What the Best American Thing?

Today we’re waving the stars and stripes and debating a question as big as America itself: what’s the best thing about America? In this episode, Craig and Aaron go head-to-head on what makes America great, from food and innovation to sports, scenery, and beyond. Whether you’re a lover of American fast food, a fan of college sports, or just proud to call the USA home, we’re breaking down and ranking the most iconic, unique, and unforgettable things that define American life.

CHAPTERS: 
0:00:00 - Happy Birthday America
0:01:27 - Reviewing Silver Dollar City
0:12:46 - Let's talk about America
0:15:16 - Are Fireworks Awesome?
0:16:06 - Baseball Still America's Pastime?
0:21:54 - The Most American Movie
0:25:55 - Iconic American Foods
0:29:07 - Foods from 1776
0:36:17 - Most Underrated State
0:38:16 - Best Road Trip State
0:42:09 - Best American City
0:44:32 - American Inventions
0:48:36 - Small Town vs Big City
0:53:02 - Mountains vs The Beach
0:58:46 - Apple Pie vs Peach Cobbler
1:00:41 - More American Things!
1:05:17 - Best Things Bracket
1:13:38 - Best Things Battle

Check out our website bestthingspod.com!
Find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @bestthingspod.
Wanna watch us? Subscribe on YouTube at YouTube.com/bestthingspod

Creators and Guests

Host

Aaron Brooks

Host

Craig Woodson

What is The Best Things?

Every week, Craig and Aaron pick a new topic, build a bracket, and find out what comes out on top.

Aaron Brooks [00:00:00]:
If I could eliminate the beaches from our country, I'd get rid of every beach.

Craig Woodson [00:00:03]:
Really?

Aaron Brooks [00:00:03]:
I hate them.

Craig Woodson [00:00:04]:
I knew you didn't freak with them. I didn't know you hated them.

Aaron Brooks [00:00:07]:
I can't stand it.

Erin [00:00:12]:
Welcome to the Best Things podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow us on all the socials est thingspod as well. Now here are your hosts, Craig and Erin.

Craig Woodson [00:00:37]:
Hello, Internet. Welcome in to the Best Things podcast. My name is Craig. Sitting next to me as always. Once again, Uncle Sam's uncle, Aaron Brooks.

Aaron Brooks [00:00:50]:
I left my top hat at home.

Craig Woodson [00:00:54]:
Do you really have a top hat? A patriotic top hat. Red, white and blue Uncle Sam hat.

Aaron Brooks [00:00:59]:
I did it one time. I don't know if I could lay my hands on it. I wish I could.

Craig Woodson [00:01:03]:
Welcome into the podcast. We have missed you. We have been away for a little bit, a little bit of a hiatus for like what, a month or so. We've been doing the things you do when you are in the summer months. And so we've been traveling, doing some things, walking around.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:24]:
We, we. Oh, lots of walking around. There's been a. So much walking you.

Craig Woodson [00:01:29]:
Because you've been to Branson a time. How many times have you been a.3.3 times in a month.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:34]:
Yeah. Hey, if you buy Silver Dollar City season passes, let me tell you, we're going to make sure that we get our money's worth out of those things.

Craig Woodson [00:01:42]:
I have been once and it was not a week. You were there.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:46]:
No. I hope that we get to go this summer.

Craig Woodson [00:01:49]:
We need to.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:49]:
I really want you to do some rides with me.

Craig Woodson [00:01:51]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:52]:
I was not a ride guy.

Craig Woodson [00:01:53]:
You.

Aaron Brooks [00:01:53]:
Yeah. You have surprised me. I have become. I am roller coaster man now. My YouTube feed is just full of rides. I have a. I have a bucket list of amusement parks I want to go to. I cannot believe I spent so many of my 30 something, 36 years of life being.

Craig Woodson [00:02:14]:
You know, and I'm on the opposite track. Like, I did rides when I was younger and I don't. I just, I've done my fill. I get motion sickness. I'm an old man now and I'm just like, I'm okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:02:23]:
Maybe you can change. Maybe you can change.

Craig Woodson [00:02:26]:
I don't know, a long car ride.

Aaron Brooks [00:02:28]:
I. I don't like spinning or anything like that, but I finally worked up the nerves to do the time traveler roller coaster at Silver Dollar City this last week and let me tell you, it was an absolute blast.

Craig Woodson [00:02:39]:
Really.

Aaron Brooks [00:02:40]:
I couldn't believe how fun it was. It was so terrifying. But, man, was it fun. You were just. It's one of only a handful of roller coasters in the world that actually spins while you're doing all of the stuff.

Craig Woodson [00:02:51]:
See, I'm throwing up. I'm just.

Aaron Brooks [00:02:52]:
No, it wasn't that bad, though.

Craig Woodson [00:02:54]:
But you don't get motion sickness like I do.

Aaron Brooks [00:02:56]:
I can't play you' over it.

Craig Woodson [00:02:57]:
I can't play a Halo for more than 10 minutes without getting nauseous.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:02]:
I. I think that we could do it.

Craig Woodson [00:03:04]:
The kitty rides I go on with my daughter. I can't. I. I can do one or two, and then I gotta pause like, I'm not making it.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:11]:
I want to bring the people an episode of us talking about the best things of Silver Dollar City, and we can't do it without you doing the rides with me.

Craig Woodson [00:03:19]:
Absolutely. We could do. I can. I can watch you do them and you can give the feedback.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:23]:
That's not the same.

Craig Woodson [00:03:24]:
I will talk about the food.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:26]:
I will talk about the food.

Craig Woodson [00:03:28]:
I like. I like Fire in the Hole.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:29]:
There's rides I like.

Craig Woodson [00:03:31]:
I like the. The log ride, all that. You just. The. If it's gonna. If it's gonna go upside down, I'm out. Everything else, I'm okay with, but I can't. I can't flip and turn. I can't have my equilibrium that shaken.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:44]:
I have equilibrium issues myself and have not had any issues.

Craig Woodson [00:03:50]:
Well, good for you. You've also not been a roller coaster. I've been on these before and I know I, I have evidence.

Aaron Brooks [00:03:57]:
I think that you should try it again, though, just. Just to see. Maybe things have changed.

Craig Woodson [00:04:01]:
I, I.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:02]:
Maybe things have changed.

Craig Woodson [00:04:03]:
Highly doubt it.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:05]:
At least, at least one.

Craig Woodson [00:04:06]:
I gotta wear a poncho to go on a ride.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:09]:
I just. I just want you to do one of them with me. Like Wildfire.

Craig Woodson [00:04:13]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:13]:
It's so smooth. It's an easy one.

Craig Woodson [00:04:16]:
Okay. I mean, I'm not. I'm not. I'll do. I find. If you want to see me hurl, then. Okay. You know, I believe in you. I do not believe in me. I do think it would be fun for us to do an episode from Silver Dollar City. Or at least a video, you know, of us.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:33]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:04:34]:
You know, touring Silver Dollar City or something.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:36]:
It feels very America.

Craig Woodson [00:04:38]:
I am not a. That's very true. Especially this year. You know, they've got some patriotic stuff going on.

Aaron Brooks [00:04:43]:
And out of all of these theme parts I've been watching on YouTube the last month or so, Silver Dollar City really does look like it might be the most fun. It's just the nicest looking one.

Craig Woodson [00:04:55]:
It is like the number one rated theme park in America. Wow. In a lot of these guides. Wow. I'm not a big theme park guy. I never have been. Just because of that reason. Like, just the rides. I don't. And I don't do crap. I don't like crowds. And I. For me, even Silverado City, I don't get into the shows. I don't like country, that. That type of Appalachia.

Aaron Brooks [00:05:17]:
I thought you were into folk stuff.

Craig Woodson [00:05:19]:
I thought.

Aaron Brooks [00:05:19]:
I thought you didn't hate folk stuff.

Craig Woodson [00:05:21]:
I mean, I don't hate folk music. It's not abhorrent to me. Like, country music is okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:05:27]:
Theirs isn't necessarily just strictly country.

Craig Woodson [00:05:29]:
No. But I'm not going to watch a show with it, though. Like, I just don't care to sit there and watch some people I don't know playing the music. That is. I'm indifferent to. Like, I just. The Appalachia side of stuff, I just. I could take it, leave it. Like, that just doesn't entertain me that much.

Aaron Brooks [00:05:44]:
The things I haven't got to do yet at Silver Dollar City, that we got to go back and do it because I got to find a day to do it. I enjoy watching their glass blowing demonstrations, the blacksmithing stuff, and I haven't, because we've been so busy doing all these other things. Haven't got to take in some of that stuff.

Craig Woodson [00:06:01]:
Yeah. Again, that's just stuff that, like, I don't know. It just doesn't entertain me, I guess the way that, I mean, when I was a kid, it did. I found that stuff interesting. But I've seen it. I can see it on YouTube. Like, I just. It's different, though. It's different in person maybe. I don't know, like, I walk by and go, oh, look what they're doing. You know, now maybe a better attitude.

Aaron Brooks [00:06:21]:
You have a bad attitude.

Craig Woodson [00:06:22]:
Ellie's with me. She might find it fascinating. That would bring me joy. But I just myself don't go. I want to go see them blow glass and make. Make. I do horseshoes.

Aaron Brooks [00:06:32]:
Why do I do that?

Craig Woodson [00:06:32]:
I don't know. You are a different breed. You. You are inherently 90 years old. You have always been three decades older than you are.

Aaron Brooks [00:06:41]:
The. We did the cave tour that two times last.

Craig Woodson [00:06:44]:
That's cool. I like the cave.

Aaron Brooks [00:06:46]:
Would never do it again with a toddler. That was the worst.

Craig Woodson [00:06:49]:
That was the worst train ride. The. The train ride's cool because It's a break and you get to, you know, you get to do.

Aaron Brooks [00:06:55]:
I thought the train ride was the hokiest thing I ever did.

Craig Woodson [00:06:57]:
It is extremely hokey, like the acting parts. But that's how I feel about a lot of what goes on there. It all feels a little hokey to me. So I've never really had an urge. Lauren's parents like to go. They want to take Ellie. That's, that's the reason we've gone a few times. They want to take Ellie to Silverado City. If it to me, like me and Lauren, we probably just not venture that way. We thought about we were going to go to Dollywood while we were in Gatlinburg and we ended up not going because I really wanted. I was curious about a comparison of

Aaron Brooks [00:07:25]:
Dollywood versus have you watched any videos comparing the two?

Craig Woodson [00:07:28]:
Very little bit.

Aaron Brooks [00:07:28]:
I think just the ones that I've watched. I would say Silver Dollar City is like an 8 out of 10. And to me Dollywood looked like a 5 out of 10.

Craig Woodson [00:07:37]:
Really.

Aaron Brooks [00:07:38]:
I mean I just wasn't impressed with the way the park is built and looks and all of that. Like Silver Dollar City is really cool. The biggest downside to Silver Dollar City, it's built on the side of a mountain.

Craig Woodson [00:07:48]:
That's you.

Aaron Brooks [00:07:49]:
You're walking up and down those hills. It's sometimes and when you're pushing strollers. Yeah, you, you're tired by the end of the day.

Craig Woodson [00:07:56]:
Feel it.

Aaron Brooks [00:07:56]:
Yeah, you're tired by the end of the day for sure.

Craig Woodson [00:07:58]:
We went during Christmas time also. It's a lot of fun at Christmas. It's really cool looking. But we went when it was like 10 degrees.

Aaron Brooks [00:08:05]:
Yeah, that's not as fun.

Craig Woodson [00:08:06]:
It was, we were in, we. We didn't want to do anything like we were there to see the cool parade with Rudolph and all that stuff. That was, that was a little bit of a letdown if I'm being honest. We, we looked at it not for

Aaron Brooks [00:08:19]:
40 year old men, but they don't design it for 40 years.

Craig Woodson [00:08:23]:
It was like she got excited about seeing it. Just didn't have what I thought it would have. Like it. The Rudolph was cool but he was there for like a half a second. Santa was there.

Aaron Brooks [00:08:32]:
Well, it's a parade. How long you want him to stand in front of you, have a conversation?

Craig Woodson [00:08:35]:
I guess I was expecting more. I think, I think we were all expecting a little bit more and we didn't quite get it. But I mean it was, it was cool. But I don't know that it was. Sounds like I'm poo pooing all over Silver.

Aaron Brooks [00:08:46]:
Darcy started out by talking about how this one of the greatest theme parks and he's done nothing but criticize it now for, for five minutes.

Craig Woodson [00:08:52]:
But I told you, I'm not a theme park guy. That's just not what I, that's not where I gravitate.

Aaron Brooks [00:08:57]:
Feels so much different though than watching all of these other theme parks because they have so many other things.

Craig Woodson [00:09:02]:
I'm the same way. Like I, I have no desire to go to a Six Flags or even a Disney World. Lauren, once she's we're going to Disney

Aaron Brooks [00:09:09]:
World, at some point she see watching the last several weeks watching this and then watching stuff at Disney, I'm like, I don't think I want to go to Disney.

Craig Woodson [00:09:17]:
The only reason I would want to go to Disney, I don't because I don't want to spend the money. But they've got or Universal, I don't know which one it is. But they have all those little different parks and worlds, you know, like you can go to the Star wars part, you can go to the Toy Story. And so seeing some of those IPs that I connect with is the one area I would think I would enjoy. Again, I could care less about the theme park ness of it all. I'd much rather do a zoo or an aquarium or something. You know, even like a putt putt or go kart type. That, that's. We talk, we're not talking summer attractions, we're talking America. But you know, that's where I would lean. And God bless America for having those things.

Aaron Brooks [00:10:02]:
I don't know, you just, you kind of let me down here, brought me down here. We are celebrating the 250th and you don't have good things to say. Now about Silver Dollar City. Maybe you need to go with somebody who has more fun there.

Craig Woodson [00:10:19]:
I mean, probably not. I just bring you down.

Aaron Brooks [00:10:23]:
I. One of our trips, I went with my brother in law and sister in law. I couldn't get him on any rides with me at all. I was so frustrated. He was just like, oh, I'm not doing that. And then his kids were there and they finally talked him into getting on some rides that night. He was like, wow, these are so much fun. Earlier in the day when I was here. And then we ran into him again on our last trip there and he's like, let's go do some of these rides.

Craig Woodson [00:10:47]:
Wow.

Aaron Brooks [00:10:47]:
So he got me to do the front seat of some of these Coasters. Yeah. I was a little hesitant, like, want to do the front seat. But it is like, see, I would

Craig Woodson [00:10:54]:
want to do the front seat. That's what I would want to do. That's where I. I usually prefer going.

Aaron Brooks [00:10:59]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:11:00]:
Because for. Again, everything for me is the context of my. The motion part of it. Like, and if I'm on the back end, I. I feel like. I feel like the tail just went and whipped over. So I'd much rather feel like I'm driving it. That. That's what makes me feel okay. A little bit more in it. And like I said, I have no problem with rides that don't do all the spinny twisty. That. That. Those are fine. It's just those. That's why I always liked. When I was a kid, I like Silverado City because at that point, they only. They didn't have the metal coasters, so they just had wooden. Wooden doesn't. At least at that point, they may. Now they didn't do loops, and so it wouldn't coaster. We're safe, you know, But I think they. They've.

Aaron Brooks [00:11:39]:
I mean, they've got, like, outlaw run this wooden coaster, and it does three corkscrews at the very end, where you're just in a tight spiral.

Craig Woodson [00:11:48]:
At least this is at the end. I could throw up right after

Aaron Brooks [00:11:52]:
the. The going upside down part, though, really had me, like, nervous. But at least on the fast ones, like, that, everything happens so fast.

Craig Woodson [00:12:00]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:00]:
I don't have time to process it.

Craig Woodson [00:12:02]:
Always nervous about safety. Like, it just feels wrong, and you feel like it's gonna break.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:06]:
I've never really worried about the safety. No, not really.

Craig Woodson [00:12:09]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:10]:
Not really, because we had, in fact, one of the rides we did the other day, just as we were getting ready to get on, they're like, oh, we got to shut it down for a safety issue.

Craig Woodson [00:12:16]:
Oh.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:17]:
And so we were. The group in line waiting to get. It was Time Traveler, and they were like, we don't know how long to tell you. Could be five minutes. May not open up again for the rest of the day.

Craig Woodson [00:12:26]:
Wow.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:26]:
So we went ahead and stood there, and about five minutes later, like, all right, we're good to go. So we were. I was like, all right, we're getting pigs. We're getting on it. You know?

Craig Woodson [00:12:32]:
Yeah, there's a lot of people that would be in that situation and go, five minutes.

Aaron Brooks [00:12:37]:
That's it. That Safety. Safety.

Craig Woodson [00:12:40]:
Do this now for sure. But we're not talking theme park rides. We. Although that's. That's a part of it. Maybe that makes your list. But we are talking about America. Happy birthday, America. If you, if you didn't know or hadn't heard, America's turning 250 years old this year. And so we could not let this week go by without talking about America and bringing a pod to you about the best things of America. Now, this is one of those episodes where no notes, we don't have an agenda. This is not a scripted episode.

Aaron Brooks [00:13:20]:
It is just this one. We have not done research for, like, other episodes.

Craig Woodson [00:13:26]:
One of these days we'll, we'll script an episode. We'll have it written out, and it'll probably get the most views and we'll have to do it every time or

Aaron Brooks [00:13:32]:
at least we'll have to have teleprompters.

Craig Woodson [00:13:34]:
But that's not this episode. So we are, we're gonna dive into just our. Some of our favorite parts about the country. We're going to talk about. This is going to be a. I would say this is going to be a mostly positive. Except for my poo pooing on amusement parks, it's going to be mostly positive. There are dark things about the country. There are bad things about the country. We're probably not going to touch on.

Aaron Brooks [00:13:54]:
This isn't the episode. This isn't the day to talk about that. Let's be thankful for 250 years.

Craig Woodson [00:13:58]:
If you are a political person. We're not diving into that part of it either.

Aaron Brooks [00:14:03]:
I'm very political. But, you know, we're just not gonna,

Craig Woodson [00:14:06]:
we don't need the. Actually, you know, it'd probably help the engagement if we were, but we're not gonna do it. Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:14:11]:
All right. Donald Trump is the next segment on this pod and Barack Obama. Love him or hate him. All right, here we go.

Craig Woodson [00:14:18]:
We're gonna cover both sides of the aisle, but we're not doing that. So we're just gonna talk about our favorite parts of the country and dive in. Are you ready, Aaron?

Aaron Brooks [00:14:27]:
Bang. Bang.

Erin [00:14:27]:
Before we can figure out the best things, we have to talk about all the things. It's time for the thing about the things.

Craig Woodson [00:14:40]:
Aaron, you are. You are Mr. USA. You are Mr. Patriot, at least between the two of us. So I think it is only right that I go first. So here's. I want to let you go first.

Aaron Brooks [00:14:54]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:14:54]:
Now we need to remind people we do have our handy. I hope, I hope it works. It's been a. We do have our Taco Bell bell, so if something strikes our fancy, we get to hit that two times each to advance something to the semifinals of our bracket that we'll do at the end of the episode. Aaron, take it away.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:16]:
All right, well, in honor of 250 years, we'll kind of. I'm gonna rapid fire a few questions at you.

Craig Woodson [00:15:23]:
All right.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:24]:
250 years. Are fireworks awesome this year?

Craig Woodson [00:15:29]:
I allow it. Yeah, look at that.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:32]:
Look at that. He is a noted poo pooer of fireworks.

Craig Woodson [00:15:36]:
We are so close to the 4th of July. I have zero plans to go watch anything, though. Even on the 250th, I don't have any plans to go do anything. But we're probably gonna have to do something. I just don't know what it is yet.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:45]:
And you're going to be in Boston almost on the 4th, aren't you? Yeah, I bet they're gonna have a magnificent fireworks show.

Craig Woodson [00:15:52]:
I'll just miss it, probably.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:54]:
That's.

Erin [00:15:56]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:15:56]:
I don't know.

Aaron Brooks [00:15:57]:
You're gonna be in a great. See, I'm so jealous that you're gonna be in Boston on this week. Such a historical town. It's gonna be packed. Okay, in that vein, baseball or football? Baseball or football?

Craig Woodson [00:16:13]:
Clip this for the Internet. People always say baseball is America's pastime. And it may be America's past time, but it's past time that we make football the new pastime.

Aaron Brooks [00:16:26]:
Are you kidding me?

Craig Woodson [00:16:27]:
Of the United States of America. Now, look, I am a baseball fan. I love it. I enjoy it. I'm a Red Sox fan. Go socks. But football is what the country cares about now. Would you disagree with that? The.

Aaron Brooks [00:16:43]:
The ratings say that you're right.

Craig Woodson [00:16:45]:
The money says that we're right. The fans say we're right.

Aaron Brooks [00:16:51]:
I have.

Craig Woodson [00:16:51]:
I have a plan to make baseball good.

Aaron Brooks [00:16:54]:
Where are you traveling to go to a Red Sox game. When we. When we. The majority of time, when I travel to go to a game, I'm going to a baseball game.

Craig Woodson [00:17:03]:
Yes.

Aaron Brooks [00:17:04]:
It's like we check off going to baseball games.

Craig Woodson [00:17:06]:
You're right. That's true.

Aaron Brooks [00:17:08]:
We don't travel to go to football

Craig Woodson [00:17:09]:
games because here's the thing. There are too many baseball games. Now, I like it for the fact that I can just go and I'm going to catch a game. I think that's why we do it. And I told you, I love baseball. It's not going anywhere. I don't want it to go anywhere. But when it comes to America, like, what is America's best sport, favorite sport? What is the thing we're known for now? It's football.

Aaron Brooks [00:17:38]:
Okay? Football is too Expensive, number one. I mean, it is ridiculous expensive to

Craig Woodson [00:17:44]:
try to go to Red Sox, Yankees. It's not cheap.

Aaron Brooks [00:17:49]:
Do you think it would be more expensive than going to Patriots, somebody.

Craig Woodson [00:17:55]:
That's a good point.

Aaron Brooks [00:17:56]:
I mean, I just.

Craig Woodson [00:17:56]:
I guess I. I just got an NFL team a couple years ago, so I've never really priced NFL tickets.

Aaron Brooks [00:18:02]:
When we go to Denver and we've been quite a bit in the last decade, there's been so many times that I've looked at getting Broncos tickets and nosebleed tickets are just outrageous. And then you factor in parking and all the time I'm just like, that's.

Craig Woodson [00:18:16]:
I mean, all sports are that becoming that way now. Like NBA, I mean, college, everything is just expensive now to go to. I think they're having to compete with tv.

Aaron Brooks [00:18:27]:
I just don't think that the atmosphere at an NFL game rivals. Here's the thing, what you have at a baseball game.

Craig Woodson [00:18:36]:
And I said at the onset of this conversation, I have a way to fix baseball. And they're working on some of it. I think the ABS Challenge system is. Is good for the sport.

Aaron Brooks [00:18:47]:
Sure.

Craig Woodson [00:18:48]:
I think they need to move to that more. The big thing I have against baseball right now is there's too many games.

Aaron Brooks [00:18:57]:
I wish you want them to reduce it from 162 down.

Craig Woodson [00:19:02]:
I love college baseball because I know every weekend is a series and there might be a midweek game. I love that. I love that format. I wish the major leagues did that as well. Because the thing that's so appealing about football, I believe where our culture has gotten to, you know, when they're playing, it's not a question. You know, when the season starts. Sundays, my team's playing. It's just a matter of who.

Aaron Brooks [00:19:29]:
What about Monday Night Football?

Craig Woodson [00:19:30]:
They might get a Monday night.

Aaron Brooks [00:19:31]:
What about Thursday Night Football?

Craig Woodson [00:19:32]:
Yeah, there's going to be.

Aaron Brooks [00:19:34]:
And then we get Friday football and Saturday football.

Craig Woodson [00:19:36]:
When are you getting a Friday NFL game?

Aaron Brooks [00:19:38]:
We've had them in the last year.

Craig Woodson [00:19:40]:
It's like a Christmas, like a holiday. Like there are exceptions to it. Yes, but it is a set. I like that format. I think there's too many. You don't need number one. You don't need that many games to determine a winner.

Aaron Brooks [00:19:57]:
You don't think that baseball needs 162 games to determine who the best team is?

Craig Woodson [00:20:01]:
I don't think they do.

Aaron Brooks [00:20:02]:
I really don't. What is the number?

Craig Woodson [00:20:04]:
I don't know what the number is. Make it from whenever date to whenever day. It doesn't matter. But I want More structure into when to watch the game. Because I also want to be able to watch my team without paying for MLB TV or some other service. I want them to be on TV more. You know how often I get to watch a Red Sox game? Very little do I actually get to sit down, pull up YouTube TV and turn on a Red Sox game.

Aaron Brooks [00:20:31]:
How would reducing the amount of games then make it easier to watch them on tv?

Craig Woodson [00:20:35]:
Well, I've moved on to a separate

Aaron Brooks [00:20:36]:
issue, but that just doesn't make sense to me. If you reduce the amount of games, it's going to be fewer opportunities to be on.

Craig Woodson [00:20:42]:
But we. But here's the deal. People are going to games because there's so many. They're playing a game a Thursday afternoon at 2:30. Like the stadium's half a quarter of the way full because people are working. Like if you make them on the weekend, pack the place out, it's going to make the environment that much better. It's going to make the product that much better. I can tell you there's a big difference between going to a half empty stadium and a full stadium. The energy just gets there. I think that's one of the reasons personally why baseball has suffered is because people go there and they're just, I don't know, it doesn't have that juice like a football does because there's one game this week, everybody's there to watch it. At the same time, it just has some juice to it. So there, there's my spill. That's my take.

Aaron Brooks [00:21:33]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:21:35]:
I still love baseball. Absolutely love it. Cannot wait to go to Red Sox, Yankees. It's a bucket list thing for me and I'm very excited about it. I follow baseball. I love the Red Sox. I love the Razorbacks when they play. I'm mad at Oklahoma, I'm mad at Arkansas for not making it. But I do think football is probably the new king in America.

Aaron Brooks [00:21:56]:
Most American movie, what encapsulates America, you

Craig Woodson [00:22:02]:
know what, talking about America. I like that you started this direction because this is stuff that is uniquely American that doesn't get enough love. I don't think.

Aaron Brooks [00:22:13]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:22:13]:
People this year, people are talking a lot about history and the national parks and all that kind of stuff. And that's good. But like movies are birthed in America. You know, it's still the number one producer.

Aaron Brooks [00:22:25]:
Yes.

Craig Woodson [00:22:26]:
Most American movie though.

Aaron Brooks [00:22:28]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:22:31]:
I don't know. I don't know.

Aaron Brooks [00:22:33]:
National Treasure. I love National Treasure.

Craig Woodson [00:22:38]:
I listened to a. Something recently. They were talking about the reason or I think it was a Tick Tock Video. The reason that National Treasure 3 never made it. And it was really interesting because it was all about Nicholas Cage and his debt, really. He had that gambling debt or whatever he went through, and so he was taking all these little bit movies that weren't any good just to get a paycheck to pay off his debt. And it. The. The Disney thought it lowered his who appeal and they didn't want him tanking that movie, so they just didn't make it.

Aaron Brooks [00:23:10]:
Is it back on the table or is it.

Craig Woodson [00:23:12]:
I've heard it's back on the table, but I don't. I don't know that for a fact.

Aaron Brooks [00:23:15]:
Forrest Gump.

Craig Woodson [00:23:17]:
Forrest Gumps. That might be because it covers American history. Yeah, it's a little bit of. About the American dream. He kind of falls back into the American dream a little bit.

Aaron Brooks [00:23:27]:
The Patriot.

Craig Woodson [00:23:28]:
That's the first thing I thought of. Just because, you know, Revolutionary War and all that kind of stuff. It's really good. What else, man, That's a good question. Let me look. The most American movies. It's a Wonderful Life.

Aaron Brooks [00:23:56]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:23:57]:
Rocky.

Aaron Brooks [00:23:58]:
Oh, that would be. That's a great inspirational movie.

Craig Woodson [00:24:01]:
Speaking of baseball, Field of Dreams.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:04]:
Okay. Baseball movies. I had this discussion with a different friend the other day. See where you land on it. Baseball movies are the best genre of sports movies.

Craig Woodson [00:24:16]:
I agree with that.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:17]:
Okay. He did not. Baseball movies are better than football movies.

Craig Woodson [00:24:22]:
Hands down.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:23]:
He thought football movies were better.

Craig Woodson [00:24:24]:
Now. There's more good baseball movies out there.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:27]:
I think basketball trumps football movies as well.

Craig Woodson [00:24:31]:
Yeah. I mean, you're hanging your hat a lot on. Remember the Titans when it comes to football. I mean, I can't think.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:36]:
Great movie.

Craig Woodson [00:24:37]:
Yeah. It's probably a top five sports movie, but name another. Great.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:42]:
You have Draft Day, which is the Money Ball.

Craig Woodson [00:24:44]:
It's fine. It's good.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:46]:
It's good, but it's not facing the Giants.

Craig Woodson [00:24:50]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:24:53]:
Marshall.

Craig Woodson [00:24:54]:
Yeah. We are Friday Night Lights Greater. You know, those are good, but they don't touch Field of Dreams or Moneyball or 42 or, like, there's just Major League. Like, there's so many good baseball.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:06]:
Love of the game.

Erin [00:25:07]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:25:07]:
A League of Their Own. Like, there's so many.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:09]:
The list.

Craig Woodson [00:25:10]:
I don't. I would. I don't know if. Basketball movies. Yeah, probably.

Erin [00:25:15]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:15]:
To me. Like Glory Road.

Craig Woodson [00:25:17]:
I might even put golf movies ahead of football.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:19]:
Probably.

Craig Woodson [00:25:21]:
Probably Legend of Bagger Vance and Tin cup and. Yeah. So, I mean. Yeah, I think. I think. I definitely agree. Baseball movies are the best sports movies in America.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:32]:
What else is on the list, you've

Craig Woodson [00:25:34]:
got westerns, just stuff like True Grit, Tombstone.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:37]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:25:38]:
Lincoln. Historical movies. Lincoln's really good.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:42]:
It is.

Craig Woodson [00:25:42]:
Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan. There.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:45]:
There's a top one.

Craig Woodson [00:25:49]:
National Lampoon's Vacation. I don't know. I think. I think Forrest Gump, Man. This could have been a whole episode.

Aaron Brooks [00:25:57]:
Honestly, I have to visit that at some point.

Craig Woodson [00:25:59]:
Yeah. The most American movie. I don't know. Lincoln. Lincoln, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:06]:
Yeah. All strong.

Craig Woodson [00:26:08]:
Apollo 13. Really strong. But movies. America does movies better than anybody else.

Erin [00:26:16]:
Right.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:16]:
We do best American food.

Craig Woodson [00:26:20]:
Oh, gosh.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:23]:
What is uniquely American?

Craig Woodson [00:26:25]:
That's hard.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:27]:
We've got a lot of influence from other places, but when you think of American food, burgers, I would say.

Craig Woodson [00:26:36]:
Yes. I know they came from Hamburg.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:39]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:26:39]:
They came from hot dogs or sausages coming from.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:42]:
But, like, those are what we would classify as American food. Yes.

Craig Woodson [00:26:48]:
I would say the most American food is probably barbecue. Barbecue, yeah. Like, that is.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:54]:
I didn't ask the most American, though. I said the best American.

Craig Woodson [00:26:56]:
It's probably also.

Aaron Brooks [00:26:58]:
You still gonna stick with barbecue?

Craig Woodson [00:27:00]:
The way we do pizza that, you know, it's different style pizza. It's really good.

Aaron Brooks [00:27:05]:
It is.

Craig Woodson [00:27:05]:
I would put it above Italian. I've never had it from Italy, but it's very.

Aaron Brooks [00:27:10]:
What I've seen. Yes.

Erin [00:27:11]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:27:12]:
American pizza would top that. What about fried chicken?

Craig Woodson [00:27:15]:
Fried chicken, I want to say. I mean, I think we started it like, we took it play. I mean, Korea does it a lot. Yeah, Japan does a lot. But, like, I think. I think. I think I want to say it kind of originated here. You have Nashville Hot and you've got regional stuff like Philly cheesesteak and a po Boy, a lobster roll. Muffaletta.

Aaron Brooks [00:27:43]:
Yes. It makes me want to. We did a sandwich episode.

Craig Woodson [00:27:47]:
We did kind of like we just went through state sandwiches, I think.

Aaron Brooks [00:27:52]:
Is that all we did?

Craig Woodson [00:27:53]:
I think so, because I thought we

Aaron Brooks [00:27:55]:
had one where we've had to agree. I didn't fully want to go along with it, but we named peanut butter jelly the best sandwich, I thought. Oh, you remember that? I do remember that, because I. I remember hearing Get. You know, taking some flack over. Over that.

Craig Woodson [00:28:09]:
Yeah, you're right. Buffalo wings.

Aaron Brooks [00:28:13]:
Ooh.

Craig Woodson [00:28:14]:
I still think barbecue. I think, Barb. Because one of the fun things about the World cup being in America this year is all the people coming in, trying our food for the first time.

Aaron Brooks [00:28:23]:
Ranch dressing.

Craig Woodson [00:28:24]:
Ranch, yes. That might be the most.

Aaron Brooks [00:28:26]:
When TSA is saying, hey, it's take the ranch home with you.

Craig Woodson [00:28:31]:
Everyone has discovered Ranch. I thought that was like everywhere, like,

Aaron Brooks [00:28:35]:
but it's been hidden in Hidden Valley. I don't know.

Craig Woodson [00:28:39]:
But as. As people been going crazy about it, I've been thinking, oh, yeah, you know what? I've been to a couple countries outside the US and yeah, there's no such thing as ranch dressing there. So it's so funny what you uniquely American people going crazy for BUC EE's, you know, and chick fil a. It's just. It's so funny to see people I'm seeing. So do you follow Josh and Jason? Yeah. Like, they're like, we told you. We tried to tell you that America was pretty good. Yeah, for sure. I like there's some vindication as an American because, I don't know, we always felt a little white trash sometimes and just. It's nice to see that people appreciate.

Aaron Brooks [00:29:15]:
What if we compare. Oh, you got some other foods there.

Craig Woodson [00:29:18]:
I was just gonna. This one had corn dog funnel cake also on the list.

Aaron Brooks [00:29:24]:
So, like, fair food.

Craig Woodson [00:29:25]:
Fair foods.

Aaron Brooks [00:29:25]:
Yeah, for sure. That would be. Yeah, that would be up there. Okay, let's. Let's visit, compare those things that we've talked about. See if you want to bring anything back from back in 1776 and y' all olden days.

Craig Woodson [00:29:42]:
This is gonna harken me back to our President's Day episode we did. Was it last year? We talked about every president's favorite food or something.

Aaron Brooks [00:29:49]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:29:50]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:29:51]:
Beaver tail.

Craig Woodson [00:29:52]:
Did they really eat just straight up beaver tail?

Aaron Brooks [00:29:55]:
Gamy tasting, fat. Huge population of beaver in North America. Great Lakes region. It was a booming fur trade in the 17th, 18th centuries. So beaver meat was consumed and the beaver tail was a delicacy in colonial America. It was very fatty and typically roasted. Think of the barbecued beaver tail Smoke. Beaver tail.

Craig Woodson [00:30:13]:
I'll try it. But I'm glad I was born in the 80s and not.

Aaron Brooks [00:30:17]:
Would you like that 17 onto our list of things that we should bring back?

Craig Woodson [00:30:21]:
I would not know.

Aaron Brooks [00:30:22]:
Okay. Chocolate. What is this? Oh,

Craig Woodson [00:30:29]:
boy, I'm nervous.

Aaron Brooks [00:30:32]:
Ambergris. I've never heard this word before. It's. It's well vomit.

Craig Woodson [00:30:38]:
Oh, come on.

Aaron Brooks [00:30:39]:
Who's well vomit? Expensive, well sped up. Men and women, the 18th century love to add it to their food For a decadent treat. Adding this to chocolate was a European importance. But then cooks in colonial America were favoring their chocolate with it to the. Because of the growing well industry in New England.

Craig Woodson [00:30:59]:
This.

Aaron Brooks [00:31:00]:
You want that?

Craig Woodson [00:31:00]:
This, this feels like when they discovered milk, like cow's milk. Like, we got that from that. So let's try.

Aaron Brooks [00:31:10]:
What else can we do?

Craig Woodson [00:31:12]:
What else can we pull out of random parts of an animal's body?

Aaron Brooks [00:31:15]:
That's calf's foot jelly.

Craig Woodson [00:31:16]:
Oh, my God. Gosh, I'm so glad I was not born in this area.

Aaron Brooks [00:31:19]:
It was a well known. It's, you know, you would boil the calf's. The hoof of a calf and get that gelatin. And they believed it was good for the sick.

Craig Woodson [00:31:28]:
I would love to have, like, George Washington just pop into 2026. And I know he would die immediately from everything else that he would see in here, but, like, I want to just like, seclude him into a room and say, try some food, just to see what he would just compare. How would his palate even register it? Like, it would be so processed. Like, would he enjoy it or would it be completely off putting to him? I really wonder that.

Aaron Brooks [00:31:53]:
By the second half of the 18th century, ice cream was becoming a very well known and beloved dessert.

Craig Woodson [00:31:59]:
Yes.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:00]:
Okay. Without modern freezers, though, it was difficult to prepare and keep it. Here's some of the different flavors that we had back in the day. This was Dolly Madison's favorite.

Craig Woodson [00:32:11]:
I'm nervous.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:12]:
Oyster ice cream.

Craig Woodson [00:32:13]:
Oh, help me, Rhonda.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:15]:
Oyster ice cream. Oh, yeah. No, no, that's bad. Okay, what about Snickers Rocky? Oh, wait, that's an ad. They did not have Snickers Rocky Road crazy treats. Sorry. That's from Little Caesars. That's what we're doing these days.

Craig Woodson [00:32:32]:
That sounds good.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:34]:
Eel pie.

Craig Woodson [00:32:36]:
Gosh.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:37]:
Eel pie.

Craig Woodson [00:32:38]:
Yeah, that didn't sound great.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:40]:
The. The colonists would use lobster as bait in eel traps.

Craig Woodson [00:32:45]:
Hold on. There is something messed up about that they're using. We're just overrun with lobster. So we're just gonna use the lobster.

Aaron Brooks [00:32:54]:
It was the bait to catch the eel, so we can have eel pie.

Craig Woodson [00:32:58]:
You know, they're saying that in a. In 50 years from now, crickets will be a main source of protein for us. That is. That's what this sounds like. Like we're using cricket as bait. So 50 years from now, they're gonna. You use crickets. They're so delicious.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:14]:
Pepper cake. A treat you could keep in the pantry for half a year.

Craig Woodson [00:33:20]:
Okay, what kind of pepper? Like, just black pepper cake.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:27]:
This just maybe pepper. A newly acquired spice from India.

Craig Woodson [00:33:31]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:32]:
Would be able to show off how fancy you were that you could afford these spices. You would put it in a sweet dessert like a cake with molasses.

Craig Woodson [00:33:40]:
Wow, man.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:44]:
Stewed swan.

Craig Woodson [00:33:48]:
Can you even. Is that even a.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:49]:
It's probably Illegal.

Craig Woodson [00:33:50]:
I was gonna say it's probably illegal.

Aaron Brooks [00:33:52]:
Serve some stewed swan tonight. Apple jack. Hard apple cider on steroids.

Craig Woodson [00:34:00]:
That would probably go over well today.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:04]:
Colonists consumed quite a bit of alcohol, and drinking applejack was like downing many glasses of apple of alcohol at once. It was roughly 30% alcohol. English ketchup.

Craig Woodson [00:34:18]:
Oh, yeah. I've heard about old school ketchups.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:21]:
Slurry of mushrooms, walnuts, oysters and anchovies.

Craig Woodson [00:34:23]:
Yeah. The ketchup we have today is not the ketchup that they. That was original lobster. I'm a fan of lobster.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:33]:
First one on the list that sounds like it's.

Craig Woodson [00:34:35]:
Yeah, I'm gonna eat a lot of lobster.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:37]:
It says lobster was a meal that was associated with the vulgar lower classes of colonial America.

Craig Woodson [00:34:42]:
How did it change so hard?

Aaron Brooks [00:34:44]:
Lobsters were so cheap that they were used to feed prisoners and slaves. How.

Craig Woodson [00:34:48]:
How did we. How.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:50]:
And now it is the height of delicacy.

Craig Woodson [00:34:52]:
Yes. How did we get there? How did it flip so hard? That's just. That's amazing to me.

Aaron Brooks [00:34:59]:
Clabbered curdled milk with a little pepper on top. Now, let me. Let me. This kind of makes me think of buttermilk.

Craig Woodson [00:35:08]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:08]:
I know people will drink buttermilk and they'll put salt and pepper on them.

Craig Woodson [00:35:12]:
Are you a cottage cheese guy?

Aaron Brooks [00:35:13]:
I love cottage cheese.

Craig Woodson [00:35:14]:
I've been wanting to go to try cottage cheese again.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:18]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:35:18]:
I haven't had it since I was a kid and I didn't like it then.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:20]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:35:20]:
But I. I'm. I've. I'm. I don't know. For some reason, I have a desire to try it again.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:25]:
Erica is very anti cottage cheese. Well, I don't understand people's dislike of cottage cheese. It's just cheese curds.

Craig Woodson [00:35:31]:
Yeah. That's why I'm like, why would I not like this?

Aaron Brooks [00:35:36]:
Let me give you a recommendation. Go with the Highland brand. Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:35:42]:
Not a sponsor.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:43]:
Not a sponsor. 4% milk fat. Go the full fat cottage cheese. Don't do the low fat stuff. You. You tempted to go with Daisy? Daisy makes good stuff. But I don't like their cottage cheese.

Craig Woodson [00:35:53]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:35:54]:
Don't go off brand either. It's got weird things and weird taste to it. Highland is the best tasting cottage cheese that I have found.

Craig Woodson [00:36:01]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:02]:
That. That's what I would do. I would go small curd, not large curd.

Craig Woodson [00:36:05]:
Okay. Do they classify that on the.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:08]:
They do.

Craig Woodson [00:36:08]:
It's good to know.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:09]:
They do for sure. Okay. So. Oh, turtle soup. That was the other one I was gonna mention. You know, you Always hear people talk.

Craig Woodson [00:36:16]:
I feel like one of the presidents like turtle soup. That sounds.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:18]:
It was. Yes it was on one of the. The lists. I remember we talked about.

Craig Woodson [00:36:23]:
Yeah, I remember.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:24]:
I remember we talked about that. So you. You want to trade anything off of our list for 1776?

Craig Woodson [00:36:30]:
Lobster. I'll trade lobster

Aaron Brooks [00:36:33]:
for what?

Craig Woodson [00:36:35]:
I would get rid of a muffaletta for lobster.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:39]:
How about that Most underrated state. What? What. What's the most underrated state in the Union? In the Union. Yeah. That would.

Craig Woodson [00:36:46]:
That would. That would of mind or of matter.

Aaron Brooks [00:36:52]:
The most underrated state of liquid.

Craig Woodson [00:36:56]:
The most underrated state in the Union. Arkansas.

Aaron Brooks [00:37:00]:
What do you Ours. I really do think it's our hidden Jace came and discovered how great Arkansas was.

Craig Woodson [00:37:05]:
I really do sleep on Arkansas. I'm not just saying that but yes, we have some. Some rednecks and hillbillies in some parts of the state that are. Let's just be honest, trash. But every state's got that. That's one thing I've realized traveling in my adult years is you. You see, you always see the best of every state and their advertising and stuff like that. And you know, drive through any other state. I remember when I went to China and Guatemala and all those places too. Like you. You drive like oh, that looks like. Yes, the queen like that.

Aaron Brooks [00:37:37]:
Just you hear people make fun of the South. Places like Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, they're like, oh, it's just, you know, trailer trash.

Craig Woodson [00:37:43]:
Yeah. And Mississippi is.

Aaron Brooks [00:37:45]:
But absolutely, absolutely the. They can't be underrated because they're not even.

Craig Woodson [00:37:51]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:37:51]:
Yes, sorry. Mississippi.

Craig Woodson [00:37:52]:
It's like the truth.

Aaron Brooks [00:37:53]:
You're the worst. But we go to Colorado and we're driving out there and you'll drive by a trailer park full of trailer trash.

Craig Woodson [00:38:01]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:38:01]:
And it's just like.

Craig Woodson [00:38:02]:
It's just.

Aaron Brooks [00:38:02]:
It's. It's no different than here.

Craig Woodson [00:38:04]:
Everywhere. Every state's got that.

Aaron Brooks [00:38:05]:
I think that we do have a lot of hidden gyms and underrated things in our. Please don't come here. We don't want. We don't want people coming into our state.

Craig Woodson [00:38:11]:
No. But I like the recognition that it. It feels like we're getting a little.

Aaron Brooks [00:38:14]:
Yeah, we are recently.

Craig Woodson [00:38:15]:
And I don't know if it's because. Because people are leaving the bigger states and cities for economic reasons or political reasons. It doesn't matter what. But I know like, you know, Walmart's really making an investment in northwest Arkansas so it's booming right now. So it does feel like people are noticing a little bit. So I I, I have not been to every state, but of the states I've been to, I, I do think Arkansas, as far as underrated goes, I

Aaron Brooks [00:38:37]:
will give it to best road trip state. You're just going to do a road trip in a single state. Which one would that be?

Craig Woodson [00:38:48]:
It depends on what you're going for. Like, okay, you know, are you a road trip? But like, are you wanting, Are you, are you, are you prioritizing, like scenery or stops or like, I don't know, not Mississippi. I go through Mississippi twice a year and I don't like it.

Aaron Brooks [00:39:04]:
It's not Mississippi, it's not Alabama. It is not Oklahoma.

Craig Woodson [00:39:08]:
No.

Aaron Brooks [00:39:08]:
Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa. It is not the Midwest.

Craig Woodson [00:39:12]:
I'm sorry, I don't think it's Tennessee. I don't know. Tennessee is pretty good.

Aaron Brooks [00:39:18]:
It's a nice state. I'll tell you. I'll tell you what I'm thinking. I spent a lot of time there. Colorado would be up there for a road trip. There's so much different types of scenery, things to do. Colorado, be up there. California would be a great road trip.

Craig Woodson [00:39:30]:
Never been to California.

Aaron Brooks [00:39:31]:
Neither have I. Well, I've been there, but I've not got to spend a lot of time doing things. But you've got the ocean, you've got the coast, you've got the, the mountains, you've got the desert. Lots of road trips. Huge state too.

Craig Woodson [00:39:40]:
I saw somebody do a video on this where they're like, if, if you had three days or something, 10 days, something like that. Like, if you had, if you were going to America one time and you had this many days, plan the perfect road trip. And they were debating on, do we just stay on the west coast in California because it does have everything, or do you want to, you want to see New York or you want to see, like, how can you make New York to LA work in that time? Like you could. That's another thing that World cup people are realizing. America's big and it's got everything.

Aaron Brooks [00:40:11]:
Your countries over there are pretty much like our states where they touch each other and you're just like, country to country to country to country.

Craig Woodson [00:40:16]:
Here I saw a British man talk about he really did not expect the size of America because like, for them, a two and a half hour road trip is. They're not doing it. They're gonna fly. They're just, they're not gonna go past two hours.

Aaron Brooks [00:40:31]:
Wow.

Craig Woodson [00:40:32]:
And I'm like, I'll, I've been two hours to eat. Like, exactly. That is not unheard of. That's not a road trip.

Aaron Brooks [00:40:41]:
No, that's just a.

Craig Woodson [00:40:42]:
It's a quick trip down somewhere. And so, you know, now when you start getting into five, six, seven hours, it's. It's a pretty good road trip, but it's nowhere near a real no drive.

Aaron Brooks [00:40:57]:
I mean, to put it into context for us, if you're talking five to six hours, you're talking Dallas, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Nashville. Yeah. You know, kind of Springfield. You've kind of got that circle, and it's. It's like a. I don't know, half of a road. I wouldn't even really consider that to be a road trip. You know, last week I had to

Craig Woodson [00:41:17]:
go to Louisiana to get my birth certificate.

Aaron Brooks [00:41:20]:
Yes.

Craig Woodson [00:41:21]:
Almost four hours. And I did it in a half a day. Like, I was just like, I'm just gonna run down there. It was easy. Like, a Brit would go, are you kidding me? Like, I was like, I gotta run down there just to get it. I might as well just knock it out in the morning. Like, I just got up a little early, drove down there, was back by two, like.

Aaron Brooks [00:41:35]:
Exactly.

Craig Woodson [00:41:36]:
It's just so funny how that is just, again, differences in worlds, but which I don't know that I would say Arkansas is a great. Is like the best road trip state either. No, there's a lot of nothing and there's a lot of pretty stuff, but the pretty stuff's kind of tucked away from the main road.

Aaron Brooks [00:41:54]:
Yeah. I would say Colorado, California, both up at the top. In that. In that debate, anything coastal is going to be good. I think North Carolina is a really pretty state. Tennessee would be up there.

Craig Woodson [00:42:08]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:09]:
Even Texas.

Craig Woodson [00:42:11]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:11]:
Even though it's kind of a little different. But there's a lot. It's such a big state. Yes. If you want to do a road trip, I mean, you can.

Craig Woodson [00:42:20]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:20]:
There's a lot of things to do and see in Texas.

Craig Woodson [00:42:22]:
And you will be in Texas for a long time.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:25]:
Yes.

Craig Woodson [00:42:25]:
So just buckle up because you're gonna be in Texas for a while.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:28]:
Absolutely. What about this best American city?

Craig Woodson [00:42:36]:
I mean, I just came from there. Boston. I'm just. I haven't been there yet. But, I mean, having not been there yet, I can imagine that it's probably up there, you know, just as far as, like, again, it depends on what you're talking about. You're talking like, you know, history of America or just it has everything. I think New York is probably what most people will say.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:55]:
Yeah. Because it has been in New York.

Craig Woodson [00:42:57]:
I've never been to New York.

Aaron Brooks [00:42:58]:
I've been several times. Sorry, I can just leave it.

Craig Woodson [00:43:02]:
Yeah, I've heard about that a little bit.

Aaron Brooks [00:43:04]:
Like it's just, I don't want to go back. I, I, I'll tell you one of my favorite cities, I might call it the best. I don't know. And when there's going to be some small towns that would be really cool. I'm just kind of thinking of the major areas that you think of in the country. Philadelphia was a lot of fun. Yeah, I loved Philadelphia. It's a huge city, but you go to New York City and then come back to Philly and it feels small by comparison almost.

Craig Woodson [00:43:32]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:43:32]:
Philly's got a lot of history though. It was a fun city. Lots of food, great things to do there. I loved Philadelphia. I like Dallas.

Craig Woodson [00:43:40]:
Here's the thing, and this is what I've noticed again in my older years. When you get to a certain size city, they're kind of the same, like, they're just structured the same way, you know, like you're going to be able to get to stuff and they're going to have different attractions, they're going to have stuff. So I, I don't know that there's any of them like just like, oh, this has just something super unique. You got unique landmarks, but the structure is going to be a lot the same.

Aaron Brooks [00:44:07]:
I know people that have been, I've not been, but I hear a lot of great things about places like Charleston, South Carolina.

Craig Woodson [00:44:14]:
Yeah, those mid size, mid market cities I think are more unique than the big metros.

Aaron Brooks [00:44:21]:
You've been to la?

Craig Woodson [00:44:22]:
I have not.

Aaron Brooks [00:44:23]:
It's just, it's so big and sprawling and spread out that kind of like New York City. I could leave it. It's, it's like I, I don't have a desire to just go hang out in la.

Craig Woodson [00:44:37]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:44:38]:
Places like San Diego. I'd like to go to San Diego. Seattle I think would be a cool place to go.

Craig Woodson [00:44:43]:
I would love. Yeah, Seattle is one I've, I've been to the airport. That's about it.

Aaron Brooks [00:44:48]:
Denver's a pretty cool, you know, place. So I think it's some of those, what about, let's see, what about this one? Favorite American invention?

Craig Woodson [00:44:58]:
Gosh, there's been a lot of those.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:01]:
I know the first one I thought

Craig Woodson [00:45:02]:
of the cotton gin.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:04]:
No, I thought, I thought of the light bulb. The light bulb is a great one. Telephone.

Craig Woodson [00:45:10]:
Telephone, yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:12]:
Hey, what about on a day like this, the iPhone? I mean, what was the dude's name? His last name was Carrier. The Air conditioning guy.

Craig Woodson [00:45:20]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:21]:
Washing machines. The electric washing machine.

Craig Woodson [00:45:24]:
That's important.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:25]:
Microwave ovens.

Craig Woodson [00:45:27]:
All these were in America, huh?

Aaron Brooks [00:45:29]:
Electric toasters.

Craig Woodson [00:45:31]:
I mean, take that one or leave that one. You can have Pop Tarts.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:35]:
Otherwise, the disposable blade. Safety razor. Zippers.

Craig Woodson [00:45:41]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:42]:
Band aids.

Craig Woodson [00:45:43]:
That's important.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:45]:
Pick three of those things to say that you would get rid of.

Craig Woodson [00:45:47]:
To get rid of.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:48]:
Yep.

Craig Woodson [00:45:49]:
Toaster.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:49]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:45:52]:
The razor blades.

Aaron Brooks [00:45:53]:
Razor blades. Microwave. No, gonna keep the microwave. Telephones. Light bulbs.

Craig Woodson [00:46:01]:
No, not light bulbs.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:02]:
Washing machines.

Craig Woodson [00:46:04]:
I mean, if I had. I don't want to.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:09]:
Zippers.

Craig Woodson [00:46:11]:
Yeah, that would be.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:12]:
Let's go back to buttons.

Craig Woodson [00:46:13]:
Yeah. That would be the only other one I think I could get rid of.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:15]:
Airplanes.

Craig Woodson [00:46:17]:
Airplanes are great.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:18]:
That's a great.

Craig Woodson [00:46:18]:
Imagine if we didn't have that

Aaron Brooks [00:46:24]:
assembly line. Automobile production. Henry Ford.

Craig Woodson [00:46:27]:
Important traffic lights. Also important.

Aaron Brooks [00:46:32]:
Electric starter for cars.

Craig Woodson [00:46:34]:
There's so much

Aaron Brooks [00:46:37]:
communication and media. Here we go. Telegraph, phonograph. Motion picture camera. Radio broadcasting. TV advancements. Email, PC, Internet development. Smartphones.

Craig Woodson [00:46:48]:
What have y' all been doing the rest of the world? Like, come on, y'. All just twiddling your thumbs out there. What are you doing?

Aaron Brooks [00:46:54]:
The ch. Okay, here we go. I want to give you some. Here's the American foods. Chocolate chip cookies.

Craig Woodson [00:46:59]:
Goated

Aaron Brooks [00:47:03]:
corn flakes.

Craig Woodson [00:47:04]:
America's got the corner on cookies.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:06]:
Yeah, we do.

Craig Woodson [00:47:07]:
I mean, is there any other country that attempts cookies?

Aaron Brooks [00:47:10]:
Coca Cola.

Craig Woodson [00:47:11]:
Fortune cookies are an American thing.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:13]:
That's very true. Coca Cola.

Craig Woodson [00:47:16]:
Coca Cola. We would not have Coke Zero without America.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:19]:
Dr. Pepper.

Craig Woodson [00:47:20]:
Amen, brother.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:21]:
Kool Aid, popsicles, potato chips, Fortune cookies. Drive through restaurants, which.

Craig Woodson [00:47:29]:
Yeah, that's not very popular in other parts of the world.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:32]:
It's not medicine. Things like polio vaccine, artificial hearts.

Craig Woodson [00:47:40]:
I just.

Aaron Brooks [00:47:41]:
You got a favorite? Okay, here's some fun only in America. Inventions. This is what I want you to. You choose which is. Is the best of these. The Slinky. Hula Hoop. Super Soaker. Teddy Bear. Skateboard, Snowboard. Frisbee, Barbie doll. Roller coaster Advancements. American football. Now, that one doesn't count. We've already talked about American football.

Craig Woodson [00:48:02]:
If I had to get rid of some.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:04]:
No, what's. What's your favorite one? What's the best one of those?

Craig Woodson [00:48:10]:
Super Soaker. Man, it's got to be Super Soaker, right? I mean, I don't care. Slinker. Slinky's fine. Hula hoop. I don't care about hula hooping now. Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:21]:
I think the Super Soakers. Teddy Bear.

Craig Woodson [00:48:22]:
My daughter loves them, but, I mean,

Aaron Brooks [00:48:24]:
Frisbees Frisbees are fun.

Craig Woodson [00:48:26]:
Frisbees are Frisbee. Frisbee, yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:29]:
Frisbee's a year round thing because you

Craig Woodson [00:48:31]:
can do ultimate Frisbee. Frisbee golf.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:33]:
Yeah, it's got to be the Frisbee.

Craig Woodson [00:48:35]:
It might be Frisbee.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:36]:
Gotta be the Frisbee because I can

Craig Woodson [00:48:37]:
do that in my 40s now. Super Soaker, you know, I can't just break out a super Soaker all the time.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:44]:
I don't know. Out of all these chocolate chip cookie might be the best invention to come out of the US that's you're welcome world for that one.

Craig Woodson [00:48:50]:
You are very, very welcome. I'm tempted to hit that. I forgot about the button. Oh, we haven't even done that.

Aaron Brooks [00:48:56]:
This is something we kind of just touched on. You can only choose one. Small town, America. Big, big city.

Craig Woodson [00:49:02]:
Okay, what do you want here? Here's. This is hard because I've gone back and forth over the last 20 years.

Aaron Brooks [00:49:08]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:49:09]:
Because I've been in big city in my younger days, my bachelor days, I always wanted to live in a big city. I always thought I want to live in a big apartment above somewhere because I can get to stuff quickly. I can just go walk down to the store, I can go walk to a restaurant. I can go do this and that and love that convenience. There's something about a town like we're, we live in. You don't walk places. No, but I've loved going and staying in big cities because everything's right within walking distance and you can just walk to it. I can. I mean when I was in Hong Kong, when I've been in, in, in like Dallas and St. Louis even like you can just. I can walk miles, but it doesn't feel like it for some reason. But here you tell me that Harps is a quarter of a mile down the road.

Aaron Brooks [00:49:54]:
Grocery store.

Craig Woodson [00:49:55]:
I'm not walking there. You're kidd me. So it feels different for some reason. But now in the, in my middle age years, I like how I prioritize having a yard. I like a yard. I like property. I like having a bigger house. I like the small town feel. I like being able to know where stuff is. And so I think I would.

Aaron Brooks [00:50:16]:
I.

Craig Woodson [00:50:17]:
Because I like where we are because we're a medium sized town. I mean small compared to, yes, a big part of the country, but big compared to a big part of the country.

Aaron Brooks [00:50:27]:
In Arkansas we would be a medium town. Yeah, right.

Craig Woodson [00:50:30]:
But we're close enough to big stuff. I'm, I'm you know, a couple hours from Memphis. I'm an hour away from Little Rock. I'm five hours from big metropolitan areas, so I can get some big city stuff, but I've still got my. I would not want to live in a tiny town where I have to drive an hour to get groceries. I don't want to do that.

Aaron Brooks [00:50:50]:
That. Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:50:50]:
So I like.

Aaron Brooks [00:50:51]:
What would be the. The maximum distance that you would be willing to drive to have to get things?

Craig Woodson [00:51:00]:
Like. I. I can't imagine living in Velvet Ridge. I. I don't want to do that.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:05]:
Even though they got Dollar General.

Craig Woodson [00:51:06]:
Yeah. And I still don't want to.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:07]:
Dollar General is not enough.

Craig Woodson [00:51:09]:
No.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:10]:
You would be 30 minutes from baseball, 30 minutes from Searcy.

Craig Woodson [00:51:13]:
Yeah. No.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:14]:
So 30 minutes, you would be close to Bald Knob. Bald Knob would be the big city.

Craig Woodson [00:51:19]:
Yeah, I see. I wouldn't want to do that.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:21]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:51:22]:
I don't even know.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:23]:
So 30 minutes is too far then.

Craig Woodson [00:51:25]:
Yeah. I don't even know if I would want to live out where y' all live. I might.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:30]:
10 minutes.

Craig Woodson [00:51:30]:
Yeah. I've gotten really spoiled to being in the city, man. I've lived here my whole life, like, being that close to stuff.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:37]:
What I can tell you, I. There is absolutely zero desire in me to live in the city limits of this town. Really don't want it. Really don't want it.

Craig Woodson [00:51:44]:
That surprises me.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:45]:
I. I mean, we're, like, sitting on your porch naked.

Craig Woodson [00:51:48]:
10 minutes.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:50]:
Like, it's 10 minutes.

Craig Woodson [00:51:51]:
Yeah, it is.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:53]:
I don't want neighbors next door to me.

Craig Woodson [00:51:55]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [00:51:57]:
We cannot see any of our neighbors.

Craig Woodson [00:51:58]:
Are you breaking bad? What are you doing?

Aaron Brooks [00:52:04]:
I was with some friends in small. In a smaller town than. Than we're in the other day, and we were eating, and while we were there, just different people. Walking in is like, hey, you know, people come by him. It's like I said, do you know everybody in this town?

Craig Woodson [00:52:19]:
See, I don't want that.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:20]:
You don't. You don't want the. You don't want the Mayberry?

Craig Woodson [00:52:22]:
I do not.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:23]:
You don't want the Mayberry Hill?

Craig Woodson [00:52:24]:
I don't want that.

Erin [00:52:25]:
No.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:25]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:52:26]:
I don't know my neighbors here.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:28]:
I know.

Craig Woodson [00:52:28]:
I don't know any of them. I don't get back. I know somebody down the road, but that's about it. I lived in my other house for eight years, and I kind of knew one neighbor.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:38]:
So you're not really into the good citizen thing?

Craig Woodson [00:52:41]:
I'll be a good citizen, but I don't. I don't want to, you know, Just be chummy.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:45]:
Isn't that part of the American thing though, is like we're supposed to be neighborly and you know, we, we gotta

Craig Woodson [00:52:50]:
stop watching Andy Griffith, man. That's how it is in 2026.

Aaron Brooks [00:52:55]:
Maybe we need to bring that back.

Craig Woodson [00:52:56]:
I mean. Yeah, probably. Probably. I'm just not there.

Aaron Brooks [00:53:01]:
So what was your answer? Small town America or big city?

Craig Woodson [00:53:04]:
I'd probably. I like where I am, honestly. Like, I like small town, I guess. Like not too small, but smallish.

Aaron Brooks [00:53:11]:
Smallish, yeah, smallish in this.

Craig Woodson [00:53:13]:
I like having a cheddar's in a Texas roadhouse. But I don't, I don't want to, you know, have a 2 million people here either.

Aaron Brooks [00:53:22]:
Sure. Okay. Mountains are the beach.

Craig Woodson [00:53:28]:
Okay. Because America has it all. Purple mountains majesty, sea to signing seat shine. I man, growing up, I would have told you mountains all day long.

Aaron Brooks [00:53:44]:
Yeah, that's the only right answer.

Craig Woodson [00:53:45]:
I have become a beach boy though.

Aaron Brooks [00:53:47]:
The beach is terrible.

Craig Woodson [00:53:48]:
I always, I always love the beach. My mom used to always think I was going to be a marine biologist. I was always a beach bum. But I always seem to prefer the. Maybe that's just cuz where we went a lot. But I don't know, going to the mountains this, this past summer, I enjoyed it a lot. It was great. I had a great time relaxing and maybe I'm just not. I haven't. I got to shake off the rust of being in the mountains because I haven't been to the mountains in a long time. I mean, since probably I was a teenager. We went to Colorado. That's how long it's been since I've been in Colorado. I don't know. I found myself not acclimating. Like it was hard for me to just chill and just look at scenery because I was like, well, I don't have any water to look at. Like just, I don't know is a recalibration. I think if I went again this summer, later or next year, I'd be better at it.

Aaron Brooks [00:54:49]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:54:49]:
If that makes any sense. Sure. Just because we've done beach for so long. I knew where I was, you know, not necessarily even where I was going, but I knew what the plan was. Like, you know, the day we go sit at the beach, we'll build some sandcastle. We'll just chill and relax. We knew, you know, we're gonna go eat seafood, you know, I knew the plan. I didn't realize how routine I was until I went to a different environment. So I, I would probably lean beach at this point in my in my life.

Erin [00:55:21]:
Wow.

Aaron Brooks [00:55:22]:
Yeah, That's a horrible answer. Yeah, the beach just ain't it. That's. Mountains have it beat.

Craig Woodson [00:55:30]:
Okay, sell me on mountains.

Aaron Brooks [00:55:33]:
It's literally anything but just staring at the same exact thing all day long.

Craig Woodson [00:55:38]:
Okay, what are you doing at the mountains? What are you looking at?

Aaron Brooks [00:55:42]:
You go take a hike. You enjoy the scenery. You, you're picnicking out there.

Craig Woodson [00:55:46]:
That's what you're doing at the beach too. I really think they're about the same.

Aaron Brooks [00:55:49]:
Sitting on the sand, looking at the same exact scene.

Craig Woodson [00:55:51]:
Okay, you're gonna sit in the grass looking at the same exact scene.

Aaron Brooks [00:55:54]:
Yeah. While we, while I eat lunch and then we're gonna continue lunch at the beach. We're gonna continue to hike up the. The trail. And as you go around this curve and that, that turn, your scenery changes. You're looking at different things. You come across a mountain lake looking at anything different.

Craig Woodson [00:56:09]:
It's the same stuff. It's trees and mountains.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:12]:
Yes, but your scenery is different.

Craig Woodson [00:56:13]:
It's also trees and mountains.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:16]:
Yes. It's not. It is not one flat. I'm looking at this piece of sand and this water.

Craig Woodson [00:56:22]:
You're looking at the water. You see boats go by. You see dolphins, you see fish. You see, you know, try to get. Find a sand dollar or a starfish and.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:33]:
So boring.

Craig Woodson [00:56:34]:
Saw a sailboat. That dude's gonna beef it on that surfboard.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:37]:
It's horrible. It is horrible. I hate.

Craig Woodson [00:56:40]:
You hate it.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:41]:
That I hate it. If I could eliminate the beaches from our country, I'd get rid of every beach.

Craig Woodson [00:56:45]:
Really?

Aaron Brooks [00:56:45]:
I hate them.

Craig Woodson [00:56:46]:
I knew you, you didn't freak with them. I didn't know you hated them.

Aaron Brooks [00:56:49]:
I can't stand it. There is, there is, there is zero chance I would go spend five days.

Craig Woodson [00:56:55]:
What's the most time you've ever spent a beach?

Aaron Brooks [00:57:00]:
Three or four hours.

Craig Woodson [00:57:03]:
Okay. If I'm going to go to Silver Door City and do an upside down ride, you got to spend a day at the beach.

Aaron Brooks [00:57:09]:
There's nothing to do.

Craig Woodson [00:57:10]:
Exactly. That's the point.

Aaron Brooks [00:57:13]:
You chill.

Craig Woodson [00:57:13]:
You just relax and enjoy the walking in nature and the breeze and the smells.

Aaron Brooks [00:57:20]:
Yeah, that's, that's the mountains getting the mountain air. Sitting by a, by a stream in the, in the, in the mountains. You know, if I'm just gonna sit somewhere, I would rather just go sit in the mountains and just take in taking that. If I have to choose just sitting in one place and staring at one thing for X amount of hours, it would be, it would be a mountain. A mountain. Meadow with trees and a lake and all of that.

Craig Woodson [00:57:49]:
I mean, I'll take either of them. I have no aversion to either of them. I have a edge beach at this point, but I'm not going to turn down either one of them. So I'm surprised you're like, such the aversion.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:00]:
I hate it. I. If I can go to the beach, I can see it. Okay, that's good. Been there. Let's go eat some seafood.

Craig Woodson [00:58:09]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:09]:
And I don't need to go back. I don't need to go back a second day.

Craig Woodson [00:58:12]:
What beaches have you been to?

Aaron Brooks [00:58:16]:
The ones there in the Gulf.

Craig Woodson [00:58:17]:
Okay. That's it?

Aaron Brooks [00:58:18]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:58:19]:
It's all you've been to?

Aaron Brooks [00:58:19]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:58:20]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:20]:
You need.

Craig Woodson [00:58:21]:
You need to. I would recommend, like, I don't know, maybe you need to go to, like, like the north Northwest, like a Seattle.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:31]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [00:58:32]:
Go to there. You probably enjoyed that maybe more.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:34]:
Out of the beaches that I've seen, the ones in the Northwest, I would definitely be more inclined to go.

Craig Woodson [00:58:41]:
We're gonna go to the harbor in Boston, you know, and. Yes, that's.

Aaron Brooks [00:58:44]:
That would be fine. Yeah, that's interesting. But just to go sit also in the mountains, I see lots of lakes and stuff. When we go to Colorado, there's places that have sandy beaches and things like that. Like. Like go sit at that and take in the mountains at the same time. I mean, it's. It's the same thing, but you've got better scenery rather than just. Just that.

Craig Woodson [00:59:05]:
Man, I feel sorry for you because it's a. It's a great time.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:08]:
Apple pie or peach cobbler or something else?

Craig Woodson [00:59:14]:
I would say something else. I have no pro. I will eat either one of those. If I have to pick between the two, it's going to be apple piece, but I would lean more something else, probably.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:26]:
What's the something else?

Craig Woodson [00:59:29]:
I mean, I don't know. Key lime pie, you know.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:32]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [00:59:32]:
We did a whole cake pie episode.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:34]:
But is. Is key lime pie the more American dessert? Probably.

Craig Woodson [00:59:40]:
I think apple pie was not from America, was it? So. But I want to say key lime, probably more American.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:47]:
We call, you know, as American as apple pie. So it's associated as like the American dessert.

Craig Woodson [00:59:53]:
Yeah. With both of those. You have to have ice cream.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:56]:
I'll talk about key lime pie and ice cream.

Craig Woodson [00:59:58]:
No apple.

Aaron Brooks [00:59:59]:
Peach cobbler. Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:00:00]:
Yeah, you have to have. You have to have ice cream. Blueberry cobbler or pie.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:05]:
Better than apple or peach, maybe. Let's see the. Oh, chocolate chip cookie or apple pie?

Craig Woodson [01:00:15]:
Chocolate chip cookie. Hands Down. That's not even a peach cobbler.

Erin [01:00:18]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:18]:
Cookie.

Craig Woodson [01:00:19]:
All of them.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:19]:
Key lime cookie.

Craig Woodson [01:00:20]:
Probably even that.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:21]:
Ooh, yeah. Chocolate chip cookie would be up at the top of the list then.

Craig Woodson [01:00:27]:
Probably. Yeah. I love a chocolate chip. Snickerdoodle. Even better.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:30]:
Ooh, yeah. Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:00:32]:
Snickerdoodle is my favorite cookie. Chocolate chip right below it.

Aaron Brooks [01:00:39]:
I like a snickerdoodle. I don't ever think about snickerdoodle.

Craig Woodson [01:00:41]:
Snickerdoodle is great. It's. It's basically the brown sugar cookie. Like it's a chocolate chipless chocolate chip cookie but with cinnamon. You know. What else? American. We did a whole national parks episode. You can, you can.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:00]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:01:01]:
You can talk about that. But America had. We've already talked about a little bit. But America's has everything. So beach, which you apparently despise. Mountains. But you know, there's. The Grand Canyon is incredible.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:15]:
It's awesome.

Craig Woodson [01:01:15]:
Like people. I think people underestimate or undervalue the Grand Canyon sometimes if you've never been there to see it. It's incredible. It's amazing. What else are we missing? Anything else? I mean, we are. There's so much American related.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:33]:
There's a lot of things.

Craig Woodson [01:01:34]:
Again, this is a off the hip. We wanted to hang out with you guys for an afternoon.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:39]:
I don't know. County fairs. Is that a big thing? Other places.

Craig Woodson [01:01:42]:
I don't know. Probably not like it. An American county fair.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:45]:
Like here everybody goes crazy for their county fair.

Craig Woodson [01:01:48]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:49]:
State fairs.

Craig Woodson [01:01:49]:
I don't even know that that's everywhere though. I feel like that's maybe more of a Southern thing.

Aaron Brooks [01:01:56]:
You think? Because feel like in the Midwest fares are pretty big.

Craig Woodson [01:02:00]:
Are they?

Aaron Brooks [01:02:00]:
I think so.

Craig Woodson [01:02:01]:
Okay.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:02]:
I think so. Maybe high school football.

Craig Woodson [01:02:06]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:06]:
It's definitely about American.

Craig Woodson [01:02:08]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:09]:
And I've noticed like even really sports, period. Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:02:12]:
Is very American. I mean obviously the rest of the world's got soccer and you got cricket and places. And every. Every country has sports that they love. But again, just referencing the World cup people, they come here and go, you guys. Especially with college sports. Like university sports in other countries is. Looks like peewee. Like their stadiums just aren't much at all. Nobody's coming to them.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:35]:
No.

Craig Woodson [01:02:35]:
And here we are having hundreds thousand seat arenas for football and 20,000 seats for basketball. And baseball's massive. So nobody does sports like America.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:47]:
Small town parades.

Erin [01:02:50]:
Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:51]:
I was really impressed with the Christmas parade that we had last year.

Erin [01:02:54]:
Really?

Craig Woodson [01:02:54]:
I haven't been to a parade in years.

Aaron Brooks [01:02:56]:
I hadn't either, but it was it was really cool.

Craig Woodson [01:02:59]:
Yeah, it was cool.

Aaron Brooks [01:03:00]:
That's. I think that's pretty.

Craig Woodson [01:03:02]:
You know me. Parades, fireworks, it's just not.

Aaron Brooks [01:03:07]:
You just hate celebrating things.

Craig Woodson [01:03:09]:
Does it get bug goat going?

Aaron Brooks [01:03:11]:
You don't want to celebrate things.

Craig Woodson [01:03:13]:
Want to celebrate them in my own private way.

Aaron Brooks [01:03:16]:
You don't like people. You don't. You don't want to talk to neighbors. You don't want to be around people. You don't want to go out and celebrate.

Craig Woodson [01:03:23]:
I have become a little bit of a hermit in my life.

Aaron Brooks [01:03:26]:
That's what I'm picking up on here. Garage sales.

Craig Woodson [01:03:32]:
I feel like they do that in other places.

Aaron Brooks [01:03:34]:
Do they?

Craig Woodson [01:03:35]:
I feel like it. I mean I. I'm not going to look at you when I say this. There was an episode of Bluey that featured a garage sales. That's how I know that they do it in Australia. At least if it was. It was enough to reference in a children's program in Australia. Surely that's fairly common. Says oh, free refills. That's a big thing. Does not exist anywhere else.

Aaron Brooks [01:04:03]:
No, that. That's true.

Craig Woodson [01:04:07]:
Tailgating before a sporting event. Of course. America uniquely American is Thanksgiving. That could be button worthy right there. Cheerleaders apparently is very uniquely American. National anthem. I would say the patriotic spirit in general, like absolutely American overall. Like even. Even if. I know patriotism seems to have. Seems to be an ugly word lately.

Aaron Brooks [01:04:38]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:04:39]:
The last 10 years or so it feels like there is a anti patriots kind of approach to living in America. But even the people who would consider themselves not patriot patriotic are going to go crazy for Team USA in the World Cup.

Aaron Brooks [01:04:58]:
Sure.

Craig Woodson [01:04:58]:
When it's Olympics time it's usa. Usa. Let's go. You know, so I definitely think there is. That's unique to America seeing American flags.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:07]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:05:08]:
At people's houses. You know, is. Is unique to us as well.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:11]:
I agree. Pickup trucks, definitely.

Craig Woodson [01:05:17]:
Interstate highways. Car centric. I mean America is definitely more car centric than other countries. Yeah.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:25]:
We are just. I mean the advancements that we've had, the vast amount of land that we've got.

Craig Woodson [01:05:33]:
Okay, well we didn't hit the bell.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:35]:
We didn't.

Craig Woodson [01:05:36]:
So let's just. We'll just blind draft it then.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:39]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:05:40]:
Here we go.

Erin [01:05:40]:
If you want to be the best, you have to beat the rest. This is the best things bracket.

Craig Woodson [01:05:51]:
You're going to. Let's give you a first pick here then. Mr. America. The most American thing you can think of.

Aaron Brooks [01:05:58]:
Road trips.

Craig Woodson [01:06:00]:
I'm going to put college sports.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:03]:
Sure. That would be. That would be really big. If I take ranch dressing, it's not a bad choice. Can I say American inventions as a category?

Craig Woodson [01:06:16]:
I think. Okay, I'm gonna say I want to do something food related. I don't feel like I can just put American food. Can I?

Aaron Brooks [01:06:25]:
Yeah, I think it's. I don't know, that one feels like it should be broken up a little more.

Craig Woodson [01:06:29]:
Then I'm going to say barbecue.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:31]:
Okay, go ahead and give me ranch dressing. I think it's got to make the list.

Craig Woodson [01:06:37]:
Oh, American movies.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:40]:
Oh, yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:06:41]:
I probably should have been higher up.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:43]:
Give me chocolate chip cookies.

Craig Woodson [01:06:45]:
Okay. I'm gonna put the American landscape.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:49]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:06:50]:
I. E. We have everything. We have seas and mountains and. And stuff like that.

Aaron Brooks [01:06:53]:
Okay. Give me small town America.

Craig Woodson [01:06:58]:
You know what? Fast food. American fast food.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:03]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:07:04]:
It's spread globally. You know, McDonald's, Subway, KFC, all those things are all across the world now. I'll take final pick for you.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:14]:
Patriotic spirit.

Craig Woodson [01:07:16]:
That's what it's going to be. My last one.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:17]:
Patriotic spirit. Just the general love of country, man, that I think is probably bigger here than other places.

Craig Woodson [01:07:28]:
Agree. Well, you took my last one. You know what? We didn't even talk about it.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:36]:
George Washington.

Craig Woodson [01:07:37]:
Democracy.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:39]:
The American experiment.

Craig Woodson [01:07:40]:
A democratic republic.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:43]:
Yeah. 250 years.

Craig Woodson [01:07:45]:
For all the flaws it has, for all the times we get mad at it, it's still probably the best thing floating.

Aaron Brooks [01:07:50]:
I don't want to choose anything else. Right.

Craig Woodson [01:07:54]:
Okay. Are we ready to bracket this thing out? Let's do it. First matchup, small town America versus the patriotic spirit. Three, two, one.

Aaron Brooks [01:08:06]:
Patriotic spirit.

Craig Woodson [01:08:08]:
Next up, chocolate chip cookies versus ranch dressing. Three, two, one. Chocolate chip cookies.

Aaron Brooks [01:08:16]:
Really?

Craig Woodson [01:08:17]:
Oh, no. Okay, so chocolate chip cookies. Get a 19. Ranch gets a 17. Sorry. I dinged ranch pretty hard.

Aaron Brooks [01:08:26]:
You did? I could.

Craig Woodson [01:08:28]:
I could do without ranch. I couldn't do without a chocolate chip cookie, though.

Aaron Brooks [01:08:33]:
I'm vice versa. I would rather dip into ranch probably than anything else, man. And I don't eat chocolate chip cookies all that often.

Craig Woodson [01:08:41]:
American fast food versus democracy. Three, two, one. Democracy.

Aaron Brooks [01:08:46]:
Yes, sir. Did you really have it that close? What our form of government could have lost to having fast food? I. I don't know.

Craig Woodson [01:08:58]:
I knew it wasn't a danger of losing, so.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:01]:
Wow. Wow, man. Just imagine that I had gone. Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:09:06]:
If you had gone. Fast food. The American landscape versus American movies. Three, two, one.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:13]:
Landscape.

Craig Woodson [01:09:15]:
Really, man. I've seen other countries movies and they're terrible.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:22]:
They are. But what would you rather our landscape be?

Craig Woodson [01:09:25]:
I can travel to landscape.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:28]:
What? What? What? Advance.

Craig Woodson [01:09:30]:
Let's see. Landscape. You gave a 9, I gave an 8, which makes it 17 and 9 and 7 here.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:37]:
16.

Craig Woodson [01:09:37]:
So landscape advance point. Road trips versus patriotic spirit. 3, 2, 1. Patriotic spirit. Give them both a 10. Gave 8 and 9. Mainly because I love a road trip, but my legs also get tired.

Aaron Brooks [01:09:56]:
Are you running on your road trip?

Craig Woodson [01:09:59]:
They get jelly legs. American inventions versus chocolate chip cookies. 3, 2, 1.

Aaron Brooks [01:10:06]:
Inventions.

Craig Woodson [01:10:07]:
Inventions. Has to be. It wouldn't have the iPhone. Wouldn't have air conditioning. That's a.

Erin [01:10:14]:
That.

Craig Woodson [01:10:15]:
That may be hard to beat, going to be honest with you. Democracy or college sports is up next. This is a tough one. Three, two, one. Democracy. Problem is, we wouldn't have college sports if it wasn't for democracy.

Aaron Brooks [01:10:33]:
Exactly.

Craig Woodson [01:10:34]:
Barbecue or the American landscape. Three, two, one.

Aaron Brooks [01:10:39]:
Barbecue.

Craig Woodson [01:10:40]:
That's right.

Aaron Brooks [01:10:41]:
All right.

Craig Woodson [01:10:42]:
Patriotic spirit or inventions. Three, two, one. Inventions. Yeah, I gave it to American Inventions. I love our patriotic spirit, but iPhones, the computer systems. We have so many things like that.

Aaron Brooks [01:10:59]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:10:59]:
So many good things that I could live without all the patriotism. I couldn't live with a lot of the inventions. I hope you voted well. Here we go.

Erin [01:11:12]:
3.

Craig Woodson [01:11:13]:
The democracy of America versus barbecue in America. 3, 2, 1. I tied it to let you take it.

Aaron Brooks [01:11:23]:
Well, our form of government will move on.

Craig Woodson [01:11:29]:
I feel like Aaron's nervous.

Aaron Brooks [01:11:31]:
I am nervous. 3.

Craig Woodson [01:11:35]:
This is the finals. American inventions versus American democracy. 3, 2, 1. They're both great. Democracy prevails. If it was a tie, I was gonna vote democracy in the next. In the tiebreaker just because I don't want to be. I don't want the government coming after us thinking I'm a communist or something.

Aaron Brooks [01:12:04]:
You know, we're gonna overthrow this system of government.

Craig Woodson [01:12:08]:
That's wrong.

Aaron Brooks [01:12:09]:
That's what this podcast is about.

Craig Woodson [01:12:11]:
But now we have to put it up against March Madness.

Erin [01:12:16]:
It may be the best thing today, but is it the best thing of all time?

Craig Woodson [01:12:20]:
What, you. You don't think we should.

Aaron Brooks [01:12:22]:
I would like to propose.

Craig Woodson [01:12:24]:
Should we save it for.

Aaron Brooks [01:12:26]:
I. I would like to propose that in honor of 250 years of this great American experiment that we just go ahead and just name it the. The. The best thing honorary. It. It's the best thing about America. Okay? And it's. It's. It's why we can do what we're doing right now. And, you know, we can't compare it to. To March Men. I say that we just make it an honorary.

Craig Woodson [01:12:55]:
You know, you don't want to have it run the next five weeks and then make it to the hall of Fame and Then never get kicked out, you know?

Aaron Brooks [01:13:04]:
So I think that we have to just give it that. You know, Give it that.

Craig Woodson [01:13:11]:
Dude, this. This is the reason we did our spring episode. We didn't even include Easter because we just. We couldn't.

Aaron Brooks [01:13:18]:
You can't. There's certain things that just. And saying. Yeah, you know, love. Love the way that we do things here, but give me March Madness instead. Just.

Craig Woodson [01:13:29]:
But you know what's funny? Democracy was a six seed. It was the last pick. Talk about a Cinderella. It was the last thing picked up the bracket.

Aaron Brooks [01:13:44]:
I mean, I. I don't think of it in that sense. I don't know. Today, it was just different. Yeah, this bracket was just different.

Craig Woodson [01:13:50]:
It was just different. Yeah. I mean, unless you want. Okay, do you want to do this then? Do you want to put American Inventions up? Okay, you want to do that? Sure.

Aaron Brooks [01:13:58]:
Okay, let's do that.

Erin [01:14:02]:
It may be the best thing today, but is it the best thing of all time? It's time for the best thing battle.

Craig Woodson [01:14:13]:
American inventions versus the first 48 hours of March Madness. Will we have one shining moment today? Let's find.

Aaron Brooks [01:14:24]:
By the way, this would put it in the hall of fame.

Craig Woodson [01:14:26]:
If it wins today, it's going to the hall of fame. Yeah. Three, two, one.

Aaron Brooks [01:14:34]:
Americans. Yes. Wow. Of which the first 48 hours of March Madness is man one away from making it. And it gets derailed right on the cusp.

Craig Woodson [01:14:48]:
I'm telling you, though, the TV American Inventions is the one that could make the run here.

Aaron Brooks [01:14:53]:
This.

Craig Woodson [01:14:54]:
I. I feel like this. I'm gonna predict it now.

Aaron Brooks [01:14:57]:
Yeah.

Craig Woodson [01:14:57]:
Five episodes from now. It's gonna.

Aaron Brooks [01:15:00]:
There's so many different things.

Craig Woodson [01:15:01]:
We're gonna be playing one shining moment. Get moment. And getting demonetized.

Erin [01:15:05]:
Okay.

Craig Woodson [01:15:06]:
Every time we gotta figure out a way to get around that. I need Luther Vandross to give us his blessing, I think is what I do need to. To do. All right. I have nothing else American. Do you.

Aaron Brooks [01:15:18]:
Happy birthday.

Craig Woodson [01:15:19]:
Happy birthday, America. Go shoot some fireworks. I guess it's a special day.

Aaron Brooks [01:15:24]:
That's right.

Craig Woodson [01:15:25]:
Be safe, though, when you do it. Come on, don't be stupid. Please come back on July 5th with all your fingers attached for the best things. I'm Craig.

Aaron Brooks [01:15:34]:
I'm Aaron.

Craig Woodson [01:15:34]:
We'll talk at you next time. Bye Bye, everybody,

Erin [01:15:43]:
For listening to the Best Things podcast. If you like today's episode, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening now. And remember, connect with us on the socials at Best Things pod and you may hear your take on an upcoming episode.