Month: August 2008

The Major’s Drive-A-Thon

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 31, 2008

I’m back home. Here’s a look back at my recent road-trip / vacation:

1. From start (early Thursday morning) to finish (mid Sunday afternoon) I drove a grand total of 764 miles from here to there and then back again. That’s 372 miles on Thursday, 0 miles on Friday, 23 miles on Saturday, and 369 miles on Sunday.

2. I filled up with gas twice on this road-trip – both times at the same exact Chevron station on North Wickam Road just off I-95 north of Melbourne. I basically filled up there on Thursday afternoon, drove 326.6 miles, and then filled up there again on this Sunday afternoon. I paid $3.679 per gallon both times. I averaged about 29 MPG on this road-trip. That’s down a bit from previous road-trips, but then again my car is middle-aged now (over 5-years-old).

3. Much of East-Central Florida received anywhere from a foot to two feet of rain due to Tropical Storm Fay a couple of weeks ago. It looks that way along I-95. The median and road sides are green, lucious, and overgrown with a lot of standing water all around. I’ve seen this area during brush fire season in the middle of a severe drought. What a complete turnaround from that time !

4. My fellow drivers up and down I-95 were unusually polite during this road-trip. There were the usual suspects – such as the speeders and the tailgaters – but all-in-all it was a pleasant drive to and fro the northeast of Florida. Traffic was light to moderate during much of the trip on Thursday and on Sunday. I expected it to be much heavier due to the holiday weekend.

5. My longtime ‘old-school’ Sunpass device that I’ve had for all of these years CRASHED at the start of my road-trip on Thursday. It worked fine for the first tollbooth north of Homestead on Florida’s Turnpike, but then it stopped working after that. It basically burned up (internally) in the hot sun. I had to use cash from that point forward. I was rocking the dedicated change lanes like it was 1999 !

Blatant Promotion

The ‘Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad’ will not be presented here on the big blog tomorrow afternoon. It will return to its regularly-scheduled time and position on the afternoon of Sunday September 07TH 2008. This bald dude, this college pup, and this fishing lunatic will also not be at the LPC tomorrow, so if you’re looking for a good solid recap of the events of the day at the LPC then you’ll just have to check out the blog of this crazy cat or his lovely wife. This fellow Redskins fanatic may also have a good wrap-up too.

I’ll have a special blog entry for you tomorrow – posted just a few hours after I return home from my current undisclosed location somewhere within the great state of Florida. Be sure to check it out. You won’t regret it pal.

Don’t forget – ‘Monday Night Countdown’ and ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ over the next 72 hours.

Have a sensational Saturday night everyone, and until we hang out again here on the blog or LIVE and in-person … REMEMBER THIS !

Driving Home Movies Travel

Saturday Morning Shenanigans

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 30, 2008

Here at my undisclosed location somewhere within the great state of Florida I’ve been able to go to bed early – during the 9 PM hour – and wake up late – during the 7 AM hour. I’m certainly not getting a MASSIVE 10 hours of sleep, but I am getting plenty of relaxation time whether it’s sleeping, laying in bed, or chillin’ on a chair watching television. It feels great to be on vacation, but I also can’t wait until I get back home again where all of my junk is. It’s only been about 59 hours (as I type this at 5 PM on this Saturday afternoon) since I left my junk behind, but I already miss it all. No worries though, for I’ll be back home again in less than 24 hours from now. I always appreciate Homestead once I’ve been away for awhile.

This morning I took the ‘Saturday Morning Shenanigans’ to the regional-famous Orange Park Mall (southwest of Jacksonville Florida). I saw a movie at the constantly-busy yet well-maintained AMC-24 there. There were a whole bunch of comedy movies that I wanted to see this weekend (such as “College“, “Disaster Movie“, “Hamlet 2“, “Pineapple Express“, “The Rocker“, or “Step Brothers“), but I ultimately decided on the sleeper smash of the late-summer box office season – “Tropic Thunder” – based mostly on my brother‘s glowing recommendation. I agree with him. I laughed hysterically all throughout the movie in unison with my fellow movie patrons. It was one of the most star-studded original screwball comedies I’ve seen on the big screen in awhile !

Those are my ‘Saturday Morning Shenanigans’ for this 5TH and final Saturday of August in 2008. Be sure to catch me next time – ‘At The Movies’ – for some more box office monkey business !