July 20, Festival Friday

Here is some of the b-roll I didn't use in my Festival Friday package yesterday. The first set of clips is from the Ottawa County Fair. The second set is from the Archbold Carp Festival. The Lion's Club of Archbold were prepping some "Fresh Feesh" for the fryer. No it wasn't really carp. I'm told it was "Fresh Frozen North Atlantic Whiting." Would that be an oxymoron? I digress.

Here's the story I was told about how the Carp Festival got its name. Back in the early 1900's, the city of Archbold had a flood. Legend has it that the water was so high, it flooded the main drag in town. Legend also has it that when the street flooded, carp swam up and down the street. Seizing the opportunity for a laugh, Archbold's neighbor, Wauseon, nicknamed Archbold "Carp Town." Years later, in the 1970's, Archbold decided to have a city festival and the Lion's Club, playing on the now infamous nickname, suggested that festival be know as the "Carp Festival," and the name stuck. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.




Thanks for watching!
-Billau

Time Check and a Look Back

1:00 P.M. - Time Mayor Finkbeiner's press conference near Southwyck was supposed to start Tuesday afternoon.
1:35 P.M. - Time Mayor Finkbeiner arrived at the press conference location.

Moving on.

Here are some photos from last weeks adventures.

The Killa' Grillaz' at the Delta Chicken Festival. I can't even remember how many thousands of pounds of chicken they were planning on cooking at the festival.



A couple shots of the Polish Fest. Thanks Stanley's Meats. They kept our crew full.


The festival queen herself.


This is how I see the world.




These final photos below are from a former bank in Fostoria. It's now the home of a drug task force. I am told that the little grey marks above the door are bullet holes left by Al Capone himself. Rumor has it that Scarface robbed the bank back in the day (yeah I said, "back in the day"), and before taking a hostage out of the bank, he shot up this part of the bank. If anybody knows about this, I'd love to hear the real story. This could really use a Fact Check.

The Icebreaker Mackinaw

I've had some time off recently and I used it to get out of Toledo and head to my family's cabin in Northern Michigan. One day when I was in town I had the chance to stop by the now-home for the USCG Icebreaker Mackinaw. She's now a piece of history, literally. The ship is now a museum ship docked at a pier in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Here's some photos I snapped of the Mackinaw while I was up there.







If you're interested, you can find more information on the now retired ship by clicking here.

-Billau

Veterans’ Glass City Skyway

Disclaimer...this photo was edited together from three separate photos.

I'm writing this blog to congratulate all of those involved in the construction of the new Veterans’ Glass City Skyway. I've been with 13ABC for over five and a half years now, so I have covered many of the stories having to do with the construction of the bridge. I felt, as many of you probably did, that the project seemed like it would never finish. But now having seen the finished project, Northwest Ohio has something it can really be proud of.

My wife and I drove over the new bridge, once each way, last night. We could even see the tower's lights as we approached from I-75 and Stickney. It's very impressive at night.

Saturday morning I drove over to the East Side and hopped on a bus that took me up to the deck. Here are some pictures from that trip. (You can left-click on the pictures to see the full size version. After that, if you want to copy them to your computer, just right-click the picture and select save.)





From the bridge you can see Davis Besse (here). You can also see Fermi II in Monroe.