Photo Every Day 2025

One last #EpicSelfie from this past weekend (kind of)…

My friends, Donnie Chase and Mark Gold, drove themselves from South Bend, IN to Apple Creek, OH for the Jeff Polen Music ministry banquet this past weekend. Mark was the speaker for the banquet (he did a great job). Donnie rode along just because. After the banquet, on Sunday morning, Mark drove to Columbus, OH to fly back home to Minnesota. Donnie came with me to church and then I drove him back home to South Bend, IN. I stayed the night at his place, and then drove myself home on Monday.

There were two random, minor themes that showed up several times over the weekend. The first random, minor theme was that Mark kept asking me about hot dogs. He was apparently convinced that I was going to be grilling (and somehow, for whatever reason, basting) hot dogs for our banquet. He was massively mistaken. We had an all-star team of cooks in the kitchen for the banquet, and much to everyone’s delight, none of those cooks were me! Also, not a single hot dog was served at the banquet.

The other random, minor theme that showed up this weekend was Donnie finding out for the very first time that Sweetwater is not just an online music store-they have an actual brick & mortar building… and it is AWESOME! I told him that he didn’t live far from Sweetwater, and that I would be driving by and stopping at Sweetwater on my way home Monday morning.

Loaded with this new, important information, Donnie jumped in his van and followed me to Sweetwater. My sales engineer met us in the lobby and gave us a grand tour, and it is safe to say that Donnie was blown away. (If you have never been to Sweetwater, you HAVE to check it out!)

Before wrapping up our time at Sweetwater, and before I drove east towards home and he drove west towards his home, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Downbeat Diner (a full-blown cafeteria style restaurant located inside of Sweetwater for employees, customers, and anyone who just wants to sit down and enjoy their life inside of the Sweetwater building). We each got the Nashville Hot Chicken (it was super good). Just before checking out, I saw they were also offering a pair of hot dogs. I couldn’t resist. In honor of Mark, we both downed a delicious Downbeat Diner dog.

That one was for you, Mark Gold. That one was for you.