August 7, 2025 – CountUp

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 5 weeks ago I wrote about my Flag Day / Father’s Day Weekend road-trip to and from my old homestead – Homestead Florida. It was my 36TH trip to Homestead since I bought my new home near Sebring Florida in February 2023. This week I’m writing about my 37TH and final trip to Homestead. That took place at the end of June – on Sunday June 29TH.

I departed home at 6:35 AM (right at sunrise), and I arrived at my former home church near downtown Homestead at 9:58 AM. As always it was a great church service led by our Worship Pastor Ben and our Lead Pastor Bob. Living Waters Full Gospel Church was my home church for 8+ years, and I served as an Assistant Pastor there. I received my ministerial credentials there. I preached over 60 sermons, and I led 79 Communions. I’ve been a guest there over these past 2½ years, and I’ll continue to be a guest there in the future whenever the Pastor wants me to fill-in for him.

A small group of us went out to lunch at Texas Roadhouse post church service. After that I checked-in to my hotel for the night.

The next morning – Monday June 30TH – I head northward – actually northeastward up U.S. 1 over to Dadeland to a Real Estate Attorney’s office. That’s where I signed all of the paperwork to officially close on the sale of my longtime home in Homestead – a home that I rented for 6 years (1995-2001) and owned for 24 years (2001-2025). I lived in it for 28 years (1995-2023), and over these past 2½ years I had been moving my most treasured personal belongings one trip at a time from my old home to my new home. I moved into that old home on June 13TH 1995, and my final walk-through was on June 14TH 2025 – a timespan of 30 years and 1 day.

So – for the first time since 1987 – I am neither a resident nor a property owner near or in Homestead Florida – from age 20 to 58 – 65½% of my entire life.

Like most cities Homestead has evolved and “grown-up” over time. It went from a sleepy farming community with a large military (active and retired) population before 1992 – to total devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew – to a small town struggling to recover for 10 years after that – to one of the fastest-growing cities (of its size) in the nation – to a thriving and bustling big suburban city with big suburban city amenities and problems.

Personally – Homestead was a place that I rarely visited in my early-20s, as I lived on an Active-Duty Air Force Base several miles outside of town. And then it became my home in my late-20s, and I embraced it and loved it into my 30s and 40s. As I entered my 50s and I began thinking about retirement I realized that I couldn’t afford to live there as a retiree. It had become too expensive, too noisy, and too crowded. I had outgrown it. I looked elsewhere, and I eventually found Sebring Florida 3½ hours up the road.

Facebook is littered on multiple local group pages with mostly disgusting and racist and hateful comments and diatribes about how Homestead is today compared with the way it was 40 or 50 years ago. Most of these comments are from people who moved away 40 or 50 years ago and visited once or twice recently and didn’t recognize the small town that they once called home. They don’t realize that they themselves are probably being discussed negatively where they live today by many longtime residents who don’t appreciate having them around. Change is inevitable, and it’s painful for a lot of people.

YES – even here in still small-town Sebring – some longtime residents don’t appreciate all of the new people (like myself) that have migrated here from South Florida, and Tampa, and Orlando, and pretty much everywhere else. We’ve ruined the Sebring of the 1970s and 1980s !

I enjoyed a good life from my early-20s to my late-50s in Homestead. I made good money in my Air Force career – 36 out of 39 years in Homestead. I wish Homestead the best. I pray for safety and security and comfort and peace for all of my friends, neighbors, and fellow residents that I left behind. I leave with mostly good memories, and although my future visits to Homestead will be less frequent now – they will still occur. I will always appreciate Homestead for what she was, what she is, and what she will be. Thank You for being my hometown for 36 years.

Next #TravelThursday I’m heading somewhere – outside of Florida – that I haven’t been to in exactly 10 years, and I’ll write about it for the next 3 weeks. Let’s keep traveling together.