Weird World Variety with Matt and Jesse
A Podcast for every traveler. Funny and Family Friendly stories and news from around the world that just might make you smile.
Weird World Variety with Matt and Jesse
Woolly Mammoths in Vegas, Wild West Escapades, and Nevada's Neon Delights
Ever wondered how it would feel to pet a woolly mammoth or roam the not-so-law-abiding paths of the Wild West's most infamous outlaws? Buckle up your seatbelts, fellow adventurers, as we embark on a laughter-filled trek through Nevada's lesser-known wonders and Las Vegas' neon wonderland. We kick things off with a hilarious mix-up that lands us in Wyoming's Hole-in-the-Wall, then travel back in time to debate the practicalities of domesticating ice age giants. As we swap tales from our own jaunts through Sin City, we guarantee you'll be scribbling down notes for your next quirky road trip.
But it's not all giggles and hypothetical mammoths; we also peel back the curtain on Nevada's most captivating sites. From the enigmatic Area 51 to the looming Hoover Dam's Freemason mysteries, we leave no stone unturned—or unlaughed at. Soar with us to the Stratosphere Tower's dizzying heights and bask in the kaleidoscopic glow of the Seven Magic Mountains. Whether it's cautionary advice on managing your Vegas budget or finding joy in the oddities of life, we're here to share the weird, the wild, and the downright wondrous. Join us for an episode that's as entertaining as it is enlightening, and remember, what happens in Vegas... gets shared in our podcast!
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Whole H-O-L-I-N-D-E-W, d-e-w. Whole N-D-O-L-A-L.
Speaker 2:Whole N-D-O-L. I bet you there's a place called Whole N-D-Wall.
Speaker 1:Whole N-D-O-L.
Speaker 2:Whole N-D-O-L like spelled with a D.
Speaker 1:D-E-W-A-L-A, d-e-w D-Wall. You got Mountain Dew on the brain. H-o-l-d-e-w Whole wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Whole H-O-L-I-N-D-E-W D-E-W, whole N-D-O-L-A-L. Whole N-D-Wall, whole N-D-Wall. All right, put it all together Whole N-D-Wall.
Speaker 2:It goes. The search history goes right to what's this year's holiday flavor of Mountain Dew. What is it really? Yep there, look, I will prove it to you. There's probably a place called Whole N-D-Wall somewhere on this earth.
Speaker 1:The Wall.
Speaker 2:Proving a point here. Prove the Whole N-D-Wall IMDB.
Speaker 1:It's a movie. There's a movie, not a place Hold on.
Speaker 2:Whole N-D-Wall Seafood welcome.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:There's a restaurant.
Speaker 1:I was talking about more of a city, OK, OK it gets better.
Speaker 2:There's movie reviews. It's a seafood restaurant.
Speaker 1:I already figured there'd be a restaurant called that or a place.
Speaker 2:That's what I was talking about.
Speaker 1:I told you there's a. I was talking about a city.
Speaker 2:It's probably a place oh wait, wait, wait, wait, city. That would be funny. What if there was a city? Whole N-D-Wall City. There is a Whole N-D-Wall Wikipedia. What? Check this out Whole N-D-Wall Wyoming.
Speaker 1:Wyoming God.
Speaker 2:Whole N-D-Wall is located in Big Horn's Mountains of Johnson City in northern Wyoming. The site was used in the late 19th century by the Whole N-D-Wall gang, a group of cattle wrestlers and other outlaws that included the Logan Brothers, Black Jack Ketchum and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. There you go, you didn't shake, and lay money.
Speaker 1:There you go, whole N-D-Wall.
Speaker 2:Whole N-D-Wall. What was it? It said about there's another place? Yeah, I was looking at Whole N-D-Wall. I thought it said something about another site. I think there's a site close to there that's actually pretty paranormal. It's like a state park, what? Yeah, if I'm not mistaken you might be mistaken, I might be, but it looked like.
Speaker 1:I like this. You mistaken Big.
Speaker 2:Horn Mountains. Yeah, big Horn Mountains is pretty paranormal. There's a lot of sightings up that way.
Speaker 1:You know what comes to mind when I hear Big Horn.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:I don't think I can go into it on here.
Speaker 2:Like uh. You know what. You know what I think of, what I think of Big Horn, I think of like the old uh uh, not elephants, what were they called? The old mammoths with the with the huge tusks.
Speaker 1:Wally mammoths?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the Wally mammoths with the huge tusks.
Speaker 1:I am so disappointed those aren't alive right now.
Speaker 2:Dude. Imagine if you had a pet Wally mammoth. Dude, I would totally have one. Would you have a pet Wally mammoth? Yeah, I would.
Speaker 1:I'd ride it all over the place too. All right, I'd make a seat in the curve of the tusk.
Speaker 2:We were talking about travel sites because this week, on WWV, uh, we have the top sites and things to do in Nevada. You know why I thought this would be a good one, jess? Because you want to go there. No, I've been to Las Vegas. It's not my favorite place in the world, um second favorite no um, I don't know how do I describe the Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:It felt cramped. You know they call it the Sin City. It felt sinful when I got off the plane, Like that's how it felt Like the atmosphere as soon as you walked out the plane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I shouldn't be here, yeah.
Speaker 2:There's. There's there's plenty of shows that I want to see in Las Vegas and things I want to do there, but when I got off the plane in Las Vegas, that's how I felt, Um, but the reason why I wanted to do this was because I bet people don't know there are other things to do besides Las Vegas that makes Nevada very special. Um, one that comes to mind is Area 51.
Speaker 1:That's always a site that's in Nevada.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's always a site that people, that people love. There's a. There's like all kinds of stuff around it, like if you go toward the Area 51 site there's a gift shop and an actual like alien shop there that you can go see.
Speaker 1:Huh, did people actually rush that place? No, no, it never happened.
Speaker 2:It never happened Like people wanted to. People wanted to, but nobody was about it.
Speaker 1:Um, probably because they get eliminated really quick. Well, I mean, it'd be fun. Anyway, there are things to do.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about some stuff that's in Las Vegas, but there are other things to do as well. Um, some of them on this list are free, as you can see, and some of them are not, so we're going to talk about them.
Speaker 1:The first one one that says free can't be can't be free.
Speaker 2:The first one is not free, but it doesn't cost a lot of money. Um, but you can go see it. It's pretty well known landmark in the States. Uh, it is the one and only Hoover Dam, which is also the site of a lot of controversy, conspiracy and a whole bunch other stuff.
Speaker 1:Also yeah, yeah, it was probably.
Speaker 2:Megatron. Also, there's a bunch of weird stuff about the Hoover Dam, but you can go see it for yourself. It's only. A site says it's about $10 per ticket, um 957. Trip Advisor says it's more. Trip Advisor says it's like $90. I don't know. That makes more sense the tickets may vary, but you can go take a tour of the Hoover Dam.
Speaker 2:Some of the weird stuff about the Hoover Dam. I don't know if you know this that shows up in a lot of conspiracies and things is the sayings on the walls of the Hoover Dam and the angels at the top. There are angels at the top of the Hoover Dam that look very ominous. It'll look like normal angels. The saying on the Hoover Dam Says they died to make the desert was it? Was it Bloom? So the saying about the people that died to make the Hoover Dam says that they died to make the desert bloom, which is also very ominous. So I don't know. You can go check it out for yourself. They'll give you the full tour. You can go see the inside, the outside, you can walk the top. It's a big tourist destination. So I'm sure they would be more than happy to take your money and give you a full tour. They're very happy to take your money. Let me see if I can show a picture here real quick, because Jesse wants to know what statues I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Statues here's so sporadic when it comes to looking on stuff. Well, I can't keep up with you.
Speaker 2:I gotta show you what they look like, because they're rather weird-looking. You know what? I had the full picture and now I'm gonna go look at the picture and you might say weird, I might say beautiful you go ahead.
Speaker 1:You tell me it's creepy, obviously I mean and it's got these rib sections.
Speaker 2:You can't see him, but there's like rib sections that don't look natural in the side of them. This is the actual and they have their wings that point up. A lot of people said, yeah, that's weird. The logo too. If you go look at the Eagle logo at the Hoover Dam, a lot of people said that looks like a Mason logo, like the Freemasons, of course. So that is just some of the craziness that is at the Hoover Dam. Here's some of the ones. Look at that. I mean, isn't it kind of weird? No, that that's a pole. That's the shadow of the pole. Yeah, that's the flagpole. These are the two Winged angels on either side. The wings point. It's a little weird. It's a little weird. You guys will have to go see it for yourself. I thought this would be cool thing to talk about things to do in Nevada.
Speaker 1:Weird angels at the Hoover down, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you want to go see him for yourself, it doesn't? Well, it's weird right?
Speaker 1:You say we gotta talk about weird stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not like you'll go broke going to see the Hoover damn, it's not that expensive.
Speaker 1:Hey, you're not gonna go broke listening to us.
Speaker 2:All right, so here we go another good one that is not too expensive to see, and if I can get back to it, Well, pushing the back button helps is the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It's a national reserve. You ever been to Red?
Speaker 1:Rock Canyon conservation area. Wait a minute. What do I have to conserve there? Exactly your pride, I don't know I can do it.
Speaker 2:You ever seen. You probably seen these pictures online. Red Rock Canyon is pretty famous.
Speaker 1:See this kind of structure. Yeah, I see it. All right, this is the first time I'm seeing it, probably.
Speaker 2:Well, red Rock Canyon is pretty famous. It's also, I believe, the site of where they did that one viral video, the swing. I'm not really sure, yeah, but never mind it. Actually that might be a different park, but I thought it was a thing. I thought it was the same park because it's very similar formations in the rock when I'm curious what's this swing you're talking about?
Speaker 2:Well, years ago there was a viral video of a swing and it was one of the first viral videos to go crazy, and it was. They tied a piece of rope to this arch and the arch was all completely rock. So this archways, like this big circle, look like a donut right.
Speaker 2:Okay tied a rope to the top. They jumped from one canyon, swung through it, yeah, and they made kind of a viral video out of it. I think that was a different park, but Red Rock Canyon has a lot of the same features. Sorry, I gotta look that up if I remember. Yeah, it's a fun video. Number three on the list the Hotel and casino there's no way, that's free.
Speaker 2:Well they're saying it's free to go see, like you don't have to stay there. A lot of these places we're gonna name off on the list. You don't have to stay there if you don't want to, but they are cool places to go see Because they're landmarks. A lot of them are historical. The Valley of fire State Park, they're saying it's around. The average cost is around 15 bucks for the Valley of fire State Park to enter. Yep, I Don't know. Would you want to go see the Valley of fire?
Speaker 1:Oh man, fire turns me off. I Hear fire, I don't know if I want to go see the Valley of fire.
Speaker 2:Well, the reason why it's called the Valley of fire is because of the way that the color bounces off of the rock formations. Yeah, there it is. There's the arch that I was talking about.
Speaker 1:So it is.
Speaker 2:That's the Valley of fire. That's the arch that they jumped off of right there. Yeah, pretty close to it. Look at that. If that's not the arch, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:It's the exact same thing like the okay simple that you put together with your finger put together. If you hold them together, that's kind of what I mean.
Speaker 2:It looks like a pretty cool park. I'd go check it out. Yeah, there's somebody driving through it. The road looks nice yeah and you can, you can tell you better bring drinks and snacks with you, because there is nothing within a 30 mile radius of this park Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Look at this jet pack Maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, frozen water bottle. I don't know everything. Frozen water bottles. Yeah, last y'all day.
Speaker 1:Your water a last longer? Yeah, maybe if the heat doesn't go.
Speaker 2:If the heat doesn't go, Well, that that's the thing we in Israel. When we visited Israel, it was like 100 degrees every day, right? So we would? We would freeze our water bottles, put them in insulated pouches and carry them around all day, and then it would melt throughout the day and we'd have water pretty much most of the day.
Speaker 2:Now, as far as in Las Vegas, you have the Fremont Street experience, which is that big street area in Las Vegas that has like the zip line and the shops and everything throughout. You ever seen that? It's got like a huge. It's basically a huge shopping mall, the Fountains of Bellagio.
Speaker 1:I don't travel quite as much as you.
Speaker 2:Well, you I mean you don't have to travel to watch TV or YouTube.
Speaker 1:But I mean I forget a lot of things. I mean I forget to turn YouTube on period.
Speaker 2:Here I'll show you a picture of it. There you go.
Speaker 1:I don't use YouTube religiously like other people Now see.
Speaker 2:this is the area where the shopping mall is up here, where you see these little lines. That's the zip line that goes across the whole street, so you can ride a zip line across the whole street.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm yelling in a lot.
Speaker 2:It's all good. It's all good, we'll get through it.
Speaker 1:I want to look at that picture.
Speaker 2:See how the ceiling changes. Oh look how pretty it looks like a piece of the zip line See the zip line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, not really, but okay, here I'll zoom in.
Speaker 2:I'll zoom in. You got to get the old man to see it here. See these Old man, see these. See these old man. You see these wires. It's all part of the zip line.
Speaker 1:I'm not an old man. What do you mean, old man? See these old man. No, I'm not an old man. You are an old man, I'm not an old man, I can't see the zip line. My eyes are just worse.
Speaker 2:Now, this one doesn't cost money. Will they convince you to spend money there? Probably, this has every tourist trap known to man in the shopping mall, plus the zip line and all the ooh shinies that are there. So there's that. The other one that's interesting is the fountains of Bellagio, which are free. You can go see those. Those are in front of a hotel, but they're one of the scenic spots everybody likes to take a picture of or do like. You see those. You see those marriage proposals where the guy gets down on one knee and is usually in front of a fountain somewhere.
Speaker 2:That's that's the fountains of Bellagio.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a good place.
Speaker 2:It is a good place.
Speaker 1:The next. I would too, potentially.
Speaker 2:The next one I would totally go on would be the high roller, which let me read off some stats about the high roller. High roller is a 550 foot tall, 520 foot diameter giant ferris wheel on the Las Vegas.
Speaker 1:Strip. Those things always kind of freak me out.
Speaker 2:Well, this one is even crazier, because the actual thing that you're in is that oh, you're in a bubble.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, I might write that one.
Speaker 2:You're in it, I don't like to open ones. Yeah, yeah. And what's nice about this one is it doesn't have the you know how like some ferris wheels around the world have that thing where the car goes down and they sway like this yeah, I hate that, and then it goes down and sways like this. This is a completely standstill ferris wheel.
Speaker 1:That's okay, I would write that one. I hate the rocking and the yeah, this one doesn't rock as much, I feel like I'm gonna fall out.
Speaker 2:This one doesn't rock as much and you get your own private car with your friends, I would probably write that one Also looks really cool at night, by the way. Yeah, tons of lights and Lighting.
Speaker 1:I see red light, fancy stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty cool. So, yes, if I had to choose a ferris wheel to ride I'm not a fan of a lot of ferris wheels, but this one definitely would check it out Looks like an airplane cockpit. Of course, one of these sites that you have to see if you're dealing with Nevada is you have to take a picture in front of the famous Las Vegas neon sign. I mean because who doesn't want to take a picture in front of the famous neon sign that's in every movie known demand? There it is.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's the one I saw. Ponser the one they show on Ponser.
Speaker 2:Yup, yup, yup. I mean, who doesn't want to come here and just take a picture, like in front of the? You know, like it's?
Speaker 1:crazy.
Speaker 2:I was here.
Speaker 1:I've done it with every state of men too.
Speaker 2:It is fun like traveling.
Speaker 1:Like the rest of the states, yeah, to like say what's happening.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this state, or welcome to whatever, and take a picture. This one's interesting, the neon museum.
Speaker 1:Well shoot, I didn't do it with Pennsylvania and Michigan when I went with you to the states.
Speaker 2:So, along with the neon Las Vegas sign, they have a neon museum of all the science and stuff throughout history.
Speaker 1:Look at this yeah, I think I've seen that on Storage wars. That's crazy, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Um, so yeah, there is just some of the things you can do. Let's list off real quick, before we get out of here, the some of the other stuff that you can do. So we've got the great base, great basin national park, if I can pronounce it correctly.
Speaker 1:I can read them if you want the mirage. The Venetian, las Vegas, seven magic mountains, paris, las Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas. Go see it.
Speaker 1:Uh the Strat Hotel Casino and Tower.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it looks scary. It has amusement park rides on top of the hotel.
Speaker 1:Oh man, they are like 40, 50 stories high, so the edge of a yeah, so you, you definitely want to do that either this one right here is you're in a four seat slider and you can.
Speaker 2:you rock back and you can call back, and then you rock forward and it hangs over and you point down over the edge. Space needle, that is needle.
Speaker 1:I thought that was in Seattle.
Speaker 2:Not, it's not the same one.
Speaker 1:This is the Strat Hotel.
Speaker 2:This is the Strat Hotel. That's what it looks like, and then that amusement park rides are up there.
Speaker 1:So you gotta take an elevator up.
Speaker 2:Yup, gotta take an elevator Also, I think.
Speaker 2:I believe, lock a lot of these, because this is the hotel right here behind them, a lot of these. There's a restaurant and stuff up there too. So if you wanted to go hang out up there and like eat and hang out with friends and stuff, you could totally do that. There's a lot of cool things to check out in Nevada. Besides that, I wanted to bring attention to some of the parks and things that you can do besides Las Vegas, because there is a lot of cool things to see in Nevada besides just Las Vegas. Also, if you check out Nevada tourism, they will tell you a bunch of cities and towns other than Las Vegas that have sites that you probably want to go check out, like restaurants, hotels, historical sites, like crazy stuff that you could see in Nevada.
Speaker 2:So one of the sites was NevadaTravelcom. If you get a chance, go check it out. There's a list of tons of things to do in Nevada and you will not be disappointed, I assure you. But maybe make Las Vegas last on your list. So if you spend your money, you won't spend it all on Las.
Speaker 1:Vegas, the first night.
Speaker 2:Maybe you leave Las Vegas for the last night Sounded theory, all the rest of your money?
Speaker 1:there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's no way. But you know there's no way. I'd want to spend all my money in Las Vegas if I was going to visit the whole state. No, yeah, I mean I might go down there just to get abducted by aliens. And it's a lot of desert too though yeah, you could totally get abducted by aliens down there, you just like crop circles.
Speaker 2:Just wander out in the desert. Of course, if you wander too far near Area 51, you will get visited by people in pickup trucks that are not joking. They will not be joking with questions, questions.
Speaker 1:I said probed, and then I said with questions.
Speaker 2:With questions Probed, with questions All right From the WWE.
Speaker 1:Oh, we still doing, stay weird. Yeah, okay, I hope we're so weird, y'all be weird.