Follow me around the world
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Holly Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller
Date: April 2006, April 2008
The iconic steamboat vessel from the 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn has been moored since 1982 next to Holiday Inn. The boat was built in 1912 & has been restored & is available for daily cruises. We see it every time we head to the dive shop.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller
Date: 1987 & July 13-14, 2003
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is my favorite movie of all time. We camped at the KOA Campground in our pop-up camper just outside of the park (Photo#1). Every night the campground shows the “Close Encounters of a Third Kind “ movie on a big screen outside. Sitting in my camping chair I could watch the movie then turn to the side and look up at the real Devil’s Tower. What a fantastic setting. The only thing missing was UFO’s flying by.
Located in the Black Hills region, the famous Devil’s Tower rises 1,267 above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 867 feet from base to summit.
The next day we hiked the 1.3 mile Tower Trail going off trail many times to climb the boulder field, large rocks (Photo#2) that have fallen from the tower. The kids noticed cloths wrapped around many trees. The park ranger told us these are spiritual cloths placed there by Native Americans. Afterwards, we visited the Devil’s Tower Trading Post where I bought Close Encounter movie t-shirt, key chain and a stuffed buffalo for Holly. Just off the park road was a small prairie dog city where we enjoyed watching and taking photos of dozens of prairie dogs as well as watching the Wyoming state bird, the meadowlark.
Why the strange shape of the tower? Geologists fell that magna from the Earth’s mantle welled up between chunks of sedimentary rock. Devil’s Tower is a sacred place for many Plains Indians and a favorite location for rock climbers. I want to return some day and kayak the Belle Fourche River.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller
Date: July 12, 2003
Just like Tombstone, Arizona, this was a great wild west town. The entire city has been designated a National Historic Landmark District. Although it only has a population of 1,300 today, back in the 1800’s Deadwood was known for its lawlessness, murders were common, and justice for murders were not always fair and impartial. Deadwood is also known for its gold rush history and for gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok who was killed on August 2, 1876.
We camped at the Deadwood KOA Campground located on a hill overlooking Main Street. We visited Mount Moriah Cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. At the local museum we saw a large gold nugget and a dinosaur plesiosaur fossil. Deadwood has lots of casinos and Rosie dropped a nickel in a slot machine and won $20 in nickels. Matt and I visited the historic haunted Bullock Hotel, talked to the desk clerk and headed upstairs to the haunted rooms and hallway but saw nothing.
There were constant gunfights in the streets with actors portraying lawmen or bandits. Shane wore his western clothes, bandanna, toy gun belt and gun and fit right in. We got tickets to the “Trial of Jack McCall” both a comedy and historical play. The play began at a local saloon where, during a poker game, McCall shot and killed Wild Bill Hickok. As the sheriff paraded the actor portraying McCall down Main Street to the theater, all of us ticket holders walked with them. Once in the theater the “trial” began. It was very entertaining and we met the western actors afterwards.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller
Date: 1987 & July 10-11, 2003
The heads of four Presidents are a massive sculpture carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. It was completed in 1941 under the direction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln. The granite faces of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt are 60 feet high. The sculpture is a symbol of American freedom and the hope for people from all cultures and backgrounds.
We hiked the half mile Presidential Trail which took us past the amphitheater and in front of the carvings giving us the closest look at the four heads. We strolled down Avenue of the Flags where a flag for every USA state and territory was flown. We browsed through the gift shop and then enjoyed ice cream from Carver’s Ice Cream Shop. Exiting the ice cream shop we literally ran into President Abraham Lincoln….not his ghost but a portrayer. The man impersonating Abe was about 6 feet 4 inches tall, wore a big stove top hat and dressed just like the former President. He talked to all of the kids except Matt who was scared of him. Matt said he looked 8 feet tall and didn’t want to go near him.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller
Date: July 2003
After caving and camping at Mammoth Cave, we stopped by President Lincoln’s 1809 birthplace. The symbolic one room log cabin on his father’s Sinking Spring Farm is housed inside a Neo-Classical Memorial Building. It reminds us of Lincoln’s humble beginnings and what you can achieve through hard work.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller
Date: July 10, 2005
Just off Route 66 and I-40 is perhaps the best-preserved meteor crater on Earth. This National Landmark is the largest impact crater is almost one mile wide, 2.4 miles around the rim and 570 feet deep. The meteor hit 49,000 years ago. At the site is a fabulous movie theater, discovery center & mineral shop. We hiked the outdoor observation rim trail where I acted like Holly pushed me & I fell over the rim and climbed back up. The movies “Starman”, “Meteor” & “Damnation Alley” were filmed here. The kids loved the crater.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: September 20, 2019
This National Monument in northeastern New Mexico is an extinct cinder cone volcano rising 2,494 feet high and part of a 8,000 square mile volcanic field. As we were many miles away, the cone rises majestically in the distance. You can see four different states from the one mile rim trail and great for stargazing.
Hiking Team: Rosie Miller, Dave Miller
Hiking Date: 1977, 2014, 2019
It’s not every day you can lay down on the ground and have your body be in three states at one time. I first visited here during my college years in 1977 when it was designated a state park. Today it has national historic park status. To reach this area where Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee all come together at one point, one must hike 1.7 miles on the winding and challenging Wilderness Road Trail and the Tri-State Trail. After finally cresting a large wooded hill the trail comes to a small shelter house. Under the shelter is concrete indicating the spot called Tri-State Peak where all three states touch. We took turns getting our picture taken laying on top of the spot.
The Cumberland Gap was made famous by explorer Daniel Boone whose party discovered the gap in 1769 in the dense, wooded mountains and paved a way to go north into Kentucky.
