Beantown Podcast - US States Power Rankings Part Four (08052022 Beantown Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

Quinn comes to you LIVE (and maybe a little bit of Rachel?) to discuss his penultimate tier of US States - It's a New England-palooza, but watch out for Nevada and Utah!

Hey, what's going on? It's Quinn David Furnace. Welcome to my show. Quinn David Furnace presents the Bean Town podcast for Friday, August 5th, 2022. What's happening? What's going on? Hope you're having a good week, surviving the heat. I was speaking to heat. I was running on Wednesday, downtown in my office, just blazing hot, humid, and icky, and sunny all at the same time. It was really just a wild combo, so I'm just getting blasted by that four miles just dying. I feel like I run enough and I'm consistent enough to where I can go out there at any condition and still put in a good effort but man it was just one of those days where it was just too much. I was I was going real slow. And the reason I told the stories because I come back to the office, I grab my

clothes, I go to the showers across the street, and I come out of the shower, walk back to my office, and it's just downpouring. So I manage to sweat through everything on my run, and then got everything rained through on the walk back. Oh, really just all forms of precipitation there. Hello to my friends in the mid east, they're Pacquistan. I guess they don't like being called the mid east, but they're not really South Asia either. They're really just their own kind of place. Hello to my friends in Pacquistan.

Hyderabad, Islamabad, Kiberpast. Thank you for being here. Thank you for making us the 112th ranked comedy podcast in the nation. The Islamic State of Pakistan, I assume. These places are all Islamic states. They never, the whole Republic of never really caught on. As far as I can recall. Let's to discretion as advised when you're listening to the bean-town podcast number one will occasionally use some language. Number two, this podcast is objectively terrible, but I tell you what, we've made it through the rough stuff, the North Dakota's and the Louisiana's.

We've made it through the nobody really cares about those states the Nebraska's and I don't know the Idaho's and now we're we're into week four out of five of our bean town podcast, 50 states, and special guests, power rankings, which is very exciting. So we're getting to just about the cream of the crop here. We are real close and we're going to be getting into some states and a little bit here that are very solid contenders. They don't make my top with a top list, but they're definitely

states that I have enjoyed the majority of my experiences there. We're going to be getting to that in a second. And I don't plan to delay getting to that all too much like I've done in a couple previous episodes or some of our previous episodes of just just eclipse the hour mark. And frankly, I just don't it's about five, five 30 PM on a Friday, long week, man, just work in. I don't know. I probably worked like 50, 55, not 55, like 50, a shower is this week, but that's just the you know total time on the clock

It's not a common or I'm bopping around doing this doing that all at the same time So it's just exhausting. I I worked after five every night this week I'm just I got my glass of wild turkey whiskey here and I'm ready to unwind a little bit talk about some states and then Just not really talk for the rest of the day. A lot of synchronous Zoom calls, too. I don't do a ton of that. In my regular day to day life outside of Sunday morning family chat.

But it's going to continue next week, too. August is just a crazy stretch. Coming off of vacation and got this week was nuts. Next week is kind of like a carbon copy of this past week. And then we have orientation for the new law students. And then we're going to Hawaii, which is why we're doing our power rankings leading up to it. And then the week after that is my big teaching week,

which is a lot of fun, but it's also exhausting because every day it's like, okay, now we're going to take the bus to, excuse me, Laundale. Now we'll take this metro to Pullman. Let's go up to Rivineo. You know, it's just like, man, every, every day and you're trying to keep track of 2017 and 18 year olds. And I'm just not a super social person. I'm a lot of things, but I don't love just, I don't mind like having a random conversation with this stranger. Great example.

Last night kickball playoffs. And there was another team. playoffs and there was another team and I don't they that it was a team who lost to the team that beat us. So I was talking one of their guys after for maybe like three or four minutes because we had the same rough who was foul until the very end. Came back fair. First baseman scoops it up steps on first. Easy out. Right. Well, ump calls it foul, which is extremely wrong call. There were at least two or three defensive force outs where, yeah, it's a bang-bang play, but it's like, yeah, this is pretty clearly out and you call it safe. It's like, well, okay, I get once, but consistently is irritating And then the most egregious one which is a bang bang play, but it's like you got a

Well, there there were two one. There is a ball What we what we call kicked out of play and it hit our bench Which is very much like not encroaching in the field. It's you know a's a couple feet away from the foul line. That's where you're supposed to be. And that should have gone us, you'll let us an extra run, I believe. But because it hit our players who are sitting on our bench, they just played it out like it happened when it should have been with runners advance because it's out of play. That's just the kickball rules. So that was irritating.

I'll mention none of this changed the outcome of the game. We did not advance for us in peace. But the most egregious one, and again, not anything that impacted how the game ended, but it did yield them an extra run, which is just taking it on the chin here. I think the situation was something along the lines of runners, bases loaded, let's say runners runners first and third or bases loaded something like that one out. And so essentially what happens

is the balls kicked up the middle. I think our shorts, no, I was short stuff. So our second base and fielded it. And and kick ball, at least these rules, you can get someone out by throwing the ball. And if the ball makes contact with them and they're not on the base, then they're out. Okay, pretty simple. It's not like baseball. So our second basement, I don't really remember why, but maybe she was a little bit off from the base. Throws it at the runner, another female going from first to second. So instead of doing the force out, she throws the ball at her, which is a fine play. It was bases loaded because there was someone going to score from third, which was fine, but then there was a runner at second as well.

And first. So force out of second, but no. Throws the ball at the runner going from first to second. And the runner catches the ball momentarily, I don't know, probably a second or so, and then, you know, drops it, throws it behind her or whatever. And I'm not, I don't take any fault with the female running from first to second, you caught it, because it's kind of like a weird thing that gets thrown right at you It's like you they're trying to like catch it or it like hits you in the chest or the stomach and it's awkward, right?

But here's the problem That delay where we like don't have access to the ball The runner the runner from second goes all the way home and You can't what we couldn't feel the ball because their runner home. And you can't, well, we couldn't feel the ball because their runner was catching and carrying the ball, which you're clearly not allowed to do. And so I'm not saying that the runner from third turn of scored. No, we were only getting one out. And there was only zero or one out center. I don't recall. But the guy from second goes all the way home. It's like, no, you got to send that guy back

to third. Like, it this might sound like a really minute detail. And yeah, it didn't change the outcome of the game, but it's like, you can't set that precedent and allow the run to score in that situation. That's just like, so it was just that sort of thing. We got outplayed, we got beat, but there were some calls. again both ways I probably noticed more of the ones that went against us, but there are at least one or two in our favor, which is like I don't know man And then that the we've had that ump before and he's been fine and the last night he was just Saying some stuff Some not-kind stuff in particular to Rachel and it's just bad experience,

which is a bummer. I have an undefeated season, it's a great social thing, and then you go out there and that's your experience. So that was a frustrating way to end the season. But then we drank a lot and made friends with other teams and that's kind of how I started telling that story. I was talking to that one guy and this goes back to how we originally started teaching week.

I don't mind having like the random two to three minute conversation here and there over some sort of shared topic. I'm not big on small talk. I'll do a little bit of it. But man, this week you spent so much time in the train and everything and the bus and just walking. It's just like small talk 24-7. And that's just exhausting for me on top of all the transportation.

And then that weekend, that caps it off is Labor Day weekend going to Wisconsin for a cousin's wedding. So it's just, it's a marathon stretch here. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun things. But, you know, it's just busy. And then Fall Trowell starts, don't have anything super sexy. Have my New York trip again.

We'll be in New York in mid-October. Got a little bit of a Midwest road trip from September wrapping into October, where it will be hitting a Bloomington, Champaign, Minneapolis, and Madison. It should be fun. Haven't haven't haven't been to Minneapolis and a little while. I can't wait. I can't wait to be there. It's just a bummer that I can't see a Vikings game. It's they're gonna be in London. Anyways, let me get some my whiskey here

and then we're gonna, oh, I'm going to Boston to them. And I'll probably either go to Cincinnati Columbus and Dayton or take a bigger chunk, which I see the pros and cons of it. It's a, it goes Tucson Phoenix LA Las Vegas, which I'm not opposed to. It's just, it goes from like, you have to leave on like Wednesday and not come back till like, Tuesday night, maybe Wednesday morning. That's just a long time. To be jumping, you know, constantly jump around. So we'll see, TBD.

The Cincinnati Columbus Dayton thing is much more of my speed. Drive there, wake up Monday morning, literally 5am. So you can get to Cincinnati in time for the, you lose an hour, get to Cincinnati in time for a 12pm fare. Did that last year. Didn't mind it. Dude, it's great hitting the open roads, especially highways here in Chicago early morning for anyone else's out.

You know, zoom in. It's a great feeling. Like sure, drive, love it. So we'll see. But you didn't come here to tell us into me, Ramble, for 13 minutes, but you heard it anyways. We are going to jump right into here. This is week four out of five. If you haven't listened to the last three episodes before this, I would encourage you to go do that. We are power ranking the 50 US states over a five week period in chunks leading up to my trip to Hawaii, which will be my first trip to Hawaii and my 50th state that I have visited. So put me down at 100% completion rate in about two weeks here. We leave in 15 days, is that right?

Yeah, 15 days. Until Puerto Rico gets in the game and then I'm gonna have to take another trip. But just to go blitzkrieg style through what we've already done, 50 Alabama, well not ranked, we had DC, Puerto Rico and Guam. Okay, 50, Bama, 49 Mississippi, 48 Louisiana, 47 Arkansas, 46 South Carolina, 45 Florida,

44 Texas, 43, Missouri, New Category, they suck and they know it. The first one was called Absolute Trash Heap, your classic ATH. 42, North Dakota, 41 South Dakota. That's a little foreshadowing. There's going to be a little bit of bunching going on today as well 40 Indiana 39 Kentucky 38 Idaho 37 Montana 36 Yoming 35 Nebraska 33 Oklahoma 32 Delaware Got a lot of shit for Delaware at 32. I don't know. I thought that was very generous A new category beloved by some but some problems 31 New Jersey this was last

week 30 Iowa 29 connect ticket 28 Rhode Island 27 Ohio 26 Arizona 25 North Carolina 24 Virginia 23 Tennessee 22 Maryland 21 Georgia okay so today's category is is just we got one name for one word, one name underrated, which probably, I don't know, we might have been able to come with a different title, but these are states, they're not all underrated states, but these are states that are rated slightly under my top 10. So we have reached the point now it is going to be 10 this week and 10 next week. So I knew I promised you it wouldn't be an exact 10 every week sort of thing and it wasn't for the first three weeks. Looks like we did like nine or like eight, 12 and 11, whatever that adds up to maybe nine, 12 and 11, seven, 12 and 11.

That's probably what it was. But these last two weeks are going to be going to be 10. So we're going from 20 to 11 today. And let's jump right in. This state out of all the 50 US states that I have spent by far the least amount of time in. Trying to think what would be second. Louisiana, I've never done much. Mississippi, I've just had a cup of coffee, literally, like twice. The same diner, I've actually gone to twice in all of Branch Mississippi. I've never been to the Mississippi coast or Jackson or anything like that. I've never done a ton of North Carolina, but those would be like the top states where it's like,

yeah, I've really not spent much time Idaho. Idaho is high up there. I haven't spent much time in Idaho. I did sleep a night in Boise before really fucking up a hotel waffle machine maker. I think they're still scraping stuff off of that six years later. But the state where I have spent the least amount of time

because it was literally an afternoon, New Mexico. So I don't want to hear anyone giving me shit about, oh, did you actually go there or did you like have an airport layover or I even, I was talking to someone about this two weeks ago, I don't remember who it was, but they were even like, oh, did you actually go there, you just fly over there? And I was like, dude, I'm not, you can't like, if if we're talking fly over then I've been to like Algeria, man, okay, so No, been there Not in the airport, well in the airport, but also other places. So coming in number 20s, New Mexico

I've been to Santa Fe for an event for about three hours Got to the airport or arrived in Santa Fe. I don't know. 10, 11 a.m. Worked for a handful of hours and I think I was out of there by like seven or eight. So it is one of the few states where I've never spent a night

along with probably, you know, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi. I was gonna say Idaho, that's not the case. But I love New Mexico. Maybe I've just been watching a lot of better call Saul recently, which is true. But it's just, you know, it's got the wide open spaces. It's got that natural beauty of the West, but it's not as like advertised I guess. I think it's the best way to put it as, you know, your grand canyons or your zions or your, obviously your Colorado's or even up to Montana. There's just so much out there.

It's beautiful. Somewhat diverse I guess in a kind of a unique way. Plenty of Latinos, of course, Native Americans, fair share of white people. I don't know if there are any black people that live in New Mexico. That's probably the one thing they don't have or Asians, but otherwise. It's a beautiful state. There's not that much I can comment on it. I'd love to go to Albert Kirkki at some point

Not just because of you know breaking bad and better call Saul, but I think it it seems like a like I don't know if hipsters really the right word for it, but just like a cool place I do like the whole like Arizona, New Mexico kind of like style Of like living and housing and just the naturalness of it. I don't know if I could ever, that's not true. I was gonna say I don't know if I could ever live there. I could, but I just frankly don't like the heat.

Like I'm much happier in a place like Minnesota, which is a completely different atmosphere than New Mexico. But you know what I think I could do would be to live in like Flagstaff, Arizona, or something like that, where it's in the mountains and it gets cold and stuff. Same goes for Santa Fe, it's pretty high up there.

Our bean town poll question of the week or bean town trivia question of the week, whomever gets closest to the Santa Fe elevation wins a bean town button in a shout out live on air. I think Walt Furnace is like five in a row on these or something. So five shout outs your way. I also mentioned you can submit your guests by text email bean townpodcastyahoo.com again this beantown bean podcast yahoo.com you can tweet us. The show is at beantowncast. I updated it once a year, at least. I'm personally at White Buns with a Z.

Maybe that's why the new president of the Paul didn't follow me back when I followed him. He saw and it was like, hey, man, I'm Catholic. This is too much. I don't know if he's actually Catholic or not. OK, to finish the thought, then we're going to go onto number 19 here. The Santa Fe elevation drum roll, please. Got a new glass table, coffee table, and it's's nice but frankly, we've got to worry about smudges now and it's not as good for drum rolls although there is wood on the bottom of

it so I guess that is the solution. Santa Fe elevation 7199, they say it sinks by 37 feet every year. Santa Fe is going down. Mercy. Go out there while you can because soon it will just be a crater. I'm joking. It's not true. Okay, coming in number 19, a state very similar to my own Illinois in terms of one huge city that's completely different from the rest of the state Nevada actually I feel like for a while people were thinking like oh Nevada sounds a little bit like More more fancy more natural like that's got to be the right way But it's actually Nevada even though that sounds kind of like

but it's actually Nevada, even though that sounds kind of like Nevada, Midwesterny, but in Nevada, it's like, oh, this is proper. This is what the ancestors would have wanted, but it is Nevada. If you out there and say Nevada, they can legally shoot you and legal prostitution and all that stuff. Did you know prostitution is not legal in, what's the county that lost Vegas is in? Lost Vegas County. Henderson, is that the name of it? Henderson County, no, Clark County. There's also a Henderson, I would say Henderson Nevada. I don't think there's a Henderson County.

There might be a Clark County. Do the Nevada counties are crazy. Go check out a map pull up a Nevada County map I Get it Because that's just like Nevada. It's just a lot of salt flats But these county the county map is crazy some of these counties are just like gigantic. It's wild Compared to a place like Illinois or something. Some really fun shapes too.

You gotta check this out, especially that South Central one that extends from the California border and goes straight north. Almost looks like a power tool or something. That's cool, man. Nevada is a beautiful state. It's got some Las Vegas is a lot. You're on the strip and it's like total gilded glitz and glory and then you go a block off the strip and it's like holy cow like where we took a wrong turn what happened. It's a really unique place. I've really only like done Nevada as an adult or Las Vegas as an adult once if you will. Right before I moved to Chicago, actually,

from Baltimore, I was there for four days, and I only had one work event. It was awesome. But I'm not a Vegas person. I don't gamble. He don't pay a lot for drinks. I do appreciate the show's aspect, but not the magic pen and teller, like the tiger guys bow and

Rick, I don't think they were called bow and Rick. Well who are the tiger brothers? They're sick freedom for it. Yeah, one of them or both of them are dead. Oh, I actually don't dislike that sort of thing. I just don't wanna pay 75 bucks for that. Now I will go out and see concerts. I saw James Taylor once in Las Vegas at Cesar's Palace. Great experience, but everything is expensive and I'm just not really like Glitz and Glamour or kind of got I was in Las Vegas last year actually For a cup of coffee

Rolled into there the day I hiked the Grand Canyon Probably got in there like six six p.m. Seven p.m. And I was out of there by seven a.m. To go to death Valley But the rest of Nevada is I I've never been to Reno, but I think for the most part, it's just kinda salt flats or like smaller mountains or like cows, stear. I don't know if they have a lot of stear in Nevada. When I think of like Nevada and wide open spaces, I picture steer STERR. And that's pretty much Nevada.

It's hot, it's dry, and it's pretty empty. And that might, you know, I might make it sound like, well, it sucks. But I kind of like that. There's a lot of room to explore. Can really spread your, spread your wings. And hey, at night, you want a party, you go down to Vegas, you do what you want to do there. Reminder to the listeners, prostitution is not legal. And then you go home and call it a day.

Las Vegas is where Brandon Flowers of Killers fame is from. Dustland Fairytale, go listen to it from the day and age record, about 12 years ago, something like that. Samstown, their second album, that's the name of a casino. I've seen it. Big, big ol' sign that says Samstown. Not on this trip. That's Nevada. Let's take this opportunity to thank our sponsors here.

Thank you to Home Pride Orch and we need you to save Certified Home Inspector. In central Oregon that you can trust, you're gonna want to go with the experts. Call Steve, also my dad, 541-0-0316. Or visit homepiderwagon.com. Again, that's homepiderwagon.com. And if you find it on Google Maps, it's actually still, or at least it was two years ago

and I was there at the wrong address, the Holly Grape address. That's old news, man. They're updated. They're current. Got a home office and everything. Anyways, trust the experts. Call home prior to working. Our good friends, the Samson Q2U series, they've been with us, we're on our fifth season now.

And I'm using my main Samson, but I've got my secondary. Anytime Rachel's ready to rumble. She's in the shower right now, so I can say this. She's going to want to get on here eventually. It's going to happen. She can't resist. It's got a lot of thoughts.

I know she's got something to contribute to this podcast. She's going to hate it if she ever listened back to this. Which is like a 50-50? I don't know. I don't talk about my podcast with Rachel, I don't talk about my podcast with others. There's a time, season one, season two, where it's like, oh, this is fresh, this is new.

Let's get really weird with it. Let's push it. Let's see what happens. And there were weird with it. Let's push it. Let's see what happens. And there were successes with that. We had shows that streamed 1,000, 2,000 times, whatever. But I tell you what, man, I just don't have the energy to go that hard with it. Now in season five.

And also, I just don't really care that much. For a time it was like, oh, maybe this could be a thing. Not like, oh, maybe I could be a podcaster in life. Whereas my main profession, but just like maybe this will be like a significant thing. And now I am totally fine with it never being that. I put it out there because it's an hour out of my week that I enjoy. And frankly, I almost never listen back. I put it out there because it's an hour out of my week that I enjoy and frankly I almost never listen back. I haven't listened back to a show in months. It's been a while. But it's always there. And sometimes we get good guests on. Once we get through all that August craziness through Labor Day

that I was talking about we're gonna get Abby Wittsack on for sure. Talk subway because we literally live a block and a half away. It's gonna happen. I actually was thinking about making it happen like a month ago, but I just didn't give her very good notice, then I asked her what she was doing and she was busy, so it's gonna happen. We have Abby Wittsack and I have a 5K on the track next week from today.

Is that right, gosh? That's literally what I'm going to be doing in exactly one week. Gotta go out to Montrose. God knows how I'll get there. Maybe I'll get picked up in a car. And then of course our friends cut by Q. Did a little shaving today. Looking fresh, looking clean. That's good because I got a 10 year old's birthday party tomorrow.

Don't want a show up looking like a werewolf. When you need a fresh juice on this snappy, you do call the experts at cuts by Q. Whiskey check, how are we doing? I got a couple of ounces left, maybe three. Still doing well. Oh, we're still podcasting, yeah, that's right. We're only on minute 30.

I got like seven states left to go. Are you sure you don't want to say anything, Rachel? Okay, maybe next time. All right, coming in at number 18, we're finally getting back to the heartland here and a state that is close to home number 18 Wisconsin. There's a lot I could say about it. It's just there. It's a really fun place for like legit fun in the summer. You know you get away from the big cities a little bit or if you want to go to a bigger city Milwaukee, really fun place for like legit fun in the summer. You know, you get away from the big cities a little bit or if you want to go to a bigger city Milwaukee,

we talked about summer fest, had a great time. It's my third summer fest this summer. My first time like making it a thing and not just like showing up for a night. Had a blast, big summer fest fan. And hey, I love It's tough because I actually originally had Wisconsin a little bit higher and then I thought about playing with Paul Ryan in the orchestra

and Scott Walker and Ron Johnson and I just thought you know what we got a temper or expectations a little bit I want to send the wrong message and put Wisconsin like 12 people will be like, what the fuck? So Wisconsin has a big vast dichotomy of things I really love. Summerfest, Devil's Lake, great time. Wisconsin Dells, Kind of king as a kid. A lot of fun, a lot of road trips through Wisconsin,

cheese curds, and not the new age fried ones. We're talking gas station, vacuum sealed, squeaky cheese curds. Door county, I get the negatives of door county, but I have fun because I'm white And you go far up north, you know like superior UP You can be very alone with your thoughts It's also got you know the drawbacks the politics a lot of guns

Hunting season Just not a fan of shooting anything, frankly. But that's Wisconsin. You take the good, you take the bad, I would not be opposed to living there. I'd want to be close to Milwaukee Madison or Minneapolis. But what more is there to say? I'd want to be close to Milwaukee, Madison, or Minneapolis, but What what more is there to say I think most people listen to the show Probably know Wisconsin pretty well better than Nevada or New Mexico. So that's all I'm gonna say for time's sake But it's a state I really appreciate

Stay with a lot of problems state that gets a lot lot of shit. But hey man, I like dairy. But I don't like Paul Ryan. And so that's why it's not any higher than 18. Coming in at number 17, we got a mini block here of two. So we'll talk about them both together. We don't need to do separate elaborations, EL, ABOR, ATI- OR ATI ONS. 17 we are going New Hampshire 16 we are going Vermont. I was there just just under two years ago. Beautiful beautiful places. Great green and white mountains, white New Hampshire green Vermont, fun hiking, close to Canada, almost Montreal, Toronto territory, more Montreal and Ottawa than Toronto.

I recorded and cut out or back. You missed about 30 seconds of me talking about the world's tallest filing cabinet located in Burlington, Vermont. Home of the, what's the Vermont, the University of Vermont. They're like mascot, University of the Maple Leafs or something, mascot. I can see their logo, the cat amounts, yeah. Whatever a cat amount is. Let's see if we can find out what is a cat amount.

It's like a panther or something, like a cougar. Bay, I knew what the logo looked like. I just didn't really know what to call that cat. It's a cat amount. Not your house cat, it's a cat amount. That's Vermont, New Hampshire. Rest in peace to the man in the mountain who came tumbling down.

If you don't know the story, first go check your change drawer. who came tumbling down. If you don't know the story, first go check your change drawer, maybe you'll have a new Hampshire State Quarter. You will see a face of a, potentially the face of a man in chiseled, not chiseled, but naturally in stone on the side of a mountain and the white mountains. And he came down maybe in 2004, 2005,

long gone. There was some sort of tectonic activity, I suppose. Be a good fan of his football team name, tectonic activity. And he's no longer there. I don't really know what happened. Some sort of seismic shift, seismic toss, Pokemon. It does the amount of damage equal to your level. So if you are a level 15 Pokemon, you're doing 15 HP damage. It's a move like Dragon Rage. Dragon Rage is 40 HP no matter what.

Where I think it's a hundred percent accuracy, so it's good if they have a sliver of health left and you need a sure thing, but it's not actually very usable in like if you're trying to actually be good at Pokemon. And that's New Hampshire, that's Vermont. Beautiful hiking, Green Mountains, White Mountains, I already said that I think, but I'm not a new England hater. Especially places like New Hampshire and Vermont, they're not crazy crowded. There's just not that many people. So there's a lot of nature to enjoy, room for everyone. Pretty liberal. So yeah, I don't have that much else to say about New Hampshire and Vermont. I've only had good experiences.

I think they're really great natural beauty. I don't have, I don't personally, you know, I know I've lived in Chicago and Baltimore my whole adult lives, but I don't personally need a large metro, polytene area to feel happy. If I've got a place to live close to a grocery store and good nature and a couple of bars, I'm pretty happy honestly. Coming in at number 15, this was a this was one I wrestled with. We've got five left today. We're actually going to do this one. We're going to hop back to where we just were. Number 15 is Utah. I wasn't sure what to do about Utah. Here's the thing. Mormons are kind of crazy. There's a lot of

them. The BYU kids do that thing called soaking. If you don't know what that is, look it up. But it's kind of a state. What? Getting some flack from the peanut gallery. It's a show for adults, okay? That's right. I know. This is why Rachel needs a mic, because nothing she says can get picked up. I need Samson to make a more powerful microphone. You can just walk

around the apartment, you know, and you have to sit here and you can just chime in when you want. The Bean Town podcast is getting a whole new angle now that we live together and I'm all here for it. Utah is really pretty. Even that Mormon temple, you know, there's a lot of crazy voodoo shit inside, but it's really fun to look at. Say what you will about the Mormons, but they knew how to chisel. Salt Lake City's got some really weird like liquor laws, as you can probably expect. You go to a bar, I don't remember exactly what it is, but I think you have to buy a bag of chips to buy a drink

because you can't just buy alcohol, you have to buy it, you have to have a meal. I don't know. Joseph Smith is one of those conniving con artists who, you know, like how to secret motivation or ambition behind all his rules that he came up with. I Was that to just raise more money for Utah based? Chip companies, I'm not sure

but It's pretty crazy. I will say good hey, good on him for creating the religion, the polygamous whole thing. Because if you're into that, man, it's going to be a great time for you. It's not my deal. But if that's what you, I'm good on him for creating something that he was really passionate about, banging 15 people in one day.

Good for you, Joseph Smith. Rest of Utah, beautiful, bondable salt flats. What a place. One of these days I'm going to take a scooter out there and scoot across the whole flat. Great national parks and yeah at least two or three black people. So great place. Okay, coming in at number 14 I mentioned we were hopping back, Massachusetts. Similar to New Hampshire and Vermont,

but just a little bit more of that kind of New York energy. A little bit more crowded. There's a lot of people in Massachusetts, also Mitt Romney, who now is a senator from Utah. How weird is that? I've thought this before, I've never really said it. I think it's so bizarre, and maybe this is my own understanding, maybe this is grounded in reality, I don't know.

That Mayor Romney was the governor of Massachusetts, and now he's a senator from Utah, it's just really strange. It'd be like Obama being a senator from Illinois becoming president and then joining the House representatives in New Mexico. It's like, what? You did what now? Massachusetts, Boston, metro area, pretty,

a lot of great history, although I've never been that drawn to the revolutionary war stuff. I don't care that much. But also very crowded. I'm not a big fan of feeling congested or claustrophobic. So Boston is a place I like to visit, particularly if they don't have a drive. And soak it up, have a Sam Adams, and then get out of town. Western Massachusetts feels much more like,

Connecticut, New Hampshire. A lot of great nature, some quaint New England towns. And I've never been to Martha's Vineyard. One of these days I'd like to go. It's far from the top of my priority list. It's not a place where I'm like to go. It's far from the top of my priority list. It's not a place where I'm like, oh yeah, Martha is Vineyard Man. I gotta get there.

No, I don't really care. But I think it'd be pretty and fun to check out the list. And find out who Martha is. No one ever told me. We got three left here. Here comes maybe the biggest like upset shocker. I don't know the whole list. The fact that this state is here,

you're gonna, some people, some people get it because there's people who've been there, not many, but some people have visited there and they know what I'm talking about, but everyone else is gonna be like, what? I'm passionate, I'm steadfast about this opinion. And I put it right where I wanted to be West Virginia lucky number 13. Uh, yeah, okay. So let's get the the obvious stuff out of the way. West

Virginia is back country. It's like the Ozarks, it's like the deep south, but just kind of in a different part of the country There's not very many people there for starters and it's not a very diverse place. It's not a very educated place like Mississippi, Alabama And it's a very poor place But it is beautiful people are genuine, I think.

And I'm kind of a sucker for the most part. There is a couple cities like this like Cincinnati that don't really scratch that edge, but I'm a sucker for the Ohio Valley. I don't know, I just think it's really nice. Big fan of the Ohio River. He got Parker's Burgh, Huntsville, Huntsville. No that's Alabama. Huntington, West Virginia, Charleston, the capital, Martin'sville, Martin'sville is in Virginia. Where's a Morgan town? That's where the university is. Just some really beautiful nature, great hiking

at the New River National Park. I don't know, West Virginia almost feels like a little slice of like, you know, the West with its mountains and its sweeping landscapes, beautiful forests. But you're still close to all the action. Hey, if you want to go up to Pittsburgh, cool. If you drive, want to drive out to, you know, the ocean, you're close, DC, Philly, you're not far.

And I love Harper's Fairy. Cool historic town. There's a lot of ruins there. Funda walk around, whether you're a civil war buff or not, John Brown is that the Harper's Fairy guy? I don't know, I can't really explain it. And maybe it's because when I lived in Baltimore and I really didn't enjoy it,

I went to West Virginia once or twice and it was just kind of like a nice escape. I felt like I could breathe again, felt in touch with nature, which I just didn't really get in Baltimore. Big West Virginia proponent. For context, Virginia came in at 24 West Virginia proponent. For context, Virginia came at 24 West Virginia at 13. We're tapping back into New England one last time here

for number 12, Maine. So Maine takes the rains. Maine wins the New England sweepstakes. Maybe it's just because I'm reading a Stephen King novel right now, the mist, which I am almost done with, but I read it like once a month. Maybe it's the fact that I stayed down the street from Stephen King's house two years ago. But again, kind of like West Virginia and that is just pretty wide open, lot in nature. People are kind. Mainers are a little weird.

Mainers are kind of their own breed. I never had like bad experiences with them, but they kind of got their own culture going on. There is a significant main accent. I even did like an Instagram or YouTube video or one thing sometime when I was in Maine trying to replicate it, I should go back and see if that lives somewhere. I don't know. Maybe on my Instagram, I don't know. But it is unique. It reminds me of the time I was out on... Oh, what's the name of the island? Something desert, Mount Desert Island, is that it? Where Acadia is? Mount Desert, I think so.

I'm really proud of myself for pulling that out of my ass because not a place I've thought about in the last two years. I went to Mount Desert Island or, no, I wasn't there actually. I was on a different one. Maybe not even in the island, I don't remember, but a little bit northeast of there. I did some hiking. Oh yeah, I was in the Great Was Island, which is about as far northeast as you can go before you hit Quebec or Newfoundland.

Yeah, it's Newfoundland, it's not Quebec. New Brunswick. They got Newfoundland, they got New Brunswick. They got Nova Scotia. It should just new in a different language Come on Canada get it together. Yeah, it's it's only about I don't know 30 40 miles from new Brunswick Did some hiking around there That's where I took the video and I remember because I was like getting cocky, you're on the ocean and I like went out into,

or like walked out a little bit. And I was like hopping puddles and stuff. And next thing I know, literally in the span of five minutes, I turn around on the tide, the tide had come in and I waited WADED back

to what was now sure In my sweatpants just there's no way around it was like there there were no rocks to jump on or walk on as just water My feet were really smelly the rest of the day It's just water. My feet were really smelly the rest of the day. But I'm a big main fan. One of these days I really want to do Kataden. The end of the Appalachian Trail mount Kataden with the K. K-A.

I'm going to try it before I look it up. K-A-T-A-H-D-I-N mount, Catadin. Catadin, hey, that's it. K-A-T-A-H-D-I-N. It's a spooky-looking mount. It's kind of like Denali and that. It's just like by itself, like large and looming. I'd like to go up there one of these days,

but it is, I mean, it's a trek. It's like north central Maine, all by itself. There aren't like people out there. It's just bears and moose and maybe not moose elk. I don't know. Goats probably and not a lot of people. But I do like Maine. You can be in South, Southeast on the ocean

and be part of that culture and then you got a whole big landscape to explore all of yourself. I appreciate that. That's kind of a theme in a lot of these states that we've ranked today. It's kind of what New Mexico is like, definitely Nevada. West Virginia is similar to that. Even Massachusetts, like this plenty of open nature and stuff as you get further inland. But that's mean that's 12 and our last state to rank today and then we're gonna wrap it up. I'm gonna beat the hour mark. I promise I'm just gonna get to this and then we're gonna finish Oregon number 11.

It's a state I appreciate. It's a unique state. You got the valley where most of people live. Portland, Eugene, Corbales, Salem. Yadayada, yada, yada. Lush. The Oregon, Oregon coast is unique. It's not a place for the most part where you're going out for the beach day.

Let's catch some rays, bring our boogie boards. It's more like have your sweater, see some seals, and walk. Although I have had like an actual beach day in Oregon. It's just tough. Tough for a tough for a forecast. Mountains are nice. You got the Sisters Bakery, which was better five, ten years ago for sure. There are shell of themselves now, but it's not too late. Not too late to do the right thing. It's like Roger

Gidell and DeShon Watson, hopefully. Sisters Bakery, if you're listening, it's not too late to do the right thing. Just like Roger Gidell and to Sean Watson, hopefully. Sisters bakery, if you're listening, it's not too late to do the right thing. But man, this the further east you go, the spookier it gets. Bend is kind of that strange oasis. A lot of like rich tech people and outdoorsy people. But then you go east of there, which is still like half of the state, and it gets real spooky, real fast. Like, weird trumpers with a lot of guns, very white.

Oregon, east of the, east of the Sierra Nevada, is the cascades. The cascades is not a place I really like to be, which happens to be where my parents live. Anyways, it's really pretty. There's a lot to explore, a lot of good nature, some good beers. I like beers.

We drink beers. Sometimes you drink too many beers. Brett Kavanaugh. It's hipster, but it's not quite as hipster as we're going to be visiting next week, which are the two states, one north and one south of Oregon, which will both be in our top 10 spoiler alert. That's about all I got to say. I promise you I would not hit an hour, we're at 53 minutes, and we still got to do our outro music. And I'll let you fill in the rest of your blanks

on those states. If you want to share more emails, beantownpodcast.ca, you have to account as beantownpodcast.ca. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate you all. This was entry four out of five. Next week, we'll wrap it up.

And then the week after that will be our big Hawaii preview. Uh, and then next thing you know, I'll be on a, I'll be on a plane over the ocean. Be the furthest west I've ever been in my life. How about that? Beating my, my currently held Alaska record. Uh, to recap, number 20 New Mexico, number 19 Nevada, 18 Wisconsin, 17 New Hampshire, 16 Vermont, 15 Utah, 14 Massachusetts, 13 West Virginia, 12 Maine, 11 Oregon, and a parting bean town trivia question for you all to ponder. Christian ponder, number seven, come back to us with the answer next week. name the four monopoly railroads Because I was thinking about this on a run the other day and I was really disappointed myself because I could only come up with two and I felt like it absolute idiot

So again, that's the four railroads in monopoly and what would you feel the answer next week if I remember? Let's queue up our outro music here everyone. I hope that you stay safe. I hope that you stay sane. My name is Quinn David Fernos and I will check in on you next week. Bye. I'm just going to sit here. nd nd