One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes then out the door.

Five I'm alive, six,seven, eight feelin' great.

Nine, gonna shine, life is goodI'm doing fine.

Ten, Gonna do it right then do it again.Yeah yeah.

I look up to the skywith all the beautiful color but,there's more than just for me so gonna share it with another.

I got to show, to give, let out,I want to sing and shout.

Take a look and see A beautiful morningthat turns into beautiful evening.

And togethermake a beautiful life.

And if you want see, thencome along with me.

That's right.

Welcometo Experience Michiana and.

Happy 4th of July weekend.

We hope you have a chance to get out and celebratewith your friends and family, and have a safe and wonderful4th of July weekend.

Today on the show,we're out experiencing some of the wonderful thingsin Michiana.

We're going to talkto the bergamot and find out about a concertthey have coming up locally at FernwoodBotanic Gardens.

We're also going to visit Ruthmere at the campusof the Ruthmere Museums and see what's going on there, including a concert seriesthat's happening this summer.

But first, Courtney is over riding the trains at the museumin Elkhart.

Take it away.

Courtney.

Well, I just got done riding the brand newrefurbish Nibco Central flier.

We're checking out one of theawesome places here in Michiana.

Over inElkhart is the Railroad Museum.

And we have with us.

Brant is going to tell usa little bit more about the place,right?

Yes.

This particular train right hereis an actual amusement train that was built around70 years ago by the National AmusementDevices.

We've had it totally refurbishedby a local, auto shop,and the mechanics were done by our central garagehere in Elkhart.

So this was all part of thistotal renovation.

You'll see a new loading area, a station house, and you'rebuilding benches to sit on.

We, of course,have plans for landscaping, perhaps a grassy areawith a picnic table.

Make this a real familyfriendly area.

Now, how long have you guyshad the central flier here?

This.

This has been herefor quite a few years.

Okay, but initially it just started out literallygoing around in a circle.

right in here.

Just it was just likea little carnival.

Right.

So we've been upgraded.

So it was upgradedlater on by the city until a, oh, probablyabout 1000ft, maybe 800ft track.

And then we expandedanother 700ft.

So now we're at around 1600feet.

the trip two times aroundtakes around ten minutes, something like that.

And I loveone of the things that that you probably just saw too,but you gave a little bit more of the fun factson the railroad route.

Well, we try to make sure that this is more than just whatI call a kiddy ride.

Yeah, we want to make sure that people enjoy it,but we're a railroad museum, so I think we're kind of obligatedto give people some history on how the railroads operatedand what types of artifacts were usefulalong the way on the tracks.

So tell us a little bit moreabout the artifacts that you'll see on the track.

Well, we have, first of all, I guess in a waywe'll call this an artifact.

We've got a working crossingsignal light bill, more folkssouthern actually donated the crossing signal lights,which is nice.

That came from the eldercrossing in Mishawaka area.

Oh, when they were redoing it.

And then they also donated tracksignal lights down there.

Those were just put in a couple weeks agoand so aren't operational yet.

But we at some pointwe'll get those operating and then we have some milemarkers, original mile markers that were made out of, kind of stone.

So I think yeah, we think it'slimestone probably, or sandstone and then concrete markersthat are land line markers along the way.

And then a Godfrey ConveyorCompany conveyor down here, which is a part of Elkharthistory.

Sure.

And then as we come upthe tracks, we're ableto see some of the rolling stock we have and stop and talka little bit about some of that as well.

Now for the museum here itself.

I mean, we have a number of peoplewho are interested in trains.

I feel likein the Michiana community, why is it important to havea facility like this here?

Well, particularly Elkhart,but this Michiana area, South Bend in Mishawaka, Elkhart wasa huge railroad intersection.

Yeah.

And in fact, in 1957, the yard,the rail yard switching yard was built and opened up in 1958,in March of 58.

So at the time was the largestclassification rail yard east of the Mississippiin the U.S. now it's the second largest.

So it is a,which is still fascinating.

It's second largest.

It's a major, majorhub for railroad history.

And having the museum next to the tracks heremakes it more authentic.

Because people, if you're a train lover,you come to the museum.

You can also see real trains.

Yeah, going by as well,which I love.

When I pulled up,one of the trains was going by and everyone was getting outof their vehicle and just stoppingand staring and taking pictures, and that's so interestingand so unique that you have that experienceto be able to watch the trains go by, but also experiencethe museum here too.

I love that.

Tell us a little bit more about what we can seewhen we're inside.

The museum is for everybody.Yes it is.

So we've got the outside stuff but we also have the insidestuff, other things in the outsidebefore we go inside would be this steamlocomotive here.

This is massive.

This is a 3001.

It's the road number.It's a mohawk.

New York Central calling Mohawk.

It's A482 configuration.

You can still go up into the caband pretend you're the engineer.

Okay.

If you have to do that, if you can climb the ladder,you can get in the cab.

Okay.

V8 diesel,which was built in 1953.

You can go in the cab up thereand the horn works.

You can pull the cord,pretend you're the engineer, and we have an old wood cabooseout by the street, which has opened upso people can see what a caboose would look like on the inside.

So very interactive.

Exactly.

And then when you go inside,we have your typical, I guess we'll just call it displaysand exhibits of railroad artifactsand information.

Railroad history of Elkhart coming through here whenit started up to the present.

And then we also have for kidswe have interactive things as well.

We've got a what we call a kids zone, which has a play trainwhich has a bell and a whistle.

They can go in and pretendthey have put in coal in the in the boiler and, and then we have, a Lego table they can play with and several of those Thomasthe Tank brio wooden things and they can create their owntracks.

Oh, neat.

and we also havea very large scale model layout that we can runfive tracks at a time on.

And we've had peoplethat will sit there for 20 or 30 minutesand just watch the trains go by.

Oh, so there's a little something for everybodyof all ages and backgrounds, and especially for the trainlovers too.

We also have two, rental centersinside this end of the building.

The West End has a large eventspace here.

They move in there.

They are this live in actiontaking up a little slack going into the yard.

The trains are now so long that even thoughthe art is several miles down, some of the trains are stoppinghere and switching further down their trains.It can be up to two miles long.

Oh my gosh.

So that's why sometimes the trackscan get blocked temporarily.

I'm sure people who drivethrough Elkhart know that yes, we have ways around.

We have a denim underpasson the Prairie overpass.

but we have a rental space here that can hold up to 80 to 100people.

Wow.

So if you wanted to do,like, a wedding.

Oh, sure.

If you wanted to havea birthday party or we've had graduationparties, we've had actually, we had a pop up store event a couple years agowhere we had a half a dozen pop up stores in here,and people would come and shop.

The most popularevent space that we have I think is the observationcar on the far end.

It's an actual railcar built back around 1939,I believe, by Budd Corporation.

And we have that with almostturned into like a dining area.

And we have a lot of kidsbirthday parties in there because we want to havea birthday party in a real train car.

Yeah.

And it's got windows.

So during the party,when trains are going by, the kids rush to the windowsand watch the trains.

I love that.

And then they can come outand they can really come century train ride.

Well, how can peopleget more information about the hourswhere they can visit, how to get ticketsto ride the Century Flier?

Well, they can go most of that.

They can get on to our Facebookpage.

Okay.

And National New York CentralRailroad Museum Facebook page.

It's aa black kind of oval logo.

Okay.

That's on Facebook.

It turns into a circle,but that's us.

And we post updates.

That thing on there.

But our hours are 10to 5 Wednesday through Saturday Wednesday to Saturday.

Got it.

So we're closedSunday, Monday and Tuesday but open Wednesdaythrough Saturday 10 to 5.

And sometimeswe have special events like in August, wehave a Rocking the Rails event which will bring in life bandsand have food trucks in here.

That's August 24th.

We have a big Halloween trunkor treat event even better.

And last year we had over400 people show up on one day for our trunkor treat.

We ran this train nonstopfor five straight hours.

Oh my gosh,it just kept coming and coming.

and then Santa Claususually comes the first Saturday of December.

Oh, cool.So you guys open all year long?

Yes.

You are.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Well, anybody can come out, get more informationon their Facebook page, but definitely comecheck out the railroad museum.

There's lots to see.

And even the trainsrolling on by, And we even ran this for Santa Claus Daybecause the weather was in the mid 40s last yearand you never know.

All right.

As long as the weatherholds, we'll keep running it.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So when I movedto the Michiana area in 2016, there was a band that I kepton hearing about over and over, and somehow it's taken like 8 or 9 yearsto actually finally get to talk to them.

I'mtalking about the bergamot.

How are you guys doing?

Doing great.

How are you?

I'm good.

I believe that you, you are recentlyin my homeland of Ireland.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Oh, my gosh, Irelandwas absolutely magical.

We were there,we were performing.

We were sharing our filmState of Unity.

And I got to say, the Celtic people, man,they bring it like they buy like the second chorus,they were like clapping.

They were singing.

I was like,what is happening?

These people are so in tunewith the music.

Yeah, and I knew we were going to start this interviewtalking about Ireland.

So I was trying to represent,you know, wearing green.

I'm wearing blue for my lovefor America.

So.

Yeah.

Hey.

Yeah.

So it, this mutual respect heregoing on, but, you know, it's showing love.

tell me a little bitabout you both and your connectionto this area.

I know most people know,but maybe people don't.

But for example, I mean,you're celebrating the holiday at the July 4th holidayin New Buffalo.

So.

And what is your connectionto this area?

Yeah.

So both of us,we actually met in high school, born and raised in South Bend.

He was born in Michigan City,and we met at Marion High School in 2003, 2003.

Yeah.

And we actually startedcreating music together because our art teacher,Kitty Gunter, was like, hey, I need you two to write a song to represent our schoolin a statewide competition in which we ended upout of thousands of, entriesmaking it to the top ten.

And yeah, so our rootsin this area go quite deep.

my mom was from a family of ten.

My dad comes from a very largefamily as well.

Jillian's mom's from our family.

Ten Irish as well.

When I got married in South Bend, there was,I think, 330 people.

And those are all just likefirst, first cousins.

Yeah.

so to say that we know somepeople in this area and we're, you know, we always love comingback is an understatement.

We always love being here.

And, yeah, I think the other day we were outside,it was 72 degrees, no wind.

And we were like, yeah, this is this is the good life right nowin the Midwest.

And we always lovebeing here for, this timeand also celebrating the fourth and getting readyfor some big stuff coming up.

right after it.

Yeah.

Of course, AcornAnywhere is.

Also,while you're on to chat with us.

So, tell me a little bitabout Acorn, anywhere,obviously the Acorn Theaters and Three Oaks,but they're actually holding an eventthat's on close by.

And Niles, tell me about that.

Yeah.

So the Acorn Theater, for thosewho have maybe never heard of it or who do know thatone of the things that we think is songwriters isit is a staple of, you know, music culture, independentvenues here in the Midwest.

That is truly a gem.

I mean, you just don't seethese type of venues.

And, one of the cool things thatthey do is they actually take their independent mindedprograming to beautiful spaces during this time of year, which we talked aboutis so incredible.

And one of the placesis the Fernwood Botanical Gardens, where you canliterally be under the stars supporting independent venueand independent musicians.

And, and I think it's, it'san interesting time, precarious, to say the least,for musicians and venues.

but I think that you canyou can be a part of it.

You can enjoy the music,enjoy the atmosphere, and really enjoy a truesummer day.

It's going to be, a night ofwhat we're calling pontoon rock.

It's like, yeah, rock.

It's like, yeah, rock,but a little bit more, storytelling involved.

Yeah.

You might not be able to fit45 people.

and it doesn't cost 100,000to fill it.

So it's, when you go on, like, sunsettingthe glitter off the lake, but this timeit'll be glitter off the trees and the sunkind of just dancing, but it's going to be justa big celebration of summer.

We are going to be bringing a lot of different songsto the table with our full band.

So already performing originals like PBR and mayfliesand things like that.

And then we'realso going to be adding in some really fun cover songsthat we really love as well.

But no, but I do love that.

And what I love about,you know, it's not like I've.

I've, followed your careerso closely, but what happens is I've noticed is you guys are, like,riding along, and then something really cool happens that everyone'stalking about you, and then you kind of ridealong again, and then it's like, okay, when will we hearfrom them again?

And then it's just likesomething cool happens again.

You must be really pleased aboutjust how your career overall has had such varietyin the spotlight as well.

Yeah, it's been a grind.

You know, as independents, we work tirelesslybehind the scenes and we're going up againstthe biggest names in the world.

You know whatwe do, how we create.

So, it's been so cool for us to to like, show up every dayand then to have these breakthroughsand just keep climbing.

and obviously,because we're indie and we have a lot of integrity,there's been opportunities where we said, hey, this doesn'tseem like a right fit.

So it's taken a little bitlonger, you know?

But we keep showing up every dayand we work our asses off.

And so to be able to createoriginal music in a landscape where, you know, you havethere's a lot of money, tons, millions, billions of dollarsin the music industry being pushing upjust like 0.1% of the group.

And so to be independent and working our butts offto get that music out in an organic and authentic way,it means a lot.

And that's why it's been cool for these different thingsto pop off.

And in particular,the film that we dropped said unity has been doingreally well, which got us, in variety magazine, and it got usa huge distribution deal in North America,which was insane for us, took eight years for us to direct the film, and it'staken us all over the world now.

And I want to saythat's a really great question, because actually, this came upjust at the last performance that we didin Traverse City, Michigan.

Someone after a fan after cameup after the show and said, hey, I really want to thank you guysfor doing it your way because what you've doneis so distinctively you and it's so interestingand it's so different.

And that hasn't come without itsmajor drawbacks, obviously.

I mean, everybodyevery year is like, so are you guys going to try outfor The Voice?

And it's like, look, if you still think we're goingto try out for The Voice, you probably have missed this whole thingthat we've been doing.

but I think that that's the value of independentthinking of independent minds in the art space right nowis that you can't just say, hey, you know, I grew up loving Tompetty and Bob Dylan and, you know,they grabbed their guitars, they sang every the teamassembled around them, and then they protected themversus we don't livein that space anymore.

We have to be as artists,creating, innovating and also thinking differentlyabout how we can get our music out there, howwe can get our story out there.

And, and I just think right now,in this particular moment and like with the questionyou said, and also with our fan, there's something about being distinctively authenticin this time that is so important.

And I think thatthrough the arts and through the one thing that'sconsistent is the hard work.

Whether you're writing a songor making a film, you're going to be bustin,bustin, bustin.

We just got out of the studio.

We're going to go back herein the afternoon, but it's, you know,it's all about the hard work, and the art is allowing usto create authenticity.

And hopefully that's meaningfulto the fans.

I hope everybody shows up.

And I know you have other gigsin the area too, but I know it's goingto be happening rain or shine.

Part of me like I don't.

There's nothing wrong witha bit of rain during a concert.

I mean, it's kind of romanticin a way, you know?

But it can be.

It really can be,and it can.

If it gets really crazy,they will move it to the Acorn theater in three oaks And and last thingbefore I forget, here we are going to be bringingour film stay to the unity two Three Oaks, August 9thit will screen and then at the Vickers Theaterand then on August 10th at the Vickers Theater.

We're going to be doingthis really beautiful kind of more stripped backset, more storytelling behind the scenesstuff like that.

So it's a two night pairingat Vickers in the Midwest.

So you have the Acorn,you have the Vickers.

If you haven't been to either one, definitelycome out and support.

It is worth worthsupporting very cool places.

And just finally,that's for your movie in August.

But, in July, what's the datefor the Acorn anywhere?

Saturday, July 13th.

So it'snot this upcoming weekend, but it's it's the next one.

So July 13th.

All right.

Well, whatever your hair careroutine is, it's work.

And you're both lovely people,so keep it up.

Thank you very much.

I will have to talk to you about the color of the greenyou're wearing.

Not very.

I know it was kind of rough, and I feel like the light'snot doing it neon It's like.

Yeah, it's.

We'll work on it.

Okay.

Next time.Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Today, I'm excited to checkout something that I haven't had the opportunityto be at just yet.

But we are on the Ruthmerecampus here in Elkhart, and I have with usBill, the executive director.

Thank you so much for joining metoday.

Welcome, Courtney.

I'm excited.This is your first time.

Here it is.

And you know, I have to say,as soon as I walked up, the first thing that caughtmy eye was the architecture that is a big partof what we're about.

Our tagline is the experience and history,art and architecture.

So good job.

Perfect, perfect.

Give us a little bitof the background about what the Ruthmereis for the town of Elkhart.

Sure, actually.

Well, we hope it's for morethan just Elkhart, but it is, the jewel of Indianais another moniker that we use because it is a highlight pieceof architecture that you won't findanywhere else, in the Midwest,if not the country.

It's one of the finest examplesof Beaux-Arts design for a residencein the United States.

So this was originallya residence?

Absolutely it was.

And that confusesa lot of people.

It looks kind of like it belongson a university campus.

Or maybe it's a commerciallibrary or something like that.

That's because that'show Beaux-Arts design was used for many public buildings.

So this is one of those rareresidences that that, captured the use of this design.And it was the architect, E. Hill Turnock, who designed so many homesand public buildings in Elkhart.

this was kind of his, his the peak of his office.

And you can see over thereit says erected 1908.

That's when it started.

Okay.

Completed until 1910.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.Which is pretty impressive.

Yeah.For those for that time period.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was amazing for peoplefrom all over the region were amazedat seeing all the craftsmanship and how many peopleand how much energy was going into this three, 13,000 square foothouse for two people.

Really?

Really?

Yeah.

I like a lot of cleaning.

And they did.

They did it.

They had, a full staffat that point.

and so it was a different era.

If you're a big fan of,like, Downton Abbey.

Yeah.

Shows like that.

This is a glimpse into that era.

That's fantastic.

And so why do we have somethinglike this?

It is open to the public here.Absolutely.

You know, now,yes, in this day and age.

And why is it importantfor people to come and visit, not just open now?

We are celebrating our 50thyear, this year, open to the public as,historic house museum.

And so I think it's importantfor a variety of reasons.

Number one, this is areal community identity marker.

It it helps define,a period of time in Elkhart history whenit was, you know, a leading, city in, the pharmaceuticalindustry with Miles medical.

And these are the types of homesthat you expect to find in the huge cities around the country,in Chicago, in New York.

And, and, here we have a grandone right here in Elkhart.

Now, you guyshave a lot of opportunity for people to come and visitthe campus.

That's right.

I am so excitedto talk about these.

You have a few things coming up.

one of them is a ceramics.

So we have the Ceramics showcaseshowcase.

This is the fourth year for forthis pottery fair style event.

It's now taking on the new monikerof the annual Ceramics Showcase because we havea new partnership, the Northern IndianaClay Alliance.

And they havethey have really helped us out in the coordination of,bringing high level quality pottersto this, this, event.

We're going to erect, four giant tents on our quiltgarden lot And so we'll have 22 pottersand four tents.

we'll have foodvendors, we'll have music here.

We'll have all kinds of different thingshappening, activating the space.

And of course we'll have tours that day too,but it'll be a fun festival type of environment.

Absolutely.

And another way that people can experienceis something that's happening just in the summertimeon Saturdays.

Coffeeon piazza, coffee on the piazza.

We're standing hereright at the piazza.

And so, what we doevery week is we have, acoustic music talent.

We, we don't get into,like, big, heavy amplification.

Okay.

All right.

You don't need to bring any,earplugs or anything.

I think you'll be just fine,but, yeah.

And it could be somethinglike last week, we had Sentimental Journeys,a 19 piece brass band.

Or it could be a duo.

It could be a solo artist.

It could be somebodyreally pretty interesting and important and famous.

That might just be travelingthrough town that we were able to snagand get into our series.

And so kind of like local,regional.

Yes.

Nationally,it's a completely free program.

It's, sponsored, locally.

And, and so the public iswelcome to come.

We actually want the public,if they're willing to bring like one blanketsin their own lawn chairs, because we'll set upthe first 50 chairs.

But after that you'rekind of on your own.

And we're happy to have people,you know, just spread out.

We put out some kids games, like they can do chalk art on the side.So it is family friendly, absolutely familyfriendly event.

And so we start serving, free coffee from the refineryin Goshen, at 10 a.m.. And by 1030 the music startsand it lasts through noon every Saturday, June, Julyand August here at Redeemer.

We've been doing it for years,I love it.

Where can peopleget the line up for that?

So go to our our websiteRuthmere.org and then the programs tab and justyou'll see coffee on the piazza.

And you can previewall the artists there too.

And you guys have lotsof other stuff going on.

And I know we're kind of spread out on the campusto check it out.

We are we you've only seenthe Ruthmere side.

We have another site to go.

Okay.

Let'sgo and do that.

All right.

Okay.

So now we are over at the Havilah Beardsley House,the second new house, my second.

And of coursethis one is the floors creak.

So this is this is my sweet spot for me toactually I love this house.

So Ruthmere is so opulent andso wonderful and ostentatious.

It's grand and great, but I could see myselfliving in this house.

Well,one of the things that we are that we do have hereis a, a beautiful hat display.

That's right.

The global language of headweartraveling exhibit.

we are thrilled.

Absolutely.

To have this here and and hostit on its tour across America.

And so we have 89, artistic pieces of headwearfrom different cultures around the world.

And this goes back to our promisethat we made to the community, several years ago when we saidthat we were going to up our game and started doing,annual blockbuster exhibits and providingexceptional programing.

And so this is our give backto the community.

We're bringing the worldto Elkhart.

And I'm getting kind of asneak peek right now.

You are.

This is not open to the publicuntil July 5th.

But by that time this yearwe will be there.

Okay.

July 5th.And how long does that run?

Until it runs until September27th.

Okay, perfect.

So you guys have a few monthsto get out and enjoy it.

And there are a numberof countries represented here.

Oh, absolutely.

42 countries, I do believe, from all across the world,all across the world.

And so and we're going to do some funprogram events too with it.

Like we want to encourage folks, you know, if you want to show up in your favorite hat,you know, well, well, maybe I should have broughtmy favorite.

Maybe maybewe'll take a picture of you and you get onour social media page and we'll do stuff like that.

Also, we have a few free daysincorporated.

We're goingto specifically ask people to come with hats and and we'lldo fun things with that too.

So just don't touch the exhibit.No no no no.

Because some of these are,are quite old.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And some are oldand some aren't old.

That's what's really interestingabout it.

Right.

Okay.

Because people are alwaysdeveloping and changing, you know what they're usingand making headwear.

When you think about headwear,it it sort of defines us.

Right?

What we put on our headis very important to us.

It changes our mood, it changes our attitudeand how we're going to act.

And and maybe we're going through a particular ceremonyor a particular event in a life.

And so you wear a differentheadwear or hat.

We say hat.

I feel like I've seena number of headwear pieces.

Yes.

The globallanguage of headwear is meant to be expanded beyondjust the concept of simple hats.

But hey, we're going to have funwith it.

It's Elkhart, Indiana I love it,and you guys will have special programsthat people can come and kind of get more in depth lectures.

Maybe the biggest one to circleis, July 11th.

We will have the curatorof this exhibition, the national curator, who put itall together will be here to give a lecture.

There is a small admissionfee for that.

do people need to get ticketsahead of time?

Yes, they need to register.

And so just go to Ruthmere.organd you'll get, you know, funneledright into it.

Well, there's so much to do hereon the Ruth Mia campus.

Thanks for showing us arounda little bit.

I'm going to go check outsome more of the headdresses.

Yes, please.Maybe find my favorite one.

Absolutely.

And I hopeyou find your favorite one too.

We'll see you outhere at the Ruthmere Campus.

Well,that's it for this week's show.

Thank you so muchfor being with us.

Remember, have a safe andwonderful 4th of July weekend.

We look forward to seeingwhat you guys are doing.

Rememberpost about it on Facebook, use the hashtag ExperienceMichiana and have a great and wonderful weekend.

Experience.

Michianais made possible in part by the Community Foundationof Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission,which received support from the state of Indiana and the NationalEndowment for the Arts.

This WNIT local productionhas been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.