Category: Driving

Melbourne Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 19, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 29 years ago I lived in Melbourne Florida. It was my home from March 1993 to March 1994. I lived in a cozy low-rent studio efficiency on South Oak Street – at first full-time and unemployed, and then part-time and fully-employed.

When I got my honorable discharge from the USAF I moved to Melbourne Florida (from the Washington D.C. area). This was in the aftermath of the destruction of my former home at Homestead Air Force Base. In hindsight – I should have relocated to Melbourne directly after Hurricane Andrew instead of the #DMV (where I grew up as a kid). Had I gone to Patrick Air Force Base while still on USAF Active Duty my life of the next 30 years may have turned out completely different – perhaps for the better – maybe for the worse.

My first 5 months in Melbourne were crazy – and a lot of fun – as I looked for a job in the local area. It was probably the most fun 5 months of my entire life. It was during those 5 months that I learned how to use a modern Windows 3.1 / DOS 6.0-based personal computer for the first time ever. I also discovered an early form of social media known as the BBS (bulletin board system). My friend was running a popular BBS at the time where people would dial-in (via modem) to his computer and participate in message boards and live chat. I was so fascinated by that. I decided to create my own BBS – MANx CAT BBS. It went online during the early-morning hours of Friday May 21ST 1993. It continued for over 4 years.

MANx CAT BBS spawned MANx On The Net – which was the World Wide Web spinoff of the BBS. MANx On The Net evolved into MASSIVESMASH.COM in 1998 – my music-based web site, and it in turn became this blog in 2007.

So this weekend marks 29 years of online activity for me – starting with that first BBS – created in Melbourne Florida. And on that BBS we talked about travel and music – among other topics.

Since I moved away in March 1994 I’ve only visited Melbourne a few times. I don’t know anyone there anymore. My old rundown apartment complex was bulldozed to the ground years ago. The city has grown a lot over the past 30 years. So has the metro area (essentially all of Brevard County / Florida’s Space Coast). Over 600,000 call the area home nowadays. 30 years ago that number was right around 400,000. It was congested back then. I know it’s worse today. It’s a nice scenic area with the rivers and the beaches, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Kings Dominion in Virginia. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Brevard, Florida, Melbourne

Blogging Driving Food History Holidays Military Shopping Travel

Marsh Harbour

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 12, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. 15 years ago this week I was on Marsh Harbour in the Abaco Islands of the northwestern Bahamas – about 195 nautical miles from home. (Marsh Harbour is adjacent to southern Palm Beach County Florida.)

I was with my brother, his fiancé, our parents, and her parents and siblings. Most of us arrived on Wednesday May 09TH 2007, and we stayed until the following Wednesday May 16TH 2007. We stayed at the Bahama Beach Club resort. My brother and his fiancé got married there on Saturday May 12TH 2007, so today is in fact their 15TH wedding anniversary !

It was a fun wedding. It was a fun week. We explored Marsh Harbour and some of the surrounding Abaco islands. I have some 290 photos of that week on my computer – chronologically sorted from arrival to departure. My brother took all of the photos. (I had not yet become an amateur photographer.)

Over 100 photos cover a fun 5½-hour family trip via ferry to and from the neighboring island of Elbow Cay – where we visited the Elbow Reef Lighthouse and the small village of Hope Town.

View from atop the Elbow Reef Lighthouse

This vacation was just 8½ months into my salvation (3½ months as part of my first church family). As a baby Christian learning and understanding God’s Way I was very conflicted as to how I should act in certain circumstances – particularly where drinking alcohol was involved. I chose to abstain from it completely. It really made me look like the odd one out, but I think that’s what’s God’s plan for each of us who believe and follow Him. Don’t blend in with others. Be different. Be radical.

I was also a bit ill that entire week. I had near total blockage in my right ear. I could barely hear out of it, and it gave me headaches all throughout that week. I played it off, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. Soon after I returned back home I scheduled an appointment with an #ENT. At that appointment the doctor removed multiple chunks of ear wax from my right ear and flushed both of them. My hearing was restored 100% after that.

One last thing that put a damper on this trip is that my cat’s health was quickly deteriorating in the days leading-up to it. I took him to his regular animal hospital before I left to be examined and kenneled. As it turns out he passed on the day after I returned back home. (I’ll post on that next Tuesday May 17TH 2022 – the 15TH anniversary of his death.)

I really did enjoy our family trip to Marsh Harbour. I’d like to go back there again with family, and enjoy the scenery, and do fun things like we did 15 years ago.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Melbourne Florida. You know – I used to live there. I’ll tell you all about it. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Mexico

Blogging Driving Food History Holidays Military Shopping Travel

Mexico

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 5, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Happy Cinco de Mayo mi amigos ! On this day 160 years ago (during our U.S. Civil War) Mexico was victorious over the French empire at the Battle Of Puebla (during the early part of the Franco-Mexican War of 1861-1867). It’s a day that’s observed mostly in the southern Mexican state of Puebla. Here in the U.S. it’s become a very popular unofficial holiday celebrating all things Mexican.

Here in my hometown of the past 35 years we have a very large Mexican population – one of the highest concentrations in all of South Florida. As a result we have many Mexican restaurants here, and Miamians come 30 to 45 minutes south to Homestead to enjoy a delicious meal at any one of them. Personally I’m not a big fan of Mexican food. It’s OK. I’ll only eat at one when I’m in a group setting, and the group overrules my wishes to eat somewhere else.

I do enjoy visiting Mexico. I’ve been there 9 times over the past 15 years via cruises – mostly to Cozumel (more than any other port-of-call). I always get off the ship and do a shore excursion on Cozumel because as many times as I’ve been there – I usually see something new, or I get to visit a fun place again.

Check out my Cozumel album on my Flickr site.

Once in July 1995 during the weekend in the middle of a 2-week military classroom training event in San Antonio Texas at Lackland Air Force Base a group of us drove to the border in Laredo, and then we walked across the Gateway To The Americas International Bridge into Nuevo Laredo Mexico to eat and shop. It was fun and memorable – especially since I remember that day nearly 27 years later.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas exactly 15 years after my last visit there. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Mexico

Blogging Driving Travel

Bermuda

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 28, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Let’s leave the country for this edition, and check-out Bermuda. It’s located about 650 miles due east of North Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s often misidentified as “the island of Bermuda”, but it’s actually the composite of some 180 islands !

The islands are the tops of volcanos that rise above sea level – up to 260 feet. Thousands of other small islands surround Bermuda that are near sea level but under water.

Bermuda is known for its distinct pink sand beaches. Many of their postcards show off their beautiful pink beaches that lead-in to the crystal-clear blue waters.

I’ve been to Bermuda twice, but both times were 45 to 50 years ago as a little kid. Me and my parents went there twice within a few years during the mid-1970s. I remember that my Dad rented a scooter there, and I rode on the back of it with him. (Tourists aren’t allowed to drive cars there.) I also remember watching PBS kids programming on the hotel TV, and the TV would switch channels by itself – and I thought that was scary. (I think it was actually my Dad behind me switching the channels with an early remote control – before I knew what that was.)

I definitely want to visit Bermuda again. Due to its isolated location cruise ships visit there less often than all of the islands to the south in the Caribbean. It would be fun to take a cruise to Bermuda, but I’d rather spend several days there rather than several hours. I’d like to fly there, stay at a nice hotel, and just take public transportation up and down the islands visiting places. Ideally I’d want to visit during the late-Spring to early-Summer. It gets a bit chilly (50s and 60s) during the wintertime months as frequent cold fronts pass through. And then there’s hurricane season during the late-Summer to early-Autumn months. April, May, and June are the nicest months weatherwise.

American Airlines actually has one direct flight in both directions between Miami and Bermuda every day. (It’s about a 2-hour and 45-minute flight.) The flight to Bermuda arrives late at night. The flight to Miami arrives late in the morning. Right now a round-trip flight costs less than $500. Not too bad. I need to keep that in mind for 2023. I should probably start planning for such a trip now. I think maybe fly in late on a Monday night, and spend Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday there, and then return home on a Saturday morning. So 4 days and 5 nights. Yeah – let’s do it !

I’ll keep you updated here on #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.