Applejack, Farm-to-Fork, and the Heart of a Small-Town Tourism Hustle (ft. Amy Allgood)

Fred Uhe sits down with Amy Allgood, Director of Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce, to talk about how a hometown-bound accountant ended up running one of the region's busiest small-town tourism operations. Amy walks through the growth of the Applejack Festival — now split across two weekends and drawing over 100,000 visitors to a town of 7,500 — and shares the story behind Nebraska City's Farm to Fork dinner, a locally sourced feast staged right on Central Avenue. Along the way, they cover the logistics of free festival buses, the balancing act between chamber and tourism work, and why Amy sees hospitality as "management by crisis" — plus a few Highland cows, a floating bridge, and a cameo from Cars, the movie. It's a warm, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to keep a small Nebraska town welcoming visitors 365 days a year.