Follow me around the world
Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: May 2017
After a 32-mile bicycle ride on the bike path we returned to the Boston Mill Visitor Center, locked up our bikes, hiked past Lock 32 and began a 3-mile hike on the Buckeye Trail. The trail went up and down small hills through thick woods and past narrow ravines. A mile into the hike we came to beautiful Blue Hen Falls. After a break watching the water cascade down, we finished the remainder of the hike through the woodland habitat.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller
Date: May 8, 2009
Fenway Park is home to the Boston Red Socks professional baseball team. Opening in April 1912, it is the oldest stadium and the most famous in Major League Baseball. I attended a game there with a half dozen Moraine co-workers between Boston and the Tampa Bay Rays which the Red Sox won 7 to 3. I was really excited to see the infamous Green Monster, the nickname of the high left field wall. The high wall prevents home runs on many line drives that would clear the walls of other ballparks. Down in the bowels of the stadium beneath the seating, I went to get a sandwich and drink. The interior looked so nostalgic, historic and old, reminding me of what a ballpark would have looked like in 1938 and 1939 when my father played pro baseball. Outside the ballpark for a block or two, auto traffic was totally restricted so that fans could walk out and safely hog the streets to visit the many neighborhood bars and restaurants for aftergame dining and partying.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller
Date: March 4, 2022
Here is another of the famous fiberglass roadside attractions that are randomly scattered across our country, this one is dressed as a cowboy and is at the entrance to a popular flea market. He is muscular on top but needs to lift more weights with his legs.
Investigation Team: Dave Miller
Date: July 22-23, 2022
While visiting relatives, I was told by a woman we will call RS, that a child’s doll named Woody from the movie “Toy Story” has caused the family a fright. Twice the doll spoke words all by itself without being touched by a human hand. During my investigation it did not speak on its own. It was rather eerie looking, sitting under a table in the corner. There is no battery in the doll. So, is this doll possessed or did the voice mechanism just malfunction? The family will continue to monitor the doll and keep me posted if anything unusual occurs.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: June 16, 2022
This water tower is painted like a UFO spaceship with aliens looking out the windows. At night it is lit up with landing lights and is very impressive. I wish I could have gotten a closer photo. I also wish I had a fuel-efficient flying saucer because gas prices just west of here spiked to $5.26 per gallon.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: June 18, 2022
At over one million acres, this is the largest national grassland in the USA. Located in western North Dakota, it is a mixed grass prairie with both long and short grass along with beautiful badlands, rugged terrain eroded by water and wind. The Little Missouri River meanders through a part of the grassland.
Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Debbie Miller
Date: July 30, 2022
We parked at the canoe launch where we put in our four canoes and begun many kayak trips south on the Little Miami River to Bellbrook. At this site we began hiking the River Loop Trail which ran parallel to the river for 2.4-miles before looping back. The shaded trail was flat, sometimes tight with overgrown trees and bushes. We saw lots of squirrels. We connected with the 1.1-mile Big Woods Loop Trail which took us out of the trees and into a meadow. We then connected with the .7-mile Sugar Bush Loop Trail and on the way back we branched off and ascended up onto the .8-mile Vista Loop Trail. Someone had put sunglasses on a tree which made it look like a face. When finished we had hiked just over five miles.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Kelly, Holly Miller
Date: June 10 & 11, 2016
We enthusiastically tackled this popular Ohio roadside attraction which has 15 movie location sites from the popular 1993 Academy Award nominated movie, “The Shawshank Redemption”. Eleven of the sites are in Mansfield. We found several movie sites as we ran the Shawshank Hustle 7K Run such as the Brewer Hotel, the pawn shop window, and Brook’s bench. We found several more film sites visiting the Ohio State Reformatory Prison. The night before the race they showed the “Shawshank Redemption” movie at the prison central guard room and cafeteria where a scene from “Air Force One” movie starring Harrison Ford was filmed. The next day after the race we toured the prison and saw five rooms used – Brooks & Red’s Room, wardens office with the safe, parole board room, and posed with many cut-out figures of the characters. We saw several original props including the escape tunnel. We met actor Scott Mann, who is in the movie’s opening scene, and I bought a beautiful 20th anniversary poster of the movie that he created.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller
Date: August 9, 1974
Completed in 1922 to honor our 16th President Abe Lincoln, I viewed the monument in the evening on the night that President Richard Nixon resigned. The national news media and crowds were focused over at the White House, so a friend and I had the Monument all to us. We sat on this quiet summer night to observe the carving of Abe sitting in his majestic chair all lit up by spotlights. My photo disappeared over time, so I thank my son-in-law Justin for recently taking this photo for me.
Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: March 1, 2023
It was 72 degrees on this rare warm, beautiful Ohio winter day so we drove to the Caesars Creek State Park Visitor Center at the southwest corner of the park. We hiked north along the 14.2-mile perimeter loop trail often catching beautiful glimpses through the trees of Caesars Creek Lake. We hiked 2.9 miles to the day lodge and then 2.9 miles back. The moderately challenging rolling trail took us up and down tree covered hillsides and rises.
