- Summer in Central Illinois.

Time for fun and games.

- Not just fun and games.

Big fun, big games.

"You Gotta See This!"

(energetic music) Okay, we're rolling the dice on this one, but it's not because we're playing "Yatzy."

We're playing "Monopoly," the world's largest game, in fact, here in the Macomb Illinois Square.

Check it out.

(bright music) - Well, we've converted our Downtown Square into the world's largest "Monopoly" game.

And we did that, not randomly, but because Elizabeth Magie, Lizzie Magie, was born here in 1866, and she's the woman that actually invented the game "Monopoly."

What evolved into "Monopoly."

- Hi, I'm Elizabeth Magie, but I've always gone by Lizzie.

I was born in Macomb in 1866, and my father owned the Macomb Journal newspaper.

- When we all found that out, which was just recent history, believe it or not, my office, we knew that we needed to try to capitalize on that in some way, shape, or form.

And we had noticed how similar the Downtown Square is to a "Monopoly" board game.

So we thought, "How do we turn this into the world's largest 'Monopoly' game?"

And then we did.

(bright music) Initially we thought, "How do we make this a giant 'Monopoly' game, and giant dice, that you can play on here?"

And there are ways to do that, but they're not practical and they're not sustainable, and we don't live in that era right now, right?

People want something that is an app that takes you around the Downtown area.

(bright music) - Okay, so we're starting.

So, first, I've downloaded my app.

- Right, you get it right off the QR code there, right?

- All right, now... Well, let's go.

I have to pick my... - You pick your icon, you know.

A tenderloin sandwich, I think, is a good one to pick.

- I think perfect.

Hey, guys.

It's right in the middle of the square.

Everybody can get involved.

So I have to roll my dice.

All right.

I get to go one step.

- One step.

- One one step at a time, like we do here.

So this way?

Oh, it gives me a little bit of history.

- I became an immunologist and developed Tunnicliff Serum, the first inoculation for the measles.

- How you play the game is that once you are playing the game, you're moving, it's moving you around the Downtown Square, but you're rolling dice from there.

There's all kinds of facts and history about Macomb.

A lot of facts about Lizzie.

I mean, one of the great things about this project though, is we got to really find out what an incredible human being Lizzie was and what a trailblazer she was.

- I received my first-ever patent for a paper feeder for a typewriter that fit all different sizes of paper.

I was only 26, working primarily as a stenographer and typist in the postal service's dead letter office.

- This is Lizzie herself, right here.

- Wow.

What an impressive statue.

- Yeah, I think, actually, the statue, she might be a little taller in the statue than she was in real life.

- Well, don't we all say we're a little taller than we actually are?

Yeah.

She's great.

Larger than life.

- We started fundraising.

We wrote grants.

We got a grant from the State of Illinois that was a matching grant.

And that really was... That was really the thing that really got the ball rolling, not just from a financial standpoint, but the legitimacy that it gave to the project itself from outside, that the community could then see and go, "Okay, wait a minute.

This is real."

(bright music) (prison cell clanging shut) - Uhm, I'm not loving what it's telling me now.

It says I have to go to jail.

- You have to go to jail.

- I have to go to jail now.

- Fortunately, you're close.

Sometimes you have to go to jail from all the way around there, but the jail is actually right over here.

- Do I get $200?

Do I get to collect?

- I know how to get you out.

- Okay.

Okay, let's go.

- [Jock Hedblade] Let's go to the jail.

You take a selfie of your self, you have somebody take it, and then you post that to social media.

- Oh, okay, I can do that.

All right, Jock, gimme a selfie.

- [Jock] All right.

- All right, so... - You do look sad.

Now all you do is take that, it prompts you how to do it.

And then you'll just... You pick your social media platform and it hashtags it #Macombopoly, and then you're free to go.

(prison cell rolling open) From our statistics thar we're getting from Atlas, yes, a lot.

I mean, from as far away as Hawaii, California, Florida, New York, people have come from all over.

We had some people just the other day drive here from Indianapolis, just over to play the game.

That was it.

So it's been incredible.

And so far, it's just been a month that it's been open.

But we have, you know, well over a thousand downloads for the app already, and we still haven't even gotten our big push to get people to come down here.

So I think that it's gonna have a very positive effect, and it better, so I can keep my job.

But I think what it does is that it enhances all the other things that we have here.

It enhances the Lincoln story, it enhances heritage days and all the festivals that we have.

If there's this other thing that can bring you here that you can experience that you can't experience anywhere else, you know, that's our hook, right?

And then once we've got you here, you know, we give you the history, we turn you onto the charm of this beautiful small town, it's an escape from the city life, and the next thing you know, people are moving to Macomb.

(bright music) - Well, that was a lot of fun, that game.

- It really was.

- And speaking of games, when I was a kid, a lot of my friends were into professional wrestling on TV, but I more preferred roller derby, that's some rock 'em, sock 'em fun.

- I don't know how much of reality was in those roller derby shows, but we do have a real team here in Peoria.

It's called the Peoria Prowlers, and they play all over central Illinois.

- And our producer, Amy... - Amy!

- There she is, in a more enthusiastic way than what you just saw, decided, "I wanna check this out.

I wanna see if I've got what it takes to hang with the Prowlers."

- Well, I think Amy can do anything she puts her mind to, so let's check out how she did at roller derby.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - I started in 2010.

I started because I was working at a car show and I saw some people skating around and I thought, "Well, that looks cool, so why not try it?"

I came back here, looked it up, there was a group that was interested in starting a league, and we got together and decided we should play roller derby even though we didn't know anything about it.

We were playing for the all-female team.

We wanted to do an open gender league so anybody could join.

(bright music) (bright music continues) It is a race between two people with interference.

So you've got your two scoring players from opposite teams, and then you have four players from each team that are trying to either help or hinder that person.

And the scoring member is called a jammer, and they earn points by passing another, an opposing blocker, which is one of the other four, by their hips.

So everything is done by your hips.

- [Amy Arhart] So what is the main objective or the main goal of the game?

- Earn the most points.

(bright music) - So they're gonna teach me a few things on how to roller skate.

- So, to start skating, we're gonna do what we call a watermelon.

And you're gonna stay in that stance, but we're just gonna take our feet and we're gonna spread 'em out and pull 'em in.

- Okay, like you're making an eight.

- [SparkLee Spitfire] Yep.

And in.

- [Amy] A little lower?

You could tell I do a lot of squats.

- I wanted to join a sport outside of school as an adult, and I couldn't find any.

And then I kept hearing things about the roller derby, and every time I'd be like, "Where's everybody at?"

They're like, "Oh, they're at the roller derby match."

And that's what started me on roller derby.

- I've always thought roller derby was super cool, but I've never been like, any athletic type of anything.

And then I saw someone post something about Facebook on recruitment night, and I was like, "Oh, shoot, I don't know how to skate.

That sounds so fun."

And then they were like, "You don't have to know how to skate."

And I was like, "Well, there goes my excuse."

So here I am.

(bright music) - The biggest misconception is that it's fake, because back in the seventies, it was very scripted.

It was more like wrestling, they would punch and throw elbows and stuff, and our rules are very strict to keep people safe.

- I think we get a bad name because, you know, we're the rowdy ones.

But in all honesty, it's the complete opposite.

I mean, we have so many different types of people on our team, police officers, nurses, lawyers.

(bright music) - The best part about the team is a bunch of different people get to get together, do something athletic, it's full contact, which as a female or woman, we are not encouraged to do that.

So it's something that we weren't brought up that we could do.

You don't have to look a certain way, you don't have to be a certain height or a certain shape.

And if you're determined to do it, you can do it.

- I feel like roller derby has just given me personally, a lot of confidence in who I am, just being able to be myself, and it's shown me how strong I am.

- I wasn't a kid who did a lot of activities, and so it's been kind of fun to like, relearn what it is to just play and have fun and then trust my own body again.

(bright music) - Do it.

Try it, give it a few months.

What's the worst that can happen?

You come to practice, you fall down a few times.

We all fall at practice.

I'm worried I might fall right now.

I don't know.

You know, it could happen.

If you're not falling, you're not trying.

So everybody has to be bad at it at first.

- So what's another move that we could learn?

- All right.

Well, let's just fall, because you gotta learn how to fall.

- Okay.

So it's just two times?

- [SparkLee] Yep, just get low and one, two.

- Okay.

(bright music) (everyone laughing) (people applauding and cheering) (bright music) - And then after a couple of practices, some decide it's not for them, which I do want to discourage that because it is for everybody.

- And if it's not, you know, you don't wanna do it yourself, there's lots of other positions they can do, I think.

Or just come support us.

- If you don't wanna skate, you can still be an expert in the rules and help with the games, be a bench coach.

If you're really detail oriented and you wanna skate but you don't want anybody hitting you, you can be a referee.

So there's something kind of for everyone.

- They're just great.

Like, it's really nice to walk into a room and just feel safe and accepted right away.

- It's just a really great place to be.

- I'm always with the derby girls.

I mean, it's a completely different experience and I always let them know that it's definitely worth it in the end.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - [Everybody] Roar!

- So, Phil, do you have any plans for your retirement?

- Well, it's nice to know that you're thinking about my departure.

- It's all about you.

- But just to answer your question, I can say my only plans for retirement is hoping that one day I actually get to retire.

- Well, this next story is about a gentleman who retired and he's spending his time doing his favorite hobby.

- It's all about leisure and a puff of smoke.

(funky music) - Back in 2016, 2017, I was talking about retiring early.

My wife and I were going through a list of things that I could think about doing, from a golf starter to working at Walmart, to who knows, anything and everything.

And none of it sounded good and she said, "You like cigars, why don't you open a cigar lounge?"

And I said, "You're crazy.

Why would I wanna do that?

That's full-time work and it's really expensive."

"Well, what about a mobile cigar lounge?"

And I was like, "That's not even a better idea."

Well, while she was talking, I grabbed my phone, I started looking at the time like, "There's nothing like this out there.

Wait a minute, this might be a really good idea."

Three years later, a buddy of mine and I walked into a cigar shop, started talking about cigars, and I proceeded to tell this guy what I had dreamed up as a plan, I don't know, because I didn't really think I was ever going to do it.

And when we left there, I told the guy with me, I said, "You really need to... You should have stopped me.

Why did I just tell him my whole idea?"

Because the guy's eyes were like, giant.

And I thought, "Oh my gosh, this idea I've been sitting on for a couple years now, somebody's gonna go ahead and do this."

I told my wife when we got home, "I'm online, we're finding an Airstream, we're gonna make this happen."

We found one in Alexander City, Alabama.

We had the floor installed and we had the seats, the bench seats roughed in.

It was sitting in storage for a solid year and a half.

And she said, "We need to do something because we're making payments on the Airstream and we're making payments for storage."

I slept on it, got up and decided that the idea that was in there from long the back, long ago, we needed to do it.

I need to at least finish it and see what comes of it.

It was May, the end of May in 2022 was our first event, and we hadn't told anyone.

I told my brother about it and that was it.

Nobody knew anything about what we had.

And we went to our first event in May and everybody went crazy about it and it just took off from there.

(funky music) Typically, my wife is with us, we're together when we do events.

She'll check people out, I'll be over here slinging cigars, as they say, cutting and lighting.

(funky music) I originally got into cigars, just...

I used to smoke cigarettes 30 years ago, and then I was out golfing, of course, and then someone offered me a cigar because that's what you do when you golf, you have a cigar, typically.

One of those things where, "Man, this is..." You don't inhale a cigar, so there's that advantage.

It's all natural, there are no chemicals, there are no preservatives, no anything in a cigar.

You just enjoy the flavor of the smoke, and the communication, and the time spent just sharing a cigar.

(funky music) This is a unique Airstream.

There aren't any others like this.

There aren't any other cigar lounges like this one exactly.

There are, however, a total of five Airstreams across the country that I'm aware of currently.

We do private and public events.

I would say the majority are public.

We go anywhere and everywhere.

We do many different kinds of events.

We have done numerous weddings, numerous golf outings, skeet shooting, clay shooting, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties.

So we've done all kinds of things.

Lots of bourbon and cigar tastings.

Honestly, just a lot of restaurants and bars.

We do have an additional 10 leather seats that we'll set out outside.

My favorite part about owning my own business is just the fact that you do still have to answer, but you answer to your customers, to your clients directly.

It's just so much more rewarding, especially with something like this because it is so unique.

Now that it's done and you get the reactions from people coming in here, it certainly makes my head swell a little.

It's a good feeling to hear that because we put a lot of time and effort into it.

So far, it's been a great success and an awful lot of fun.

(funky music) - So when you gotta see this is on the road, we're always looking for interesting roadside attractions.

Right now, we're in the old small village of Lostant in the South County.

And when they go by, a lot of people stop because they see this fella.

This is the Ironman.

- [Robotic Voice] I am Ironman.

- How did Ironman get here?

What's his backstory?

And who's he talking to on that phone?

Let's go check it out.

Meet Dave Holmes, owner of Dave's Lost Ant Cafe.

Dave is not made of iron.

He is made of smiles, and jokes, and stories, and all sorts of fun.

- I tell everybody, "There was one time I didn't have fun, but I don't remember when, because if it ain't fun, just don't do it."

You know, so we just have fun doing whatever, whether it's playing the jukebox and singing along.

- [Phil] At the Lost Ant, the fun started when Dave and a partner bought the old tavern in 1990.

The first order of business?

What to call the place.

- So we drove around town looking to see if we could name it after anything in town.

And then I said, "Well, if we separate the word of the town, we can just call it the Lost Ant and make an ant with a safari hat and a pitched fork or a fork," and so that's how that came along.

- [Phil] The cafe is located just outside the village, which is home to 423 residents, very few businesses, and zero gas stations.

- If you're that desperate, I usually have plenty of gas at my house right across the tracks, and so I'll run home and give 'em a gallon or two to make sure they make it to a gas station.

- [Phil] For food and drinks, regulars keep the Lost Ant hopping.

Meanwhile, newcomers pop in all the time thanks to Ironman.

- People like getting on the side road, I get a lot of motorcycles when they're out on the weekends and stuff, and people hear about it or they see it and they stop by.

And once we make friends, they just keep passing the word and it just hasn't changed over the last 30 years.

- [Phil] And that way, Ironman has sold more beer than anyone at the Lost Ant Cafe.

Dave isn't sure of his exact origins, somewhere up north, but order a cold one and Dave will tell you all about it.

- The easy ones are the connecting rods.

The big one in the center would be like out of a diesel locomotive.

The front of the feet are actually the main cap bearings on the crank shaft of a diesel locomotive.

And the back of the feet, 'cause what I was telling you is a counterweight that goes under a grocery store rubber mat when you walk in the door and it opens automatically.

You've got the turning fork for the eyeballs off a Harley Davidson for turning the front wheel.

And the fingers are actually for a foot doctor, a podiatrist I was told.

(bright music) - [Phil] And as for that old school phone in Ironman's hand?

- The police didn't think it was funny the last time we got broke into, he said, he asked, "Who called it in?"

And the one says, "Well, the Ironman's got a phone in his hand.

Maybe he did."

He didn't think it was funny, but we got him to laugh anyway.

(bright music) But it's a conversation piece all the time.

(bright music) (melodious music) - Hi, welcome to Miller Park Zoo.

We're at the Otter Exhibit.

Rhett is running around by the logs, and Tallulah is in the water.

Rhett is a one and a half year old male, and Tallulah is a 13-year-old female.

So Tallulah's lived here most of her life.

Last year, we brought in Rhett, and Rhett is a little bit different from all of our other otters in the recent past because he was born in the wild, and then something happened to his mother once he was out, moving around outside the den, and he was left stranded.

So then he was collected by a woman who was out walking her dog, and then the rehabbers heard that he was at her house so they came and collected him from her house.

And then he was at the rehabbers until he was about six months old, and then they started looking for a more permanent home for him.

And then we decided we would try here at Miller Park Zoo to integrate him with Tallulah.

Since she's had so many pups, we thought that she would be a good fit for him to try and live with.

She was not overly keen on the thought herself.

She thought she should have got an adult male right away maybe.

Or maybe lived on her own, she was really enjoying the whole exhibit to herself.

She kind of thought that was great and wasn't sure she wanted to share again.

But they get along really well right now.

Sometimes they play and sometimes they argue, you know, just like anybody that lives with someone all the time.

(bright music) So we feed them fish and squid here at Miller Park Zoo.

In the wild though, they would eat anything they could catch.

So that would include fish, crayfish, snakes, frogs, squirrels, small birds, small mammals, maybe an insect.

So they're not too fussy, and that makes life in the wild a lot easier for them.

If you go to the water and you find an animal there and you can catch it, it becomes your dinner and then you don't have to worry too much about it.

(bright music) Our otters don't like lemons.

We know that.

- [Julie] Why?

Tell us more.

- I think 'cause they're sour.

We give them whole fruit just 'cause it floats in the pool.

And so they like apples quite a bit, so we're like, "Well, let's try something else."

And, you know, we gave them a lemon and Tallulah took a big bite out of the lemon and was not a fan.

- I bet not.

That's pretty sour.

But these guys seem pretty smart.

They respond to their names.

You're able to train them a little bit.

- Yeah, well, any animal that's really food-motivated is really quite easy to train because they want the food, and so then they usually participate in a training program.

So we did have them doing a variety of behaviors.

You saw them standing up on the rock.

If I move my hand around, he'll probably start doing it.

Yeah.

Rhett!

Rhett!

Rhett, you wanna go up?

So we have him stand up so then you can see his whole entire belly and all of his underside.

So it's fun to watch, but it's also a necessary behavior so that we know that they're healthy.

And then the circling, we know that they're using all of their legs, we can see that they're able to turn around and turn back, and it gives them something to do.

But also we can see their entire body and make sure that there aren't any injuries or things that we can't see when they're just running around in the exhibit.

(melodious music) - This episode had lots of great ideas on hobbies.

Like, I could start playing in the roller derby, I could start smoking cigars.

- I say you can do it all at the same time.

You're on roller skates, you're smoking cigars, you're stroking an otter, you got that "Monopoly" guy with ya.

You got it all at the same time.

- So many good ideas.

- Will it happen?

Will you see it next time?

Well, tune in for... - "You Gotta See This!"

(melodious music) - Little white duck.

- I'm a little beaver, or whatever it is.

- That wasn't it.

Little white duck swimming in the water.

Little white duck doing what he oughta.

- That's a good one.

- [SparkLee] Fall forward, fall on those knee pads.

- Okay.

- [SparkLee] Good.

♪ Can we do it again, do it again, yeah ♪ There you go.

That's really impressive.

- You gotta see this.

It's the name of the show.

- I don't know that show.

- No one knows the name.

You gotta watch this.

- That one with a Phil.

- You gotta sometimes tune in and watch it.

You sometimes gotta see it.

Maybe you wanna see it.

- [SparkLee] And then drop that button, you're gonna stop quicker.

- You guys must have the strongest thighs.

- Yeah.

- This is very hard.

- It's a lot of thigh work.

- This is not as easy as it looks, and I'm not even doing it right.

- So, Phil.

- I'm sorry... (Phil speaking indistinctly) Okay.

- 3, 2, 1.

(energetic music) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues)