TDW 1715 - One Mans Amazing Lifelong Creation

0:04 I hear the train are coming. Well, it

0:04 just left. Crud. Welcome everyone. Adam

0:07 the What was that? What did I just do

0:09 then? Welcome everyone. Adam the Woo

0:13 here. It's my second channel, Daily Vlog

0:16 channel. It's the

0:25 daily. Oh, lukewarm and just right.

0:25 First stop of the day, the A Maria

0:28 Grotto. I hope I'm pronouncing that

0:30 right. And you can win a car, which is

0:35 unusual at a grotto. This is a miniature

0:38 village that was

0:39 crafted by a monk. The first place we

0:43 see along the path is Bethlehem, and

0:46 it's spelled out in the windows there up

0:49 top. And if you peek

0:52 inside, you can see a manger scene there

0:55 with Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. The

0:58 grotto consists of a landscaped hillside

1:00 of 125 small stone and cement

1:04 structures. The handiwork is the

1:06 creative genius of one man, Brother

1:09 Joseph Zodel. And I hope I'm pronouncing

1:12 that right. Each one of these structures

1:14 took a lot of work and there's a lot of

1:16 detail and little things embedded inside

1:21 that at first glance you don't really

1:24 notice.

1:30 A majority of the grotto are miniatures

1:30 of actual places, including up on the

1:35 ledge, you will notice the Statue of

1:38 Liberty. And he placed it there in honor

1:40 of his adopted country when he became an

1:43 American citizen. He called this the

1:45 Temple of the Fairies. And he used a

1:47 little bit of everything to create this,

1:51 including pieces of glass, rocks, and

1:55 even if you look

1:57 closely, an old flashlight tube

2:02 right here. That's Hansel and Gretle

2:05 down there. And they are visiting this

2:08 castle.

2:10 But they have to be very careful because

2:13 below this beautiful

2:16 structure just so happens to be a very

2:23 dangerous dragon. Well, he's not that

2:26 dangerous. He's smiling and he has his

2:28 tongue out. He's probably not. He's

2:30 probably He's probably a nice guy. And

2:32 upon further inspection, he has lost one

2:35 of his wings.

2:38 Is that why you're not flying around? Is

2:40 that why you're just chilling under the

2:46 castle? Probably. He also recreated the

2:46 St. Bernard Abbey, which is where the

2:48 grotto is located. So, all of these

2:51 miniatures, the real versions are just

2:53 over that hill on the same property. The

2:56 oldest mission in the US is located in

2:59 St. Augustine.

3:01 But there's also one right there. A

3:03 smaller version as well as this one from

3:06 1816 in California and Santa Fe, New

3:12 Mexico. Right there on the side of the

3:14 hill. It is cool seeing all these cuz

3:16 I've been to a lot of these real life

3:18 locations, including this place in San

3:22 Juan Capistrano. I've been there.

3:24 There's the Alamo down there. I got to

3:27 say, when I first arrived here, I was

3:29 not expecting this place to be as vast

3:34 and

3:35 detailed as it is. Very

3:38 impressive. The Rock of Ages and the

3:42 woman clinging to the cross, which a lot

3:43 of people interpret to be Mary

3:51 Magdalene. Pretty awesome. If you look

3:51 inside this little

3:53 cave, you will see a guy holding a

4:07 there, there is a bird perched on the

4:07 top of that small rock

4:10 mound. It is not the bird you hear in

4:13 the background. That's a real bird in

4:15 the background. The one you're looking

4:17 at is made of stone as well as this

4:22 serpent. There is a

4:24 serpent slithering around up there.

4:27 Thankfully, that's not real either

4:29 because that would be

4:31 frightening. Take a look at the

4:35 inside of the

4:37 large centerpiece

4:40 grotto. Man, this is impressive.

4:44 most

4:56 incredible. Absolutely incredible. And

4:56 they have erected a statue to him. He

4:59 passed away in

5:01 1961. And the rumor is that this statue

5:04 is actual life-size. It's hard to get a

5:07 perspective though because he's on that

5:10 structure. So, you can't really stand

5:12 next to him to get his height, but

5:15 that's him. But one thing's for sure, he

5:17 has left something incredible

5:23 behind.

5:25 Wow. Well done, sir. There seems to be a

5:28 makeshift wishing well here, the St.

5:30 Mary's Well at the

5:33 Nazareth. I'm going to

5:35 contribute. Maybe my wish will come

5:38 true. Just to give you a perspective on

5:40 how vast the main area is. This is just

5:43 the bottom of the hill. Probably I'd say

5:47 maybe twothirds of the property is right

5:50 down here. This is how

5:52 large of an area and how much

5:55 workmanship went into this. One

5:58 man did all this. Awesome. Over this

6:02 ledge is Noah's Ark perched upon Mount

6:07 Ararat and the famous tower of Babel,

6:11 which as the story goes was the

6:13 birthplace of speaking in tongues. And

6:16 then tucked away over here is the

6:19 tomb of Daniel. A pyramid off in the

6:23 background. In the foreground are the

6:25 hanging gardens of Babylon. He titled

6:28 this one the lizard condo. It's good to

6:31 see

6:32 lizards have a sweet pad to chill in.

6:35 And if you look there, kind of nestled

6:37 in that hole in the top right, there's a

6:39 lizard in there. This is made

6:42 mostly from

6:54 seashells. This was a lifelong

6:54 project, that's for sure. Starting to

6:56 rain now. It's a little chilly today,

6:59 too. Not quite freezing. I did venture

7:02 far enough south to stay clear of the

7:05 ice and snow, but it is still a little

7:08 on the chilly side. If you're wondering

7:10 what this double yellow line is, of

7:13 course, it's the chipmunk crossing. The

7:15 weather conditions might hinder

7:17 chipmunks from running across there,

7:20 though. But that would be cool to see.

7:22 Oo, with that rain coming in, I can feel

7:25 the temperature dropping almost minute

7:27 by minute. I'm gonna follow this path

7:30 directly behind this monk walking with a

7:34 very, very colorful umbrella in the

7:38 rain. And I was given this piece of

7:42 paper showing the

7:44 location, the final resting place of the

7:46 gentleman who created that fantastic

7:48 grotto. I

7:50 believe he's located over here in this

7:53 corner. born in

8:01 1878. It's always fascinating and

8:01 exciting to me when someone dedicates a

8:04 very good portion of their life to

8:06 creating anything, creating something,

8:09 doing something that will stand the test

8:11 of time and be remembered for. And the

8:13 very kind gentleman, the monk with the

8:16 colorful

8:17 umbrella, is now leaving. But before

8:21 departing, he opened up the chapel for

8:24 me. So I get to go in the

8:43 chapel. It's very peaceful and somber in

8:43 here. Of course, I am the only one in

8:46 here.

8:48 You can hear the light

8:50 rain on the

9:19 Now, I know I already mentioned how much

9:19 I liked this grotto, but let me

9:22 reiterate, this place was amazing. I

9:25 really enjoyed it. If you're ever in

9:26 this neck of the woods, I believe the

9:28 name of the town is Coleman,

9:31 Alabama. Stop off. It's four or five for

9:35 entry to go in and walk around. Well

9:39 worth it. Big thumbs up. Amazing. Oh,

9:42 wow. Look at that. Another old Mountain

9:45 Dew sign. Two days in a row. I don't see

9:48 any for like a year and now I see two

9:51 two days in a

9:53 row. Pretty cool. Ah,

9:56 yes. The open

9:58 road. I have developed quite a kinship

10:02 with it. Look at that view. This is some

10:06 beautiful countryside. The self-pumping

10:08 latch on this nozzle is not working, so

10:11 I have to manually do it.

10:13 And inside the store, I picked up a

10:15 couple grapeo. I've actually never tried

10:18 it before. I'm kind of interested to see

10:21 how it tastes. And of course, some

10:23 boiled

10:24 peanuts. Oh

10:30 yeah, that's pretty

10:30 good. I don't drink too many grape

10:33 sodas, but that's that's pretty

10:40 good. Very good. A good way to dispose

10:40 of these after you chow down

10:44 and eat what's inside throw them in a

10:48 plastic bag near the dashboard. Yet it's

10:51 hard to hold the candle in the cold

10:55 Alabama rain. That was a really bad axle

10:59 rosen

11:11 brushing. You can see the sign saying

11:11 Birmingham city limits right there. And

11:15 as I look at this train on top of this

11:17 embankment, reminds me of a scene from

11:20 Breaking Bad. Remember when they robbed

11:21 the train?

11:24 Something about this

11:25 little this little view reminds me of

11:28 that shot in the TV show. Holy crap.

11:31 Look what just happened. That Did that

11:33 just fall over? That didn't just happen.

11:35 It looks like it did, but I think it's

11:37 been like that for a little while. There

11:39 we go. Little muffler man alert. It's

11:42 always cool seeing these guys off the

11:44 side of the

11:51 road. See you. Sh. Be very quiet. Very

11:51 quiet. Don't make a sound. Shh. Be

11:56 very, very quiet. Look over here. Look

12:00 over here to the right. Sh. Sh. Don't

12:03 say anything. Sh. Sh. Don't say

12:05 anything. Don't say anything. Don't say

12:07 anything. Don't say

12:12 anything. Keep very quiet.

12:20 Sh. Shh. Be very quiet.

12:20 Do not make a

12:22 sound. Do not make a sound. Do not Wait,

12:26 they they flew off. Dang it.

13:30 Man, I'm thirsty now after eating those

13:30 vlog over.

TDW 1715 - One Mans Amazing Lifelong Creation

Transcript