Follow me around the world
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: September 2, 2026
Called the “Glass City River Wall”, twenty-eight silos are painted using 3,500 gallons of paint incorporates sunflowers and portraits of three Native Americans, a salute to the indigenous people of the area.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 11, 2026
This 18-foot-tall Coffee Pot was built in 1927 and began as a café (next to a gas station) and then a bar. It sits along the “Lincoln Highway Corridor” on the grounds of the County Fairgrounds. Back in the Lincoln Highway era (1912-1940), entrepreneurs came up with creative approaches to draw motorists to their attraction. Looking through the front door, the inside of the pot was empty much to the disappointment of my wife who expected to purchase coffee there. Outside is a picnic table under a tree, a convenient spot for travelers to eat lunch and view this unique roadside attraction.
Exploration Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 6, 2026
Built circa 1833, this seven-sided toll gate house sits along the National Road, America’s first long distance highway. Two signs posted on the house show the toll fees charged to users for using the road for a wagon, carriage or type of animal. Almost $10,000 in tolls were received in the first year of operation. The toll collector earned $200 per year and free-living quarters.
Exploration Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 6, 2026
This small log cabin served as the headquarters for British Colonel George Washington during the French & Indian War. A ghost of George Washinton wearing a bicycle jersey appeared at the front door.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
