Blog- a.k.a My weird adventures

On a recent trip to Disneyland, I decided to air out some dirty laundry. I went to an old archaeological marvel on Main Street, U.S.A. Little do many people know it once was home to a lingerie shop. For this, I decided to bring in a bra expert and undies historian, Dr. Alicia DeRoma, to weigh in her expertise as a former intimate retail worker.  Hey, curiosity seekers! I’m Dr. Alicia, a.k.a. The Wandering Oddball’s Sister and former bra expert! I will be discussing a former D

We were in Downey because my mom was a huge fan of the music duo, the Carpenters. In the morning, we visited the childhood home of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Many people in the tour group stood in awe at what once was the residence of the famous singers. Downey, California, is known for many things. It is the hometown of Richard and Karen Carpenter, home to the first Taco Bell and even the home to the very first McDonald's! When it came around lunchtime, the tour bus took u

Years ago, I was reading the book Weird Ohio. One section discussed the mysterious happenings of a town called Helltown. The book also discussed hauntings, cult activities, and strange reasons involving the government that created the Boston Mills ghost town. A saw mill was built in 1821. Over the years a post office was built and private residences were set up. In 1974 the Cuyahoga National Parks purchased property from residents. Homes were left abandoned till demolished in

Back in 2022, I took a road trip around Toledo, Ohio. After taking a pit stop to the Oliver House for lunch in the center of downtown Toledo, I discovered a building that once housed a secret fraternity called Pythian Castle.  Pythian Castle was run by a fraternity called Knights of the Pythians. The organization was founded in 1864 by Justus H. Rathbone.  The fraternity has a hierarchy with three ranks: page, Esquire, and Knight. Well-known members include Louis Armstrong an

In 2021, while I was on my way to Naples, Florida, with my mom, we stopped in Tarpon Springs. The village consists of many Greek descendants and many Greek-themed restaurants and shops. It is known for harvesting sea sponges; there is even a statue dedicated to divers who collected them.  One of the local shops with a giant, beautiful ocean mural on the side of the building is the Tarpon Springs Sponge Factory. The shop has a large assortment of sea sponges, starfish, and sea

In October, when I was driving back from visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, I stopped in Harmony, PA. It’s a quaint little town with decorations that look like they came straight from Cracker Barrel. One of the houses was adjourned with a mustache, which made the windows look like two eyes.  Harmony Inn is a historic house owned by a well-known banker, railroad executive, and mill operator, Austin Pearce, in 1856. The house is also considered by historians to have been one of

Coauthor and photo credit: Alicia DeRoma In 2020, my mom, sister, and I visited Missouri to meet a long-lost relative. For this story, I enlisted my sister Alicia as a co-author because we shared the experience of encountering this oddity. She will tell the story today.  Greetings, fellow adventurers! I'm Alicia, sister to The Wandering Oddball, and I've got a tale to share about my unforgettable encounter with none other than The Christ of the Ozarks. We visited Missouri to

While researching dogs in northeast Ohio, I did some extensive digging and found something exciting but so obscure that only the website of this college or a few college-focused blogs talk about it. Lake Erie College is a small private college in Painesville, OH. I wanted to tell this story about a particular underdog.  Formerly an all-girls school, the college opened to women students, empowering them through education. Many women's rights advocates who attended there partic

To help out with Dog Month, I thought I would get a dog’s input on some weird locations. I turned to the most reliable consultant: my dog Roxie. Roxie is a tiny Toy Fox Terrier with a curiosity as big as her stomach. This five-pound squirt will show us some interesting places around Northeast Ohio.  Tim Willis Junkyard Playground Roxie and I decided to wander into the Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Through the fence, she spotted a sizable metallic dog with its owner

This story is for all of the Yorkie lovers out there, including you, mom! Down in the Cleveland Metroparks, there is a memorial with a statue of a small dog in a helmet proudly looking up. The statue is adorned with flowers, beads, sticks, and poker chips from people who have paid their respects for the tiny pouch. Engraved on the monument reads "Smoky-Yorkie Doodle Dandy and Dogs of All Wars." In World War 2, an American soldier found a small Yorkie Terrier taking refuge in

In March, the Iditarod kicks off with sled dog teams racing each other to the finish line. I first heard about the Alaskan tradition when I was in second grade. My teacher assigned everyone a sled dog team to follow. In addition, we also listened to the song   I did, I did The Iditarod Trail  song.   Every few years in school, my class read stories about sled dogs. These included  Wood Song, Call of the Wild , and White Fang.   There was once a case where dogs had to race as

In mid-October 2021, I took a road trip in southern Ohio. While on the highway, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye that made me get off on an exit right away- the Longaberger Basket Building. I was familiar with the company as my mom loved collecting their baskets, and I was familiar with the headquarters building being a giant basket. There was an empty parking lot with weeds growing through the cracks where I parked and took photos of the building.  Dave Longab

In Cleveland, an aquarium currently occupies a building that used to be the FirstEnergy Powerhouse. After it closed as a powerhouse, the building was occupied by businesses over the years. When I was young, my dad took me to an arcade in the basement of the building when we missed a Cleveland Baron’s game (before Lake Erie Monsters existed). On January 19, 2012, it became the home of the new Cleveland Aquarium. HOWEVER, did you know there used to be a smaller Cleveland Aquari

Ahh…. Valentine's Day. It's just a few days around the corner, and I thought I would share some ghost stories to help lighten the mood. Yes, ghost stories. These stories have it all: romance, betrayal, and murder! You could use These lovely tales as icebreakers for your Valentine's date.   Disclaimer: The Wandering Oddball is not responsible for any changes in your love life (i.e., no second dates, ghosted, break-ups, divorces, or restraining orders). If you decide to tell th

You are probably familiar with the whale as it is used as a background for The Wandering Oddball website. Today, I would like to delve into its origin story.  On a dull Saturday in March 2022, I was randomly messing around with Google Maps. A pin icon on a map showed an amusement park nearby called Mother Goose Land. When I clicked on it, it showed photos of a park and some unusual things. One of them was a whale where people could walk in the mouth. The park was located in C

In 2018, I had just started getting into photography. Before the Canon 6D, I was using the Canon T5 Rebel. My mom, my sister, and I also visited Key West, Florida that summer. I was keen on practicing my photography skills, so I decided to minor in photography. Around Key West, I took photos to hone my skills for the following semester.  One of the places we visited was the well-known Ernest Hemingway house. Ernest Hemmingway was a well-known author of books, including  The O

Naples, Florida and the surrounding areas, such as Bonita Springs, are home to many stores and vacation homes, with something being built all the time. Seeing the business of Florida, many would be surprised to learn it was sometimes different, especially years ago. Naples was a quieter area in the 1930s-1970s, with a few quaint setups. If you were to ask a long-time resident what Naples was like before the 1980s, they would tell you it was covered in green or mangroves. Some

Warning:  This story may not be for the squeamish. St. Augustine, Florida, is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Some parts of the city feel like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. It is also home to the alleged fountain of youth (I might do a future story on it. Today, however, I want to tell a story in a small cemetery called Tolomado Cemetery. Out of all the cemeteries there, it is the one that piques my interest the most. The well-kept cemetery is only

Fellow curiosity seekers,  We gather here today to remember the Cape Romano Dome House. Constructed in 1980 and finished in 1982, the Cape Romano Dome house has been a source of oddity to locals and tourists. Many were fascinated with the abandoned house's design because it was out in the middle of the ocean (technically 300 ft from Morgan's Point), thanks to Mother Nature. Let us take a moment to reminisce about the Cape Romano Dome House. I remember this unusual home in 202

"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" It is an iconic line rings throughout households, especially around this time of year. A Christmas Story is about a boy and his family's misadventures around Christmas time. These range from Raphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) wanting a BB gun for Christmas and everyone telling him he will shoot his eye out (including a guy dressed like Santa) to the Bumpus' dogs ruining the turkey and the family having to go to a Chinese restaurant. Other memo

In 2001, a young Marisa watched a television show, “Scariest Places on Earth.” The television host was former child star Linda Blair from the movie The Exorcist . The show was narrated by Zelda Rubinstein, who played the spiritual medium in the movie The Poltergeist.   One of the episodes was about Westminster Hall, Burying Grounds, and Edgar Allan Poe’s spirit supposedly haunting the graveyard. I was probably too young to watch some of it because I was up after watching a fe

Located in Dublin, Ohio, on the outskirts of Columbus,  there is an unusual roadside anomaly called the Field of Corn. I was familiar with this place through the book Weird Ohio, and my dad also mentioned having a client living in that area. It was commissioned in the 1990s by the Dublin Art Council to cover 3 acres of Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park. Sam Frantz was the former owner of the property and one of the founding fathers of hybridizing corn.  I went there in February 202

I decided to create another blog post on Franklin Castle back to popular demand and to fill in some details I glossed over for the stories in the first post. The Deaths of the Teidemann Children So, to reiterate, Emma died in the winter of 1881 from diabetes. What stirred up stories of Hannes being a murderer was the fact she didn’t get buried until a couple of months later. People speculated that it was to cover up a heinous crime, but in reality, it was due to a lack of tec

It's one month till winter and I wanted to explore outside as much as possible, before I'm contained in my home from the Ohio weather. So it's twenty minutes from my apartment, in the Hinckley Reservation in Hinckley, Ohio, there is Worden's Ledge. What makes it a fascinating area is the fact that there are carvings carved into the rock. I first discovered it back in April while I was looking through Google. It was a lovely sunny morning and there was a mom with three little