Touchdown Jesus

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Originally uploaded by Butch Wynegar.

Columbus left us softened up to be impressed by almost anything South Bend had to offer, but the home of Notre Dame couldn't come through. After expressing disappointment with both towns to my father, he said: "They call it the Rust Belt for a reason." Indeed.

I figured the university would at least make S.B. the hub of college-like venues and activities, but our search for quaint, bookish areas went unrewarded. The campus itself seems alarmingly small based on our admittedly quick drive around it. We did stop to see ol' TD Jesus, who is pictured above. But even the quad and football stadium he overlooks were a bit underwhelming on this day.

We stopped at a cafe for some dinner before the game, and the waiter told us we had just beat the "4:30 traffic jam." Sure enough, five minutes later we gazed out the window to see five cars lined up at the stop light. Whew. Another travel bullet dodged.

After our entree salads (ordered with the intent to cleanse our systems of ballpark damage), we strolled over to a magic store. How this store, or really South Bend in general, stays open, we can't say. --JW