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BIKED C & O CANAL TOWPATH CUMBERLAND SOUTH Cumberland, Maryland

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 6, 2026

We began at C & O Canal Visitor Center at Mile 184.5 of the C & O Towpath Bike Trail (or mile 0 of the 150-mile GAP – Great Alleghany Passage Bike Trail which heads northwest). We biked ten miles southeast on the C & O from downtown Cumberland towards Harpers Ferry (and eventually Washington DC). We bicycled parallel along the North Branch of the Potomac River and spotted deer, fawns, groundhogs, turtles and owls.

At the Visitor Center was a fantastic exhibit of the old canal and its history. Next door was the Eastern Maryland Railway where earlier Rosie, me and our bicycles rode the train from Cumberland to Frostburg, Maryland then bicycled back 18 miles down the mountain. Railroad pedal cars from Frostburg that were pedaled downhill earlier by patrons, sat on the rails waiting to be towed 18 miles back uphill. After biking we had a late lunch at The Crabby Pig Restaurant where we enjoyed a crab burger, crab soup, and a fish sandwich.

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URBAN LEGENDS MUSEUM Frostburg, Maryland

Exploration Team: Dave Miller

Date: August 6, 2026

This Halloween roadside attraction was not open when we visited, but it stood out like a sore thumb. Whether it was a museum or a haunted house attraction or both, the house and the exterior area had dozens of creepy props, ghouls and cryptids.

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NOAH’S ARK BEING REBUILT Frostburg, Maryland

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 6, 2026

At the edge of town and along the north side of I-68 sits the skeletal metal beginning of a replica of Noahs Ark. Way back in 1974, Pastor Richard Greene was repeatedly told by Jesus to build an Ark next to the interstate and people would come from around the world to see it. The ark would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  In 1999, the massive steel beams for the Ark structure were installed. The next phase was to erect the roof beams and enclose the structure.

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# BRADDOCK’S ROCK AMERICA’S OLDEST ROAD SIGN Frostburg, Maryland  

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 6, 2026

Near the graves of the Frosts, town founders and St. Michaels School along east main street is a glass case holding America’s Oldest Road Sign. Engraved in the mid-1700’s by the British, this one-ton rock called Braddock’s Rock or Stone (named for British General Ed Braddock) is an early colonial highway marker. During the French & Indian War, Braddock’s troops including George Washington traveled the Braddock Road. The stone provided traveling distances to colonial settlers passing along the trail. Legend has it that a local stonemason removed the stone and cleaved it in half. Police located the stone and had him make repairs although today the stone is still in two pieces.

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HIKED HIGHEST POINT IN PENNSYLVANIA MT. DAVIS Meyersdale, Pennsylvania

Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 7, 2026

We camped at the nearby Mason-Dixon Campground nestled in the woods three miles from the Maryland State line. We drove over to Forbes State Forest and hiked 1.8 miles on the Mt. Davis High Point Trail built in the 1930’s by the CCC. The crowning achievement was reaching the highest point in the state, about 1.1 miles along the trail. At Mt. Davis at 3,213 feet, was a rock marking the highest point and next to it an observation tower built circa 1931. Fifty feet up or 80 steps later at the top of the tower we had great views of the state forest and surrounding Pennsylvania Laurel Highlands and south into Maryland. The forest trail on this hot, humid day had lots of gnats and insects so bug spray was needed often.

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FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 5, 2026

This somber memorial is a place to learn about the fourth aircraft that crashed on September 11, 2001, in a field near Shanksville, killing all aboard. Exhibits tell the story of that day and about the 40 passengers and flight crew members whose actions thwarted the al-Qaeda hijackers plan to fly their plane to a target in Washington, DC, most likely the US Capitol Building. After viewing the exhibits at the incredible visitor center, we hiked the 1.7-mile Western Overlook Trail past beautiful wildflowers down to the crash site and the Wall of Names.

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WORLD’S LARGEST MINERS BUCKET Miners Memorial Park, McConnelsville, Ohio

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 4, 2026

Near the southern end of Jesse Owens State Park at Miner’s Memorial Park sits “Big Muskie Bucket”, the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created. It was so big that, starting in 1967, it had to be built on site at the mine. Two years, 300+ railcars and 250 truckloads of materials later, the 240-ton digging machine was finished, and it began coal production. The big scoop could grab 325 tons of earth at one time in a single scoop. It ran 24 hours a day, 364 days a year, until its last usage in 1991. In one photo, a local high school band fits entirely into the big bucket.

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MUFFLER MAN Richmond, Indiana

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: June 21, 2026

At the Uranus Fudge Factory (store #3), management recently added a 20-foot-tall lumberjack holding an axe as well as adding four giant moving dinosaurs behind the building. Inside, I purchased some delicious fudge and some blue ice cream before tackling the revolving tunnel which made us dizzy.

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STORY BOOK FOREST Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Nick, Jacque, Elizabeth & John Kelly

Date: June 13, 2026

Opened in 1956, this small amusement park is a land of fairy tales featuring characters from children’s stories and nursery rhymes. I haven’t been here since around 1960, so I enjoyed just as much as the grandkids each scene or house. Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were my favorites.