(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (rhythmic drumming) (percussionists chanting) (upbeat music) - The drumming is gonna come to an end one day and when it's over, your character needs to be the loudest drum in the room.

(upbeat music continues) (water rippling) (bell ringing) - They appreciate the river, they know it's a big part of our community, but they haven't spent a lot of time on it.

So, this really gives our community the opportunity to experience the Illinois Valley from the middle of the river channel.

- Are we ready?

(weapons thwacking) - Embrace who you are.

Just go out and find your tribe.

(bike rattling) - A lot of times I get done with the tour, I kind of turn around and look at people, and I just see their faces are lit up, because it is really fun to do, and even people who think they're gonna like it, I think they don't even realize how much fun it is.

(upbeat music continues) (drumsticks pattering) (drums beating rhythmically) (cymbals crashing) (percussionists chanting) (drums beating rhythmically) - Well, drumline is, so if you have a band with all the instruments, saxophone, trumpets, tuba, all that good stuff, drumline is just the portion without all of that, and it's just the drums.

(drums beating rhythmically) Peoria Manual High School Drumline is what we are, and then our kind of identity is Southside still.

- Who are we?

S-T, double E, L, woo!

Who are we?

S-T, double E, L, Steel, woo!

Who are we?

S-T, double E, L, woo!

- Our drumline, Southside Steel is a percussion organization.

We aim to have fun while playing drums.

That's basically what we do, having fun and inspiring others while doing it, while also gaining life skills.

(drums beating rhythmically) (cymbals crashing) (percussionists chanting) - Three years ago, I came and wanted to build something that kids could remember.

I was on a couple of drum lines throughout my time as a youth.

And then, eventually, when I got here, everything that I learned from back then, I wanted to take what was given to me, which was a lot of experiences, and I wanted to be able to do the same thing for kids of today.

(drums beating rhythmically) So I got started here by a random text message.

(laughs) I was working previously at Best Buy, and one day, randomly, the previous percussion instructor, he texted me one day and was like, "Hey, I'm going back to college.

You want to take over?"

I was like, "Of course."

(bright music) (drums beating rhythmically) Where we started at was a place of kids not knowing a lot about drums, just technical stuff, know how to read music, very basic elements.

- With Terrell, he taught us how to hold sticks.

You would think that people teach you how to hold your sticks.

They didn't teach me how to do that, how to read music, rudiments, just a bunch of things that you would need to be a good drummer.

I was in drumline my freshman year, but he wasn't here.

So, he got here my sophomore year, and I got to watch and help build what we have now.

He came in, he was like, "Okay, "I'm gonna get you playing in like a month."

And I'm like, "Oh cool."

- He's a pretty good teacher, honestly, one of the best teachers I've had.

He helps you with time management, helps you with planning, organizing, life skills, a lot, he helps you with a lot.

- We've been able to go from a place of, "We don't know what we're doing," to, "Now we're able to talk about the whys "of everything that we're doing and connect the dots," and show them, hey, it's more than just drumming.

Drumming's fun, but what skills did we develop?

So that way, when you're done with the drumming phase, what do you have left over?

It was more so like, "Hey, let's show you what's even possible."

You know, you can get a full ride scholarship if you know how to take these two pieces of wood and move them fast enough.

I tell them all the time, "Drumline is one of the best ways "to prepare and practice life."

(drums beating rhythmically) (cymbals crashing) - We perform for very diverse crowds all the time.

We just did, we've done elementary schools, preschools, nursing homes.

We've done basketball games.

We played at a wedding recently.

And being able to reach out to all of those different people is very, I, I enjoy it, and I appreciate it.

(drums beating rhythmically) (cymbals crashing) - [Terrell] The kids have made an insane amount of progress.

There are students that in just two short years are already playing on par with college-level kids.

- We've been to Lincoln University, which is down in Missouri, about twice.

I'm thinking, you know, the experience, it's gonna be hard, but with Terrell, you know, he's actually preparing us for this early.

So we went down there, you know, we actually played with their band and marched with them.

I can definitely see a big improvement.

Like I was, you know, real rowdy in middle school.

I came in, you know, it changed.

- Drumline gives me purpose.

I come in and I'm able to work on myself just like practicing.

I practice at home all the time.

That's one thing.

That's the reason why I got to be as good as I am now is because going home I have to be disciplined.

Okay, I don't wanna watch TV right now.

Well, maybe I do, but I know I gotta practice, and I gotta learn these parts, 'cause I got people counting on me.

We're a family and even when times is tough, rough, maybe we messing up, maybe we got a lot of stuff going on, it's still having that sense of family and connection with everybody.

(upbeat music continues) - [Terrell] First and foremost, is that what we do wouldn't be possible without the amazing support staff that we have at Peoria Manual High School, and that starts with Dr.

Hawks, and then it trickles down from there.

Having a great staff behind what we do is super important.

- [Sarai] I love seeing the impact that I have on people and my peers too.

- You don't have to know how to read music.

You don't have to know how to play a drum.

You don't have to dance.

You can come in, and we'll teach you everything, and get as good as us.

- And I encourage all of y'all to get out there and join drumline, because it will help you in ways that you won't even see until maybe 10, 20 years from now.

Or maybe you do see it now, but it's definitely gonna help.

(drums beating rhythmically) - Southside... - [All] Steel!

(water rippling) - Welcome aboard the Sainte Genevieve Riverboat.

Come on in.

(bright music) (bell ringing) (engine humming) (water splashing) Back in 2021, smack dab in the middle of COVID, I was running a small real estate business here in town, and truthfully, I got a little bit bored maybe.

And so, there was a local businessman here in town who actually brought the idea to buy the Julia Belle Swain, which was a very famous riverboat that was for sale at the time.

And quickly realized that that project was just way too much.

It was gonna cost way too much money.

We had no idea what we were doing.

The concept really struck me, because we live in a great river town with the beautiful Illinois river running smack through the middle of our town, and it just felt like an interesting concept that nobody else was doing.

And we kind of stayed on the lookout, and we found this boat down in Cincinnati.

It was named The Mark Twain.

And so in the fall of 2021, we went down and looked at The Mark Twain and pretty much immediately started negotiations to buy it.

When we bought the boat, we knew we were gonna change the name.

We knew we didn't want it to be The Mark Twain.

That felt like more of a southern river thing.

We wanted to kinda make it unique and make it our own.

So, we took off from Cincinnati, heading back towards Ottawa.

We assumed it would be probably about a 17-day voyage to get it up here.

You know, going down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi, and then up the Illinois.

The boat kind of ran into a storm, and we were blown into some rocks that were along the shore of the Mississippi River there.

And about eight hours later, we noticed the bow of the boat was starting to be about at the water line, so we knew we had an issue, the boat was going down.

So the captain at the time was able to successfully navigate the boat to the middle of the river where there was a sand bar.

We were rescued on that sand bar by a tow boat company who took us to their quarry, which was in Ste.

Genevieve, Missouri.

(water rushing) As we were thinking about that incident, we heard the name Ste.

Genevieve, Missouri, and we said, "Oh, that's a pretty name.

"Let's look into Ste.

Genevieve."

And so, did a little bit of research on Sainte Genevieve, who's the patron saint of Paris, and quickly heard that part of her legend was that her enemies conspired to drown her in a lake, but they were unsuccessful.

So at that moment, it became painfully obvious that the boat had just named itself, and it became the Sainte Genevieve Riverboat.

- Sainte Genevieve is a unique venue for the community to gather, listen to music, have small bites, take time out, slow down.

It's a nice, intimate, unique spot to host an event.

We have narrated sight seeing cruises, sunset music cruises.

We're doing fall color tours, and we have a local historian that does once or twice a month awesome Ottawa tours.

- We do some dinner cruises where local restaurants will cater in a really nice buffet-style meal.

We do a lot of live music cruises, so we'll just have local musicians come in and play up on the top deck.

Those are a lot of fun.

And then we do a lot of private events.

So we're doing wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, class reunions, pretty much any sort of private gathering where you're gonna have 50 to 100 people.

It's a great event venue for that.

Getting out on the water on a morning like today, it's incredible.

It's extremely peaceful.

There's tons of nature out there.

You'll see all sorts of bald eagles and vultures and herons, and it's just kind of a good chance to disconnect.

So our boat is a true paddle wheeler, or some call it a stern wheeler, meaning that the wheels or the propulsion is at the stern of the boat.

There are some boats that are side wheelers where the paddle wheel will be on the side of the boat, but ours is a true stern wheeler.

So basically, we just have two diesel tractor engines in the engine room that each operate a chain, which pulls the paddle wheel either forward or backward, however you engage that engine.

(engine rumbling) (water splashing) For me, the best part about owning this boat is the community pride that it brings.

I've been stopped by a lot of people in town that have told me stories of family coming to town and them being able to show off their little town on this cool, unique riverboat.

You know, this is something that you just don't see everywhere.

All along the Illinois River, I don't think there's another single paddle wheeler operating right now.

And so, it's just a unique thing that kind of helps bring attention to this community.

Ottawa's got some great stuff going on downtown, great restaurants, and so anything we can do that kind of helps shine a spotlight on that, I'm proud of.

(engine rumbling) (water splashing) - I think the Sainte Genevieve is a gem for this area and beyond.

To me, it's a treasure for the community.

It's very special.

It has a really cool vibe for being a unique venue.

- You know, I grew up here in Ottawa, and my family wasn't a boating family.

And so, I drove across that bridge every single day, and I spent virtually no time on this river.

And I think there's a lot of people in this community that are the same way.

They appreciate the river.

They know it's a big part of our community, but they haven't spent a lot of time on it.

And so, this really gives our community the opportunity to experience the Illinois Valley from the middle of the river channel, kind of seeing Buffalo Rock from a different perspective than they from have seen growing up.

- We've had guests ask us, "Is this just the coolest place to work?"

And it is.

It's fun.

I want people to enjoy what they're doing.

It's two hours out of a busy life, and we hope that they can just kind of disconnect and just enjoy themselves, take a breath.

- Thank you for traveling on Sainte Genevieve, and when you get off the boat, enjoy the city of Ottawa.

(bright medieval music) - Hi, I'm Robert Thorn, Barony of Illiton.

Are you interested in King Arthur and Robin Hood?

Then you should come out and experience the medieval ages.

(traditional medieval music) (arrow whooshes) - [Reader] "I hear swear fealty and do homage "to the crown of the Middle Kingdom "to prize justice above personal gain, "to labor for the common good, "to enrich the kingdom and the society, "so that they may flourish and grow."

- My name is Scott Heckathorn.

In the medieval world that is the Society of Creative Anachronism, I am known as his Excellency Baron Robert Thorn.

I am the baron of the local area of Peoria, Illinois.

Our actual local coverage goes from the corner of 39 and I80 to the Mississippi River.

- The Society for Creative Anachronism, it's a worldwide organization, and it is our intent to recreate the Middle Ages pre 17th century.

- We recreate the medieval ages as we feel they should have been.

So we don't do plague, we don't do the Viking raids, but we do embrace martial combat.

We do fencing, archery, thrown weapons.

We do so much arts and sciences, anything from singing and actually making your own fiber weaving to make the fabric that you wear, to basket weaving, blacksmithing.

We do leather work, lots of jewelry.

If you ever look at any of the old medieval movies, museum pieces or anything, we try to recreate everything you can find in a museum today.

And we try as hard as we can to recreate it as they would've recreated it with period actual methods and tools.

- The outfit, most of it was made by someone, not that I know directly, but someone who's also in this society.

I know friends who work with leather who make the belts and the shoes.

I have sewn the linen for tunics.

- I know the person who made my belt.

I know the person who made my boots.

I know the person who felted this hat.

- We have a lot of vendors that will actually make and sell their own clothes for others to buy that know their limitations.

We just wanted to do it, and we didn't necessarily care or mind what anybody else thought.

And we're just gonna go out, and we're gonna have our fun.

(traditional medieval music continues) (chain mail clanging) - The experience of fighting is awesome.

(laughs) The swords we use, the equipment is, they're training light.

So for heavy fighting, we use what's known as rattan, so it's like bamboo.

It's just a sword that we cover in duct tape and foam and have hand protection on so that it's safe.

- Are we ready?

- [Both] Yes.

- Lay on.

(bright music continues) (weapons whooshing and thwacking) - This is not a demonstration.

This is not choreographed.

What we do is an actual martial art where we are competing one against the other.

My favorite thing about the Society for Creative Anachronism is that it is a hobby of hobbies.

Once one gets involved in the society, the number of things that you can then get involved in beyond that just balloons outward.

When I started, I was just interested in learning about the fighting.

(axe thumps) And then I went into calligraphy and illumination.

And then I went into administrative aspects of the society, and I'm currently a kingdom officer.

- The best part for me generally is just the people, the connections, the friendships.

- I've always been interested in the Middle Ages, so this was honestly just a natural adaptation of my interests.

But it was friends who drew me in, and it's friends who keep me in.

- [Aidan] My favorite thing, I think still is people.

It's my job as a landed baronage to take care of the people that are in my area.

So, I really get to see them on their best days, on their worst days, I get to know them, and they get to do some really cool stuff, and I get to support them, which is probably my favorite thing out of all of it is seeing my friends do really cool stuff.

- [Participant] The best part about the society is the people that I've gotten to know, I've been privileged to meet some remarkable people in the society and to work with them very closely.

- [Aidan] If you just wanna come out to a local fight practice or see people who do sewing nights, that doesn't cost anything other than your time to just go and hang out with people.

And you can learn a lot and make a lot of really cool friends just by being who you are.

- It's not just a display and a show that everybody gets to watch.

If you're allowed, you can come in and partake in it, so it's not exclusive.

There's always far and wide or close by, you can get out and do stuff and still be connected with everybody that's in the group.

It is honestly a big family.

We don't just necessarily spend time on the weekends just doing this.

Throughout the course of the week, we have other practices, we do game nights.

We'll just sit there and go out to eat, and it's... I'd say it's like a brotherhood, but it's family.

If you're interested, get involved.

Embrace who you are.

You can still come out, and we will embrace you.

We will accept you.

Just go out and find your tribe.

(weapons clashing) (chain mail clanking) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (bike rattling) (gentle music continues) (bike rattling) (bell ringing) - Hey, I am Nate.

Welcome to Grandview Drive, Peoria's most well-known street.

(singers vocalizing) A pedicab really, historically, was bicycle powered, just a way of transporting people.

In my opinion, I tell everyone, this is the Goldilocks pace.

This is the best way to see Grandview.

Grandview is famous, of course, for the mansions, the houses up there, the fantastic houses.

It is just a popular destination for people who wanna see the fall foliage.

The petty cab is perfect.

That bicycle pace is really one of the most ideal ways to really see something.

(bike rattling) This whole thing was really not my idea at all.

This is one of my friend's idea.

But Tim B., he called me up one day and said, "Hey, there's this guy locally selling this petty cab, "and we wanna start a petty cab company.

"We think it would be pretty cool."

I'm like, "Cool, what's a pedicab" And then I'm like, "That's a great idea.

"You guys should do it."

And he's like, "Yeah."

He's like, "Yeah."

He's like, "We don't have money to buy it though."

He's like, "Can we borrow some money to buy the pedicab?

I'm like, "Absolutely.

Go for it.

"I think this is a great idea.

"I think you guys would be good at this."

But I really knew nothing about bikes at all.

I was not really a bicycle guy.

They were the bicycle guys.

And, but for the first, 2019 actually is when we started all this, and at the beginning, I really had nothing to do with riding it.

I wasn't riding the pedicab at all.

And the plan was to launch in 2020, which of course, did not happen.

And 2023, I was looking at this thing gathering dust in the garage, and I started calling some people up like, "Hey, you guys wanna do this thing?

We should do this.

"COVID's over, let's make it happen."

But everyone really had already moved on to other things, and no one was really interested in doing it anymore.

And I'm like, "Okay, I'm just gonna sell it."

So, obviously I sold it.

No, I'm like, "You know what, I'm gonna do this."

My sight was on Grandview.

I wanted to do a Grandview tour that really wasn't necessarily the main focus originally.

They were focused on riding downtown, trying to maybe hustle in the Heights and do more of a traditional petty cab sort of business plan.

But I really thought that Grandview just needed a tour, needed a proper tourist tour.

Not a lot of towns in this area that even have something comparable to this.

The tour is really designed for locals, but it has been quite popular with people who are traveling through and Peoria gets more tourism than you would think.

And I try to really focus the tour on things that people have never heard before, locals who have never heard, people who are interested in Peoria history have never heard before.

You can ride around, riding's one thing, but you gotta do the tour, it's an experience.

It's mostly frivolous entertainment.

It's just goodhearted, clean, fun.

A lot of times I get done with the tour, I kind of turn around and look at people, and I just see their faces are lit up, because it is really fun to do.

And even people who think they're gonna like it, I think they don't even realize how much fun it is.

And so, people absolutely love it.

I really just feel like this tour is just something that should exist, and that's why I'm doing it is because I just, I know that people who come on it really do enjoy it, and it's just really fun.

(bright music continues) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Thank you for joining us on this journey.

If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to explore even more local content.

You can connect with us on our social media channels, visit our website, or download the free app.

We can't wait to see you next time on, "You've Gotta See This!"

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)