Jan/Feb '26 recap

WORDS WITH A WISEGUY 24 ...

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JANUARY-FEBRUARY RECAP

I coach track at Wichita State, and the first two months of the year are basically the indoor season. It becomes a very busy time for me traveling with the team as well as juggling the YouTube channel. So my routine is I drive separate to the meets and do some little side trips on the way back each week to create content. Our indoor season took us to Manhattan KS, Lincoln NE, Topeka KS, and Manhattan KS again. That’s why you’ve seen a bunch of videos from Kansas recently. And that’s why some of that content was in FREEZING weather! We had one off weekend, and I went to Oklahoma and filmed four videos. Last weekend we went to Birmingham AL for our conference championship and then I flew down to Florida since we had a few days off after the meet. I flew into the Palm Beach Airport which might seem like a meaningless detail, but it was my 96^th different airport to fly in or out of – 4 to go for 100!

As for YouTube, I published 24 videos the past two months plus our 70k subscriber YouTube Live (which was a lot of fun). Many of the videos in January were from my winter trip to Ohio and back, and the February releases have mostly been what I’ve been filming after track meets since I got back.

In January, the channel pulled in 654k views and 2488 subscribers. For February it was 488k views and 1597 subscribers. Those are very good numbers for January and about average for February. In previous years my channel has gone down a bit this time of the year and then it goes back up closer to the summer when I have more time to explore different parts of the country. I love making videos about Kansas but often they are some of the least watched videos I make.

Here are the 10 most watched videos on my channel so far in 2026:

136,730 – Muskogee, Oklahoma dead mall (1.2 million views total!)

62,289 – 10 Smallest Towns in Tennessee

60,557 – Forgotten Oregon

43,562 – Small Town Downtown Ohio

39,099 – Weird Missouri

37,692 – Small Town Downtown Wisconsin

34,595 – Cumberland Gap, Tennessee

28,825 – 10 Smallest Towns in Iowa

21,149 – 10 Smallest Towns in Illinois

19,982 – Underground Cincinnati

As you see there are no Kansas videos on this list. You have to go all the way down to 18 to see my “8 Random Kansas Ghost Towns” video with 12,879 views. But what’s great about this is there are 8 different states represented in the top-10. That means the channel is reaching a bigger geographical area!

COMING UP IN MARCH

The first three weekends of March are off in terms of track meets, although I’m still in Wichita during the week for practice. So my weekends will be filled with miles on the road, but not too far from Wichita. As I type this I’m in Oklahoma and will be doing a couple videos on Route 66. I’m not sure where I’ll be the rest of the month but I’m looking forward to some warmer weather!

I have a couple of videos from Alabama and Florida coming up this week I think you’ll like. While in Birmingham I visited the historic landmark of Sloss Furnace, and in Florida I simultaneously filmed a small town downtown video as well as “weird” Florida. Florida has no shortage of unusual places – should be fun!

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If you’re not aware, I also have a member section of the channel, where you can get extra content every week. We have a lot of fun with these videos, and the support goes a long way in helping the channel continue to grow! If you are interested you can learn more on my website: https://www.travelwithawiseguy.com/membership

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

If you enjoy my channel and want to help it grow, feel free to share videos to your friends and/or family! I also have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X (Instagram is probably the best to follow, links below). Oh yeah buy some merch! (but only if you want). Info for everything can be found on my website: https://www.travelwithawiseguy.com/

Thanks for all the support and we’ll see you down a backroad!

John Wise