Category: Driving

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Walking Around The Neighborhood

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. While most of my travel posts have to do with driving or flying somewhere – this post is about another form of transportation – my own two feet.

17 years ago this past Christmas Eve I started something new that I had never done before. I intentional walked around my neighborhood. I did it for a few reasons back in 2007. I did it for fitness – to get healthier and stronger. (I was neither back then.) I did it to honor my dad. He was slowly losing the ability to walk due to the effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – AKA “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. I did it for my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ – to thank Him for rescuing me and saving me and blessing me with His gifts – such as the gift to pray for my neighbors, and my neighborhood, and my city, and beyond.

This is the start of my 18TH year of walking around my neighborhood. (Technically – each season begins near the start of the dry season here in South and South-Central Florida.) In this 18TH season – I’m still walking for fitness, and for my dad in Heaven, and for God. And when I walk around my neighborhood – I’m praying for my neighbors, and for my neighborhood, and for Sebring, and beyond. The Lord placed me in my dream home – in my dream neighborhood – in my dream part of Florida. I can’t stop thanking Him for that, for I’m living my best life today !

Statistically – Season 17 (2023-2024) – was the biggest one yet. I walked 87 times for a total of 113.50 miles. That’s an average of 1.30 miles per walk. I walked from September 2023 through July 2024. Season 18 started this past September 2024. My goal for this season is to walk 100 times. I’m about one-fourth of the way there, and I’m way behind last season’s numbers at this point. I need to get to steppin’ !

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my driving year in review. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays. I’m also the Social Media Director for the Sebring Historical Society. I post on our Facebook page 6 days a week – Mondays to Saturdays.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Food Geography Home Travel

Homestead And Back

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Thursday morning I drove down to Homestead Florida for the 32ND time since I bought my new home in Sebring Florida 22 months ago. Traffic was a bit heavier than normal for a Thursday morning with lots of truckers and tourists from the north.

I actually drove straight to Longhorn Steakhouse – where I met up with two former coworkers / supervisors for another one of our reunion lunches. We meet about every 3 months. It’s a great tradition that we’ve continued for many years now.

This will likely be my final monthly visit to Homestead. I’ve kept my longtime condo since moving away. I hope to put it on the market next month, and hopefully it will sell fast. I’ll still visit Homestead in 2025 – just not as often – maybe every 3 months or so.

It’s a nice 3½-hour drive between my new home and my old home. 99% of it is on just two highways – U.S. 27 and Florida State Road 997 (locally known as Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade County).

I drove back home this past Sunday afternoon after church and lunch in Homestead. My scenic (mostly rural) drive includes 6 Counties – Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, and Highlands.

Once I’ve reached U.S. 27 near the Miami-Dade / Broward line – I’m on the road that I live on. (My neighborhood’s entrance is directly on U.S. 27 just shy of 150 miles away.)

Once I’ve reached South Bay near the south end of Lake Okeechobee in far-western Palm Beach County – I’ve reached the halfway point. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped anywhere in South Bay. I’ve only driven through it. A new RaceTrac Travel Center is currently under construction. That holds promise for potential future stops.

Clewiston (in Hendry County) is next up on the trek. It’s actually the most populated city directly along the road between Homestead and Lake Placid (in Highlands County). Over 7,000 residents call Clewiston home. A longtime Sonny’s BBQ recently went out-of-business along U.S. 27 in Clewiston. I’ve stopped there a few times for a mid-trip meal. If only I were driving through the area before 1999 when Old South Bar-B-Q Ranch drew in the hungry locals and tourists along U.S. 27 for over 40 years.

I’ve written about Love’s here on my blog in the past. It’s just west of the small town of Moore Haven. It was built in 2016 and opened in March 2017. I remember driving by it a few times while it was under construction thinking that I’d very likely be a future customer there. I’ve stopped there many times – in fact – more times than not heading northward. Their employees are friendly. Their restrooms are wonderful – large and mostly clean. They have an Arby’s on-site, and lots of gas pumps. That Love’s stop is right at the two-thirds point of my trek back home.

And then there’s the ordinary (but beautiful to me) “ENTERING Highlands COUNTY” road sign at the slight rightward bend in the road. Once I reach that sign – I’m 40 miles / 45 minutes away from home. I used to dream of living in Highlands County every time I saw that sign during my road-trips northward. My dream came true 22 months ago. Now I’m glad to be back home again when I see that sign. (The whole County is my home.)

From the Highlands County line northward – it’s a slow ascent from elevations in the 60s (feet above sea level) to more than 3 times higher !

Although my visits to Homestead 3½ hours down the road will be fewer starting in 2025 – I can’t envision a time in the future when I stop driving southward to Homestead. As long as I have friends still living down there – I’ll be visiting them. That – and the scenic drive alone – is well worth the trip to and fro. The portion of U.S. 27 from I-75 northward is a trip along the main highway through rural and unspoiled South-Central Florida (“The Heartland”). I imagine that much of it looks mostly the same today as it has for the past 65 years.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my progress on Season 18 of my fitness walks around my neighborhood. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays. I’m also the Social Media Director for the Sebring Historical Society. I post on our Facebook page 6 days a week – Mondays to Saturdays.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Florida Homecoming

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my trip to North Texas – where I spent 9 days and 9 nights with my family in Wylie – about 30 miles northeast of the center of Dallas Texas. I arrived during the early evening of Wednesday November 20TH 2024. I wrote about me and my brother’s visit on that Saturday to historic downtown McKinney Texas and the Collin County History Museum.

During the rest of my time with my brother we shopped, we ate, and we saw 3 movies – “Heretic”, “A Real Pain”, and “Red One”. I think that me and brother both liked “A Real Pain” the most. It’s a dramedy written, directed, and produced by Jesse Eisenberg. He and Kieran Culkin are the stars. It’s a good well-written story of two cousins visiting Poland on a tour to connect with their Jewish heritage.

As is tradition – my brother prepared a home-cooked Breakfast twice – on that Sunday morning and on Thanksgiving morning. We also opened all of the presents underneath the Christmas tree later on that same holiday morning, and then we watched football for the rest of the day while smelling (and eating) our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at around 3:30 PM.

Fun Fact: The weather in North Texas was all over the place – to include the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s. As an amateur weather forecaster – it was not unexpected. Thanksgiving Day was the coldest day (40s), and the next morning was the coldest morning (33°F / 1°C). I brought that cold air (modified) back home to Florida.

The next day – Friday November 29TH 2024 – my brother dropped me off at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), and I flew to Charlotte Douglas (CLT) with a short layover before my connecting flight to Sarasota-Bradenton (SRQ). (My nonstop direct flight back to SRQ was cancelled about 3 months prior just for that afternoon, and I was automatically booked on the two replacement flights.) Both flights were packed, but they actually departed and arrived early !

Fun Fact: It was my first time in North Carolina since the last time I flew through CLT as a layover between Miami (MIA) and Salisbury-Ocean City (SBY). CLT was also a layover for the return flight between Reagan (DCA) and MIA. That was in July 2015.

I returned back home to Sebring (76 miles from SRQ) right at 9 PM on that Friday, and I was in my own bed less than an hour later. It was a long travel day, and I was exhausted.

The next day – Saturday November 30TH 2024 – I awoke knowing that it was on that date 37 years earlier that I left my family behind in Northern Virginia and flew to MIA en route to my new USAF duty assignment and home for the next 36+ years – Homestead Florida. I’ve now entered my 38TH year as a Florida resident. I’m a #FloridaMan forever.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about my road-trip to and from Homestead. It’s my 32ND trip southward – and my 33RD trip northward – since relocating from Homestead to Sebring almost 2 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Travel

Collin County History Museum

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I spent 9 days and 9 nights with my family in Wylie Texas – about 30 miles northeast of the center of Dallas Texas. I arrived during the early evening of Wednesday November 20TH 2024. My direct flight from Sarasota-Bradenton to Dallas-Fort Worth arrived a full 45 minutes early, and my brother was there to meet me at the baggage carousel. My big Samsonite suitcase was actually one of the first to emerge, so that was another pleasant surprise. We ate our first meal at Jollibee. (It’s a new tradition for us.) For those in the know – you’ll know that it’s the # 1 fast food restaurant in the Philippines. It’s growing rapidly worldwide – with 1,600+ locations in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Fast forward to Day 3 (Saturday November 23RD 2024), and me and my brother drove to historic downtown McKinney Texas. The day before – I successfully convinced him to take me there so that I could visit the Collin County History Museum. It was originally on my schedule for Thursday November 18TH 2021, but I didn’t visit due to reasons that I can’t remember 3 years later. (I drove to North Texas that Thanksgiving Week.)

We entered the museum nonchalantly, and less than a minute later we were asked to sign-in on an iPad. I loved their modern technology at the onset. A friendly and informative docent then proceeded to give us an engaging and extensive (nearly 90-minute) tour of their Museum. Part of the tour was inside a small theater where we watched an approximate 10-minute video on Dallas Texas native Carroll Hall Shelby (1923-2012). He designed and raced cars. At one point during the video – the word “SEBRING” prominently appeared, and I shouted aloud – “SEBRING !”. I discovered that he and his cars raced at the Sebring International Raceway many times throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Carroll Shelby Road actually forms the southern boundary of the Sebring Raceway. What a surprise to discover a Sebring Florida connection inside the Collin County History Museum.

Towards the end of our tour – my brother revealed to our docent that I too am a docent. So – we started talking docent-to-docent. I then added that I’m on the Board Of Directors for the Sebring Historical Society as well as the Social Media Director in charge of our Facebook page. That led to another half-hour of discussing “museum business” with one of their directors. Overall – it was a wonderful 2-hour experience at their Museum, and I plan to stay in touch via their Facebook page and official web site. I also hope to visit again the next time I drive to North Texas.

We did a little bit of walking around and shopping and eating in the historic downtown area. McKinney has done a wonderful job creating a fun mix of shopping, dining, and cultural experiences.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about the second-half of my fun adventures with my family in Texas – as well as my return trip back home to Sebring. Let’s keep traveling together.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I usually post there on Mondays and Thursdays.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp