Now... Officially... the Maryland Sellers

Our three member family may always be the Florida Sellers… but we spent some time in Utah, and in Montana, and now we’ve dropped anchor, at least for a little while, in Maryland. I never in my life would have imagined myself living here. I can see wanting to live in Montana, or Florida, or places like New York or Hawaii… but Maryland seems to be one of those states you kind of forget about when you think about the states. Do people walk into travel agencies and say, “Hey, what kind of deal can I get on a trip to Maryland??” Not that people even walk into travel agencies anymore, but I think people probably plan trips to DC. But we’re not in DC… we’re in Maryland. It’s like Delaware… or Arkansas, or New Mexico. I can’t even name a city in New Mexico. Santa Fe?? Whatever. So we’ve been here now for a little over a week, and I’m already scanning Google Maps for all of the cool places we can go! You see, Maryland actually has a lot going on, and it’s much different than I imagined.

Just today we went for a hike through the woods to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay. In Florida we went to all kinds of obscure parks and sites that I found on the map. And now we have a whole new state of random places to see! Seriously, I’m excited. And the great thing about Maryland when compared to Montana and Florida, is it’s incredibly small in land mass! Which means we can go somewhere, without driving all… day… long… like we had to in Florida. Every city in Florida was at least two hours apart, and the drive to the keys was killer. Here we can get to the beach in 45 minutes like we did today, or to downtown DC in just a little longer than that. And there are Civil War sites… everywhere! Just down the road from the house is Dr. Mudd’s farm. Yeah, that’s right… Dr. Mudd. Don’t know who he is? Well, that’s not surprising. But for a little history lesson, he was the guy who fixed John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after he blasted Lincoln and jumped from the stage in the Ford Theater (which is up in DC and on my list). I wanted to stop, but it was $5 per person, and I don’t have a job. And plus, it’s not even the site they killed Booth, that’s somewhere down in Virginia (I’d pay $5 for that… well, if I had a job… and $5, I would). So Becky is in for a real treat! She saw every fort in Florida… and there are like ten times the number of historic sites in this state!! So look forward to plenty of blog posts in the future about places you never knew you never knew.

Anyway, these photos are from Calvert Cliffs State Park on the bay. We took a little drive, and walked much farther into the woods than I anticipated, but all was good, and Paul made it back to the beach after a few months absence.


Bouncing on the log when he's supposed to be holding still for the picture! Come on, Paul... just for two seconds.


This looks familiar... but not exactly the same as Florida beaches... but what do you do?

Me and Paulie drove this playground tractor and tilled up some major land. Of course, he has to be the center of the picture... always pushing me out.

Great day, sunshine, water, boats, sand, all in all, pretty good. But stay tuned, because there is much more to come.

The Rest of the Journey

If I never have to drive across the country again… I’ll be sad. Ok, not really. It was a very, very long drive from Missoula to Waldorf. Not quite as far as it was to Jacksonville the last time, but still, a lot of time in the car. But Paul handled it like a champ. Becky, on the other hand, was a little tired of the whole car thing on the final day. I already posted a few pictures from when we stopped in Missouri, but here are a few more from along the way.


There's really not a lot of exciting places in South Dakota. Ok, there aren't any at all. But after driving hours and hours to get across that barren, desolate state, we stopped at the Corn Palace.

They redecorate it every year with new corn murals, and it was actually pretty cool. Plus it was free, which is normally an easy way to get me to stop.

Cousin Mason would have been in heaven with all this corn! We had popcorn, and it was quite awesome, if I say so myself.

After Missouri we all made the drive to Ohio, the land of Paul's ancestors (at least the Sellers family anyway). Here we had to see the Heart of Ohio, that is, Centerburg... the geographical center of the state. I lived here until I was three years older than Paul is now (so, five). But my mother and father decided to take us out west and raise us in that hardware store I mentioned a few posts ago... and so I remember very little of this place.

A few memories were brought to light during the visit, and they made it seem a lot bigger than it is today. We stopped at the old house, and took this photo opportunity by the brand new town sign. It was great to see it, if only for a couple of hours. Hopefully, since Ohio is not too far from us now, we'll get to make it back and spend a few days or something. The craziest thing was to think about what life may have been had we never moved. I'm sure the Miller kids will wonder the same thing if they ever make it back to visit Montana. And Paul? Will he ever go back to Jacksonville? Who knows? Hopefully we'll at least get back to visit... maybe go to the beach. Anyway, it was a good trip, and great to see a few things and a few people along the way. But next time... we're flying.

The Photo School Work

So after years of talking, and nagging about it, Becky finally made it to the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. And now it’s all over, and she successfully made it through! So here are just a few photos that she took along the way! Overall there is something like 3,000 or so that she took over the course of a couple months, so these really are… just a few.

The first set was taken for her final project. The theme was to capture images that displayed sound, so that when you see the photo, you hear it as well. So here you go:

This next set is just a few that I liked.

So there you go, and there you have it. She made it. Now there can be no excuse for her not to take more and more photos… right, Rebecca?

The Leftovers

I’ve had these pictures lying around for quite some time, just waiting for the right post to put them in, but that never came along. So here are just a few random shots I liked from our summer in Montana.

I'm lookin' down at you!

Holding tightly to the D around Brookie B.

Sportin' the tie dye with Grandpa Bill in the backyard.

Runnin' in the park with Grandma and Grandpa

Poor pitiful pitbull.

Don't tell my mother.

Spinning around and around on the Missoula Carousel.

Haha! But the sun is in my eyes!

Why the sad face? It's a ride!

Holy Kazoo, Great Grandma!

So there you go, now I can trash them off my desktop, as they will live on now in cyberspace for all time... or at least until they shut this blog down!

It's Miller Time...

As most of you know, we successfully made it across the country after a weeklong drive. But before I blog about Maryland or whatever else new we may do, I thought I’d better post a few pics from the journey.

We stopped at my sister’s house in Brookfield, Missouri along the way and stayed for a day. It was great to hang out with the Miller kids and watch the action in their practically Olympic size swimming pool! Seriously, they could hold swim meets in this thing! What an awesome thing to have growing up, I’m sure. We never had anything this cool as kids… we spent most of our time in a True Value hardware store, unloading bins of screws and bolts, and putting price stickers on rakes… somehow not as cool. Anyway, check it out.

So the Millers have it pretty good I’d say. Comparing it to their former home in Stevensville, Montana… they pretty much just dropped a few thousand feet in elevation. They still have a big section of land, far away from everything, down a country road. I’m not so sure about the whole ticks and snakes thing, but everything else seemed pretty good to me. And it was great to see them a little bit this summer… we’ll make sure that two years doesn’t pass again.

Adventure in the Black Hills

What could be better than a family reunion at a camp ground in South Dakota? I have no idea. But Paul and I sure had fun representing the Florida, uh… Montana, uh… Maryland, uh… Homeless branch of the Sellers family. For the first time in history all seven of the current Sellers grandchildren were present in the same location. This sort of thing will probably be a rare occasion, unfortunately. But it was a blast while it lasted!

Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Black Hills… we saw it all! I thought I would beat the other Sellers/Miller bloggers to the punch and get my pictures posted first. So here they are!

Now we just have to make this an annual event! But hopefully next time it can be somewhere a little warmer at night. Maybe?

This is the place to be this time of year...

Summer will always be my favorite part of Montana. Maybe it’s because the rest of the year here is so miserably cold or rainy… or maybe it’s just a beautiful place to spend the months of June through September. It’s hot and dry, but there’s not much better than watching the sun go down over the city while sitting on Mount Sentinel or Mount Jumbo on the M or the L trails. When I think about the summers in Montana I remember delivering (and destroying) wedding cakes for Safeway, driving with the T-tops off or the windows down (when my junk cars actually ran), helping pull up cat urine soaked carpet with the sweat pouring off my head and breathing in the burning forest fires, checking out all the same cars at all the same car shows, trampolines and millions of stars in the Big Sky, folfing through thousands of mosquitoes, finding a sausage in my tater at the Western Montana Fair, paintball and golf, greasy hands and the smell of transmission fluid, ice cold Mountain Dew from the cooler, bonfires and blackened hot dogs, taking the dogs to the river, and so much much more. Definitely the best place to spend a summer.

Oh, the hay fields and barb wire fences.

Guitar pickin' with the pit bull.

Paul was lost in the Montana desert, but his horse with no name must have died.

Playing Ms. Elly a tune, and wearing a hat too small, but necessary to protect my sensitive, balding head from the burning sun.

Catchin' the big one down at the pond. Reel 'em in Paulie!!

Times they are changing, and friends and family have long since gone from this place. But hopefully there will be reasons to visit Montana in the summer for years to come. Hopefully.