Category: Driving

The 1,000-Mile-Per-Month Club

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 1, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. And welcome to June 2023. This blog post officially begins my 17TH year of modern-day blogging. This blog started on MySpace in May 2007 with 310+ entries before I moved it over here to WordPress. (There was also that ill-fated nearly 5-year period where this blog existed solely on Facebook.)

But enough about that. Thursdays are all about travel, and I’ve been doing a lot of that in 2023.

May was my 4TH consecutive month of driving over 1,000 miles. Driving between South Florida (Homestead) and the Florida Heartland (Sebring) has done that. It’s about 185 miles each way, and it’s a scenic mostly rural drive along U.S. 27 and State Road 997.

My records don’t go back that far, but I believe that this is the most driving that I have done since 1993 into 1994. That’s when I started the year living (and working) in the Washington D.C. area – then moved to Melbourne Florida – then got a job in Tampa Florida – and commuted weekly between Melbourne and Tampa (opposite coasts) – then eventually moved back to Homestead. That was a lot of driving back then, and my driving now rivals my driving then.

You know back then I thought that I would live (and work) in Melbourne indefinitely – and then in Tampa indefinitely. Neither scenario occurred, but now I live within a couple of hours of both Tampa and Melbourne, and I’m living in my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. All things worked out. It just took 30 years to do so.

Driving 1,000 miles per month is quite the feat for me. I did it once in 2022, 2021, and 2019, twice in 2020 and 2018, and 3 times in 2017, 2016, and 2015. Last year I only averaged 512 miles per month.

June should be another 1,000-mile month. I just need to drive an average of 10 miles per day on the 26 days this month that I’m not driving between Homestead and Sebring. We’ll see if that occurs.

About 13,500 miles is the national average per year. That’s about 1,125 miles per month. I exceeded that last month.

Next #TravelThursday I’m exploring #SRQ. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida

Blogging Driving Geography Home Travel

Carnival Jubilee

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 18, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of days ago I observed exactly 2 months in my beautiful new dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida. I closed on it (officially became the owner) on March 16TH, and I actually purchased it on February 16TH, so that marks 3 months since I first walked-in to my new home and almost immediately decided that it would be mine.

But this week’s edition is not about that. It’s about a cruise that I took with my parents exactly 19 years ago this week. It was a 5-nighter out of #JAXPORT (Jacksonville Florida). (My parents lived in the area at the time.)

Over the course of 32 years (1991-2023) it was my only cruise out of Jacksonville. It was on an old Carnival cruise ship – the Jubilee – that was in-service from 1986 to 2004. In fact she was sold to an Australian cruise company just 3 months after our sailing.

I don’t remember much of anything from that cruise, and I have no photos of it – mostly because I didn’t take photos back then before the smart phone era. I don’t even remember the ports-of-call. Maybe Nassau ?

It was 1 of just 3 cruises that I went on with my parents. It was the middle cruise. (The first one was 13 years earlier when we all went on our very first cruise ever. I instantly fell in love with the idea of cruising, and I continued on with 23 more cruises after that first one in 1991.)

I’ve been telling friends recently that I probably won’t be booking any further cruises at this time. This past January I was on the newest, biggest, and best that Carnival has to offer – their brand-new Carnival Celebration – and I documented it for 6 weeks in a row here on #TravelThursday. It was perhaps a perfect ending to my cruising experience. Now that I have 2 homes and a 30-year mortgage on my new home – I’m on a budget now. I’ve declared a spending freeze of sorts. I need to figure out how to live my life with less than half the money I make today once I retire at the end of the year.

As for travel opportunities I really want to explore more of Central and North Florida – and into Georgia and Alabama – and the Carolinas – on a series of road-trips. I’ve conquered the sea, and now I wish to explore the land. I want to visit with some good friends along the way.

Next #TravelThursday I’m not driving – I’m walking. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Carnival, Cruise, Florida

Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography God News Shopping Travel

Orange County Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 11, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Saturday morning I headed northward from my new home in the Florida Heartland (rural South Central Florida). I drove through Polk County – and then into Osceola County – and then into Orange County. (That’s where Orlando is, and I did enter into its sprawling city limits.)

Once I entered into northwestern Osceola County – rural evolved into suburban – with more homes, and stores, and restaurants, and of course – heavy traffic.

I spent the day with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces – visiting from the Dallas Texas area. As an aside – news broke that (Saturday) afternoon about the mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets. My family lived in Allen for about 6 years from 2007 to 2013, and since 2019 they’ve lived in a nearby suburb within a half-hour of that large outdoor shopping mall. I’ve been to that mall countless times with my family while visiting them. I lift-up to our God Almighty the family and friends of the victims of the shooting. May He comfort them in this difficult time.

Back in the Orlando area – me and my family spent much of the day at the Orange County Convention Center at a national cheerleading tournament. (My youngest niece is a cheerleader with her 9 and 10-year-old peers.) After that we spent several hours at Disney Springs. Once upon a time (mid-1990s to mid-2000s) I spent many vacation nights partying at Pleasure Island – which is now known as The Landing. I even had an annual pass to the nightclubs for many years. We enjoyed a late-Lunch at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Kitchen at The Landing. The food was good, abundant, and expensive. The front of the restaurant faced one of those former clubs that me and my brother loved to hang out at.

It was a fun but exhausting 189-mile day-trip. It was about 14 miles longer than it should’ve been. That evening I accidentally missed the entrance to the hotel that my family was staying at, and we ended-up on I-4 for a frightening 7-mile stretch. As you may know (as a longtime reader of this blog) I don’t drive on interstates, expressways, or turnpikes anymore (with rare exceptions) due to anxiety attacks. Luckily – it was near bumper-to-bumper slow-moving traffic during the entire stretch, so I was sort of fine with it.

It was good to finally return home to paradise in the Florida Heartland after that Saturday adventure !

Next #TravelThursday I’ll look back at a fun cruise from exactly 19 years ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Venus

Bible Blogging Christian Church Driving God Ministry Scripture Travel Weather

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 30, 2023

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 30TH 2023, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

This morning I’ll be with my new church family here in Sebring Florida – weather-permitting. We could have some severe weather moving through the region this morning, so I’ll monitor that. (My new church is a little over 4 miles away by road.) In the event of severe weather – I can watch the livestream online as it happens. But I’d rather experience service in-person. (That’s the Pastor in me.)

So it’s been about 2½ months since I wrapped-up my last sermon here on #SundayScripture. That was the one that was based on the Matthew West song – “The God Who Stays”. I’d like to write another sermon based on another contemporary worship song. I just don’t know what that song is yet.

Starting with this edition and continuing through the month of May and into June – I’ll be presenting my March 05TH 2023 sermon on “Paul & Titus” – in its original written form. I hope that it inspires you and encourages you.

[BEGIN SERMON]

You know if I asked you to – quickly – list 10 names out of the Bible – I’m thinking maybe you would mention Adam and Eve, Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, James, and Peter. I think those are the 10 most prominent names out of the Bible – 3 from the Old Testament and 7 from the New Testament.

Today – I want to share with you the story of one of the lesser-known names of the Bible – Titus. Who ? Titus ? Who’s Titus ? You know there’s an entire book of the New Testament on Titus, and it was written by – not Titus – but Paul (as in The Apostle Paul). It’s 1 of 13 letters or epistles that Paul wrote that make-up about half of the New Testament.

They are known as Pauline epistles. They are formal letters sent by the Apostle Paul to a person or a group of people – to inspire them – to encourage them – to set them in the right direction. Paul sent his letters to friends who were church leaders, and he also sent letters to the church in general. You know these Pauline epistles as his letters to the Romans, and the Corinthians, and the Galatians, and the Ephesians, and the Philippians, and the Colossians, and the Thessalonians, and his friend Timothy, and his friend Titus, and his friend Philemon. I’ve preached a lot from the Pauline epistles, as they are my favorite part of the Bible.

That’s a lost art from the past – writing letters to someone to inspire them – to encourage them – to make them happy. That was popular back before smart phones, and social media, and the internet, and computers. We would grab a pen and a piece of paper, and write a letter to someone to show that person that we’re thinking of him or her. Some of us even had manual typewriters at home, and we would type a letter. And then we would place that letter in an envelope, and write (or type) the address on it, and then place a stamp on it, and then drop it in the mailbox. Yep. That’s what we did – way back in the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s. Even into the early-‘90s.

When I was serving in the desert of Saudi Arabia – during Desert Storm – 32 years ago – each of us received a random handwritten letter sent to “Any Serviceman / Servicewoman” – usually written by a student in school. They were words of encouragement from one stranger to another – from stateside to warside. They were awesome to read. They made us feel happy – thousands of miles away from home.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.