WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Off the Trails: Getting Out of the Midwest

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

Join Nicole Sighiartau and Storm Drexler as they discuss some of their wildest experiences in the great outdoors! This week they chat about their gripes with the Midwest while longing for better topography. 

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome to Off the Trails. Oh, I'm Storm Drexler. And I'm Nicole Segueratow and we'll be your adventure buddies every week as we discuss some of our wildest stories from our outdoor endeavors. Every week. Nicole, I'm not going to lie, I'm tired this week. I was just saying, you sounded a little out of breath at the start of the episode. Yeah.

It's been a long week. it's been homecoming week for us. Yes, which most colleges don't experience this. Whenever I tell my friends, I'm like, oh, yeah, it's homecoming week. We're really busy. They're like, oh, you have a dance and a football game. And I was like, no. Oh, no, no, no, no.

We have much more things. Many much more. Yeah, to make up for the fact that we're in the Midwest and there's nothing fun to do here. There's one fun thing to do. What is that? Go to the fair. Yeah, we just came from the fair. and I'm not going to lie, us and our whole friend group is kind of hating on the Midwest.

Yeah, it was right. And so that's the topic of this episode. We're going to politely disagree with all the people who say the Midwest is awesome. Because we both come from very cool places where there's a lot of really fun things to do. And the topography and the stuff and the people are awesome. And I think there's a lot you can do here to kind of make the most of it. I'm not saying there aren't fun things to do in the Midwest. I think if you're in the northern part of Michigan or northern Minnesota, there's a lot.

But specifically where we're at, it's very... I hear up in Minnesota. Minnesota. They bugger down. Where we are, at least. There's really not a whole lot to do. And so our episode last week we talked about the Indiana Dunes National Park. And I will say that was fun, but I think the reason it was so fun is because it was

our friend group and it was raining and that was kind of an interesting. adventure. And it wasn't even fun. No, I'm kidding. I was pretty fun. The rain was bad. The rain was bad. But anyway, before we continue with this, we're going to trail markers. I did not remind Storm before this, so hopefully he has something. Oh, I have one. Oh, you do? This is good. My trail marker was that I found a fried Oreo outside. On the ground? Yeah. So you found it outside? Yeah, in the fair, but outside. That's the outdoorsy part of it. Okay. Did you eat it? No, but. But, but.

I gave it to Liam and he ate it. Oh, God. Oh, Liam. My other trail markers, I saw goose's. Geese. Geese, geese. Yes. That is the plural of goose.

Why, if the plural of goose is geese, why isn't the plural of moose? Meese. Meese. That's a really good question. You should take that up with the person who invented the plural of gramer minute on a WRFH. Lauren isn't here anymore. She graduated last year. Gone too.

Gone too soon. Now you're listening to us instead because we're awesome. She could probably answer that question for us. That's my trail marker. I bet you don't even have one. No, I do have a trail marker actually. Yeah, it isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but I am training for another marathon in December. Yeah, so I've been running a lot. And this morning, I woke up and it was very, very dark outside. And I was like, I really don't want to run, but I forced myself out the door. And it was the most beautiful, like, foggy morning. It was just, it was so foggy and I loved it because I feel like typically when we get fog here, it's really cold. But it was the perfect running temperature and the fog was just settling over the grass and it was kind of moving mysteriously. Nicole's moving her hands around.

I am moving my hands around as if the fog is moving. But no, it was very lovely and the sun rose in the distance. I couldn't really see it because of the fog. So I was a little bit of a downer. But it was just special and it made my run more interesting than. just being, you know, blue-ish gray skies in the morning. By the time I woke up, there wasn't any fog. This was my first day in, like, 10 days I got to sleep in.

Wow. I were sleeping like past 7.30, 8 a.m. Crazy. I woke up at like 11, and I was like, life's good again. Oh, wow, that's really singing in. Yeah. I went to bed pretty late, but, you know. Yeah, homecoming.

That's how it be. Anyway, so getting back into the Midwest of this episode and kind of, and kind of what our homecoming week is about. I think it's really trying to give us something to do. A lot of it is dorm bonding. Well, I feel like homecoming is more of a spirit thing for Hillsdale as a college, not necessarily as a place in the Midwest. No.

The fair is definitely a thing for Midwesterners to do. But what I think homecoming does is it really distracts everyone for multiple weeks because you're practicing for mock rock. And a lot of students when they first come to Hillsdale, I think they're so taken up with homecoming that they don't really realize. Oh, there's nothing to do here. I don't know. I guess freshman year this was something that I definitely experienced.

And it is very fun. But I think it does help with the fact that, you know, there really isn't a whole lot. And I don't mean to be like depressing about it. Like a big theory, an overarching theory, because it's a big thing here. Like a lot of people who go to Hillsdale are Midwesterners. Yeah. And the people are like pretty great for the most part, especially the ones that are here. You know, you go out into like rural Midwest and you're kind of like, what is happening at here?

Like, yeah. There's this is, these are all non-player characters. But I have like an overarching theory and it's actually, I guess, not an arching theory because it has to do with the Midwest's flatness. I think that the fact that there aren't things, like there isn't like crazy nature. It's just like if you look at a road, it keep go and then you can see the curvature of the earth before you can see the end of the road. It's like, well, it's not even that because in a sense, that is cool. The expanse, the openness. No, that's not cool.

No, Storm, let me explain. Let me explain. Okay. What I mean is in California in the desert. You can see it go for miles and miles and miles. Yeah, but you're in a desert. Well, hang on. It's beautiful because it's an open vista.

Over here, we don't even have vistas. We have flat land, but then there's so many darn trees that you can't even see where the thing, like, where the earth is going. But it's not like a forest. It's not like a forest. It's like sparsely. It's the wrong number of trees. You either want like none.

Or you want like a ton. Like where I'm from, there's a ton. But also where I'm from, it's like mountainous. So not like mountainous. Like where you're in Colorado or anything. But it's like the southern Appalachians, a little bit north of where I'm from. There's some elevation change. There's elevation that there's tons and tons of trees, but it's still like roving hills and stuff.

So like in the distance you can always see like, oh my gosh, look over there. It's look out mountain. It's stone mountain. Yeah. There's cool things over there. Over here. Over here. Over here, you look in the over there and you're like, oh, it's another plot of land.

There's no difference in any direction. You look north, south, east, west. It's like the same thing. And you know what? It is very disorienting because I would consider myself someone who's decently good with directional, spatial awareness. But it took me forever to figure out my directions when I first came to Hillsdale. Like, as a freshman, it took me so long. And now I finally have it down.

But that's because I've been running on all these roads. So I kind of need to know, this road goes north. I know which way camp. faces. So everything that I think about is from that. I'm like, which way is Central Hall and like Simpson and like the buildings? Because Central Hall, like, it, I guess faces south. Yeah. That's correct. Because the sun rises in the loft of Central Hall. Yeah. So I'm like, okay. And then if I can figure out where I am in relation to campus, I know where I am. But like otherwise, back in Atlanta, I was like, oh, yeah, because that thing is over there. Or those

buildings are over there. Or that are like, like, Buckhead. or like different parts of the city or like that, that especially wooded area or park. Here it's like, no, it's another farm. It is another farm. And I think the other thing is,

at least where I live, I'm pretty close to the ocean. So it's very obvious. It's like, okay, the ocean is west. You know, you drive to the coast. You're like,

we are at the border of the west. You can't really go further unless you're on a boat. Wow, wow, west coast. You know, you can go the beach. You can go north and go south and go east. But it's very distinct direction. where you are. Yeah.

So part of that is into my theorem, which is about that that in some way makes the people who live their entire lives growing up in the Midwest like how they are. What do you mean by how they are? Well, like, you know, like there's not like challenges. There's not like mountains to climb. They have to like go to those places. They do. I think the most, I don't want to be rude, but I feel like, I feel as if it.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not, I'm not like, I'm not saying anything against these people. I'm just saying that, like, the surroundings do not invite challenge or excitement. And so then there are some people who live their entire lives and don't get out at much at all. Yeah. And then they, like, go to other places like that. And they're always like, whoa. This is crazy. I think there are challenges here.

I think the weather primarily, it's very cold here in the winter. And it's very gray all the time, which is super depressing. A lot of places out west may be super colds like, okay, sure, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, they get chilly, but also they have a lot of sunshine. And so that makes a big difference. So I think the challenges that the Midwest faces is like it's not only flat and there's not a whole lot to do here, but it's also gray and depressing. So I'm curious about the great plains because I consider the great plains to be a part of the Midwest, like Dakota's Nebraska. I would consider Dakota as part of the Midwest. See, Nebraska. It feels a little too far west, but also I would not. It's actually more east of the Dakotas. But I wouldn't, I guess you're right. But I wouldn't consider it to be part of, you know, mountain zone. Definitely not.

No, not at all because it's flat, number one. If you fall in Nebraska to its westmost edge, you hit Colorado. Kansas. Kansas is like, not south per se, but. No, no. Kansas is a Midwest state. I don't know. 100%.

Okay. We talked about this on my other podcast, Boys Only, in one of the most recent episodes, I think the Rugby, the Rugby episode, we had a whole discussion about the different boundaries of the, of like, what the boundaries of the different regions in the United States are. The big one we were arguing over is Missouri. I think Missouri is a Midwest state. That is one matter for this. But Kansas is certainly a Midwest state. Like, if you're looking at the map, what's around it? Nebraska's above it.

Oklahoma's beloved it. Oklahoma is pushing it. Oklahoma might be a Midwest state. It could be a southern state. Maybe. I could see an argument. But if Oklahoma's pushing it, then Kansas is definitely not a southern state. Okay. Fine. Kansas can be a Midwest state. Also, Kansas is smack dab in the middle of the country. Oh, I guess you're so right. You're listening to. Go ahead. I'm messing with you. You're listening to Off the Trails on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. And let's get back into our...

There aren't any trails that go through Kansas. There's no trails? There's no hiking at all. plane ever flies over. This is like those states are like the flyover states. Sorry, from Kansas. Okay, the flyover states, I think that could be better addressed as Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska. I wouldn't consider those Midwest. I would consider those just flyover states. But so

that was kind of goes back to my question. The planes kind of get rid of that tree issue. Like the planes, I think, have like very few trees. That's kind of the thing. And you know what? I have heard that parts of South Dakota, specifically, if you go to the western border of South Dakota. There is more there.

Don't they have the Black Hills? Yeah, they do. And they have Mount Rushmore. So that definitely adds something. Yeah. So once you pass over, what river is that? The one that like winds through the Dakotas. The Missouri.

That's probably the Missouri River. I think it's the Missouri River. It kind of comes down from Montana. Once you pass over that, there's some stuff that's like starting to be Rockies. But you're not really there yet. No, not quite. You kind of have to get over into Wyoming. in Montana.

Yeah. Glorious Wyoming and Montana. Oh my gosh. It's fantastic. It's like, can we get much higher? So high. Okay, so I have a quick question for you. If you're talking to someone from the Midwest who's never been up to the West Coast or even to the East Coast, what?

Beast Coast. What state would you recommend that they go to to kind of? For each one? Yeah, sure. For each one to just to expand. the horizons, if they're interested in, like, certain outdoor activities, hiking, I don't know. I feel like hiking is the most great-six-one. They want to go see cool things. Well, I think that West Coast is really weird because, first of all, you always only have three states on the West

coast. There's only three states. I guess so. And so, I think it depends, like, if they want to go to the beach and just want to have an awesome time, probably SoCal. But if you want to, like, go hiking big mountains and you don't want to be hot, really, really hot, I'd probably say go to Oregon. Well, Oregon doesn't have really big mountains. Well, Oregon doesn't have really big mountains. We have a lot in the Sierra. West Oregon does. Or East Oregon does, right? East Oregon is flat.

Really? Yeah. Maybe Washington then. Washington, yeah, Washington definitely, because there's Mount Rainier. But East Oregon is very flat. Once you get past Bend, it's like nothing. East Washington was pitched pretty hard to me by a friend of mine, Caleb, who graduated last year. And he's always been like, you should come up on a hike.

We have crazy cool mountains. And I think that's kind of the direction the Rockies go before they hit off into Canada. Yeah. So me personally, I go to. California. Okay. California. I would say California is great if you want to hit it all. If you want to go to the beach, if you want to go the mountains, if you want to go to the desert. And even the Central Valley, then, you know, there's a lot to see there if you've never left the Midwest. As for the East Coast, what would you say? The more south of the south or the better. The more south the better. Florida. Go to Florida. Seriously. Yes, because Florida is like, oh, you're hot. So is everyone else and you're in the ocean together. That's the greatest ever. And also for Florida, it's like, do you want cool water? There's the Atlantic Ocean right there. Oh, do you want a little bit warmer water?

There's the Gulf of Mexico. I'm going to disagree with you slightly here because I've been to Florida a couple times. The most recent was for my cousin's wedding. And I remember stepping into the ocean and I was like, why is it so disgustingly hot? And it was the Atlantic Ocean. It was not the Gulf Coast. Must have been a fluke.

Where were you? Miami. Oh, okay. Well, Miami's like the bottom. So it's like, that's kind of where all the currents split and mix up. but if you're at like Daytona Beach or I don't know

somewhere else on the Atlantic side usually it's pretty cold currents because I'm from Georgia if we go to the beaches in Georgia it can be pretty cold sometimes the year not year round like it is in the north but it's still colder

whereas in like early spring like March you can go over to the Gulf of America on any side Florida Alabama Louisiana and it's going to be like So nice. It's going to be like a bath. It's goaded. Some people don't like that. I've heard. People kind of want their oceans to be cold. And I'm like, I kind of like going waiting into a four trillion gallon hot tub. It depends. I will say there is something nice about kind of getting shocked and refreshed when you enter the ocean. That's what it's like on the West Coast. People tell me that I'm shocking and refreshing. Okay, storm. Although I will say when I went to Rhode Island, the water. Are you about to pitch the smallest state in the unit?

I'm not pitching it, but I'm saying this was the furthest north that I had been in the ocean on the east coast. And the water was the perfect temperature. Where are you like Newport? Yeah, we were really close to Newport, Rhode Island. So I really love that temperature. But I'm going to say something real quick about the northeast because I went to Maine a couple years ago. Okay. Maine is not a good sampling of the Northeast in terms of ocean.

Does that make sense? That's true. But you know what Maine does have? They have lots of mountains up there. Yeah, Maine's like gorgeous. It's like top 10 states. It's so sleeper pick. So pretty.

And so I would say if you're, you know, Midwest and you maybe want to go somewhere closer because I think Maine is objectively closer than Florida. What do you mean to what? I'm not, if you're from like Michigan, Ohio, I guess that's our main audience here. If you're from this. It's our main audience. Our main audience. Go to Maine.

Go to Maine because you're our main audience. No, but I think it's a closer drive. I'm not certain. Look it up. I don't know. See, but also like places where it's warm. That's true. But anyway, I feel as if we're really hating on the Midwest a lot right now.

I think there are beautiful parts to it. I went up to Northern Michigan in May with a couple of my friends. and it was pretty. There was more, you know, topographical changes. There were some rolling hills. I heard the Upper Peninsula is absolutely beautiful, and I would love to go up there. So maybe I am coming at this from not a great perspective,

considering I really haven't explored it that much. Most of my time has been at Hillsdale in the southern part of Michigan. I've been to parts of Ohio. I've been a little bit further north in Michigan. Maine, well, if you don't take a toll road, Maine is farther away from us right now. It says the drive to Maine is like 13 and a half hours. That's with a toll row.

15 and a half without. That's an insane leap. Whereas Florida, I think it's like a solid 14 hours. Okay. Yeah. But still. Anyway, sorry, I interrupt you.

I don't even know. I was just saying that I think the Midwest does have some special things. And there are certainly. Do they have lobster? They don't have lobster and I'm not saying there isn't beauty, but I just think someone who comes from an area with like mountains and viewpoints, I will very frequently miss being up on something high and being able to look out and just see things. And just be high. And Lord of the Rings did Bilbo look at Gandalf and say, Gandalf, I want to see grass again. No, he said, mountains, Gandalf.

I want to see mountains again. And so I just I just missed that being over here. And I feel like people don't know what they're missing. They don't. This is me just being a little homesick right now. But I just love looking out. If you got this far on the episode and you're a Midwesterner, congratulations. Yeah.

By no means am I saying that you are from a place that is bad. All I am saying is that there are really cool things. There are travel and see. Absolutely. It's more than corn. More than corn. And lakes. I think the lakes are fun here.

But again, you don't... I mean, they ain't mountainous lakes. No, they're not mountainous lakes. Cool, crisp, high elevation lakes. Yeah. With like crazy cool fish in them. Yeah. Yeah.

Another area I want to explore up here is actually northern Minnesota because I've heard that's beautiful. And there's a lot to do up there. I don't know if I've ever thought about Minnesota for more than... Sorry, what was I saying? I haven't either. I haven't really thought about it. I've just been told by people,

which has put it on my radar. What's in northern Minnesota? Well, it's just very, there's a lot of undeveloped, untouched terrain. So like lots of trees, not sparse trees, but lots of trees. Yeah, but if it's flat and it's just trees. No, I think, I think there's more elevation to it. I think there's more than what we have down here. Because if you go to the Upper Peninsula, there's definitely more elevation change.

And so I think if you go to Minnesota, there's even more than that. I could be wrong, but. I don't know if I've ever been to Minnesota. I, oh, I have. I went last year for Thanksgiving break. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever been. The part that I went to was Minneapolis, and it was very cold, very, very chilly for Thanksgiving.

Although Minneapolis, Indianapolis, we need more polices. More polices? Yeah, I like them. They are a Midwest thing, so here's one thing you like about the Midwest. Wait, but Annapolis, is Maryland? Is Maryland the Middwell? No.

No. Guys, Maryland's the Midwest. Maryland is not the Midwest. I don't think Maryland's the South, though. I think Maryland's like northeast. It's not Northeast. What's the region in between the South and the Northeast? There's not one.

There should be. What do you call Virginia is the South? Virginia is the South? Oh, yeah. Okay, I'd never, well, I guess it happened, but I don't have an affirmative opinion about this. And then what's right above, is that Pennsylvania? Well, you get Virginia and then you have D.C. and you have Maryland, and then you have Pennsylvania and then you have New York and then you

or like... Yeah, Pennsylvania and New York are northwest, northeast. So Maryland is too. We don't take Maryland. We don't accept them. Okay. Whatever you say, I'm not from that part of the world, so I don't have a very strong opinion about it. Anyway, any other final takes about the Midwest? Leave. Leave. If you're from the Midwest, the best thing you can do is leave.

Why do you think Lewis Clark and Lewis the clock are like, alright, let's go. Next, next. There's more to see. And then they found Oregon and it was awesome. Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. I hope we didn't.

Dude, you're welcome. I hope we didn't anger too many people. Thank you for listening to Off the Trails on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. We hope you have a great week and make time to go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. We'll see you out there. Happy trails. Hutt, hot, hut, hot. Bye guys.