On this 4TH Of July holiday we celebrate this great nation of ours – this free nation that we call The United States Of America. We are free today because of our Founding Fathers – great Americans like John Hancock, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Let us never forget all of those great Americans who fought – and who continue to fight to this day – for the independence and the freedom that we continue to enjoy today.
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is – there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17 NLT)
All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp
Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Let’s get back on the road. Almost 3 weekends ago I drove down to my old Homestead – which was Homestead Florida – my home from 1987 to 2023. It was Flag Day on Saturday and Father’s Day on Sunday.
I departed home at 8:18 AM, and I arrived at my old home at 11:58 AM. That’s fairly average for a Saturday morning drive southward. I haven’t done many Saturday morning drives down to Homestead. My last one was last September (2024) – and before that – April (2024).
I entered my old condo for probably the very last time – exactly 30 years and 1 day after I first entered and moved-in to it on June 13TH 1995. I went there to look around one last time, pick-up my Shark Rotator vacuum cleaner (best vacuum I’ve ever owned – bought it in April 2014), and pick-up a few other assorted items from my kitchen cabinets. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes – taking with me for good – 30 years of memories of that home – from my late-20s to my late-50s.
Time for some food, so I ventured over to Outback Steakhouse for lunch. I enjoyed food and fellowship with a longtime former coworker at the airbase near Homestead. And we celebrated my birthday too, and the wait staff all gathered together to sing their fun birthday song to me and present me with a delicious dessert with a lit candle on it.
I spent the night at the Hampton Inn behind the Outback. I had a wonderful 5TH floor view of the Outback and the surrounding businesses along busy Campbell Drive. Outback got increasingly busier as the afternoon became the evening. My favorite Publix (# 1136) is in view in the shopping center in the background. That was built in 2007. This whole area of Homestead is mostly less than 20 years old.
The next morning – I went to my former home church across town in NW Homestead, and we celebrated my birthday again at the start of the service. After service a group of us battled the Father’s Day crowds and went to Longhorn Steakhouse for lunch. In fact – nearly half of our church attendance that morning went there, and we were scattered over a couple of tables. The place was packed for the holiday. (This just in – Dads love steak.) Longhorn is my favorite restaurant in Homestead. I’ve always received great food and service there ever since they opened in 2009. I’ve probably been there more than any other restaurant in Homestead over the past 16 years. Olive Garden (next door) is my second-most visited restaurant in Homestead. So many great memories next door to each other.
After Longhorn I headed home to Sebring. My route out of Miami-Dade County was endangered because it was shut down the previous afternoon due to a wildfire near Krome Avenue (Florida State Road 997) and Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). Firefighters contained the fire overnight, conditions improved, and the highways were reopened on Sunday morning. I got home at 6:08 PM, and that was the end of my fun 373-mile weekend road-trip between Sebring and Homestead. It was my 4TH such trip of 2025, and 17TH trip since the start of 2024, and 36TH trip since I bought my home here in Sebring in February 2023. My 37TH trip has already occurred, and I’ll report on that trip in a few weeks.
#ButFirst – Next #TravelThursday I’ll stay on the road as I begin a multi-part series on my recent trip to and from Florida’s Gulf Coast Beaches. I’ll write about some areas that I visited for the very first time – and for the first time in a long time. Let’s keep traveling together.
All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp
Greetings my friends. It is Tuesday July 01ST 2025, and this is a special edition of my blog. Normally I publish new posts 3 days a week – on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays at 0300 U.S. east coast time (0700 UTC).
Each day has its own unique theme. My Thursday posts center on travel. My Sunday posts center on Scripture and the Gospel. My Monday posts center on current Christian pop music. So – my hashtags are #TravelThursday, #SundayScripture, and #MusicMonday.
Occasionally during the year I’ll publish a special post on a Tuesday (like today), a Wednesday, or a Friday. That’s over 150 posts per year. Each post is about a 2-to-4 minute read.
If you’re new here – then welcome to my blog. Thank You for checking it out. You may have clicked on my link on my Facebook, X, Flickr, or Spotify profile. Perhaps Google or Feedspot sent you here awhile back, and you’ve been returning on a regular basis. Maybe you only read my posts on #TravelThursday, or you’re only interested in my Gospel messages on Sundays. Either way I’m glad you’re here. This is a no-judgement zone. This is also a political-free space online. There’s plenty of judgement and politics elsewhere. There’s lots of hate in this world. I try to shine light and bring encouragement and love into this world.
Feel free to comment with relevance on any post. Some of you have your own blogs that I check out on a regular basis. Keep doing what you do. Keep blogging alive !
I’ve been blogging here on WordPress and on Facebook since 2007, and really – I was blogging for 14 years before that via my own dial-up bulletin board system (BBS) and its spinoffs on the early World Wide Web of the late-1990s into the early-2000s. It’s my favorite hobby online.
My Facebook presence has substantially increased and expanded over the past year. The travel component of #CountUp has its own Facebook page – where I usually post twice weekly on #FlickrMonday and #TravelThursday.
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