Why I love October, and planning for multiple trips

October is always my favorite month of the year

There are several reasons why I love October, the least of which is because it’s my birthday month :) Living in Kansas, the weather is usually great in October. The end of the month brings one of my favorite holidays – Halloween. The leaves are changing colors. Athletically, football is in full swing, and basketball is starting up. And in recent years, I’ve had a lot of fun traveling at this time of the year.

Roseman Bridge, Madison County, Iowa

My big trip this past month was to Iowa, and I had a lot of fun! I will be releasing six videos from that trip. The main reason for that trip was to visit the 10 smallest towns in the state (which were awesome), but I also had a blast seeing many other places (see the future videos section at the end).

The YouTube channel has also had a really good month, and especially the past couple of weeks. Proof that the YouTube algorithm is a strange and complex thing, the video I posted “10 Smallest Towns in Arkansas” on July 2 has all of a sudden taken off. It would cruise along getting a couple hundred views a day and then in October it started getting a couple thousand views a day. This week it’s averaging around 6,000 views per day.

I don’t know why some videos take longer than others to find their audience. But I do know when I post a “10 Smallest Towns in <State>” video that it will eventually become popular. All six of them have so far (KS, OK, MO, TX, NE, AR). I’m guessing the Iowa video will too … someday.

Speaking of … “The 10 Smallest Towns in Texas” video hit 400,000 total views recently. This is the most viewed video on the channel. Will it reach half a million?

The October stats on Travel with a Wiseguy were: 227k views, 700 subscribers.

That brings the grand total to: 3.6 million views, 18,300 subscribers.

For those of you who are really into the numbers, the top-5 viewed videos for the month of October were:

1. 10 Smallest Towns Arkansas – 60,880

2. 10 Smallest Towns Texas – 52,385

3. 10 Smallest Towns Missouri – 12,588

4. Trail West Road – 4,807

5. Zinc, Arkansas – 4,775

As you can see, the top-2 videos had almost 50% of the total views the channel had for the month.

The all-time top viewed videos on the channel are:

1. 10 Smallest Towns Texas – 404,056

2. Loving County, Texas – 348,261

3. 10 Smallest Towns Missouri – 233,090

4. Route 66 Missouri Ghost Towns – 228,688

5. 10 Smallest Towns Oklahoma – 179,923

6. 10 Smallest Towns Kansas – 162,015

The Nebraska smallest towns video is also about to become the 7^th video to hit 100,000 views.

Planning for November and beyond

I’ve talked about this before, but in order to maintain a two video per week release schedule, I have to plan ahead. For example, I currently have 7 videos I’ve filmed and are in some stage of the editing process. Those 7 videos would take me through Thanksgiving, releasing two per week. A couple things I have to significantly plan for is having videos to release while I’m on vacation over the Christmas holiday, and then during the track and field season.

So, I will get out on the road a couple times this month to have enough videos to get me through the rest of 2023. And then I’ll be on the road filming for a couple weeks at Christmas-time to get a head start on the videos for 2024. The most difficult time for me is around April/May because I don’t have a lot of time to travel for YouTube because of the weekly track and field work and travels.

That being said, I am trying to go down to Oklahoma for a short trip on Sunday. I just saw the movie Killers of the Flower Moon and want to re-visit some of the places I previously did videos about last year.

Usually, I get on the road at Thanksgiving too. And I’m currently trying to figure out what I want to do then. I am leaning towards 3-4 day trip down to Texas. Last year I picked up a bunch of subscribers from Texas and have been wanting to go back – there are so many small towns in that state to find and explore.

A trip I’m looking forward to at the end of the year is spending Christmas in Key West, Florida, with some of my family members. I have no idea what I might film there, but it should be fun! I’m also considering driving there from Kansas and taking the ultimate scenic route over several days to get there. We’ll see, but that sounds like fun!

Upcoming November video releases (for the diehards)

I always like to reward anyone who is interested enough to have read this far :)

This is a very tentative schedule, and the last couple weeks will probably change once I get out and do some more filming, but here’s an idea of what I have coming up on the channel …

Thu, Nov 2 – small town, USA – Florence, KS

Sun, Nov 5 – The Bridges of Madison County, IA

Tue, Nov 7 – Bonus video of Winterset Park, IA

Thu, Nov 9 – Kent, KS, and the Scott Special

Sun, Nov 12 – TBA (possibly Killers of the Flower Moon locations video)

Thu, Nov 16 – Field of Dreams – Dyersville, IA

Sun, Nov 19 – 10 Smallest Towns in Iowa

Thu, Nov 23 – TBA (probably an Oklahoma ghost towns video)

Sun, Nov 26 – TBA – I might finally edit my Bolivia trip from 2019

Thu, Nov 30 – Iowa Ghost Towns Part 1 – Buckhorn, Rockville, Buddy Holly crash site

That last video of the month could also be about Texas … if I go there.

Thanks again for all the support! Until next time, safe travels!