I made my way to the holy land last weekend. The trip to Notre Dame  included a pep rally, prayer, a tailgate party, hailstorm and a football game against Navy.

My friend Steve calls the journey “The Trip to the Holy land.” And I might agree after all we did, felt and saw. It was truly and inspirational venture with three of the best guys in the world.

Touchdown Jesus
We started out Friday with a trip to the Notre Dame campus where we saw the famous mosaic of Jesus. Touchdown Jesus as Steve calls it. From the photo you can see why.

Notre Dame Dome
Regarding the dome, Rev. J. W. Cavanaugh in 1925 had this to say, “Whoever looks at the beautiful campus now and considers how different the whole thing would appear without the dome will not hesitate to entertain any other suggestion. The truth is that the dome upon the Administration Building assembles all the other buildings on the campus around it and contributes to each a dignity which, otherwise, it would not possess.”

The Gipper Steps
In 1920, returning late to campus and having been locked out of his dorm, George Gipp, Notre Dame’s legendary gridiron All-American, allegedly slept on the front steps of Washington Hall, contracting the pneumonia that would take his life on December 14, 1920. On his death bed, he made this famous plea to Coach Knute Rockne: “Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.”

Concert On the Steps
We were at the “Concert On the Steps’ as the band marched to the Stadium, parading in front of 20,000 Irish fans. In the Stadium tunnel, they say you can hear the echoes of Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Holtz, and the Four Horsemen.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart
We visited the Sacred Heart Church. The history of the Basilica dates to the last quarter of the 17th century when the French were attempting to establish both a colonial and a Catholic presence in the St. Joseph River Valley in northern Indiana.

The Grotto
Immediately behind the basilica sits the famous, yet intimate Grotto – a Marian place of prayer and reflection. It is a replica of the grotto at Lourdes, France where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858. I lit a candle in remembrance of my Mom and Dad who passed in 1985 and 1993. Dad raised us as Catholics. I miss them both. This trip was a nice reminder of them.

The TailGate
We were very close to the stadium. Surrounded by throngs of Notre Dame football fans, tailgating has taken on a life of its own on game day. We sure had a great time with people we just met. Notre Dame fans were allot of fun.

The Hail Story
Like a scene from God’s playbook, the bible, a hail storm appeared from nowhere and was gone just as quickly. It was an amazing storm but the tailgaters didn’t seem to mind. Everyone just huddled under tents and continued God’s work of making new friends and building old friendships.

The Notre Dame Navy Game
Probably the biggest reason we visited Notre Dame was the football game. Navy got sunk 56-14, on what was left of a beautiful sunny day. Here is a view from our seats.

Its a family tradition, eating Maryland Chesapeake Bay Blue Point Crabs cooked with lots of Old Bay Seasoning. Old Bay is a staple ingredient for steamed Chesapeake Bay crabs, crab cakes, and other seafood recipes.

Blue Point Crab is the Maryland State Crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery.

How to Pick a Blue Crab

Flip the crab over
Flip open the apron
Flip off the top shell
Pull out the gills and innards that are hanging out.
The yellow stuff is called the “mustard.” It’s actually the crab’s fat and many people enjoy eating it.
Break the body in half, leaving the legs and claws on.
Squish down the flipper end (backfin) and twist it to produce a big piece of backfin meat.
Pull off the swimming legs and claws one by one. Suck out the little piece of meat at the end of each. Save the claws.
Take a paring knife and split each half of the crab through horizontally, exposing chambers of crabmeat. Use the knife to pick out the meat.
Take a claw and break it apart at the joint. Break the claw with a mallet and pick out the crabmeat.

If you like to drink, eat and be merry, the Duval Crawl is something you ought to try. Great for groups of friends.

Bars line the entire length of Duval Street, Key West, Florida, 33040. As you crawl from one bar to the next, you hear so much live music coming from just about everywhere. On the street, there were street musicians, in the bars there was an excellent variety of mostly late 60s to late 80s music. However the Irish bars still played their traditional folk music.

Here is the Duval Crawl List

Bull & Whistle
801 Bourbon Bar (had the drag queens out front)
Bourbon Street Pub (had the shirtless bartender)
Green Parrot (live music, funny signs)
Virgilio’s (stuffy, can’t eat in the window seats)
Rum Barrel (where we had great onion soup)
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Café (foofoo drink land, packed all the time)
The Top (roof of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, see slideshow for photos from the roof)
Hard Rock Café (ok place, but nothing that special)
Fat Tuesday (wall o frozen drink machines, many flavors ready to go)
La-Te-Da (where we had shrimp cocktail, shrimp good coctail sauces, not so good)
Rick’s Key West (live music, draft beer, long bar next to Durty Harry’s)
Captain Tony’s Saloon (suprise entertainer at Hemingway’s place)
Sloppy Joe’s Bar (loud, crowded, young and fun)
Hog’s Breath Saloon (folk music, older crowd, nice place)
Pier House Resort (really nice hotel at the end of the street)

Here are a few of the bars on the Duval Crawl List:

No snivelling, excess in moderation, hippies use side door, enforcing the two-tooth minimum at the Green Parrot. Come inside and see the invisible men the signs all said. We went inside, I had a Newcastle. This bar is NOT on Duval, but its on our list. This place has live bands.

We had frozen drinks at Fat Tuesday. They had a whole wall of frozen drink mixers. I had a Rum Runner – 151 Rum, Banana, Blackberry and Tropical Punch with Pineapple Juice. Got a brain freeze.

If you like drag queens, then you need to go to the show. Don’t look now but that one wants to talk to me. I said hi, then we went inside the bar portion of the place, we didn’t make the show. There were two bartenders who were serving a full bar like it was a walk in the park. They were fantastic as they waisted no moves mixing complex blender drinks. It was as if they were in a ballad and we were watching them dance around and make drinks. Oh, did I mention that this was a gay/transvestite bar?

These guys were great at the Hogs Breath Saloon. They played 60s folk music such as Simon and Garfunkel.

The Bull and Whistle bar are two bars in one. The Bull had nice live entertainment and a good variety of draft beer. This was our first stop, I ordered a Key West Pilsner, it was ok.

These guys were great, one played a 12 string guitar, the other, a 6 string.

Sloppy Joe’s was a young crowd with very loud music. The place was packed, yet the service was good. But this was not the Sloppy Joe’s that Ernest Hemingway frequented when he lived in Key West. If you want to have a drink at Hemingway’s favorite watering hole, you have to go to Captain Tony’s.

The live entertainment was just ok. But when this patron asked if he could play a few songs, and then did, the place came alive with appause. I guess he was better than most.
Here is the unknown entertainer’s photo take at Captain Tony’s.

I am sure Hemingway sat right where I sat at the bar. It was a lovely bar and the people were all nice and friendly. Many of the people at Captain Tony’s appeared to be local.

From Captain Tony’s to Jimmy Buffet’s Margarettaville Cafe to The Bull, even drinks in the 3 gay bars on the list, the walk along Duval and its side streets gave us three nights of fun bar hopping. And yes, we conquered the entire Duval Crawl list, having a drink at each one, but it took us 3 nights to do it.

The best thing was really the food. There were so many restaurants, great seafood, steaks, salads and more. I think we might just do this again.

When turkey’s on the table,

And good things I can scan,
I’m thankful that I wasn’t made
A v-e-g-e-t-a-r-i-a-n.
Heavenly Father, bless us,
And keep us all alive;
There’s ten of us for dinner
And not enough for five.

Now for the Serious Prayer

Our Father in Heaven,
We give thanks for this food
Prepared and shared by family and friends
We give thanks for our lives, for being together today
We are thankful for the freedom we share

As we eat this food,
We pray for health and strength
To carry on and try to live as You would have us.
This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ,
Our Heavenly Father.
Amen

Here is my pictoral visit to Sawyer Glacier in Alaska, USA. This visit was interesting due to how close we were able to get to the glacier in the huge Royal Caribbean cruise ship.

Sawyer Glacier is located about 100 miles south, south east of Juneau.
View Sawyer Glacier in a larger map

He stood tall since 2004. Then on June 14th a Monday night at about 11 pm, during a fast thunderstorm,  lightning struck the 60 foot statue causing it to catch on fire.

Photo by Vincent Rush

Some say this was a fitting end to a sacrilegious statue of Jesus Christ named the “King of Kings,” but renamed by locals here as Touchdown Jesus and Big Butter Jesus, McDonald’s Jesus.  Others, including the Solid Rock Church Pastor Darlene Bishop who proclaimed the statue made people ‘remember Jesus or at least think about Jesus’.

Monroe Fire Chief Mark Neu said the fire spread to an amphitheater next to the statue but was confined to the attic area. Losses are estimated to be in the $700k range.  It was reported no one was injured in the fire.

Posting about the fire start on The Voice of Monroe at 11:30 PM titled “Solid Rock Church Jesus Destroyed by Lightning“ by itbedave. The Voice is a discussion community featured on MainStreetMonroe.com, a website that I personally run.

Controversial Statue
There has been quite a controversy regarding the statue.

First of all, the Hornet Football team was partially to blame for the name ‘Touchdown Jesus’. For years the Hornets had losing seasons. Sometimes horrible losing seasons. But the very season the “King of Kings’ statue was completed, the Hornets won. The Hornets have had winning seasons ever sense.

Secondly, there are protesters who don’t want the statue rebuilt because it violates the ‘false idols’ commandment. Here is a debate on The Voice: Should Jesus be Rebuilt?

Thirdly, there are people who see good in the work of the Bishops and their Solid Rock Church, the church own’s the statue.  These people want some sort of tribute to Jesus back on display in the reflecting pond.

Lastly, it looks like the Bishops won’t be inviting Brad Coriell back to remake the statue. Darlene Bishop was quoted as saying, “it’s likely that there will be something different” than a 60 foot statue.

People like to PhotoShop Touchdown Jesus like the one below.

What will it be next, Jesus in the Manger? I can’t wait to find out.

Dignitaries from the county, township and cities of Trenton and Middletown were visitors at the latest Monroe Council regular session. They all had high praises for Monroe as they pleaded for Monroe Council to reconsider the ST Rt 63 extension for economic development reasons. Speaking in favor of the extension were Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Butler County Engineer Greg Wilkins, Trenton Mayor Rhonda Freeze and Liberty Township Trustee Christine Matacic. Also in attendance were Butler County Commissioner Greg Jolevette, Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan, council members from Trenton and other prominent area officials.

The plea to consider an amendment to the city master plan to include a ST RT 63 extension failed by a 5 to 2 vote by Monroe council. Dissenting votes were from Todd Hickman and Mayor Robert Routson.

Monroe’s relationship with area communities is becoming strained due to the latest two big issues:
1. Monroe VS SunCoke Lawsuit – Monroe is suing a company who wants to relocate in Middletown and provide needed jobs in Butler County. Most residents of Monroe don’t care, however there is a stong and vocal group who demanded the City of Monroe do something about the econogical impact of the proposed facility. In this one it is Monroe vs The State of Ohio, The County of Butler, At least 1 US Senator, The City of Middletown, 2 Fortune 500 Companies and even President Obamas effort to stimulate the economy.
2. The St Rt 63 Extension to Trenton and ultimately to Oxford. Here Monroe ads the city of Trenton to the list above.

Monroe officials say they are representing the interests of constituents, I think they are only listening to a vocal few. Worse is the fact that Monroe is such a bad neighbor, they refuse to listen to anyone other than themselves.

Fact is that Monroe residents will benefit from being a good neigbor. Monroe will benefit from jobs that are created through the SunCoke plant and the Ohio 63 extension. They are only hurting the silent majority. That’s ok, 4 of the 7 are up for reelection next fall.

Wired is Pam Grote – Vocals, Emmett Gregory -Bass,Rod Middleton-Guitar, Ben Burton – Drums

I shot this 4 minute video at Yardbirds in Trenton, Ohio. Ben Burton is my brother-in-law.
If you are interested in booking this band, drop me an email and I will hook you up.

I used my Flip cam to shoot this, not bad for such an inexpensive camera, HD to boot. The sound would have been better had I used my ZOOM Mic. Next time, I will bring a better mike that what is on the camera.

john@csn1.com – no spammers please, but if you are I have one word for you, Barraccuda.

These wild turkeys were meeting in the middle of Nickel Road in Monroe, Ohio and they didn’t want to move.

I got my camera out and eased my car through the turkey traffic jam. If I were a turkey hunter, I could have fed my entire neighborhood.

Maybe I’ll wait a few weeks to harvest one of these wild Monroe turkeys, closer to Turkey Day.