:02

But eventually you probably will fall. Just. I run as well. I think I fall just as much running as I do biking.

Mark Langston: 00:31:10

I think that would hurt more myself.

Brad Kovach: 00:31:11

Maybe I'm just a spaz, I don't know. But that's the truth.

Arnold Stricker: 00:31:14

Yeah, Tillis park has some pretty decent mountain biking in Tillis Park. I know, maybe not mountain biking, but. But when I rode out there on my regular bike, I was like, this isn't really for the bike that I'm on.

Brad Kovach: 00:31:26

Yeah, Forest park has some nice biking trails and they do actually have some off road trails that I think are back in some of the greener areas. I don't know if those are again, official trails, but I know people use them.

And then Carondelet park, which is still also in the city limits, is the first city based park that has a official mountain bike trail.

Arnold Stricker: 00:31:47

Really?

Brad Kovach: 00:31:47

Yeah. So it was built over the course of the last year by a local group of mountain bike advocates.

Mark Langston: 00:31:54

Had no idea.

Arnold Stricker: 00:31:54

I thought that was fairly flat.

Brad Kovach: 00:31:56

It's not a super hilly trail. It's about a mile, maybe two miles at this point. There was a phase one and a phase two. I think. I know phase one is done.

I think phase two will make it two miles.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:06

Okay.

Brad Kovach: 00:32:07

And two concentric loops with a connector between and yeah, it's not a great elevation. Not huge elevation, but the way they have built it does give it some up and down and some nice flowy parts.

Yeah, stuff like that is happening all over. And I like to think that maybe that's St. Louis awakening to the fact that outdoor recreation is important.

And it is something that can really add another aspect to the culture here in the city and the county. Of course.

So, yeah, the more that we can build trails, whether it's hiking or biking or whatever, within the city limits, that just benefits everybody as far as I see.

Mark Langston: 00:32:43

Right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:43

And how can people get a copy of Terrain magazine? Is there a signup list or something? Is it free? Is it electronic? Is it print? What is.

Brad Kovach: 00:32:50

It's all of the above, but I'll explain. Yeah, we do offer a free digital magazine, so you can sign up for that on our website.

There's a sign up area box, whatever you want to call it, right there on the website. You would get the magazine, electronic version, every other month right into your inbox.

You can also pick up the print magazine at stores, locations around St. Louis. We have 300 locations that we serve around the state in St. Louis, I want to say there's probably 150 or more of those locations.

So you want to look at running stores, bike shops, any other sort of outfitter, like a, like an alpine shop. But then we're also at a number of fitness centers, brew pubs, just gathering places where we feel like the outdoor community would.

If you would like to find those locations, if you go to our website, there's a page you can click on that says magazine and it has a list of all the locations so you don't have to go out and search. You could find one online and then go and get the magazine there. And then if you like, you can also subscribe for an in home subscription.

So that's $20 a year. You're mainly paying for postage and a little bit of the print cost. But then it's going to come right to your home in mailbox every other month.

Arnold Stricker: 00:34:02

Great stories. Here's some of the stories. Mark. We tried out a fully loaded camper van. Here's what happened. Three items to upgrade your indoor cycling training.

Ask Muddy Mike about getting started. These world class athletes call the Lake of the Ozarks home. They talk about 10 outdoorsy gifts for everyone in your life.

Just a whole variety of kinds of things. It's really cool. Yeah, you and I need to sign up.

Mark Langston: 00:34:25

Oh yeah, I'm gonna. There's no question.

Arnold Stricker: 00:34:28

Because we like to, we like to do outdoor kinds of things.

Brad Kovach: 00:34:30

Yeah, we'd love to have you. We'd love to have you in the magazine. When you want to take on that new activity, let us know.

Arnold Stricker: 00:34:37

Is it that spa with Santa and the Fly family?

Brad Kovach: 00:34:39

Maybe that's it. You can write a great column about that. Oh my God.

Mark Langston: 00:34:43

This is not gonna happen.

Brad Kovach: 00:34:44

The time I met Santa and Sasquatch in a hot tub.

Arnold Stricker: 00:34:49

A first. A first. Brad, we thank you for coming in. You can stay and listen to the rest of the show. I have some special treats for Mark here.

Mark Langston: 00:34:58

Oh boy.

Brad Kovach: 00:34:59

Okay, I'm happy to.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:00

,: 10:00

Charles Convention center in St. Charles, Missouri. Get more information, go to gatewayoutdoor Expo.com I love this.

Mark Langston: 00:35:19

Thank you. That's great. Yep. Website one more time.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:23

Gateway x gatewayoutdoor expo.com.

Mark Langston: 00:35:28

All right. No, there. But the organization's website.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:32

The Terrain magazine.

Mark Langston: 00:35:34

Yeah, Terrain.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:35

That's terrain mag dot com.

Mark Langston: 00:35:38

Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:38

Terrain magazine. And then River City foundation is rivercityfdn.org.

Mark Langston: 00:35:44

So we got an Oregon a comm in there. Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:47

And you can get all of us.

Brad Kovach: 00:35:48

Much, much appreciate it.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:50

Yeah, it's fun to get these events out there to the public. And I want to mention again, free parking. Folks don't have to worry about that. Bring the kids. It's very family friendly. And there be food out there.

Brad Kovach: 00:36:02

I presume they have concessions at the convention center? Yes. And then there'll probably be some sampling from some of the vendors too.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:07

There you go. There you go.

Mark Langston: 00:36:08

All right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:09

How many vendors are going to be there?

Brad Kovach: 00:36:10

We expect 150 plus booths.

Mark Langston: 00:36:12

Wow, that's huge.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:14

It is. That's a lot of people act. Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:36:16

They'll be packed in there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:17

Yeah, yeah. Shoot for.

Mark Langston: 00:36:19

I'm hoping you get especially with Sasquatch there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:21

Oh, yeah. Maybe 10,000 people there. We'll have 10,000 sightings of Sasquatch. So our word of the day.

Mark Langston: 00:36:30

Oh, here we go.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:31

Is acapella.

Mark Langston: 00:36:32

Oh, it's a singing thing, isn't it?

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:34

Yes. When a song is performed acapella, it is sung unaccompanied, no instrumental music. Oh, it's all voices. So we have some examples. Oh, we do, yes.

Number one.

Mark Langston: 00:36:49

Ok.

Voctave: 00:37:27

In a love of

somewhere over the rainbow Skies are blue or blue and the dreams that you where trouble smell like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops that's where you find me Somewhere over the rain beyond the rainbow why can't man.

Mark Langston: 00:39:46

Love it?

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:47

I chose this group, it's called Voctiv because they do a lot of Disney songs, Mark.

Mark Langston: 00:39:52

Do they?

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:53

And you love Disney.

Mark Langston: 00:39:54

I do. Did you know the Dorothy's ruby slippers were just found? I guess they were stolen for years.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:01

Yes, that's correct.

Mark Langston: 00:40:02

And they just recovered them and they're gonna put them up on the auction block. And I guess there's a Wizard of Oz museum that is. I guess they have them on display now. Temporarily. And also we're in November when we record this.

And I think it was released originally in November.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:19

I think you're correct.

Mark Langston: 00:40:20

So all this is just intertwined. I love it.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:22

That's right.

Mark Langston: 00:40:22

It's all connects.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:24

Now for those of you who think. And there's a lot of acapella groups out there. There's tons of them. There's some that sing strictly what I would call classical kinds of music.

Some sing pop. Voctov sings a variety because of Disney. I chose them. Here's another one. You probably know this group.

Mark Langston: 00:40:41

All right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:41

O2. Nope. Nope.

Mark Langston: 00:40:45

Oh, I beg your pardon. It said Everything is all right There.

The Eagles: 00:40:50

Are stars in the southern sky Southward as you go There is moonlight and moss in the trees down the seven Bridges Rock Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:29

The Eagles.

Mark Langston: 00:41:30

The Eagles.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:30

Now, they usually did that as a warm up before they went on stage.

Mark Langston: 00:41:34

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:34

And a lot of people do Seven Bridges Road song. It's a lot of instrumental stuff, but it deals with acapella. And then there's always a Star Spangled Banner version. That's. And this one just.

It makes the hair on the back of my neck. Not on my head.

Mark Langston: 00:41:50

Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:50

The hair on the back of my neck.

Mark Langston: 00:41:51

That would be tough.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:52

Stand up at the end. So here we go. Here we go.

Voctave: 00:41:56

O say, can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare singing air Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there O say, does that star Spangled Banner for the land of the free of free and the home of.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:57

Wow. If then I get the hair on the back of your neck standing up.

Mark Langston: 00:44:00

I don't know what will.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:01

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:44:01

Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:02

Yeah. And that is so hard to do, to sing that in tune. And I know that because I'm a musician.

Mark Langston: 00:44:08

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:09

And that is tough.

Mark Langston: 00:44:10

Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:11

Now, there's some groups, they sing acapella. They'll do the, like, 613 that we've had on several times. They'll do the. They'll do all the instruments. And that.

Another one, Take six, does that, too. A lot of groups out there. It's just fun to listen to where you don't have any instrumental accompaniment.

Now, I have to ask, Brad, when you were at Lindbergh High School, did you sing in choir?

Brad Kovach: 00:44:32

I did not.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:33

Did you play an instrument?

Brad Kovach: 00:44:34

I played the trumpet.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:35

Oh. Was Lowell Bruner your director? No, Bob Spiegelman.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:40

That sounds familiar.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:42

But.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:42

But it's been a long time.

Mark Langston: 00:44:43

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:44

What'd you play?

Brad Kovach: 00:44:45

Trumpet.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:45

Trumpet.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:45

Now that I'm thinking about, that was middle school. I think by the time I got to high school, I may have opted out of orchestra.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:51

Okay.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:51

I had Mr. Zink.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:53

So you can appreciate this what we.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:56

Oh, yeah. It's amazing.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:57

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:44:57

Yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:44:58

The funny about the Eagles, Seven Bridges Road. I will sing that to myself. And, like, when it comes on the radio, I am in there singing it.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:06

Are you singing a melody or singing one?

Brad Kovach: 00:45:08

I don't know what I'm singing, and I'm sure if it Was isolated. It would be. People would be clicking off the radio, but I cannot help but try to get in there.

Mark Langston: 00:45:16

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:16

It's fun when, you know, you got somebody by themselves and you hear them singing. It's like, what in the world? And they've got headphones on.

Mark Langston: 00:45:23

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:23

And they're singing with the headphones. People singing in the car.

Mark Langston: 00:45:25

Yes, yes. I live. It's one of. I enjoy that a lot, just watching people do that. You need to roll the window down and do it, though.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:32

Yeah. That's how I learned to sing harmony is you listen to, like, songs like.

Mark Langston: 00:45:36

The Eagles and you sing harmony with them.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:38

America. Yeah. You sing harmony with them.

Mark Langston: 00:45:39

America was really good. That was a great group for that stuff.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:42

So I did that for you, Mark. The vocative group, so. Because they do a ton of Disney stuff.

Mark Langston: 00:45:48

I love that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:49

Yeah. So our word for the day, folks. Acapella.

Mark Langston: 00:45:55

Of course. It is as it should be.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:57

As it should be.

Mark Langston: 00:45:58

Yeah, I know.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:59

Do you have any days of the day, Mark?

Mark Langston: 00:46:01

I have. Yeah, I have a couple. One is probably your favorite. Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:05

Okay.

Mark Langston: 00:46:06

It's National Men make dinner Day.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:09

Oh, yeah.

Brad Kovach: 00:46:10

I saw that. Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:46:12

Did you see that? I did see. So this is legit. This is a legit part of the show.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:15

Right?

Mark Langston: 00:46:16

I know. It says, men, take the lead. Get in there and whip up something nice. I'm not sure I could do that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:25

If you get good recipes and get some good ingredients, you're okay.

Mark Langston: 00:46:30

And it says this particular day has been shared over 6,000 times.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:36

Wow. It could be for me.

Mark Langston: 00:46:37

I think my wife is probably sharing that with me, people.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:40

Yeah. Maria, I love to cook.

Mark Langston: 00:46:42

You do?

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:42

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:46:43

I know. I've been to your house before or your condo or.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:46

Yeah, whatever that thing is.

Mark Langston: 00:46:48

That high rise thing.

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:49

Yeah, the apartment in the sky.

Mark Langston: 00:46:53

International Stout Day. Do you like stout beer?

Arnold Stricker: 00:46:56

Stout beer.

Mark Langston: 00:46:56

I'm not a big fan. I hate to say. There are probably people that are going to beat me up for that National Bittersweet Chocolate Day. Not sure about that one at all.

I know. No, I shouldn't tell you. It's hug a bear today. Hug a bear. Did you have a teddy bear when you've grown up?

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:10

When I was very young.

Mark Langston: 00:47:11

Did you?

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:12

Yes.

Mark Langston: 00:47:12

I have a story about it. I was in an orphanage. I was in an adopted child that later on in life, I never had a teddy bear ever.

And I was telling my kids about it a few years back and what did they do? They got me a teddy bear.

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:25

Oh, cool. Did you name your teddy bear Teddy Boo? Teddy Bear.

Mark Langston: 00:47:29

Teddy Bear is Teddy. Boo and I still have Teddy.

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:33

Is he here today?

Mark Langston: 00:47:34

Not today, but he is at home.

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:36

Support mayor.

Mark Langston: 00:47:38

Yeah, he's my support Teddy. I think that's very sweet that the boys did that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:47:42

Yeah, that's cool.

Mark Langston: 00:47:43

Let's see. Let's see. National Cash Back Day. I don't know about that. We don't have a whole lot. Notary Public Day. Project Manager Day.

I'm saying, why, these are all pretty boring. I think there's a couple of more. Oh, National STEM Day.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:02

Science, Technology. That one.

Mark Langston: 00:48:05

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:05

Engineering and Engineering and Math. And you add the arts in there, it'd be Steam day.

Mark Langston: 00:48:09

Steam. Oh, I'm not. I'm not good with that. Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:14

Oh, that kind of goes with the first one you talked about.

Mark Langston: 00:48:16

Let's see. International Day of Radiology. Okay. National Dunce Day. All right. National Cappuccino Day. You're slipping. Yeah, I know.

You didn't bring cappuccino in today. Harvey Wallbanger Day. Never had a Harvey Wall. Have you ever had one? No, never.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:33

Don't care to.

Mark Langston: 00:48:37

National parents is Teachers Day.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:39

Oh. Which started in the state of Missouri.

Mark Langston: 00:48:41

Is that a fact?

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:42

Yes. And then went national.

Mark Langston: 00:48:44

Who knew?

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:44

Yes.

Mark Langston: 00:48:45

Really?

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:45

Started under, I think it was then Governor Christopher Kit Bond.

Mark Langston: 00:48:50

Oh, okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:48:52

He got elected to senator then.

Mark Langston: 00:48:55

Yeah. Wasn't. He was governor then he got beat by Walking Joe Teesdale who died.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:02

And then.

Mark Langston: 00:49:03

Then he came back.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:04

Yeah.

Mark Langston: 00:49:04

And took it on again.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:05

Yep.

Mark Langston: 00:49:06

He was a mad governor. He was mad about that loss. I remember that world. A pianiste. So there you go.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:13

All right.

Mark Langston: 00:49:13

That's a. Yeah. There's others too. Like Talk Money Day.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:16

Depoporia.

Mark Langston: 00:49:17

You have a potpourri of days. That's correct. Too many days.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:21

Who could keep up? I love mangoes. Do you like mangoes?

Mark Langston: 00:49:23

Yes, please. Mangoes.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:24

So my dad bought 15 mangoes and didn't tell my mom, so she bought 10 mangoes. And now we are the people from the math problems. For those of you that don't get that, my dad bought 15 mangoes and my mom bought 10 mangoes.

How many mangoes do we have?

Mark Langston: 00:49:42

You should have left when you had the chance.

Arnold Stricker: 00:49:45

Yesterday I wore something from five years ago and it actually fit. So I'm very proud of myself. It was a scarf.

Mark Langston: 00:49:54

Wow. This is how it's going to be, isn't it?

Arnold Stricker: 00:50:00

Let's see here. Oh, here we go. The first rule of cleaning while listening to music. The toilet brush is never the microphone.

Mark Langston: 00:50:09

Oh, my goodness. Oh, that hurts. Just to hear it.

Arnold Stricker: 00:50:14

And folks, don't let anyone ruin your day. You're an adult. Do it yourself. My wife said, that's the fourth time you've gone back for dessert. Doesn't it embarrass you? I said, no.

I keep telling them it's for you. The woman visits her husband in prison.

Mark Langston: 00:50:37

There's more.

Arnold Stricker: 00:50:38

Before leaving, she tells a correction officer, you shouldn't make my husband work like that. He's exhausted. The officer laughs and says, are you kidding? He just eats and sleeps and stays in his cell.

The wife replies, he just told me he's been digging a tunnel for months.

Mark Langston: 00:50:54

Wow, these are worse than dad jokes. You know that, right?

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:02

Told my boss I was going to the bathroom, but did say which one. I'm now at home now. Brad will like this one. It's because it's a fitness one.

Mark Langston: 00:51:13

Don't bet on it. Okay, go ahead.

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:16

This was seen outside the 24 Fitness.

The Eagles: 00:51:19

Tight.

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:20

Not just 24 Fitness. This is a joke, folks.

Mark Langston: 00:51:23

Okay?

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:24

Tired of being fat and ugly? Just be ugly. 24 Fitness.

Mark Langston: 00:51:29

Thank you very much. Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:34

Shazam. Okay, let's see here. I'm going to the collection now. Okay, here we go. A man is suing smartwater for not making him smart.

And I'd like to formally announce my lawsuit against Thin Mints. And unless he wears diapers, folks, you can't change him.

Mark Langston: 00:51:55

Wrong.

Arnold Stricker: 00:51:59

Okay, let's see.

Mark Langston: 00:52:01

I think we're running out of time, even if we're not.

Arnold Stricker: 00:52:06

Now, here are some nicknames for co workers. We've shared this before, but this is always a good one. We'll end with this one. Lava lamp. Looks good, but not very bright. Deck chair.

Folds under pressure. Dr. Dolittle. The name says it all. 007, zero motivation, zero skills, seven bathroom breaks. G spot can never be found.

I have a whole slug of these on stupid.

Mark Langston: 00:52:44

Do you really?

Arnold Stricker: 00:52:45

I'm not saying you're stupid. I'm just saying you've got bad luck when it comes to thinking.

Mark Langston: 00:52:49

Oh, no. Wow. They're turning us off all over town. Okay, people want to hear the next thing you do, I'm sure.

Arnold Stricker: 00:53:05

Remember, if you work hard enough at your job, you get to do other people's work, too.

Mark Langston: 00:53:10

Yep, that's right. I get that. I've been there, done that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:53:13

Don't stop there, folks. Okay, we thank you for being with us today. Let's see if I can. Brad has my paper with my extra on it. But I will. Let's see if I can do it.

Oh, here we go. Hey, thank you. It says here. Thanks. Thank you folks. That's all for this hour.

Mark Langston: 00:53:29

Thank goodness.

Arnold Stricker: 00:53:29

If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stl and tune.com. consider leaving a review on Apple Podcast, Podchaser or your preferred podcast platform.

Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow. Want to thank Bob Bertha Sell for our theme music. Our guests Brad Kovac and co host Mark Langston.

We thank thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.

Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.