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Blogging Bugs Driving Geography History Nature Travel

Arcadia Or Bugs

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Yeah you read that title above right. It’s a play on words from my last 3 editions – “Highlands Hammock State Park Or Bust”. Let me explain:

5 weeks ago on May Day I drove north on U.S. 27, west on Florida State Road 64, south on U.S. 17, and west into the historic city of Arcadia Florida for my 3RD visit in a little over a year.

The occasion – the grand reopening and ribbon cutting ceremony of the John Morgan Ingraham House Museum of the DeSoto County Historical Society at the corner of North Monroe Avenue and Whidden Street.

I had previously visited the museum for the first time 14 months earlier on March 06TH 2025. I wrote about it here.

But let me get to the “… Or Bugs” portion of my post here. So here in Florida we have what is known as “Lovebug Season”. I suppose that parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and maybe even South Carolina also experience it. There are actually two distinct seasons a year – each averaging about 2 to 4 weeks in length based on local weather conditions. They are in late-April / early-May, and late-August / early-September. I may be wrong about this, but I don’t recall lovebugs being a problem at all here in South Central Florida for the past 2 or 3 or more years. I don’t know where they went, but I don’t think that they were here. In fact I actually remember news reports over the past few years suggesting that lovebugs were declining, disappearing, and maybe even going extinct.

Well they’re back with a vengeance this year. As I drove those 43 miles / 55 minutes over to Arcadia – my car was swarmed and inundated by thousands of lovebugs – two at a time of course. (Every so often I saw a lonely lovebug all by itself – not getting loved. And then I also saw the rare three together, so that was weird.) It was essentially “raining” lovebugs virtually the entire way to and from Arcadia. And of course they went splat and died together on the grill, bumper, and windshield of my car. (The average lovebug only lives for about 2 to 4 days.)

So me and my scattered, smothered, and covered with lovebugs car arrived at the historic house museum in Arcadia, and there were surprisingly a lot of people there (maybe 50 or so). Everyone seemed like they knew each other (except for me), so it was overwhelmingly locals. I may have been the only one from outside of DeSoto County. I represented the Sebring Historical Society there, as I felt that it was a good idea to be there to support our neighboring county’s Historical Society museum which is just like ours – a restored historic house.

Their house is much older than our house. It was built about 140 years ago. (Ours dates back almost 105 years.) Their house was donated to them (the DeSoto County Historical Society) in 2002 after over 110 years of private family ownership. It is a very nice museum inside – all about the history of Arcadia and DeSoto County.

The program itself for the grand reopening of the museum was very nice for the attendees. It included hot and cold refreshments, LIVE musical entertainment, an Invocation, a Pledge Of Allegiance to the U.S. flag, a welcome message from the President of the Historical Society, a special message from the Mayor of Arcadia, a brief history of the house, the formal ribbon-cutting on the front porch, and a Benediction to conclude. The house was then open for self-tours.

Incidentally the lovebugs were swarming all around us during the program. I guess it could’ve been much worse – like mosquitoes. (They were not yet out.)

After lunch downtown – I headed back home for Round 2 of the 43-mile / 55-minute lovebug splat-a-thon. Later that same day – I got my car washed at my favorite place to do so. On the other side of that – perhaps 90% of the dead lovebugs were wiped clean.

Next #TravelThursday – it’s the “End Of The Innocence” – and I’m not talking about Don Henley’s classic album from 37 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 485

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday May 31ST 2026 – the 485TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 20 Finished
[4TH week @ # 1]		 Caleb & John
2 2 10 Everything Is Better Hopeful.
3 3 20 Where Would I Be Peter Burton
4 4 5 Father, Let It Be Sidewalk Prophets
5 5 4 I’d Do It Again Andrew Ripp
6 7 7 Worthy Of It All (Worthy) CeCe Winans
7 6 5 Somebody’s Praying Bay Turner
8 8 5 demons Josiah Queen
9 10 3 Perfectly Micah Tyler
10 – 1 Gonna Be Alright Matt Maher

# 1 This Week In:
2025 – “You Never Gave Up On Me” – The Afters
2024 – “Counting My Blessings” – Seph Schlueter
2023 – “This Is Our God” – Phil Wickham
2022 – “Sunday Sermons” – Anne Wilson
2021 – “Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight)” – TobyMac
2020 – “I Will Fear No More” – The Afters
2019 – “Born Again” – Austin French
2018 – “The Way (New Horizon)” – Pat Barrett
2017 – “Live Like You’re Loved” – Hawk Nelson

MATT MAHER – He’s back with his 4TH hit since 2018. Following-up “What A Friend” (# 1 for 1 week), “Alive & Breathing” (# 2 for 5 weeks), and “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” (# 1 for 12 weeks) – it’s “Gonna Be Alright”. Matt sings to the Lord:

♬ So why should I worry
Not a thing that I lack
You’re with me that’s a fact
I’m alive – it’s a ride
Where I go Lord I know it’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright ♬

SALVATION ERA – Continuing what I started last week – My # 2 hit overall from August 2006 to January 2010 was “Staring At The Light” from The Wedding out of Northwest Arkansas. Their 2007 album – “Polarity” – spawned 3 hit singles on the radio – “Say Your Prayers”, “Staring At The Light”, and “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”. All 3 were Top 3 hits on my chart, and the middle one was the biggest of them all. “Staring At The Light” spent 20 weeks on my chart including 5 weeks at # 1 starting in its 5TH week in October 2007. I absolutely love the line in the song that goes – “I’ll show you all the things you’ve heard about.” God will do just that for you – once you believe, follow, trust, and love Him – more than anyone – more than anything.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 31ST 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 14, Edition 414
“Cain & Abel – Part 2”

Last week I began updating one of my old sermons on Cain & Abel that I preached to my church family in Homestead Florida in 2018. Here’s the next portion of that sermon – updated 8 years later:

So now that I’ve set the stage – let’s return to Adam & Eve – the first couple. They produced a baby boy. They named him Cain. The Bible says that Eve – upon giving birth to Cain – said, “With the LORD’s help – I have produced a man !” (Genesis 4:1b) In Hebrew “Cain” means “produce” or “acquire” or “bring forth”.

Cain was the oldest son to Adam & Eve. Abel was the second-born son. When Cain and Abel grew up Cain became a farmer, and Abel became a shepherd.

As the Bible says:
When it was time for the (Fall) harvest – Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD. (Genesis 4:3)

Doesn’t sound very significant there. Notice it says that he presented some of his crops. Not the largest crops. Not the most beautiful crops. Not the greenest crops. Not the ripest crops. Just – some of his crops. God got the leftovers. It was essentially a token gift. It was not the first and best, and that’s what God requires.

Abel also brought a gift – the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. (Genesis 4:4-5)

“Why are you so angry ?” – the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected ? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right – then watch out ! Sin is crouching at the door – eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” (Genesis 4:6-7)

So the first brothers – Cain and Abel – both loved God. They worshipped Him. As they grew up and became old enough to work – back then they were probably young teenagers – probably real close in age – maybe a year or two apart. (There are some who believe that Cain & Abel were twins – born minutes apart.)

Cain worked the fields – growing all kinds of crops. He was a proud farmer – maybe too proud. I think maybe he thought all of his crops were great crops – better than anything available at the time. Cain was the first farmer. It’s not like he could compare his crops with those of his neighbor across the street.

Cain quickly picked some of his self-proclaimed great crops, and he proudly brought forth them to God as a sacrifice. It was like he said, “Here you go God ! Look what I produced – all by myself – just for You ! These are for you LORD ! Aren’t they great ? ! Uh – did I get here before what’s his name ?”

God was not enthused. He was not impressed.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord – and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know – then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Animals Blogging Driving Geography History Home Nature Photography Travel

Highlands Hammock State Park Or Bust

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I continued writing about my trip out to the 9,000+ acre Highlands Hammock State Park here in the Sebring Florida area (about 10 miles from home).

#Recap – So the 11 AM tram tour was inexplicably sold out, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Museum was closed until 10 AM. I drove the 3+ mile “Loop Drive” through the park, and I walked the 3,005-foot in length Ancient Hammock Trail in the oldest part of the park. A large wild animal crossed in front of me from left to right. It was either a Florida Panther, a coyote, or a deer.

So now we’re back at the main Camp Store / CCC Museum area, and that’s when I saw 2 big yellow Highlands County School District buses.

I parked in front of the CCC Museum, and I got out – eager to enter the museum that I had promoted online just 2 days earlier. But from my car I could hear the joyful noise of children from inside the museum. They were quite loud. Hopefully they were learning a lot of good history inside. I decided that perhaps it wasn’t the best time for me to enjoy the museum with all of that rambunctiousness going on. I decided to wait until they were done before I would enter. I walked around the adjacent grounds of the area – amongst the picnic tables and pavilions. More school children were enjoying a portion of that area. As the group of children inside the museum were congregating outside – the group of children at the picnic area were forming a line and getting ready to head towards the museum. Soon after I was surrounded on both sides by children coming and going in both directions – led by their teachers.

Looks like I would have to wait a bit longer to enter the museum. I ran out of things to look at in the picnic area, so I approached the parking lot. A couple of vehicles were arriving at the same time, and they were full of visitors (who knew each other). They approached the front entrance of the museum, and it appears that they were turned away from entering and told to return after 12 Noon due to the children inside with more children expected to arrive after them. So the visitors got back in their vehicles and drove away. As did I.

So – my visit to Highlands Hammock State Park on Friday April 17TH 2026 was a – BUST !

No tram tour. No museum visit. But I did get to drive “Loop Drive” and walk a trail and have a close encounter with a wild creature.

I learned some lessons. I should call the park the day before any future visit to find out if there are any school field trips scheduled for the next day. I should also reserve my seat on the 11 AM tram tour (if it’s running), since I now know that you can do so a day in advance (instead of the same day). And I should also find out what hours the CCC Museum is open the next day. (Those days and hours change throughout the year based on demand.)

Applying those lessons learned will help in knowing what to look forward to at the park, and I can spend more than just 1-hour and 4-minutes there. (I was originally planning to spend up to 4 hours there.)

I’m going on another field trip – further west. I have a feeling that it’ll be far more successful than this one was. In fact I know it will be since it already occurred. I’ll tell you all about my return trip to Arcadia Florida – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp