The building of this beautiful basilica began in 1891 and finished in 1905 to house the growing parish community, the growing community of monks and the growing prep, college and seminary communities. The 55-foot-tall double spires were added in 1999. The church grandly stands out above all of the college’s other buildings and looks quite majestic, overlooking the Pennsylvania foothills. Inside the architecture and stained-glass windows are beautiful and the choir’s voices echo throughout the facility during mass.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Nick, Jacque, Elizabeth & John Kelly
Date: May 14, 2026
A sculpture of Optimus Prime, leader of The Transformers, stands in front of a local business. I nicknamed the robot, Randy the Rust Belt Robot, smaller than the huge movie namesake but still hats off to the sculptor/welder who used gears, chains, sprockets and other parts to create him.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Nick, Jacque, Elizabeth & John Kelly
Date: May 14, 2026
Located outside of a tire service business, this Muffler Man has been through a lot. Painted as a Pittsburgh Steeler football player, he lost his head in a storm in 2009. After years of being headless, the head was reattached and he was painted as Paul Bunyan. One of the people in the photo is Mr. Roadtripper himself Nick, and the creator of my Dave Miller Adventures website.
Latrobe is the hometown of TV star Fred Rogers, whose children’s show ran for 33 years. A statue of him sitting on a park bench in downtown Latrobe wearing his famous sweater and gym shoes. Engraved in the circular walkway is “You Are Special”. We took turns getting our photo taken sitting next to the statue. We then visited his mausoleum at the Unity Cemetery. Next door at St. Vincent College, the institute houses over 22,000 personal artifacts of Mr. Rogers.
One of four beautiful falls in this forest, the .8 mile up and back trail ascends through thick forest. There are 2 views of the falls, one at the base, where you can only see the bottom falls, and a second upper overlook that lets you view the entire falls. Triple Falls is a 125-foot waterfall and flows on the Little River through the forest. It is a very beautiful waterfall.
The first ever banana split was created here in 1904 by a pharmacist David Strickler and sold here at the pharmacy. This giant, ten-foot-wide banana split sculpture was created by local Latrobe High School students.
This large 25-foot gas pump statue is located on the grounds of the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum. In the museum is a 1937 Packard, a restored tourist cabin, restored diner, old gas pumps and other vintage items. A film talks about the history of this famous road. Next door is an 1830’s former house of Pennsylvania Governor William Johnston (1848-1852).
There’s nothing quite like a food roadside attraction offering mouthwatering novelties. Lynn’s, located along the famous Lincoln Highway, offers gourmet beef hotdogs and homemade toppings. The menu offers over 11 specialty hot dogs, sandwiches, smashed potatoes, nachos, several sides and desserts. We had Hawaiian dogs loaded with toppings. It was delicious.
There is an urban legend associated with a mausoleum of Adler Rawlings at this cemetery, so on a recent trip I stopped by the cemetery to investigate. The cemetery was enclosed with a decorative stone wall and wrought iron fence. Established in 1873, the cemetery fell into disrepair and was a major hangout area for homeless people in the 1950’s and 1960’s and in the 1970’s for teenagers and delinquents.
As the lore of Dr. Rawlings, he was prominent in the medical profession and as a resident and passed away in 1948. His mausoleum was quite expensive and had brass gates. In 1972, teens broke the brass gates and entered the mausoleum. It is said that over time they used the mausoleum as a clubhouse and vandalized the inside. Eventually, the gang opened the casket and threw the casket, and Dr. Rawlings remains outside. Legend has it that some of the youth played golf using the doctor’s skull and leg bones. The next day police and workers retrieved the good doctors’ remains and the casket and replaced them in the mausoleum, sealing it shut. Dr. Rawlings skull remained missing.
The urban legend is that Daytona Beach residents have seen at night a shadow figure of a man without a head walking on the street or in the cemetery. For my investigation, I walked through the entire cemetery from the Main Street entrance on the south to the Auditorium Blvd entrance on the north. Locals use the main cemetery path as a cut-through route.
The cemetery is now well kept and police patrol the area. The entrance gates are locked every day by 4pm. I located the Rawlings Mausoleum, took photos and did several EVP’s without obtaining any evidence. Even in the bustle of the traffic and people at the nearby Ocean Center, parking lots, auditorium and waterpark, I can see this small cemetery still being quite creepy at night. Yet, no night investigation is possible due to the security.
Kayak Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Marylee Dunphy, Maria Riley
Date: May 15, 2026
At Tomoka State Park, we departed from the Tomoka Outpost and paddled north on the Tomoka River. Rosie and I were in a double kayak while Maria and Mary Lee had single kayaks. The water was smooth and the weather was sunny and 74 degrees. As we paddled around the north end of the land mass we passed where the former native American Timucuan village of Nocoroco once stood. Through the thick trees we could barely see the upstretched arms of the giant statue of Chief Tomokie (Photo #4). Before reaching the Halifax River, we turned right into an inland stream and kayaked south around Helicopter Island. We did not see any manatees or alligators, but saw a few turtles, an egret and a blue heron. After looking for wildlife, we turned around and paddled back to the outpost.
Before leaving the park, we hiked over to the forty-foot tall Chief Tomokie statue, built in 1955. The statue shows the chief defending the area atop a wall surrounded by warriors.
Later that day, not in the river but nearby in the Atlantic Ocean, we had an up-close encounter in the water with Portuguese Man of War jellyfish (Photo #5).
To top of the exciting day, looking south towards Camp Kennedy, we saw in the distance a Space X rocket launch (Photo #6).
