Melvis and Me and a Damme Too (The Great Ohio Excursion)

2 days. 24 hours in a van. 1,400 miles.

*Friday 6 am me and my brother Josh (Melvis, Captain M, the Captain) embarked to take him to meet up with YWAM's GX international team in Continental Ohio.

*Our escapades went forth with the commanding ballads of the singer/songwriter Raffi including: Banaphone, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, C-A-N-A-D-A, Got to Sing, Who Built the Ark and one of my all time favorites Shake Your Sillies Out. We were pretty bummed that we couldn't get some of his others like This Little Light of Mine, Baby Beluga, or especially Down By the Bay. It was grand none the less.

*Moving on we went through other such greats as ELO, Blue States, some Canned Heat, and other estranged music such as the delightful Mickey Finn. Its not a real trip until your vehicle sounds like a 1930s speakeasy. Some good times. We discovered some marvelous places. Our number two favorite was Gas City in Indianna. I mean who wouldn't want to live there. Shoot we nearly stopped in the Taco Bell there. So As you roll your eyes at the wonderful sophmoric humor let me tell you my favorite new town: Effingham, Illinois. I mean seriously, just say it a couple of times. And yes it is a real place, with its own fairgrounds and everything.

*For any Sufjan fans not only did we see road signs for Chicago but also Decatur. We passed Carlyle Lake and crossed the Kaskaskia River.

*Like every great trip we packed some great food. Amidst the green tea, fruit chips, cookies, and sandwiches there was one thing that we pretty much stuck with, a five lb bag of Gummy Bears. Yeah, that is alot. I mean five pounds. After about two and a half lbs we just got sick of it. We ended up just throwing it out the window hoping for bears to grow. We had both Grizzly and Polar varieties and they should be full grown by late August.

*Indianna and Ohio are very boring states. I mean sheesh, wow. It was so painfully long driving through them. It was like "Ah-ing" for hours without a single "Choo." That and I think I found a city with worse roads than KC, Indiannapolis. Yikes it was confusing. I mean if you like the country and nothing around I guess it would be a cool place to be but, I have to pass.

*On our way to Continental, which is a small town in rural Ohio, the Captain and I were pretty antsy. It had been about 11 hours in the car and the back country roads were getting to us. It was wierd, next to every other farmstead was a nice personallized pond. I mean nice clear water, nicely set boundaries and lovely tractors in the distance, some good times. So in the spirit of the land we were kind of hoping for a sheriff to cross our path. I mean we wanted to be chased. I mean plowin through hay bales kind of chased. We foud some banjo music and cranked it in the van and went a lookin'. Granted had we seen one we would have slowed down, just due to time contraints but seriously, I never was a Dukes fan but something in us just wanted a chase.

*So we got to Continental High School, home of the Pirates, while blasting some banjo music with the windows down and met up with Darren who happened to join us out there. We went inside and watched the presentation. It was really good. I mean there was skating, dancing and some really good testimonies. Honestly, it was really good to get outside of the bubble, I mean really good. It made me miss doing youth ministry, its been about 4 years since I have done any. At the end there was a huge response, alot of people came up and got saved. Funny thing is that as soon as the altar call was given Darren and I instinctively just started going at it in tongues. Good times.

*I am really excited to have my bro do this, I mean he doesn't really go to churhc but he loves God. That and it was really rad funny seeing the people flock to the presenters who they were so impressed with. I joined in and got my buddy Mickael Santillian's autograph on my hand. He is 5foot nothing and 14 and I give him a ride home about once a week with my bro. He was taken back, Darren even got a dollar signed.

*Darren and I then ventured to the Comfort in about an hour away and we crashed for the night enjoying some pizza and recanting tales of the previous week. It left me jonesing really bad, I mean bad. I need to get back east, see the outer banks and just get some Bojangles chicken, its been years.... I miss it.

*The next morning he left and then I headed back home. 11 hours in the car by myself were good. I ended up listening to a bunch of music I hadn't really listened to in a good long time including Blindside, Mae, the Insyderz, Maylene and Calibretto. Not to mention some good old fashioned Bob Dylan. Also I jammed out to some sermons from TACF. Interesting thing is that as soon as Ed Piorek (one of those preaching) started talking about getting lost in the river of God I drove across the Mississippi, it was a good visual. It was a good time. I mean God and I had some really good talks. 11 hours and 15 bottles of green tea later I finally made it home.

*It was a long two days. But good I would have to say it was good. This has by far been one of the most peculiar spring breaks I have ever had.