Words with a Wiseguy 21

WORDS WITH A WISEGUY #21 ...

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A QUIET AUGUST

After a mid-summer where I drove 7,000 miles and visited almost half of the states in the US, August has been pretty laid back. I’ve only done a few local day-trips here and there but have focused on editing videos and getting school started (I coach track at Wichita State). I do plan to get back on the road for some fun trips in the coming months, but it’s also been nice to get reacquainted with my hometown of Wichita for a bit!

FUTURE TRIPS?

I have a list of dozens of places within a 3-4 hour drive from Wichita that I’m hoping to knock off little by little this fall. I’m trying to figure out which state I want to do for my next “10 Smallest Towns” subject. I’ve narrowed it down to Colorado or South Dakota. Either of them could be the one dependent on weather conditions later in the fall. I have about five consecutive days in the middle of October when I can get away from town, so we’ll see how things look then. But some other places around my home vicinity that I’m hoping to visit are: Beaver County OK, Etzanoa KS, Big Brutus KS, Disney OK, OU to OSU backroads (OK), and a bunch of local museums in KS and OK. Possibly a couple dead malls too.

US 50 SERIES COMING TO A CLOSE

After the most recent US 50 road trip being published (Virginia), that leaves three videos left. Washington DC, and Maryland (2 parts). It’s been a lot of fun doing this series. I loved doing US 50 to the west two years ago, so I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy going east as much. Even though I’m probably still partial to the western trip, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the eastern side. There’s so much interesting history in this area and the further east you go the older the history gets. In this most recent episode through Virginia, it’s fascinating seeing towns that have been here since before we were a country. It makes me want to come back and explore these areas more in the future! I’ve also been very happy with the response by viewers. Through the first eight videos, there has been almost 250,000 views already. We’ve picked up a lot of new subscribers along the way too. It’s definitely been a successful series no matter how successful the last few videos are.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Once the US 50 series ends, I still have several places from my summer road trip remaining. I filmed some other long videos through areas like New York, Vermont, Canada, and Michigan. I also have a video from Oregon from early in the summer I haven’t released yet, as well as a shorter one in Maine. I’m not sure what order those will come out, but they will all probably be released in September or October. I will sprinkle in some of these local trips throughout those months for those of you who prefer videos from the middle of the country.

RANDOM INTEREST PODCAST

I was a guest (for the 2^nd time) on the Random Interest Podcast. These guys are always a lot of fun, and we had a wide ranging 45-minute conversion about all sorts of topics. I plan to release the podcast on my channel in a couple weeks, but you can go ahead and see it on Spotify on their channel today! https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ZS2VQiDVaQgA8MCjf4RHN?si=zibiKdXsRfm9DXQmTGx1GQ

60K SUBS – NEXT YOUTUBE LIVE

August was another terrific month for the channel. We picked up 4,911 subscribers and recorded 946,332 views. That’s the most subs in one month ever, and 2^nd most views (behind July’s 1 million). Needless to say we’ve gone from 50k subs to almost 60k very quickly (for this channel). Last year I said I would do a “YouTube Live” every time I hit another 10k subs. The 50k YouTube Live was a lot of fun, so I’m planning on the 60k version for Monday evening, September 29, 7pm Central. Mark your calendars!

WANT EVEN MORE CONTENT? BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

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