Category: Driving

Spaghetti & Meat Sauce

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 15, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve been blogging about the Sebring Historical Society for almost 2½ years now – ever since my first impromptu visit to the main office in February 2021. I decided after that first visit – that I wanted to eventually become an active member of the organization. 2 years later – I did just that. I became a full dues-paying member. I fully support our mission to preserve, protect, and promote the history of Sebring Florida and the surrounding area.

We have weekly gatherings, monthly spaghetti dinners, and quarterly luncheons. I won’t discuss our weeklies and our quarterlies here (at least not now), but let me get in to our monthlies.

Once a month – on the 3RD Thursday afternoon of each month – (that’s today) – we host our monthly fundraiser. It’s a hot and delicious spaghetti dinner. It’s open to the public, and many of the locals in our downtown neighborhood know about it because they put in their reservations early for either pick-up or dine-in. For $10 (in advance) or $12 (at the door) you get a large portion of spaghetti with your choice of either meat sauce or veggie sauce. You want garlic bread with that ? You got it. How about a side salad with your choice of dressing ? Of course. Top it off with your choice of 4 different desserts ? I’ll slice it for you (because that’s what I do on Thursday afternoons).

So if you’re in the Sebring Florida area this afternoon – then stop by starting at 4:30 PM (until 6:30 PM). Get there early. We’re located at 1971 Lakeview Drive. We call that historic purple-trimmed lime-green house – the Clovelly House Event Center. Once you walk in – you’ll be warmly greeted by one of our members – as well as the wonderful aroma in the air.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll write about Moore Haven Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida, Sebring

Blogging Driving Geography Travel

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 8, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’ve got a new airport to travel to and from – #SRQ. It’s the closest airport to my new home in the Heartland of Florida – less than 80 miles away – in-between Sarasota and Bradenton – south of Tampa Bay. It’s a small but growing airport. It’s been around since World War 2. I’ve already got my first round-trip flight booked – non-stop between there and Dallas-Fort Worth (#DFW).

Over the past 35½ years of living and working in South Florida #MIA has been my main airport. I’ve also flown in and out of #FLL a few times. Those are two huge airports. I’m looking forward to the smaller and less-hectic airport in #SRQ. (It’s actually the 8TH busiest airport in Florida.)

Next #TravelThursday my friends and I are serving spaghetti in Sebring. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Florida

Blogging Driving Geography Home Life Travel

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.