Dave Miller's Adventures – wordpress.com
Follow me around the world
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 19, 2023
This bronze statue on BGSU campus has a 24-foot wingspan and is diving towards earth or any person standing below it. The statue weighs two tons and is reported to cost $100,000.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Justin Eller, Holly Eller
Date: August 13, 2023
The Wild’s is a private safari park and America’s Largest Wildlife Conservation Center consisting of zip lining, safari’s, and horseback riding. The Wild’s is home to rare and endangered species of animals from around the globe living in a natural, open-range habitat. We ziplined and took a bus safari where we saw up close bison, camels, giraffe, zebras, rhinoceros, deer and antelope.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Kelly
Date: June 4, 2023
We visited the famous Vent Haven Museum, home of ventriloquist dummies and memorabilia. Opened in 1973, the museum has been closed for a little over a year for renovation and expansion. The museum has over 1,300 dummies/figures displayed from the late 1880’s to modern times. Photographs and memorabilia are everywhere and special exhibits on Edgar Bergan, Paul Winchell, Shari Lewis, Darci Lynne, and Jeff Dunham highlighted the informative tour by curator Lisa Sweasy. Dunham especially has contributed much to the museum and a new addition – a small auditorium (the Jeff Dunham Theater) gave us a chance to get on stage with a dummy and try a line or two. I told a bald joke and got a laugh. Rosie and Jacque grabbed dummies and verbally sparred with each other. It was a fun time.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rick Washnock
Date: July 1999
I drove up to the University of Notre Dame campus where my fraternity brother Rick was working nearby for a couple of months. We visited South Bend’s most famous Roadside Attraction – the famed 134-foot-high mosaic called “Word of Life” depicting Jesus with his arms uplifted. Since it is visible from the Football Stadium, fans have nicknamed the mosaic “Touchdown Jesus”. I also visited the Golden Dome of ND, the old ND chapel and played the university golf course.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 31, 2023
We stopped in this food roadside attraction to grab breakfast before a day of hiking at New River Gorge National Park. The church dated back about 100 years and has been converted into a restaurant in this popular, small gorge/river town. The atmosphere was relaxing (we ate outside on the deck) and the food was healthy and delicious. Inside were beautiful stained-glass windows artwork, and hundreds of books lining the walls.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 31, 2023
When we finished our white-water rafting trips, we always exited the raft underneath this incredible bridge. The New River Gorge Bridge is 3,030 feet in length and was completed in October 1977. A travel challenge was solved. The bridge reduced a 40-minute drive down narrow mountain roads and across one of North America’s oldest rivers to less than a minute. The bridge was the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world for 26 years and is now the world’s fifth largest.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 30, 2023
Built in 1996, this free standing 38-foot-tall chest of drawer’s towers over neighboring houses. It has large brass handles, a pair of large socks hanging out and a cherry wood color. It replaces a similar structure called “The Big Bureau” (Photo #2) built in 1926 to promote the local furniture industry.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: August 30, 2023
Built in 1998, this Highboy Chest is 85 feet tall and 40 feet wide and three-sided. It was built in front of a large building.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller
Date: June 19, 2023
Yes, another famous historical roadside attraction. Carillon Historical Park is home to the Baltimore & Ohio #1 locomotive named the John Quincy Adams; the oldest-existing locomotive manufactured in the United States. Built in 1835, the big black steam powered train had a “grasshopper” engine because of the angle and movement of the large piston rods.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Eugene Miller
Date: May 29, 1964
One of my youngest roadside attractions was Henry Mullins alias, Henry Hite appeared as a promotion for Dorothy Lane Market. Promoted as the World’s Tallest Man at 8 foot 2 inches tall, he was not. He was 7’ 6 3/4”. Still, a giant man.
When I met Henry, I was nine years old. I was scared of him and almost started crying. He gave Dad and me a glossy photo of him with his name and height.
Some Henry Mullins facts: Henry’s wife was 5’3” tall. He wore size 22 shoe. He had 5 brothers and 7 sisters all under 5’11” tall. At age 18 we performed a vaudeville act along with a midget and a regular sized man. Hite appeared in the 1965 horror movie, Monster A-Go-Go as a tall monster. He often toured the country promoting Corn King, a meat packing company. One Google Search list had Henry Hite ranked as the 119th tallest person ever in the world just behind NBA star Manute Bol.
