Category: Biking

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: September 13, 2025

We participated in the 15-mile Bike the Boro event which wound its way throughout the town. About 4.5 miles of the event were on two relatively new greenways that I had been wanting to bike. The Springboro Greenway section began at E. Milo Beck Park with six switchbacks taking us down a hill past two large parks and through a cooler, shady wooded area. Eventually the bike path, which ran parallel to Clear Creek, took us under I-75 and onto the Franklin Greenway section.

There were lots of bicycle-related booths and giveaways at the staging area plus free bicycle helmets which we got for Mallory and Elizabeth.  

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: August 23, 2025

After training all summer we successfully completed the 50-mile event along with over 1,200 cyclists. We pulled the travel trailer and camped at the beautiful Mt. Comfort KOA Campground. The bike tour day was cooler weather, and we enjoyed the countryside as the route took us along countless farms growing corn and soybeans. We occasionally saw cows, horses and llamas and very little car traffic. Our registration fee covered a free meal and drink as there was a small street festival, food booths and a band after the race. Returning to the KOA after the race I accelerated onto I-70 west and my truck conked out with a throttle issue. An Indiana State Highway Patrol Trooper took Rosie and Holly nine miles back to the campsite. Two hours later the AAA trick showed up and I had him drop me and the bicycles off at the campsite and he drove my truck 102 miles to the Centerville repair shop. We enjoyed a nice dinner around the campfire. The KOA had goats and horses that Holly fed. God blessed us as Sunday morning we found an Indianapolis Enterprise Rent-A-Car Shop open for a few hours. I took an Uber to Enterprise and rented a pickup truck to pull the travel trailer back safely to Moraine. Quite a challenging weekend but a fun, great bicycle ride.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: August 17, 2025

Today marked my five-year anniversary since my life-saving bone marrow transplant. In essence, it was my fifth birthday with my new immune system, and I now have all my baby/infant vaccinations. To celebrate we biked 20 miles in preparation for next weekend’s 50-mile bike ride in Indiana.

We began at Carillon Park and biked north on the Great Miami Valley Recreational Trail through Dayton and briefly on the Stillwater River Recreational Trail by Island Park. We continued north back on the GMVR Trail parallel to the Great Miami River. Eventually we biked past the now closed Kittyhawk Golf Course where we saw an eagle soaring overhead. This six-mile section of bike trail I have never gone on before. We came to some unexpected forest area where we saw a deer. Just before reaching the Taylorsville Metropark area, we turned around and headed back south.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: July 19, 2025

Rosie had us training for our upcoming 50-mile bike ride, so we put in 47 miles today beginning at Spring Valley on the Little Miami Bike Trail and heading north to Xenia. Just past the Xenia Station Bike Hub we turned east and headed to Jamestown on the Xenia to Jamestown Connector Trail and then on east toward Washington Court House along Shawnee Creek. We turned around just before the village of Octa near Rattlesnake Creek. We were quite surprised as this eastern trek was 90% tree covered.  Later on, the South Branch of Caesar Creek ran parallel to the bike trail for a few miles. We biked past lots of corn fields, deer, a few farm silos, and saw a parachuter landing at the nearby Greene County Airport (Skydive Greene County).

We had a surprise on the way back at Xenia Station about 38 miles into the ride. A “Friends of Xenia Station” group had free food and handouts. Against Rosie’s advice, I ate a free, delicious chili dog which “fueled” my final part of the journey. During the short stop, I climbed a spiral staircase to the top of Xenia station (a converted railroad station). Back outside I got my photo with a local “Ghostbusters” movie fan club posing by the field investigator vehicle and a green, slimy ghost. 

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 2, 2025

We camped at the Sandusky Bayshore KOA Campground then took the Miller Ferry from Catawba Island on the 25-minute ride across to the island. The small island had a dedicated bike path by the road for much of the island. Very few cars came by as most of the island visitors and residents traveled via golf carts. We biked about nine miles total, stopping for various roadside attractions, South Bass Island Lighthouse & Light Tower, and scenic views. We ate lunch at the “The Keys” overlooking Perry’s War Monument. Rosie had mahi mahi tacos, I had a delicious walleye Rueban capped with a Lake Erie Monster (pina colada, kiwi-strawberry Daiquiri and topped with Malibu rum). We biked over to the Memorial, to a very small state park, the harbor and around the island. We could look across the lake and see Canada in the distance.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 3, 2025

The 105-mile NCIT Trail crosses northern Ohio from Toledo to Cleveland, passing rural landscapes, historic sites and small towns. We biked 26 miles from Bellevue east to Norwalk (the Huron County Section) and back. The trail was a mix of hard dirt, gravel and paved. The route is a former railroad line. The first section of trail ran parallel to railroad tracks on the north and corn, soybean and wheat fields to the south. Eventually, we passed under tunnel-like areas of forests bordered by wide open fields. Between the railroad and the bike path were beautiful wildflowers filled with butterflies. In Monroeville we stopped at a railroad museum that served as a bike rest area. Near Norwalk we stopped at the scenic Huron River Overlook, a double trestle that crossed the river. A few miles from the end a sleek, long, black animal ran out onto the bike trail in front of us. It stood up on two legs, saw us and then scampered back into the woods. It was a mink. Later, at the end of the bike ride, I climbed on top of an army tank at the Bellevue VFW where we had parked.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: August 3, 2025

This one-mile trail traversed Veterans Memorial Lake Park and wrapped around three Norwalk Reservoirs where many people were fishing and picnicking. This trail connected with the Norwalk Multi-Use Trail and the North Coast Inland Bike Trail.

Biking Team: Rosie Miller, Dave Miller, Jacque Kelly, Holly Eller

Date: June 7, 2025

Okay, this is a route that we have peddled before, but it was Rosie’ 67^th birthday and that’s what she wanted to do. It was a fun 15-mile bike ride on two bike trails from downtown Dayton to Huffman Reservoir Dam along the Mad River and back. We saw lots of geese and their young babies. We enjoyed lunch at the Second Street Market. I felt good since I was recovering from a bad bicycle crash on our 26 mile ride a week before.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: May 12, 2025

Part of our 18-mile bicycle ride was a little over two miles on this trail that we have never biked before. We passed Island Metropark (the bandshell is on the left in Photo#1) and we biked northeast to Helena Street and back. We saw lots of turtles and dozens of families of geese with little baby geese.

Biking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: October 4, 2024

Back on the famous OTET (Ohio River to Lake Erie Trail) we knocked out another section of this 326-mile network of trails made mostly from land which were formerly occupied by railroads and canals. London is called Trail Town because this section of trail is also part of the U.S. Bike Route 50 (San Franciso to Washington DC), The Great American Rail-Trail (Washington state to Washington DC) and the Underground Railroad Route (Gulf of Mexico to Canada). We parked in downtown South Charleston next to an old train caboose, train engine and depot before bicycling east toward Columbus. Eleven miles later we stopped at the Prairie Grass Trailhead Park in London for water and had a short rest before biking back west to our truck. We had tree shade about 15% of the way biking mainly through rural areas and farmlands. The scenery didn’t change much but it was a pleasant ride on this 77-degree sunny day.