(bright music) - [Will] This week on "Wild Travels," we'll wander among hundreds of carpeted critters at the Midwest Fur Fest in Chicago, delve into the paranormal legends surrounding Edgar Allan Poe and the haunted USS Constellation in Baltimore, fixate on the fashions at America's only purse museum in Little Rock, board the Tiny Town trains in Hot Springs, and then tee off with Sister Cindy at an event called, no kidding, Beat The Nun.

(upbeat music) (bright music) - [Narrator] Wild Travels is made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and more.

alaskarailroad.com.

By Sheboygan, Wisconsin, centrally located on the shores of Lake Michigan, is home to Kohler-Andrae State Park, and outdoor adventures waiting to be discovered.

visitsheboygan.com.

By American Road Magazine.

Get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-Lane highway can take you.

American Road Magazine fuels your road trip dreams.

And by the South Shore of Lake Michigan, exploring the Indiana Dunes, unique attractions, festivals, and more, just minutes from downtown Chicago.

alongthesouthshore.com.

(upbeat music) - If you look hard enough, go off the beaten track far enough, you'll find an America teeming with the unusual, the odd, the downright strange.

I'm Will Clinger and I'm your guide on a package tour we like to call "Wild Travels."

(upbeat music) (electricity sound) music) (music contines) Whether you call it a fetish, a lifestyle, or just a hobby, people dressing up in furry costumes seems to be a growing phenomenon.

Case in point, the hundreds of attendees at this year's Midwest Fur Fest.

This is Fur Fest.

It's crawling with furry people.

- It absolutely is.

Critters of all kinds.

- [Will] What brings people to this fest?

What brings them to fur?

- Community, you get to be with people who experience the world in the same way as you do, who are also maybe looked down on by the internet overall.

- [Will] But you don't actually get to see who they are.

- Yeah, I think a lot of people will find joy in the escapism or getting to be who they wanna be.

- She is a kangaroo.

- I should have figured that out.

What drew you to being a kangaroo?

- Well, they're just really bouncy and happy and playful.

- You seem bouncy and happy.

Are you playful?

- Yeah.

- You're a shark, but you're also a what?

- Just a shark.

- Would you admit that it was originally a donkey that you've turned into a shark?

- No, I was not.

No, it's not a donkey.

- You're denying that.

Okay.

- It's never been a donkey.

- There's nothing donkey like about this.

- No.

(upbeat music) - Do your friends that aren't fur people know that you do this?

- No.

- It's a sort of a secret identity in a way.

- Yeah, totally.

- How did you choose this?

- I saw her and I liked her.

- Yeah, now you're a, I'm guessing you're a, can I use the word he possibly?

- They.

- They, it's a they, but you get to be not only a different animal, but a different gender in a way.

- Yeah.

- And you like that?

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - [Tiller] There are auditions today for the dance competition, so we're going over to the convention center and check that out.

- [Will] Get down with our bad selves.

- [Tiller] Let's do it.

(upbeat music) - You've gotta be the only tap dancing ring tailed lemur in the competition.

- That's probably the best part of the fandom.

It's fun.

It's a way to just express yourself.

- If I was an animal, what do you think?

What would I be?

- Maybe like a kind of dog.

- Really.

Just a dog?

That's so normal.

- Like a border collie.

- That's a little better.

(upbeat music) - It's an apothecary mask, back in the Black plague and whatnot.

- Right.

It's not exactly furry, can I say that?

- Yeah.

Well.

- Maybe instead of the Fur Fest, you should be at Plague Fest.

- I've, uh.

- I don't know many people around here, but I get to know them as I go.

- Where did you come from to get here?

- I'm from Switzerland, actually.

I commissioned other artists, or the fur maker, which is actually from Czechoslovakia.

- It's an international smorgasborg represented here today.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - This suit was actually made for me for ComicCon and it fits in well at Furry Cons.

- You can go to several fests with this.

- Exactly.

- You could go to the Fur Fest here or the "Star Trek" convention.

- I could!

Live long and prosper.

(upbeat music) - MadeFurYou.

- Yes, correct.

- One of the largest makers of these kind of costumes, correct?

- Oh yes, definitely.

I've been doing it about 10 years.

- [Will] How much do these darn outfits cost?

- They start about $5,000.

- [Will] That's pretty pricey.

It seems like a lot of people are willing to pay it though.

- Oh, definitely.

There's some people that go up to the tens of thousands of dollars, and more recently, someone actually sold one for 50,000.

- This is actually my travel size tail.

I have a five foot tail back at home.

- This is only the travel tail?

- Yeah.

This Is about three feet long, yeah.

(upbeat music) - Pizza, pizza.

Yeah.

- Yeah?

- Uh huh.

- You've got a leash too?

- Yeah.

For walkies.

- [Will] Is there a certain attractiveness to being kind of cozy in a fur suit in a way?

- Definitely, especially if you got a little anxiety being social.

- We did have one of our first dates here at MFF a few years ago.

- Yeah.

- And we went out together.

He knew I was a furry, but I did not know he was a furry.

- I think you just became a furry to attract your fellow furry.

- No, no, what it was is that I was a furry and then they made me more furry when I started dating.

- You got furrier?

- Yeah, I got furrier.

- We must convince the captain.

- He'll never believe I'm a girl.

- We're on stage at the auditions for the Variety Show.

You're the MC?

- Yes.

- What are you looking for, charisma?

- Charisma, stage presence, originality.

- It's tough to see personality under the costume though, isn't it?

- Depending on how much you want to act and how- - You're very expressive right now.

- Yes.

- Well, good luck tonight and thank you for talking with us.

Tiller, if somebody wants to participate in Midwest Fur Fest, what do they need to know?

- We're in early December every year in Rosemont.

Just look up us online, Fur Fest.

- Thank you, sir.

- Thank you.

Have a good day.

(upbeat music) - Hi.

For the past 25 years, an army of predominantly Catholic golfers has descended on a course in the suburbs of Chicago for a charity event with the provocative name of Beat The Nun.

- [Nun] May your golf ball be par for the course.

May their companions be generous with their USGAs.

Ugly Shot, Go Again.

(upbeat music) - [Will] If you beat the nun, you get?

- We get guaranteed heaven.

- Yes.

- [Will] Do you have any skills?

- I'm better at softball than golf.

- [Will] So that doesn't bode well for today's Beat The Nun.

- Hit 'em straight and we'll say a prayer.

(upbeat music) - Nice!

- Oh!

- [Will] So if somebody beats the nun, closer ball to the hole.

- Yes.

They get their choice of either this wonderful umbrella or this lovely cooler.

- Sister Cindy, - Good morning.

How are you, Will?

- The golfing nun.

- Maybe.

The golfing nun, I try my best.

- [Will] And now it's Beat the Nun.

Sounds kind of violent, doesn't it?

- Yeah, but if they beat me, they're gonna get beat too.

You see this club over here?

(Will laughs) If they're closer than I am, then I tell 'em they have to go to confession or then I'll take my club and I'll try to beat them, over the head.

(Cindy and Will laugh) - [Will] Well, she's playing from the ladies tees.

That's 125.

- I know, she's got the advantage.

- Already.

- But that's fine.

She's got the Lord on her side too but He- - [Will] You got anything going for you?

- I have the Lord on my side too.

I said my prayers- - To a lesser extent.

- Yes.

She's got one foot ahead of me.

- That's a good ball, Sister!

That's a heck of a shot!

(upbeat music) That's not a bad ball!

Not good enough, though.

Nun three, challenger zero.

Some of these golfers went to Catholic school and maybe have a certain grudge against nuns, maybe.

- And you know what?

That could be, but not against me.

- [Will] Everybody loves Sister Cindy, is that what you're saying?

- That's what I'm saying.

- You've got to tell 'em I won!

- Vernon, no winner down here!

- You're so full of it, Sister!

- [Will] And it's your call.

Right?

You get to measure and decide?

- And God will help me make the right choice, won't He?

(upbeat music) - I'm gonna need a big right kick here.

- [Will] I think the nun might've beat you from what I'm seeing.

- I think she did.

I'm done.

- Yeah.

10 bucks, pal.

Pay up.

- I already did.

- Yes.

I went to a Catholic grade school, St. Timothy's.

It's long closed now, but they beat me a lot, so it's time for some revenge.

- Even the score.

- Exactly.

- Hey!

- Wow!

- Well.

- Well, it took a left.

- The problem is, it was the very first hole for me.

So- - You're already making excuses, I see that - Excuse?

No.

A reason why I shanked it- - Why it went way left.

- All the way over to the left.

- [Will] Onto the golf cart.

- You know, this is a game of humility.

You know that?

- Humiliation?

- Humiliation.

- Fore!

- Oh!

- [Will] It's not good if you hit the nun.

- I know.

I'm supposed to beat the nun, right?

(upbeat music) - Where'd it go?

- Bunker.

- Bunker?

- Yeah.

So I didn't beat the Sister.

- The nun beat you like a drum.

- Oh, she beat me bad.

- Sister Maryann.

- Yes, sir.

What can I do for you?

- Sister Cindy's predecessor.

- Yes.

I started the golf outing 25 years ago.

There was a little bit of nervousness when the committee brought up the possibility of doing something called Beat The Nun because- - It has connotations, doesn't it?

- Some people think so, yes.

Some people think of it as revenge for all those school kids.

- [Will] You had a ruler back then?

- No, I did not.

I never had a ruler.

I just had the look.

- Oh, that's a hard look.

- Oh yeah.

- That's a tough look.

- Yeah, that's all they needed.

- Would you say between you and Sister Cindy who the better golfer is?

Would you be willing to go that far?

- I do not want to, how do I wanna say, to cause conflict within the convent.

It's nun versus nun.

- Sister Cindy, stepping up to the tee with what looks like a three wood.

(upbeat music) That's a good ball.

It's just short.

Just short, Cindy.

Now Sister Maryann, playing a hybrid.

That looks like a good ball.

She's on the green (laughs) and it looks like Sister Maryann is the winner.

Yes, Sister Cindy did come up short against her fellow Sister, Maryann, but versus her other competitors, only a handful of golfers were able to Beat The Nun.

(upbeat music) (bright choral music) Little Rock, Arkansas has much more than little rocks to recommend it.

Take for instance, the handbag heaven we found on Main Street.

(upbeat music) Hi, what's your name?

- Ally Weaver.

- And tell us where we are?

- [Ally] We are at the ESSE Purse Museum and Store.

- Is it safe to say that this is the only purse museum in the world?

- No, we are actually one of two in the world.

There's one in Seoul, South Korea, actually.

- We're the only one in America.

- That is true.

And there are over 3,000 purses in the collection.

- Strange that you don't have a purse on you right now.

- Absolutely, I normally do have one on me.

You just kind of caught me off guard.

(laughs) - How did this whole museum get started?

Did somebody have a lot of purses they wanted to put on display?

- Actually, yes.

Our owner's name is Anita Davis and she's been a collector for over 30 years.

- Who's ESSE?

- ESSE is Latin for "to be" and the idea behind the name is that a handbag carries a woman's essence or who she is.

You can learn a lot about a woman in what's in her purse, what's important to her, what she needs to have with her on a daily basis is going to be contained inside.

- [Will] What would your purse and its contents tell us about you?

- I am an artist and so sometimes I carry my supplies with me.

- My fiance is an artist.

She keeps her sketchbooks and pens in there too, but something else she keeps in there?

A tin of anchovies in case she has a Caesar salad she needs them for.

- Well, to each their own.

This is the beginning of the exhibit and it starts in the 1900s.

- [Will] These are all very tiny purses.

They were very small in that day and age, right?

- Yes.

Over the years, that has completely changed.

- Right.

How big does a purse have to get before it becomes luggage?

You know, I've seen huge purses.

- I think that's up to the individual.

Obviously we've moved into the '20s.

You can tell by all the color, the beading.

Right now we're moving into the war era and you'll see that women were really resourceful.

There's interesting items starting to be used.

This is a telephone cord purse.

This is our skins case.

Yes, it was fashionable style to have the entire skin.

- Not politically correct in this day and age.

- No, most definitely not.

Right now, our temporary exhibit is Pride and the Power of Love.

- I figured that out.

- It's a really colorful tribute to our LGBTQ loved ones and friends.

- [Will] Those almost look like doctor's bags.

Can those be called purses?

- Absolutely, a doctor's bag is often considered a style of a purse.

- In general though, purses never really caught on with men, correct?

- [Ally] Historically speaking, purses started as a men's accessory.

- You're lying?

- I am not lying.

We still get occasionally some customers in the store who are looking for a murse.

- [Will] That's what you call it, a murse.

- It's helpful for a lot of guys to have that extra space to carry what they might need.

- I can just have my wallet here.

- Yeah, but what happens if you need a bandaid or a candy or something?

- I ask my fiance, she's got it in- - Who's carrying it in her purse.

- Her bag.

- This is the '60s.

So.

- Swinging '60s.

This one's got a clock on it.

- [Ally] Just in case you didn't have a watch.

- [Will] The little house purse.

The little summer cottage purse.

- [Ally] Yes.

That one's super cute.

(upbeat music) - [Will] Here we are in the ESSE gift shop.

How about these owl purses?

Huh?

- [Ally] These are really fun.

- Unlike those crocodile purses, these are not made from owls.

A popcorn purse!

- Popcorn purse.

- Popcorn!

- Yes, for when you go to the movies or the theater and need a snack.

- With a handle.

- I'm from Kansas City and I'm in Little Rock just for 24 hours and this is definitely on my list of things to do.

We've had to carry the burden of families and then the workplace and we had to do it all without pockets, so.

- If we went into that purse, what would we find out about you?

- I have my travel journal.

I also carry a flashlight for protection because it looks like pepper spray.

- Do you have any anchovies in your purse?

- I don't.

I heard your anecdote earlier.

(laughs) Yeah.

- Ally, if somebody wants to visit the ESSE Purse Museum, one of only two purse museums in the world, where should they go?

- We are located in the SoMa District of downtown Little Rock.

- Where'd that mic come from?

- My purse.

(upbeat music) (ominous music) - A couple of Baltimore's most inviting tourist sites have a decidedly macabre side, one involving a famous American writer and the other a sailing vessel with the rumor of some ghostly spirits roaming the deck.

(whistle wailing) Ahoy there, matey.

- Ahoy.

- What's your name?

- My name is Brian Auer.

- [Will] And this is the USS Constellation.

How old is this ship?

- She was built in 1854.

She was last under sail under her own power in 1893.

So well over 100 years ago.

She's roughly 179 feet long.

- Baltimore has a great history.

It's a great old town and this ship has some history and not all of it's good.

- Yeah, there were some deaths on board, some injuries, all the above.

- Some say that some of those spirits are still knocking around this old ship.

- Yeah, we do have reports of people over the years seeing things on board and different things.

- Oh, the horror.

That just added a little drama there.

- Yep.

- [Will] Who better to tell us about the other worldly sightings on the Constellation than noted paranormalist and historian, Vince Wilson.

- One of my favorite ghost stories, or the most macabre ghost story, is that of a sailor who was so disillusioned that he hung himself from the upper deck, strung a rope up top, created a noose for himself.

And sometimes people can, to this day, hear the swaying of the noose and see a silhouette in the night sky of a man hung from above.

- Isn't there a story of people that came on the ship and met up with a tour guide who was dressed in period costume, gave them a nice tour, and then?

- That's actually correct.

When he came up and told the crew about this wonderful guide, he said, "We didn't have anyone in period costume today."

(bell rings) - I'm recreating the job of the ship's powder monkeys, which were the- - Young boys.

- Yeah, young boys as young as 11 years old, were able to serve on ships like Constellation in the role of powder handlers, or as we call 'em, powder monkeys.

Fun fact, onboard a naval ship, there are no cannons.

We only have guns.

So these are just great guns.

- Now I don't suppose any of the guns in the ship still fire, do they?

- Fire!

(gun blasts) Every sailor was assigned a hammock when they come on board.

- [Will] And when that sailor died, it was his burial cloth.

- That's correct.

- Vince Wilson, fancy meeting you here.

You're standing among the hammocks and you have a tale to tell.

- It's a story of an 11-year-old powder monkey running amongst the hammocks with a long cut sliced across his face.

- Gruesome.

- Yes, it is pretty gruesome, and people can see his spirit darting in and out amongst the hammocks here, going back and forth by themselves.

- A haunted powder monkey.

- A haunted powder monkey.

Yes.

Not a new show on Cartoon Network.

(Will laughs) - [Will] One of the main aspects of the paranormal here in Baltimore was a storyteller by the name of Edgar Allan Poe.

- [Vince] That's right, well, wasn't from Baltimore originally, but he certainly died here under mysterious circumstances.

- And lived here for a few years.

It's where he met his future wife.

Here we are, Vince, in front of the Edgar Allan Poe home here in Baltimore.

- That's right, he lived here with his wife, Virginia Clemm Poe, and he wrote several of his most famous stories here as well until he died in 1849.

- A little controversial that he met his future wife here since she was only seven at the time.

- They met when she was seven.

They married when she was 13, but still.

- Well that makes it better.

That makes it way better.

(Vince laughs) - No, it's still awful by today's standards, but the life expectancy was a little different back then.

He did most of his writing upstairs.

(ominous music) - So Vince, oh!

Vince, this would've been Poe's garret.

- That is correct.

It is made up to look like Poe's bedroom, but there's no real concrete evidence that suggests he definitely slept up here.

- This may or may not be the raven from his poem.

- That is correct.

- Caw!

Vince, we stand in front of the final resting place for Edgar Allan Poe.

- That is correct.

He was reinterred here.

Beneath us is actually several feet of concrete to prevent souvenir hunting for a lock of Edgar Allan Poe's hair or whatnot.

- The place he was originally buried, right here.

- That's right, is right here.

- But they commemorated this with "The Raven" quoth "Nevermore."

- That's right, he'll nevermore be buried here.

- Poe was discovered in someone else's clothing, stumbling around the streets of Baltimore and babbling.

What were some of the theories about how he died?

- The theory that he may have been murdered by a literary enemy.

- Murder?

- Yeah, murder.

And that he was a victim of rabies.

- What was the final theory?

- Maybe he was robbed.

That is also possible.

- I'm gonna go with a combination, robbed and rabies.

- That's right.

Rabid robbery.

That's what we're gonna call it now.

- To visit Poe's final resting place, go to the corner of Green and Fayette Streets.

As for his house, it's on North Amity Street by appointment only.

And the USS Constellation?

Head to Baltimore's inner harbor.

You can't miss it.

(gun blasts) (upbeat music) Coming soon on WILD TRAVELS: Feeling Right at home with the dummies at the Ventriloquist Convention Finding all things feline at the Lucky Cat Museum, and then checking our pulse and our wallets at the Alcor Cryonic Life Extension Foundation!

Where can you visit Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, and the Wild West without taking a single step?

Welcome to Tiny Town, Arkansas.

(upbeat country music) You're Charles Moshinskie.

- Yes, I am.

- Can I call you mayor of Tiny Town?

- Oh yes.

I'm the mayor, uh huh.

I'm the police department, the fire department.

I'm everything.

- [Will] Your father built this thing.

- He and my grandfather used to make a little one every year under their Christmas tree.

It got larger and larger and larger and one year, they never took it down.

That was 88 years ago.

- Was it always built around the toy train or was that just one element of it?

- That was just one element.

Every time my dad went on vacation, he came back inspired.

There's 22 different states in there.

- [Will] Yeah.

So it's not that tiny.

How long did it take him to build this whole thing?

- [Charles] 68 years.

- [Will] You've got kind of a county fair over there.

- The county fair is Dorney Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

My dad used to go there when he was a boy and he wanted to go back, but he couldn't, so he made one of his own.

- [Will] Here's the set of "Gunsmoke," right?

- Right, "Gunsmoke" was his favorite TV show.

(guns blasting) These are the Grand Tetons from Wyoming, and the mountain with the lights on the top, that's Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

- And you've incorporated your own hometown into it too, haven't you?

- Oh yeah.

Yeah, we have a little bit of everything.

We've got my mother in the brick house and the neighborhood that I grew up in and we've got the school I went to, the little grocery store on the corner.

It's all in there.

- [Will] A few celebrities, let's be honest.

- Oh yeah.

Dolly Parton and Mr. T. We have Niagara Falls over here.

We've got Mount Rushmore.

My dad carved out the faces with his pocket knife.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

There's buttons everywhere that make the trains go.

- I'm pushing it now.

Charles, is anything happening?

- This one had a wreck.

He's not going today.

(upbeat country music) - [Will] It must take a lot of maintenance to keep this thing going.

- Oh yeah, I'm the king of duct tape, WD-40, and bailing wire.

- [Will] So you're the mayor and the king?

- Yeah.

This is Glen Falls, New York right here.

The water hits the wheel and the wheel turns the saw.

My dad was a plumber.

He said, "Son, we're not gonna paint it blue and call it water.

We're gonna have real water."

We've got real leaks and real buckets too.

- So his dream has become a reality, but it's causing you all sorts of headaches.

- [Charles] Yes, but we're determined to keep the water going.

It's a huge part of Tiny Town.

- Charles, if somebody wants to visit Tiny Town, where should they go?

- Oh, we're a short walk from downtown Hot Springs.

- A short walk to a Tiny Town.

- That's right.

(upbeat country music) (gun blasts) - We're always looking for new destinations, the wilder the better.

So if you've got an idea for our show, let us know, and thanks for watching.

(upbeat country music) (bright music) - [Narrator] Wild Travels is made possible in part by Alaska Railroad, providing year-round transportation to many Alaska destinations, traversing nearly 500 miles of wild landscapes between Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, and more.

alaskarailroad.com.

By Sheboygan, Wisconsin, centrally located on the shores of Lake Michigan, is home to Kohler-Andrae State Park, and outdoor adventures waiting to be discovered.

visitsheboygan.com.

By American Road Magazine.

Get your kicks on Route 66 and everywhere else a two-Lane highway can take you.

American Road Magazine fuels your road trip dreams.

And by the South Shore of Lake Michigan, exploring the Indiana Dunes, unique attractions, festivals, and more, just minutes from downtown Chicago.

alongthesouthshore.com.