Category: Driving

The Chris M. Day Retirement Highway

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 23, 2020

There’s a stretch of highway that begins at the northern city limits of Homestead Florida (my home and workplace for almost 33 years). It continues north-northwestward for about 212 miles along Florida State Road 997 and U.S. Route 27. It’s affectionately known as “The Chris M. Day Retirement Highway” – or the #CMDRH for short. (Chris M. Day is my name – in case you haven’t figured that out by now.)

When I drive the #CMDRH as I sing along loudly and proudly to the hottest Christian hits on the radio I picture imaginary signs along the side of the road spaced about 2 miles apart from each other that identify it as “The Chris M. Day Retirement Highway” / #CMDRH. The signs have a dark blue background with bright white lettering with the year 2023 at the bottom of the sign. (What an imagination I have !)

The #CMDRH includes a pivotal 54-mile stretch at the northern end that extends from Florida State Road 60 (to the north) to Florida State Road 70 (to the south). Somewhere within a mile of that 54-mile stretch is where I plan to move and retire in less than 3½ years. I’ve actually narrowed it down even further to the southernmost half of that 54-mile stretch. So it’s somewhere within a 27-mile stretch of U.S. Route 27 that I call “The Retirement Zone”. Sebring Florida is at the epicenter of it. (I plan to retire in Sebring.)

Sebring is a slow-growth military retirement town of about 10,600 residents within its city limits. Its population has only doubled over the past 70 years. It’s actually the urban commercial center (and seat) of its county (Highlands), and the county itself has just under 110,000 residents. It’s been an incorporated city for 107 years. It’s got a very low cost-of-living compared with much of the state of Florida. That makes it very attractive for retirees.

Nearly every road-trip vacation northward includes a trip along the #CMDRH and “The Retirement Zone”. The first 212 and last 212 miles of my recent 1,690-mile road-trip was through the #CMDRH – a week and a day apart. Once I’m in “The Retirement Zone” I drive a little slower, I look around a little longer, and I dream of a new chapter of my life that’s not too far into the future. I wonder what my life will be like when I live there in that area following the conclusion of my 38½-year U.S. Military and Government career.

Driving Photography Travel Weather

Pensacola

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 16, 2020

During my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip I visited Florida’s westernmost city – Pensacola. Over 50,000 call Pensacola home, and over 500,000 live in the metro area. I live almost 700 miles away in the far southeastern corner of Florida. This was my very first visit to Pensacola. I had previously only driven along I-10 north of the city limits. (A small portion of the city actually crosses over I-10 to the north side.)

This side-visit to Pensacola was planned in advance. I spent the night at a hotel very near their airport, and then the next morning I drove in to the historic downtown district to walk around, take lots of photos (coming soon to a blog near you), and visit two of their biggest museums. (Most of their smaller museums and other historic buildings were actually closed due to COVID-19. They are slowly reopening some of these other facilities.)

It was a fun 2½-hour visit on a hot and sunny Saturday morning. Had everything been opened for visitors I could have easily spent all day there, and maybe even part of the next day. I’ll have to consider a future visit the next time I drive to and from North Texas to visit my family.

Pensacola is considered to be the “icebox” of Florida. Their weather is just like the rest of the state from about April to October – hot and humid with scattered showers and thunderstorms. But in the wintertime – watch out – because it gets cold there, and it can even sleet, ice, and snow there. I wouldn’t want to live there when I retire, but it’s a nice city to visit for a day or two.

Tags Florida, Pensacola

Animals Christian Church Driving Food God History Military Photography Travel

Fort Morgan

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 9, 2020

This past Sunday I wrote all about my fun adventures just outside the big city of Mobile Alabama. I praised, worshipped, and celebrated Christ at my friends’ church. I enjoyed a delicious Thai Lunch. I walked a family farm with goats. Sunday was my fun day away from my family on this family vacation.

The next day – Monday – was supposed to be a fun family visit to the local zoo in Gulf Shores. I had planned on this day for many weeks. I was really looking forward to it. I soon realized that (aside from myself) nobody else was really interested in going to the zoo – not even my two nieces (ages 10 and 7). I was a little bit heartbroken about that.

I decided to simply go to the zoo by myself. As I was looking for a coupon to the zoo in a tourist magazine I stumbled across a full-page color ad for a place I had never heard of before – Fort Morgan. It’s an old war fort at the far-western tip of the barrier island that Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are located on about 30 miles away. It sits at the mouth of Mobile Bay where it meets the Gulf Of Mexico. It’s an Alabama State Historic Site and a U.S. National Historic Landmark. It’s on the U.S. National Register Of Historic Places. The brave soldiers that served at this site protected our nation during the War Of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, and World War 2.

In lieu of the zoo I went to the fort by myself early last Tuesday morning. When I arrived at the entrance gate I was immediately greeted and recognized as a Veteran. I was admitted for free. That was a nice surprise. I spent a couple of hours touring the site. It was bigger and better than I expected. I took 44 photos of the 200+ years of history all around me. I’ve already posted over a dozen of these photos on my Flickr site, and you can also see the last 5 photos posted here on my blog site. Here’s one I haven’t posted yet:

This visit – planned just hours in advance – turned out to be one of the highlights of my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip vacation. I’m glad I discovered it in a tourist magazine. I’ll be talking about this place for years to come.

Tags Alabama, Fort Morgan

Christian Driving God Ministry Music Radio Travel

My Top 10 Hits – Week 177

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 6, 2020

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday July 05TH 2020:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	12	Keep Me In The Moment	Jeremy Camp
2	2	8	Amadeo (Still My God)	Ryan Stevenson
3	5	8	No Impossible With You	I AM THEY
4	3	24	I Will Fear No More	The Afters
5	4	17	Alive & Breathing	Matt Maher
6	7	5	I’m Leaning On You	Crowder Ft. Riley Clemmons
7	8	8	The Father’s House	Cory Asbury
8	9	4	You’ve Always Been	Unspoken
9	10	3	There Was Jesus	Zach Williams Ft. Dolly Parton
10	6	6	See The Light	TobyMac

# 1 This Week In:
2019 – “Church (Take Me Back)” – Cochren & Co.
2018 – “Do It Again” – Elevation Worship
2017 – “The Comeback” – Danny Gokey

WELCOME BACK to my weekly #CountUp of my favorite hits on Christian radio. Last week’s chart was unpublished, and on it Jeremy Camp secured his 3RD # 1 smash in less than 3 years (out of 4 hits). His “Keep Me In The Moment” had me singing along and swaying back-and-forth to the rhythm on-the-road during my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip.

I listened to a lot of great radio while on vacation. My home station K-LOVE dominated the South Florida airwaves – as well as all throughout North Florida and South Alabama. In-between The JOY-FM and Z-88.3 kept me moving to the music in Central Florida.

There’s a lot of great new positive music out there. I could have easily done a Top 15 chart this week with 5 new entries, but I’m hangin’ tough with the Top 10 format.

This concludes a short weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.