Category: Driving

I Want To See America After I Retire

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 22, 2021

If all goes right I plan to retire from U.S. Federal Civil Service in less than 3 years from now. By that time I will have served for over 38½ years (military and civilian time combined). I’m ready to retire.

I have multiple plans on staying busy on a day-to-day basis in the next part of my life. They include full-time ministry with a local church, working indoors or outdoors at a Florida State Park, working as a docent at a local museum, and if that’s not enough then perhaps working at Publix – where shopping is a pleasure. #LOL

I also want to travel more. For many years I’ve talked about (and even blogged about) taking a 100-day / 10,000-mile road-trip completely around the circumference of the continental United States (clockwise) averaging about 100 miles per day, and mostly driving along the roads less traveled – our old U.S. highways. I don’t really talk about doing that anymore. I don’t mind driving around and exploring the backroads of Florida (and maybe even nearby states like Alabama and Georgia), but I can’t really see myself driving all around the country. Driving is less fun now than it used to be. As I get older the aches and pains while driving increase. I also experience anxiety attacks while driving. Also – most other drivers annoy me substantially.

I’ve recently been eyeing (and doing research on) a new way to see America after I retire – by rail and coach. A couple of years before my Dad passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2010 he was planning one final family trip for the 5 of us (Himself, Mom, Brother, Sister-In-Law, & I). In fact he planned it all and even booked the nearly 2-week trip. It was a combination train and bus tour of several of our great National Parks out west (in the Rocky Mountains). I think the tour commenced in Bozeman Montana and concluded on the Las Vegas Strip. I was really excited about the trip. Unfortunately my Dad soon canceled the trip when his conditions deteriorated further from the disease.

(Side Note: Tomorrow – the 23RD of April – would have been my Mom and Dad’s 55TH wedding anniversary.)

In memory of my Dad I really want to take that trip that he wanted to go on with his family – perhaps not necessarily that same exact trip via that same exact travel agency, but a similar one to it. I know that they are quite expensive. I saw one for $4,320 per person for 14 days, and that includes all hotel accommodations, and a meal a day. $4,320 probably means well over $5,000 (possibly even closer to $6,000) with taxes, fees, and other charges included. I have at least a couple of years to do extensive research and price comparisons for this trip of a lifetime.

For the past 30 years I’ve seen and experienced the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific via 22 cruises (138 nights at sea). I actually have my 23RD cruise booked. As I retire from my career on land I may very well retire from my vacations at sea. As the title of this blog post states – I want to see America after I retire.

Tags America

Blogging Career Computers Driving Home Life Military Money Music Travel

Fun With Numbers

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 15, 2021

A few days ago (this past Monday) I did not get in my car and drive it for the first time in over 5 weeks. I ended a 37-day streak of driving that started on Saturday March 06TH and ended on Sunday April 11TH. During those 37 days I drove 609 miles – an average of about 16½ miles per day. The 37 days surpassed a 28-day streak this past November and December. It’s the longest streak since a 41-day streak in January and February 2020 just before the start of the global pandemic.

How do I know all of this ? I record my odometer’s starting and ending mileage each day on an Excel spreadsheet. I do it for fun. I’ve been doing it for over 6 years. I work with Excel spreadsheets all day long in my professional career, and I play with them and learn from them off-work at home on my computer. What I learn at home I apply at work. There’s very little time available at work to learn how to do something new on a spreadsheet, so I get smart at home. I have a bunch of unique spreadsheets that I use at home that keep track of the day-to-day operations of my life. I collect the data, and I analyze the data. I perfect the analysis expertise as well – because – that’s also part of my professional career. I analyze historical data in order to make wise and efficient financial decisions to successfully support the mission. I’ve been an Analyst for the USAF for the past 36 years.

Oh – one last thing – you know that music chart that I present every Monday here on my blog ? It’s been fueled by an Excel spreadsheet for the past 25½ years !

Tags Excel, Spreadsheet

Blogging Christian Driving God Ministry Music Travel

No Foolin’

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 1, 2021

Greetings my friends worldwide. Welcome to the start of a fresh new weekend of blogging here at #CountUp. Weekends always start early on Thursday mornings here on this blog, and they end early on Monday mornings with 4 new blog posts in-between. New posts are published at 3 AM U.S. East Coast time on Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays.

This blog continues to expand globally from the Atlantic shores of North America, across the sea into Europe, Africa, Asia, and down under into Australia and New Zealand. I am thankful for all of you who follow this blog and check it out each weekend. Some of you come for the travel adventures on Thursdays. Some appreciate the music of yesteryear on Fridays. Many come to receive God’s Word and get closer to Him with each new Sunday Scripture. On Mondays many of you love to discover those new songs on the radio that praise and worship Christ.

I’ll continue to produce new blog posts for you 4 times per week / 200 times per year.

It is Thursday April Fools Day 2021, and there’s no foolin’ here. Can you believe that we are now in the 4TH month of 2021 ? This year is flying by (unlike last year) when we were all homebound with no place to go and an uncertain future. It’s good that many of us are getting back to a more normal life now. I’m fortunate to be a Floridian. We’ve pretty much been open for business and back to normal since last summer.

Well it wouldn’t be Thursday here on this blog without some travel news. I’ve got my Treasure Coast Of Florida road-trip (announced last Thursday) all planned-out for the near future. I’ll also be visiting North Texas twice later this year – via air and via car. That’s a 3,000-mile road-trip via car. I’ll also visit the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida later this year during a much shorter road-trip. In 2020 I only drove 6,395 miles. This could be an 11,000-mile year for me. It’s good to get out there on the open road and see and discover Florida and beyond !

Blogging Driving History Nature Photography Travel

My Spring Break 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 25, 2021

5 weeks ago (5 Thursdays ago) I returned home from my Spring Break 2021 Road-Trip. It was a fun 5-day adventure traversing 624 miles through the 10 South and Central Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, Okeechobee, Highlands, Hardee, Glades, Hendry, and Collier. I also barely touched Monroe County, and I saw its many islands.

Last Thursday I wrote on Day 5 – my final 202 miles from Lake Placid southward to Immokalee to Everglades City to Chokoloskee, and then back home to Homestead after 100½ hours on-the-road.

Here’s an interesting fact about this road-trip: It’s the first road-trip ever that I used Google Maps (on my iPhone) to guide me. I used it from start to finish – even when I knew exactly where I was going. It’s got a handy feature on there that tells you the exact time that you’ll be arriving at your destination based on your current driving. It also gives the number of miles remaining to get there. (I used to write everything down in advance on previous road-trips.)

Needless to say I’ll be using Google Maps on all future road-trips. I didn’t realize it did so much.

It was fun to plan this road-trip, and it was fun to actually experience what I planned (along with a few places that I did not plan). It was also fun to blog about it and share it with you over this past month of Thursdays.

How about an encore ? I’m ready to do it all over again !

And so now I’m proud to announce the 3 destinations of my next road-trip:

It’ll be a 4-day road-trip to Stuart, Fort Pierce, and Vero Beach along the Treasure Coast of Florida.

I’ve driven through Stuart, but I haven’t really visited the area before. The last time I spent any quality time in Fort Pierce was about 11 years ago. And Vero Beach I’ve only driven thru (really fast on the Interstate – a few decades ago).

So I’ll be visiting lots of new and exciting places in these 3 areas from northern Martin County through St. Lucie County to southern Indian River County (right along the immediate Atlantic coastline). I’ll be spending 3 nights at a hotel in Vero Beach. This is actually a road-trip that I had previously planned in 2018, but I canceled it because I ended-up going on another (work-related) road-trip to Middle Georgia.

Once I return from this upcoming road-trip I should have lots of fun memories to blog about for a month of Thursdays after.