Category: Driving

Welcome To Highlands County Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 25, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to introduce my little brother to my new home county – and my new dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida.

After spending 4 days and 4 nights at Walt Disney World with his wife and two daughters – I met them on a Tuesday afternoon at the Disney resort that they stayed at. As my sister-in-law and nieces prepared to head to Orlando International Airport to fly back to North Texas – my brother packed his bags in my car, and we headed out for a week of fun.

Our first stop was a comic book / sports card store in Kissimmee off U.S. 192. (My brother is a collector of both.) After that – we made our way southward onto U.S. 17 / U.S. 92 (South John Young Parkway / South Orange Blossom Trail) through northwestern Osceola County and into Polk County – through Davenport and over to U.S. 27. We stopped for dinner at a favorite place of mine in Lake Wales – Sizzling Grill – and then we arrived in Highlands County and my neighborhood and home.

I got to show off my home county to my brother over the next 5 days (from Wednesday to Sunday). That’s stores, restaurants, downtowns, attractions, and highways.

On Thursday I gave him a tour of downtown Sebring – the Lake Jackson shoreline and parks, the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum (where I’m a docent), and the Circle with all of the HGTV workers wrapping-up their projects for an upcoming season of “Home Town Takeover“.

Friday was Avon Park day. We tried to visit the Depot Museum, but it was unexpectedly closed. We did enjoy lunch at the historic Hotel Jacaranda – as well as orange ice cream at Maxwell Groves. #IYKYK

Saturday was Lake Placid day. We checked out the Depot Museum on International Museum Day (every May 18TH). I got to chat with some of the docents on-duty there about – well – life as a docent. My brother found it both amusing and intriguing that museum docents visit each other to talk about being a docent at a museum. YES – it’s a thing. We tried to visit the clown museum, but they were unexpectedly closed.

During our 5 days in Highlands County – we visited our local (dead) mall twice (to see movies), we shopped at both of our Walmart stores, we went to Publix twice (my brother discovered the #PubSub), and we enjoyed meals at some of my favorite family-owned restaurants in the local area. He also got a detailed geological and geographical education of the region.

It was fun to show him my home county. He only saw a tiny portion of the local area. I’m hoping that it’s the start of a new tradition every year so that I can show him new places. I’m still exploring new places myself. I’m proud to show off my new neighborhood, Highlands County, and the Heartland of Florida to anyone who visits.

On the final day – me and my brother headed back to the Orlando area (2 hours away). We spent a few hours at the thriving / exceptionally busy Florida Mall. There’s nothing dead at that mall – well – except for one of the last remaining Sears in the U.S.

I dropped-off my brother at the airport, and I returned home – ready to return to my regularly scheduled retirement routine – like blogging !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s take a slow cruise on the St. Johns River out of Sanford Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Avon Park, Florida, Highlands, Lake Placid, Museum, Orlando, Osceola, Polk, Sebring

Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Charles Weigle In Chattanooga

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 18, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I think I’ve been to Chattanooga Tennessee once in my lifetime – 32 years ago in July 1992 during a road-trip with my little brother (age 17) from Huntsville Alabama. I picked him up after Space Camp, and we drove to Nashville, Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and Chattanooga Tennessee, and then from there to Atlanta. That was a fun adventure in my 1989 Geo Spectrum that included a trek on U.S. 441 up, through, and down the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. We drove and climbed to the top of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet above sea level – the highest point on land that I’ve ever been to.

My retirement hometown of Sebring Florida has a little bit in common with one of those cities above – Chattanooga.

As you may have read previously here on my blog – I’m a docent at the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum here in Sebring. Come visit us. We’re open 5 days a week – Tuesday to Saturday – from 10 to 3. Before I was a docent – I was a frequent visitor of the historic house, and I was (and still am) intrigued by its 102 years of history. I will never stop studying the history of the house, the man and his wife who lived in the house, and the city that they called home.

Dr. Weigle – an evangelist and songwriter – lived in the house from the time it was built brand-new in 1922 – until 1951 – when he “retired” to Chattanooga Tennessee. I put “retired” in quotes because he actually went back to work up there in his early-80s. He and his wife moved there so that he could work at Highland Park Baptist Church. He wanted to spend his remaining years of life near a Bible college campus so that he could help train and inspire young people in the Lord’s work. The church provided Dr. Weigle with a nice apartment, and he lived there until he passed on 15 years later in 1966.

He maintained his residence in Sebring during much of that time. He continued to study the Bible, and teach, and preach, and write music during his last 15 years in both Chattanooga and Sebring.

Less than 2 weeks after his 95TH birthday – he had entered Heaven’s gates to be with the Lord eternally. Today – he’s buried with his second wife Carrie in a cemetery in Sebring – just a couple of miles away from his longtime house by the lake.

Next #TravelThursday – I’m exploring Highlands, Polk, Osceola, and Orange Counties in Central Florida over 7 days with my little brother. And the Weigle House Museum makes an encore appearance. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Chattanooga, Florida, Museum, Sebring, Tennessee

Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

The Ringling

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 11, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of months ago I visited The Ringling estate in Sarasota Florida. It was another field trip with the Sebring Historical Society – the group that I serve with. I was with a group of about 30.

Our chartered bus departed from the parking lot of our museum at 8:43 AM. The drive to the Gulf Coast took a little less than 2 hours. Our first stop in Sarasota was Der Dutchman – a large Amish-style restaurant, bakery, and gift shop. At the restaurant you can either order off the menu or enjoy the buffet. (Our “all-inclusive” trip included the buffet.) We arrived there as Breakfast was wrapping-up and Lunch was just getting started. Some in our group enjoyed a late-Breakfast. I enjoyed a hearty Lunch. It was all good. I think my favorite dish was their slow-cooked old-fashioned Roast Beef. It was quite delicious and juicy. We spent over 2 hours there eating, browsing, and shopping.

Our next stop was the Ringling estate. We spent 3 hours there, and our group pretty much split-up to tour the museums and grounds at our own individual paces. I visited much of the estate to include both circus museums and Ca’ d’Zan (“House of John” in Venetian) – John and Mable Ringling’s personal residence (built from 1924 to 1926) overlooking Sarasota Bay.

My favorite part of the circus museum was the 38,000-square-foot / 42,000+ piece miniature circus display that was essentially a ¾-inch-to-the-foot scale (1:16) model of a typical 24-hour day in the life of the Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Circus during the 1920s and 1930s. I think that was probably my favorite part of the entire estate. I did a walkthrough at the beginning of my visit, but there were so many other people doing the same thing that I couldn’t fully enjoy it, so I returned a couple of hours later to check it all out again in greater detail with far less people around. Circus fan Howard Charles Tibbals designed and built the model from 1956 to 1974 (age 20 to 38). It premiered at the World’s Fair in Knoxville Tennessee in 1982. He set it up at its current location at the museum in 2004 and 2005. What an amazing accomplishment to build that miniature circus !

We got back to Sebring after 6 PM. It was a fun day out with my historical society friends. It was revealed that our next field trip will be in just a couple of weeks – a 4-hour St. Johns River cruise out of Sanford Florida with a big multi-course lunch and a comedy play. I’m looking forward to it !

Next #TravelThursday – What do Sebring Florida and Chattanooga Tennessee have in common ? Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Amish, Circus, Florida, Museum, Ringling, Sarasota, Sebring

Blogging Driving Geography History Holidays Home Travel

Happy 248TH Birthday America

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 4, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the 17TH day of my April retirement road-trip – returning here to my home state of Florida. And I wrote about the 18TH and final day – westward and southward away from Yulee along Florida State Road 200, and onto U.S. 301, U.S. 441, Florida State Road 33, a series of old narrow backroads in northern Polk County (following Google Maps), and back to U.S. 27 and the Heartland of Florida.

The purpose of this road-trip was to see America, and I saw a good part of her on this 18-day, 7-state, and 2,807-mile excursion across our southern states – northwestward from Florida to Alabama to Mississippi to Louisiana to Texas – and then southeastward from Texas to Arkansas to Mississippi to Alabama to Georgia to Florida.

Out of 2,807 miles – only 186 miles were via the Interstate Highway System. It was the rural portion of I-10 in the Florida Panhandle and into South Alabama – 149½ miles from west of Tallahassee to east of Pensacola, and 36½ miles from west of Pensacola to east of Mobile. Much of my route occurred on U.S. 98, U.S. 84, and U.S. 82 – old U.S. highways – the way we used to see America before the Interstates came into existence.

I drove 1,216 miles during the first 5 days of my road-trip, and that took me to Wylie Texas – where I spent 8 days and nights with my family. I didn’t drive at all for 7 days in a row.

I drove 1,591 miles during the final 6 days of my road-trip from Wichita Falls Texas (the northernmost and westernmost point) back home to Florida.

The most miles driven in a single day occurred on Day 14 when I drove 366 miles from Wichita Falls to El Dorado Arkansas. The next day came in 3RD place – 348 miles from El Dorado to Tuscaloosa Alabama. That’s 714 miles in 2 days. Over the course of 11 actual days of driving – I averaged 255 miles per day.

I filled-up with gas 7 times on this road-trip, and I paid anywhere from $2.899 to $3.499 per gallon at the pump (before credit card discounts). I averaged over 45 MPG.

For many years I imagined (and talked with friends about) a 100-day / 10,000-mile retirement road-trip clockwise around the circumference of the U.S.A. – from Florida to Texas to California to Washington – across the northern tier states – over to Maine – and then down the Eastern Seaboard back to Florida. This wasn’t that trip, but it was at least a quarter of that trip. By keeping mostly to old U.S. highways – and some state, county, and local roads – I saw America, and she is beautiful. Each state that I visited had its own unique charm and identity to it. I obviously love my home state of Florida for everything that she has to offer and for everything that she has done for me over the past 36+ years. I definitely need to spend more time in and see more of Mississippi and Alabama – even if I don’t drive all the way to Texas. And I’ve got Georgia on my mind too. I want to explore your historic seaside towns – especially Savannah.

#ArkLaTex & #ArkLaMiss – I learned of those two terms while in South Arkansas. It was fun to see more of Arkansas than ever before in my life. I liked what I saw from Texarkana to the Mississippi River, and now I want to see more. Maybe even your mountains upstate.

I visited a lot of great historical museums along the way, and I met and talked with a lot of fellow docents serving at these museums – preserving, protecting, and promoting the history around them. I saw a lot of good, and a little not-so-good at these museums. These were all lessons learned as I continue working with some of my local museums.

This is the 13TH and final part of my look-back at my April retirement road-trip. I wrote all of it during the month of April and into the first couple of days of May – while my mind was still fresh from the trip. It was fun planning the trip, and then doing the trip, and then writing about the trip during and after it. But I’m just getting started. Now that I’m in the retirement chapter of my life – I hope to spend more time seeing America – by road – by rail – and perhaps – maybe even by Mississippi River cruise. America – you look great at 248 !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s join the circus ! Let’s keep traveling together.