Month: August 2020

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HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK SPA Hot Springs, Arkansas

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: October 12, 2019

We took a fascinating tour of the NP Visitor Center & History Museum, formerly one of the therapeutic spas. called the Fordyce Bath House. Opened in 1915, The Fordyce Bath House in 1915, had the best reviews rating it as the best along the Hot Springs row. The three story spa plus basement cost $212,000 to build. The tour gave us a personal insight of the spa back then in all its glamour.

The first floor baths (Photo#1#3 &#4) were all marble floors with a stained glass ceiling. The second floor contained dressing rooms and private massage rooms (Photo#6). Electro-therapy was once considered part massage therapy (Photo#7). The third floor contained a music room with a grand piano plus gymnasium that gave us a glimpse of the today’s modern heath club. The basement contains an original Otis elevator and a view of the Fordyce Hot Spring that runs under the bath house.

An interesting historical note – Photo #5 shows Mercury Rubbing (Massage) Rates. Yes, they used to give therapeutic mercury rubs not knowing the horrible effect it would have on the body. In the old days mercury was used in making hats and would drive some men crazy – hence the phrase “Crazy as a Mad Hatter”.

We camped at the Hot Springs KOA Campground. That night it dipped to 39 degrees, perfect for roasting marshmellows over our campfire. the gymnasium, the forerunner of modern gym.

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MISSION SAN XAVIER DEL BAC CHURCH Tucsan, Arizona

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Date: October 6, 2019

Rosie & I camped at the Tucson KOA then attended Catholic Mass at the historic Mission San Xavier del Bac, an old Spanish Mission built in 1797.  This church was beautiful outside and inside and looked it could be in a western movie scene. There was no air conditioning and the acoustics were not very good. The mass was great with some of it in Spanish. The parishioners were 50% of Spanish/Mexican descent.

In the back of the church we were shown an old original door with the date 1797 (Photo#7)). Inside was intricate, beautiful carvings, paintings, statues and a mummy of an alleged Spanish Saint. This was an oddity to me as parishioners would file by the mummy (Photo#8), kiss and give the mask over the face and give the sign of the cross or they would raise the mummy’s head and do the same thing. Outside just east of the church was a trail leading up a hill that had a white cross on top (Photo#9). On top of the church I saw a large hawk next to the cross (Last Photo).

After mass we ate delicious Mexican burritos sold outside at booths by parishioners.

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VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK BEE HIVE TRAIL Nevada

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Date: September 30, 2019

We drove to Beehive Trail and soon viewed petrified logs, white domes & sandstone formations shaped like…beehives, which were eroded by wind & water. We hiked the .5-mile trail and climbed some rock formations. The parks name came from the way the sunlight hits the red sandstone and gives it a glow.

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JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK HALL OF HORRORS TRAIL Twenty-nine Palms, California

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: October 4, 2019

The trail name implies terror and in a way it got scary but this trail was fun and dangerous. After a short dirt trail walk from the parking lot the trail became a mass of rocks with climbs, squeeze-throughs and crawl-throughs. As you can see in Photo #1, often the rock trail was on diagonal rocks making the climb, walk or crawl challenging but fun. Some of the rocks extended quite high so it is not for the average inexperienced person.

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JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK SKULL ROCK TRAIL Twenty-Nine Palms, California

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie, Miller Expedition Date: October 4, 2019

We hiked three trails at the park.  My favorite was the 1.7 mile Skull Rock Nature Trail.  Skull Rock is a skull shaped desert granite rock formation with two depressions like eye sockets created by erosion.  We climbed many nearby granite rocks of various heights to get desert views.  The large rocks often took on various shapes like the Teeth of Skull Rock (Photo#4) and The Praying Hands (Photo#8). Along the trail at intervals for informational signs placed at various desert shrubs, flowers and rock formations.  One interesting wild desert plant was Red Top Buckwheat.

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BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK HORSE TRAIL RIDE Bryce City, Utah

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: September 25, 2019

I felt like a real cowboy. We rode horses at daybreak from Sunrise Point on the rim down 1,000 feet to the canyon below.  During the 90 minute ride we viewed hoodoos (irregularly eroded rock spires) up close.  The hoodoos (Photos #5-#8) ranged in size from ten feet tall to a 10-story building. Indians thought these hoodoos were Evil Legend People who were turned to stone by the powerful Coyote Spirit.

Red River was the name of my horse. Our guide Chauncy, lived nearby and only had 130 teens total in his high school. Down in the canyon the temperature was 20 degrees warmer than the rim as the sun rose. On the horse trail we passed Praying Woman Rock (Photo #7), Naked Woman Arch (Photo #8), juniper and pine trees.  There are no waterholes in the canyon in the summer due to the heat. Lastly, if you ever heard the expression “Go shovel some shit”, well Photo#10 shows you that there are job opportunities for that line of work.

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MOONVILLE TUNNEL HIKING TRAIL Vinton County, Ohio

Expedition Team: Nick Kelly, Jacque Kelly, Holly Eller, Rosie Miller, Dave Miller, Matt Miller, Breanna Miller Date: June 2020

The advertised 18 mile Rail to Trail was a huge disappointment as the bike/hike trail was only about 1.25 mile long as collapsed train trestles over creeks were yet to be made into trail bridges. The parking lot was small and there were no portajohns. We hiked east  to the across Racoon Creek to Moonville Tunnel which was only a quarter of a mile from the parking lot. We climbed up old concrete stairs to the top of the tunnel and did the famous “O-H-I-O” pose.  Your voice echoed loudly inside of the haunted tunnel.  Outside of the tunnel the bike/hike path turned from smooth to large gravel and ended in a creek where the railroad bridge was gone and only the stone abutments remained.  Matt & Holly climbed up onto a fallen tree. Many large monarch butterflies flew around us and we waded across the creek on a treacherous stone path.  The overgrown hiking trail led us another quarter mail to another creek without a bridge where we explored and then turned back around. Nick, Jacque and baby Kelly posed by Moonville Tunnel.

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MOONVILLE TUNNEL BIKE TRAIL Vinton County, Ohio

Expedition Team: Nick Kelly, Jacque Kelly, Holly Elter, Rosie Miller, Dave Miller

Date: June 2020

The advertised 18 mile Rail to Trail was a huge disappointment as the bike trail was only about 1.25 mile long as collapsed train trestles over creeks were yet to be made into trail bridges. Nick coined it best -“Rail Trail Fail”.  Actually, it has great potential but needs a lot of funding and work including a larger parking lot and portajohns. Moonville Tunnel was only a quarter of a mile east from the parking lot with a decent trail.  Outside of the tunnel the bike path turned from smooth to large gravel and ended in a creek. Several large monarch butterflies flew around us and one butterfly landed on Dave’s bike helmet.  It stayed on it for minutes even when dave walked back up the hill to his bike.  He felt the butterfly was Shane saying hi to his family.  Nick led us back along the bike trail to the parking lot and then west.  Less than a quarter mile later a large downed tree blocked the bike trail.  We walked another 50 yards only to find a creek with no bridge over it as the railroad bridge was no longer there.

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SOUTHERNMOST POINT IN USA Key West, Florida

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Date: July 2011

We bicycled over to this historical Roadside Attraction that marks the southernmost point in continental USA.  It is an anchored concrete buoy.  The buoy is 18 feet above sea level located at the corner of South Street & Whitehead Street not far from where Florida State Route 1 ends.