Category: Roadside Attractions

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Date: 2001

It’s a bird, It’s a plane, It’s the Miller’s pulling their pop-up camper…No It’s..Superman!  Returning from a two week camping vacation out west I surprised the family by swinging by the small Ohio River town of Metropolis (population 6,500) to visit the Superman Super Museum & Gift Shop located at Superman Square in downtown. Opened in 1993, the museum has over 70,000 comics, toys, shirts, movie & TV props & costumes, promotional items and other Superman memorabilia. Since I grew up reading Superman comics and watching the TV series this was a must stop for me. The town square had a huge Superman statue. Outside of the museum we posed for many photos behind fake Superman costumes. The whole family enjoyed browsing through the museum and looking at all the items. This is a must see Roadside Attraction.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Expedition Date: June 2016

This town is the Roadside Attraction. On the way back from Florida we swung by Mt. Airy where actor Andy Griffith was born.  The town of 10, 300 people is believed to have been the basis for Mayberry, the setting of the TV shows “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Mayberry RFD”. Mt. Airy had Floyd’s Barber Shop, Opie’s Candy Store, Aunt Bea’s Restaurant, Ford Galaxy police cars, a museum with Andy Griffith collectables and Barney’s Cafe where they serve a Barney Burger. If you like the Andy Griffith Show, this will be a memorable stop.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: September 2013

Looking for a romantic Roadside Attraction? On our way to Sioux City to watch Matt play a college football game we stopped by the small rural town of Winterset, the birthplace of John Wayne and also the setting for the blockbuster 1995 Clint Eastwood – Meryl Streep movie “The Bridges of Madison County”. We visited a local bar, park and downtown square where many movie scenes were shot. Rosie lay in the park at the stone bridge and on the stone bridge (Photo #2 & #3) where Clint & Meryl Streep lay. Rosie sat on the bar stool that Clint Eastwood sat on at the Northside Cafe (Photo#4).

Since Madison County has the largest group of covered bridges that exist in one area in the western half of the Mississippi Valley, we drove to three of the bridges including one that was used in the movie. The Roseman Covered Bridge (Photo #5 & #6) was built in 1883 and is mentioned frequently in the novel and in the movie. I had to get my Rosie posing on the “Rose”man Bridge.

There is a paranormal slant to the bridge. In 1892, two sheriff’s posses trapped a county jail escapee on the bridge.  It is said that the man rose straight up through the roof of the covered bridge, uttered a wild cry and then disappeared. He was never found and it was decided that anyone capable of such a feat must be innocent. Locals thus deemed the covered bridge haunted. We found the old bridge beautiful and peaceful with a gentle stream flowing underneath. Sounds like nothing more than an urban legend.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: 1991

I was in town to run the Los Angeles Marathon and had two days to explore the city before the race. I drove 100 miles northeast of LA up into higher country to the town of Victorville. As a kid growing up I watched Roy Rogers TV shows and western movies. Roy had a ranch nearby and a museum just off the interstate. The museum displayed everything about his life from comic books, western toys, records, clothing, photos, movie memorabilia even his horse Trigger and his dog Bullet. I spend two hours reading and viewing the exhibits. I just missed meeting Roy in person but purchased several comics and photos which he later autographed and mailed to me in Dayton. Although the museum no longer exists, it was one of my favorite Roadside Attractions.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Holly Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: 2013

I watched Roy Rogers western TV shows and movies since I was a kid. While in Portsmouth for the Roy Rogers Festival we traveled out of town into rural Ohio to Duck Run to visit his boyhood home. It is now a private residence but still cool to see. Holly is a big Dale Evans fan so we bought a few comic books and movie posters at the festival.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller

Date: July 6, 2003

After watching my first Minnesota Twins baseball game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, we traveled to Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.  Along the way we stopped by the small town of Blue Earth, birthplace of the ice cream sandwich. Standing in a field was a huge Roadside Attraction, a 55 foot tall Jolly Green Giant. Made of 8,000 pounds of green fiberglass, it was completed in 1979 and is the fifth largest free standing statue in the USA. We climbed into the base of the statue where you could pose standing between the Jolly Green Giants legs.  Matt had the movie camera and kept filming the Giant’s butt.  I found out later that the Blue Earth Fire Department would put an enormous red scarf on the giant neck every winter to keep it warm from the Minnesota cold.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Date: July 7, 2003

This Roadside Attraction is really corny. That is because the outside of the palace has fantastic, artistic corn murals. The building also has minarets and kiosks of Moorish design. The annual Corn Palace Festival is held each August to celebrate the end of the corn growing season. Inside, there are rooms for exhibits, dances, graduations, stage shows, proms and high school basketball games. But the big attraction is the outside murals that feature 12 different colors or shades of corn.  The theme and mural design is changed every year. Although there is really nothing inside to see, it is still worth a quick stop for photos. 

A block away we had lunch at a restaurant where Dave & Matt ate their first ever Buffalo Burger. It was delicious. We camped at the Mitchell KOA campground. That night we encountered a huge thunderstorm and, with the land being so flat for miles around, the lightning flashes were so bright they lit up our pop-up camper.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Date:   1988, June 2002

If you get within 100 miles of Chattanooga on I-75 south you start seeing the billboards “Visit Ruby Falls”. We did. We drove up winding Lookout Mountain to an old castle looking structure. Shane viewed Chattanooga and the valley below from the parapet. We bought tickets, rode an elevator down into the mountain 26 stories and exited into an underground cavern walkway through the mountain filled with various cave formations like stalactites and drapery formations.  After a long walk we heard rushing water but saw nothing. The guide flipped on colored lights and there was Ruby Falls, a series of cascading underground waterfalls totaling 145 feet. It was very spectacular, something we did not expect deep in the bowels of the mountain. Ruby Falls is the tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public in the USA.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Date: July 2002

We drove through Buffalo, New York across the border into Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada where we set up our pop-up camper for two nights at the Niagara Falls KOA.

We took a ride on the famous Maid of the Mist boat where we were given raincoats as the boat came very close to the falls and we were drenched in the mist.  Afterwards back on land, we took elevators down and then hiked through tunnels for a close up and wet view of the falls. Matt asked if we could rent barrels and go over the falls – that was quickly discouraged. On the Canada side we visited shops, a Hershey’s Chocolate Store where Jacque and Matt posed with a giant Hershey’s Kiss. The daughters got photos taken with the Royal Mounted Police.  A few miles down from the falls we boarded a Spanish aero car that traversed on a cable over the roaring Niagara River and back.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Expedition Date: August 18, 2000

Situated in Craighead Caverns, the Lost Sea is the USA’s largest and the world’s second largest non sub-glacial underground lake. We walked down a sloping pathway into the cave where we saw stalactites and stalagmites. The guide told use stories of some of the cave’s original occupants. Remains of a Pleistocene jaguar was found around one of the corners. We continued down to an area where the Confederates mined saltpeter and made gunpowder in the cave. The paranormal angle is there is a ghost of a Civil War Union spy who was caught while investigating the Confederates usage of the cave and subsequently killed. Matt (Photo#1) poses by the site where the ghost has been seen).

Finally, after a ¾ mile long journey, at the bottom of the cave was the highlight of the adventure. We loaded into a glass bottomed boat (Photo#2) powered by an electric motor and off we went across the dark, dimly lighted underground sea. The guide would turn on his flashlight and large, blind catfish would come to the surface where the kids fed them. The fish were very creepy looking with white scabs for eyes. This is a great Roadside Attraction.